New Verve box sets

[mjzee]

Nice to see some signs of life from Verve.  The first two are being released tomorrow (December 22):

 

Release date February 2; "This 4CD set includes I’ve Got the World on a String, Louis Under the Stars, Louis Armstrong meets Oscar Peterson with bonus tracks for each. Additionally, digital album, A Day With Satchmo, will be available on physical format for the first time. These three Louis Armstrong albums & much more, all recorded during an extraordinary few days in August & October 1957, resulting in some of Pops’ best material, a legendary artist on a legendary label":

 

Release date February 9:

 

And release date February 23; "For the first time, all of Ella & Louis' classic duets are in one place. This 4CD set gathers their timeless three Verve albums newly remastered versions of Ella and Louis, Ella and Louis Again and Porgy and Bess combining them with their eight Decca singles, live recordings from Jazz at the Hollywood Bowl plus several alternates & false starts from the Decca & Verve eras, illuminating their craft & good humor. The set also includes an extensive essay by Ricky Riccardi":

[greggery peccary]

I don't have a lot of Armstrong so at first glimpse this seems worthwhile. I'm ok with a few alternates, etc. at the end of discs 1-3 but disc four holds zero interest. For completists only...?

Disc: 4

  1. Makin' Whoopee breakdown

  2. Makin' Whoopee alternate take (1)

  3. Makin' Whoopee alternate take (2)

  4. Makin' Whoopee breakdown (3)

  5. Makin' Whoopee master take (4)(Gus Kahn - Walter Donaldson)

  6. I Get a Kick Out of You

  7. I Get a Kick Out of You breakdown and studio chatter (3)

  8. I Get a Kick Out of You alternate take (4)

  9. I Get a Kick Out of You breakdown (5)

  10. I Get a Kick Out of You false start (6)

  11. I Get a Kick Out of You false start (7)

  12. I Get a Kick Out of You master take (8)

  13. I Get a Kick Out of You breakdowns and false starts (9 - 12)

  14. I Get a Kick Out of You alternate take (13) (Cole Porter)

  15. Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love) breakdowns (1 and 2)

  16. Let's Do It (Let's Fall In Love) alternate take (3)

  17. Let's Do It (Let's Fall In Love) master take (4) (Cole Porter)

  18. Willow Weep for Me false start (1)

  19. Willow Weep for Me alternate take (2)

  20. Willow Weep for Me breakdown and false start (3)

  21. Willow Weep For Me alternate take (4)

  22. Willow Weep for Me false start (5)

  23. Willow Weep for Me breakdown (6)

  24. Willow Weep For Me master take (7) (Ann Ronnell)

[bluesoul]

I assume the 1959 OP box is the same tracklisting as this one.  Glad to see it's back in print, though. 

[JSngry]

Is there a blurb for the Dinah?

[mjzee]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

Is there a blurb for the Dinah?

Not on the CD box listing at Amazon.  Here's what the LP version says: "Part of the vinyl Verve collections, the Dinah Washington boxed set contains a selection of each artist’s best-loved albums on 180g vinyl in sleeves that replicate the original artwork. Dinah Washington was an American singer and pianist, who has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the '50s"."  Good to know she was an American singer and pianist.  I suppose there's an outside chance the CDs have some additional material, but I wouldn't bet on it.

[JSngry]

But wasn't there some sort of mega-complete series of Dinah on Mercury over in Japan back a ways? I never got that, but if they drew on it to fill out this collection or future ones, I'd look at it.

[jazzbo]

I don't remember a mega-complete set of Dinah from Japan.  .  . I do know there were independent 3 and 4 disc sets that comprised a complete Dinah. . . I thought they were always sold separately. There's some amazing music in those sets.

[Brad]

I may be in for the Oscars. 

[felser]

15 hours ago, jazzbo said:

I don't remember a mega-complete set of Dinah from Japan.  .  . I do know there were independent 3 and 4 disc sets that comprised a complete Dinah. . . I thought they were always sold separately. There's some amazing music in those sets.

I also believe they were sold separately, same as the Sarah Vaughan sets.

[JSngry]

Yeah, this series, 7 volumes of multiple CD sets, not "a set" but "a mega-complete multiple set of volumes".

https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=dinah+washington-complete+mercury&tag=googhydr-20&index=popular&hvadid=178354731302&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15198924321478642576&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9026802&hvtargid=kwd-10088827401&ref=pd_sl_4yu4qja56r_b

Point just being, I wonder if things from this...series are being added to this new release. I really regret not being able to pick up on the original set(s).

