Customer Reviews

Bebop Spoken Here

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Geez, where are all the reviews for this incredible British collection?? Just look at all the artists here - all recorded between 1944-1949 (and cleaned up very nicely for cd issue). This is the real deal!! If you weren't old enough to live through the bop era (like me) and want to hear examples of the coolest jazz of all time, this box is for you. The cover art is nostalgic and colorful, all discs clock in at over an hour, and the 55-page booklet is packed with photos (see Dizzy Gillespie in 1944!) and very informative. To collect all this elsewhere would cost a small fortune. I thought the first few cuts leaned a bit toward the Big Band sound, but they also offer a peek into where this great American style of music was born. This is by far the best jazz collection I own.

This huge compilation casts a wide net, capturing the classic recordings of the giants of bebop: Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Bud Powell, the early recordings of future stars like Dexter Gordon and Stan Getz, the popularizers who made it accessible to a larger audience: Woody Herman, Benny Goodman, Charlie Barnet and Charlie Ventura and the rarities by now-obscure musicians: Freddie Webster, Sonny Berman, Tom Archia, Tony Fruscella and many others.

Why buy this set? You won't hear this music anywhere else as radio these days won't play anything made before the LP era.
You will discover that although this music was far-out, Dizzy Gillespie was popular enough to have his own big band and a
major-label record contract. Charlie Parker could play any style,
his first record with Tiny Grimes is pure swing and Parker plays superbly. You'll hear Trummy Young, Louis Armstrong's trombone player, play superbly on "Good Bait" with Dizzy Gillespie and Dexter Gordon. You will hear so much rare and excellent music, otherwise completely unobtainable, by musicians, like Tadd Dameron, so influential and yet now forgotten. You will hear the
greatness of those who died far too soon like Wardell Gray and Fats Navarro.

If you want to experience and understand this music, this is essential listening. Reasonably priced, excellently documented too!

Like eating really good filet mignon for the first time, and feeling slightly sorry that you deprived yourself up that point. But otherwise, just smiling, swaying to the beat and scatting along.

A good friend of mine who is a semi-professional musician attempted to teach me about modes, how jazz is often constructed. I'm just an appreciative music fan, but clearly the artists on this collection were high adepts, skillful in weaving together some of the most complex yet unpretentious music ever heard. Too many fabulous artists to single out; they're all good. I hope jazz fans back in the day enjoyed this music as much as I do.

BUY THIS COLLECTION AT ONCE!!!

This very well done set is the best album I bought in 2001. It has many of the finest sides by the original beboppers from 1944-1949.

The booklet is small, but jammed with information.

It is by no means complete, but it is a fantastic and extremely well done overview of this important strain of American music.

This is an amazing collection of music! Here are the greatest bebop recordings of all time. Included, are masterpieces by Parker, Gilespie and others less known, but otherwise great musicians. Don't miss your chance to own this monument of great music. If you like modern jazz, don't hesitate in picking this collection up. No other boxed set you'll own will be this consistent in quality!!!

As a long time jazz fan, you'd expect that I would have most of the material on a box like this. And I do. But there are quite a few gems I've found nowhere else and, in any case, it's wonderful having all of this amazing music in one place. "Bebop Spoken Here" is indeed a perfect introduction to this challenging subgenre of jazz, but it is also a wonderful set for the connoisseur of jazz. All the greats are here, both the famous and the obscure. If you haven't picked this up yet, do so!

The reviews above just about sum it up: great collection, nice selection of songs, and I hear the booklet is great. I bought my box set from another seller and it came without the book. Anyone wishing to sell one or know of a place to get it, please contact me!

Se você está interessado em conhecer o bebop, esta é uma boa oportunidade. A coleção traz um apanhado geral do estilo e no mínimo vale como curiosidade para quem quer se iniciar no tema.