Best Of The Big Bands

Les Brown | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 9, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Columbia
• ASIN: B0000026VS
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #95,129 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars NOW, IN THE DIGITAL DOMAIN!!!, July 23, 1999

By 

W.Don Wood "Don Wood" (Matawan,, New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best Of The Big Bands (Audio CD)

All 16 tracks onthis CD are vintage 40's cuts. Columbia-Sony's CEDAR digital processing system make 90% of them sound like they were recorded 4 years ago rather than 45! I have all the cuts on 78's and LP's, and the difference is astounding!! What's more, the musical integrity of the original tracks is maintained...BUY IT

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Top-drawer big-band music, April 16, 2002

By 

Gene DeSantis (Philadelphia, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Best Of The Big Bands (Audio CD)

The one thing you must know about this first-class album, the overwhelming reason you should buy it, is this: it has an alternate take of "Sentimental Journey." While talk of alternates conjures up the Trane and Elvis and makes eyeballs glaze over, the distinction here isn't academic; the alternate outlasts the master by forty seconds. (Will "The Expert" Friedwald was so busy conjuring up liner-note malted milks he didn't notice.) It also underlines Alec Wilder's dictum that this smoochiest of ballads must be done "VERY slowly." In another age, with a better technology, this would be the master take. The song's intrinsic excellence made it a million seller; here, it becomes even more self-evidently a landmark of American music.
And "Sentimental Journey" was central to Les Brown's ensemble going from an entertaining but conventional dance band to an awesome, electrifying presence, absorbing the modernity of post-war swing without being swamped by it. (It's hard to judge here with the jumbled contents and lack of a sessionography.) And there was no better symbiosis than between Brown and his "super-canary" Doris Day. The two would record and perform for a combined century and never did better. She brought the sex and the band brought the wolf whistle. For that you'll have to turn to Collectors' Choice Music's two-disc anthology (itself an expansion of a previous "Best of the Big Bands" release). As a start, however, you can't go wrong with this excellent set.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Leap Frog" is a real toe-tapper!, December 12, 2002

By 

J. Levinson (Media, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Best Of The Big Bands (Audio CD)

This is probably the best collection of Les Brown's work available, though the packaging is minimalist. "Leap Frog" is well known from the soundtrack of the original "Nutty Professor" movie.