Customer Reviews

Complete Musicraft Recordings

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4 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have copies of both this CD and the earlier Happy Go Lucky Local disc, from which Bukhtan alleges the Spanish company has "ripped" these pieces. It is quite evident from listening that, yes, the same source material has been used as a starting point (hear, eg, the distinctive bit of surface noise near the beginning of "Overture To A Jam Session"), but why should this be regarded as theft? I have two different transfers of BIllie Holiday's 1939 recording of Strange Fruit, and it is quite obvious that the same copy of the record was used, although the results are very different. These are rare 78s, so it makes sense for a digital master to be taken (courtesy of the collectors, to whom we should be grateful) and then made available to other companies. I would suggest that Bukhtan take another listen to the first forty seconds or so of "Jam-A-Ditty (Concerto For Four Jazz Horns)" on both these CDs, and then claim that the one is merely stolen from the other. In conclusion, I am curious about the poor quality of the Ellington-Strahorn-Pettiford items, and definitely agree that the notes on Happy Go Lucky Local are far superior. Secondhand copies of that disc seem to sell for a similar price to this one new, so consumers can make their own choice.

The other reviewer must be talking about the Duke Ellington/Oscar Pettiford Quintet session on this disc (last four on disc). All but those 4 cuts sound pretty good compared to some broadcast recordings I've heard. The Pettiford (on cello) cuts are gems that have been destoyed by time, mishandling or some other mishap. They are some of the most incredible recordings, but in this edition, they are completely unlistenable. No wonder the other reviewer is upset.
Anyhow the rest are good examples of the Ellington band picking up steam after a rough time for big bands in the late forties.

This product, cranked out by some person or persons with a changing mailing address in one or another part of Iberia, is a burnover from the CD remastered by Jack Towers for Discovery Records in Los Angeles, as "Happy-go-lucky-local". For some reason, they also burned over four small ensemble tracks from the Riverside release "Great Times : Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn piano duets", featuring Oscar Pettiford on cello. These latter tracks have been furzed over with noise, so much so that I re-read the insipid slip that came with the CD to see if they claimed they were "live" or offered some other reason for the poor sound. (I got a bootleg of Karajan conducting Beethoven, once, where the racket of halfass transfer was explained by live concert conditions.)
There are legitimite re-issue labels, such as Chronogical Classics of France, Frog of Holland, and Hep of England, which, by taking advantage of the international fifty-year lapse of copyright, have provided valuable service to jazz fans by making available well re-mastered pre-bop music which the big companies have left buried or re-released in poorly re-mastered versions. Not to speak of established ventures like Mosaic of the United States and Storyville in Denmark which pay, to my knowledge, all the dues anyone could claim in terms of intellectual property.
Then there are the bums like this outfit. These clowns wait until SOMEONE ELSE has borrowed, sorted and assembled the 78's or rare masters and gotten the digitalization on the market. Then they burn it over, write some pointless generalization about the artist rather than actually tracking the discography, and finally add some funny colored computer graphics to the package.
Let these guys find another racket (and you know they will).