[brownie]

I still have all seven sets (21 CDs) of those Dinah Washington releases. Great job that came with liner notes  by Dan Morgenstern, Peter Watrous and Leonard Feather.

[jazzbo]

I have all those Washington sets as well. I agree, great job.

Jim, all those cds in the set were available as separate Verve cds so it's most likely to my way of thinking those are reconfigured in this set. 

[JSngry]

So the Complete series didn't have any outtakes, singles, or anything else extra from once they started doing LPs?

I will consider this new release, just want to be sure that I won't be getting hosed by getting straight LP reissues if there's valid extra material that could be added.

[jazzbo]

Some of the volumes DID include single versions, but I don't think there were otherwise alternats included (or existing).

[JSngry]

Ok, here's what the type of thing the Handulosians are offering, sigh. Seems like the best bet is to go for those OG Complete sets and/or wait for Verve to do better, or just...look elsewhere. If you can believe them (and can you?), this is three complete LPs, but it comes out to 73 cuts!

My first instinct is to wonder if people who still buy CDs are getting shafted by the industry's capitulations to the vinyl fetishists. If there's relevant singles available, but them on the freaking CDs, right? There's room, surely. Or were these "singles" actually included on other LPs of the time?

This reissue thing is getting dumber, not smarter. Now that people know where (more or less) everything is, packaging fetishism is making it harder to get to in one place, or so it seems.

[jazzbo]

Yes, it's a crappy time for jazz collectors on cd. They hey day is now "the good old days" and I guess they expect most of us have either died off or have seen the errors of our way collecting stuff or have all the stuff we probably need and have exhausted our income doing so. Some of us spurn buying these things that aren't exactly how we now want them, others are inflamed that releases aren't cheap, and I guess new jazz collectors on cd might be interested in these and not yet know that they should rather be getting more complete releases and will want those down the line.

The major owners don't necessarily particularly care. The specialty people who do care are struggling to stay solvent and productive. And the "gray" merchants are filling in gaps that jazz cd collectors have to scratch their chins and ponder over.

I'm not going to get upset over it myself because I have all the stuff I probably need and have depleted lots of resources doing so, and I'm more often buying better sounding versions of things I have these days because I have s system that makes better sounding versions shine and I figure what the hell. 

Who knows what the situation will be in 2020.

Edited December 23, 2017 by jazzbo

[JSngry]

I'm wondering where the singles from these Quincy sessions are, or even were in the first place? Were they all singles? I mean, that's a helluva lot of singles! Did they remain singles, or were some of them not really "singles" but just cuts of of other albums not wholly led by Quincy?

Shit should not be this complicated. Hell, it's not complicated. it's just managed poorly from the perspective of objective data management.

Those OG Complete sets, if I buy anything, it will be those.

[jazzbo]

I thnk that many of these are in fact from albums that did not completely contain Quincy Jones material. The bulk of my Dinah sets are in my storage unit 50 miles away so I can't easily double check right now. 

Dinah isn't necessarily a vital component of my music rotation these last years and I'd hesitate to say I'd buy those complete sets now. . . but if  you want it done right that's the way to do it and I don't foresee a similar or better edition being put out in the near future. Or future, period.

[JSngry]

Yeah, I've kind of taken Dinah for granted, she got played on local jazz radio so much for so long, I never felt the absence. That has changed over the last how many ever years, and I find myself wanting to go there but not having enough to fully scratch the itch.

[mjzee]

This one works for me:

[brownie]

15 hours ago, jazzbo said:

Some of the volumes DID include single versions, but I don't think there were otherwise alternats included (or existing).

The sets included quite a number of sides that had remained unissued by then but no alternates.

[jazzbo]

Thanks Guy.

[hbbfam]

Has anyone found an Amazon link for the Oscar Songbooks set? 

[crisp]

3 hours ago, hbbfam said:

Has anyone found an Amazon link for the Oscar Songbooks set? 

UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Song-Books-Oscar-Peterson-Trio/dp/B075SVK2CQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1514331391&sr=1-1&keywords=Oscar+Songbooks

US: https://www.amazon.com/Song-Books-Oscar-Peterson/dp/B075SVK2CQ/ref=sr_1_5?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1514331409&sr=1-5&keywords=Oscar+Songbooks

[crisp]

Has anyone bought this set (below) and can comment on the sound? Any mastering credits?