Customer Reviews

Duke: The Complete Works 1924-1947

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

 

 

Don't be fooled by the bargain price of this collection, this is the only way to aquire Duke's complete works from 1924-1945 (the collection states it goes up to '47, but past '45 it gets a little less complete) across 40 compact discs, packaged in 20 slimline jewel cases.

The sound quality is stunning, to my ears much better than the domestic RCA recordings that sell for 10 to 20 times more. (I compared sound quality between this and RCA's Blanton-Webster set.) Here is what you DON'T get: fancy booklets, fancy artwork, extensive liner notes. Basically this is just the music, with session players and recording dates.

The music is indispensable. Gorgeous.

EDIT: Yes, it's been a while, and while I was comparing it to the pre-1999 (i.e. Centennial Edition) version of Blanton-Webster, against which this sounds better, I have since heard The Centennial Edition remasters, and they are infinitely better than the No Noised versions found here. Still a great set in terms of value, but if you wind up getting bitten hard by the Ellington "Kissing Bug," you will at some point upgrade to some of the better mastering jobs out there.

I have nothing to add to the previous reviewer. I only wish to second his/her praise of this set. This is absolutely one of the most incredible bargains in recorded music. Forty CDs of Duke Ellington's complete recorded output from the first half of his long career. If you are especially fond of the early Cotton Club/"Jungle music" years, as I am, you get it all here, in incredibly good sound. The sound quality is easily as good, if not better than the expensive lavishly packaged name-brand releases of this same material. Basically, what you have is 20 "slimline" jewel boxes (which are exactly like ordinary jewel boxes, except that they hold two CDs) inside a simple cardboard box. Each jewel box has a two page mini-bio of Duke Ellington (the same in every booklet) followed by a detailed date, location, and personnel listing for each and every track. Everything you need is here, but nothing extra, which at this price, is nothing to complain about. I simply discarded the box and put the 20 jewel boxes on my shelf in chronological order. They look great, sound great, and the price is mind boggling. Take two...they're small....NOT!!!

The Complete Works 1924-47 is a great bargain but it is NOT complete! It does not include alternate takes, only the official releases, which is not really of concern except to completists. The vast number of radio transcriptions are not even sampled. There are missed songs throughout including several of the very early releases. Most seriously, it misses 20 releases from late 1939 to early 1940 and completely botches up 1946-47. The former are absolutely critical as they include the seminal first recordings with Jimmie Blanton and Blanton/Ben Webster. Besides scrambling the Chronological order, the 1946-47 misses out on most of the Musicraft recordings (most of which are very good) and almost all of the Columbia recordings up to the recording ban at the end of 1947 (not a great loss). The recordings have been re-equalised into stereo and amplified. The addition of bottom end and some top end actally makes them sound more open. Maybe not for purests but I find quite acceptable compared to the 'natural' releases and I tend to be a purest.

The set is erratically based on the Classics Records 'Chronological' series which are now mostly out of pressing and being very eratically reissued by Naxos. To fill the holes you will need to get, if you can, Classics 1939-40 (definitely), 1946-47 (worthwhile), 1947, 1947-48. Luckily there is minimal overlap of tracks.

While no one can argue with the music here -- which is simply indispensible -- this box set is a poor knock-off of the Classics of Jazz Ellington series (my guess is simply stolen from their cds!), eq'd bright and harsh and run through an excruciating digital filter to get out more of the hiss. The track order follows the Classics series exactly (even misplacing a 1939 vdisc session in the 1941-44 volume).

I guess I don't regret having all the music at this price, but you do get what you pay for --

This set is remastered in simulated stereo, which may turn off purists, but it's very well done. The session information is extremely poor. The notes don't indicate which take you're getting -- I assume it's the same ones provided in the Chronological Classics series -- and Ellington recorded many numbers multiple times. Also, many tracks were recorded by smaller configurations of the Ellington band with leader credit going to specific members (Cootie Williams, Barney Bigard, Johnny Hodges), but all you get are the personnel listings with no indication of who the leader is. If none of this bothers you very much, I encourage you to buy the set.

I bought this set after reading the rave reviews here, and assumed the dissenter who complained about the sound quality was an overly fussy audiophile. Not the case--if anything, that review was generous! The sound really is quite poor; it has a metallic, synthetic quality with horrible digital artifacts. The instruments are sometimes not even recognizable--in many songs the entire rhythm section is garbled into an unintelligible mess that sounds as if it were recorded in someone's armpit. The same tracks sound infinitely better on other compilations. I paid 84 for it and thought that was a bargain, but now I wish I'd just gotten the Chronological Classics piece by piece instead.

When I saw this CD set priced by 3rd party retailers for ~$35, I obviously assumed it was too good to be true. But I'm looking at it right now, all 40 CDs of Duke Ellington in his prime, and I can definitely say its true! The sound might not be as good as the Columbia and Decca sets I own of the same material, but its close. I was lamenting the fact that the insanely expensive RCA Centennial set was out of print before I ever had a prayer of being able to afford it when I ran across this one. I feel much better now.

Folks, I love this huge set. You get some pieces 2,3 4 times - different instruments and voices - this is great music and it sounds good, too. Being 45, my hearing is already declining - but I have no problem with the quality of the sound. The "Liberian Suite", which includes the wonderful "I Like The Sunrise" is here completely - a hard set to find anywhere else. I bought my copy from Amazon.de (see link at bottom of page) for about 70 Euro = about 110 dollars. An EXCELLENT set and pretty cheap, too.

So you've already read several of the reviews to this box set, and you notice that they're mixed. Don't believe the nay-sayers. The sound quality of this issue is fabulous. The instruments are vibrant. To my ears, Johnny Hodges, Ben Webster, Tricky Sam, Rex Stewart, Cootie Williams, et al., have never sounded better. As another reviewer stated, this box set exceeds domestic issues in sound clarity and quality, and they easily rival the French Classics. The packaging is sparse, but you get what is important--the line-ups of Duke's Orchestra and the recording dates. 764 masters in one fell swoop. Over and over the listener hears the genius of America's greatest composer of the 20th century. What's not to like? Buy it, listen to it, and celebrate the king of all--Sir Duke.