Customer Reviews

Duke: Essential Collection 1927-62

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It's amazing how anyone could rate this package as one star. Have you listened to the music, man? This is a fine representation of Duke's Columbia recordings, and guess what ... it's actually affordable, as opposed to RCA's mammoth 18-CD compilation. As to the other points about how the label hasn't preserved Ellington's heritage ... where were you last year when they released several of Duke's best albums with fantastic pictures, excellent essays and interesting bonus tracks. (Ellington Meets Count Basie, Ellington at Newport 1956 and the Anatomy of a Murder soundtrack are three fine examples of what I'm talking about.) Get with the program and stop grinding your ax. And for anyone looking for a solid representation of this great composer and bandleader's work with the Columbia label, this is a good place to start.

between the too-skimpy single disc best ofs..and back and bank breaking box sets..sits this new offering and a treat it is! covering most of Dukes career and presenting greatest hits a plenty it seems perverse that someone would not LOVE this collection. You can review the 65 tracks for yourself so I won't bother to list them..suffice it to say they have never sounded better....unless you were lucky enough to see this group LIVE..This gets top ratings for Content, Packaging and Sound Quality..an absolute MUST have for any serious collector of music from the Last Century..

Hard to add much to all the glowing reviews; no false advertising in the "essential" title here. Let me just say that if I could keep only one title in my (vast) CD collection it would be this. Ellington will someday be recognized as our greatest composer, in any genre. Duke had musicians of star caliber at almost every position: Jimmy Hamilton and Barney Bigard on clarinet (either could make Benny Goodman weep), Harry Carney on baritone sax, Duke's own sparse but swinging piano (he only played the essential notes), and a bevy of first-rate sax players highlighted by the incomperable Johnny Hodges on alto. Because the lineup changed remarkably little over the decades represented here, Duke wrote compositions with the individual voicing of each player in mind. The accent in this collection is on ensemble playing, although there are many gooseflesh inducing solos. The thorough and detailed accompanying booklet is a nice bonus. Blues, ballads, swing: few artists have produced the breadth and depth of material that can hold up under the repeated playing you'll surely be giving this. Great remastering job too, downright amazing on the older tracks. Can't imagine why on earth there are used copies for sale!

This is well worth the money, especially if this is your first Duke CD. It contains 3 CDs covering his career from the 20s to the 60s and gives a great overview of his huge output. All the standard works are here: East St. Louis Toodle-oo,The Mooche,It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing), In A Sentimental Mood,Caravan, Sophisticated Lady,Take The 'A' Train, Solitude, Mood Indigo, Satin Doll, C Jam Blues, Things Ain't What They Used To Be, Don't Get Around Much Anymore, Prelude To A Kiss. Actually, I like the older material quite a bit: Ring Dem Bells, Slippery Horn, Showboat Shuffle, In A Jam, Battle Of Swing, Slap Happy, Old King Dooji are lots of fun. Black Beauty is Duke solo and shows what a terrific piano player he was. Highly recommended.

This box set along with the small group cd's represent's 7 cd's worth of material. 100's of fabulous examples of Duke's composition. The songs are great, the mastering is great, the notes and pictures are great. Buy this, enjoy Duke and forget about those who would attempt to nitpik this wonderful collection.

Columbia / Sony is to be commended

Ellington. Three discs. More than 220 minutes of music, from his beginnings at Harlem's Cotton Club as house band leader of the Washingtonians to the war years to the triumphant Newport Jazz Festival "comeback" and his conceptual collaborations with Billy Strayhorn. And so much more. Duke, we loves you madly!

The tracks are all great - of course some excellent numbers were left out, but that's inevitable when you're trying to distill the essence of an artist as great as Ellison. The sound quality is amazingly good, and the liner notes are the most informative I've ever seen. On top of all that, the price is right.

It hurts not to give every Duke Ellington collection a rave review. But somebody needs to take Sony to task for its poor packaging of jazz giants. While the music here is mostly fine, it's another pick-and-choose collection that leaves out so many essentials of each period.

Sony didn't have the guts to follow RCA's lead on The Duke and produce a comprehensive and complete set of the master's recordings from their vaults. Now I guess we have to wait until the bicentennial.

Sony should just get out of the jazz business. They stink. Their representations of Count Basie's classic recordings are a travesty. To date, Teddy Wilson's best dates remain unreleased. I could go on and on. Jazz aficianados know the score.

The only artists they've represented well are Miles Davis and Billie Holiday. Why? They sell. Therein lies the whole big Sony lie. They don't care about the historical significance of the music. They only care about the bucks.