Customer Reviews

Jazz Collector's Edition

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

 

 

This is a fair compilation of 1945-1946 vintage jazz, principally Dizzy Gillespie sessions (mostly from the Musicraft & Guild labels) with Bird present on many, Sarah Vaughan on a few. Other prominent musicians are Max Roach, Sonny Stitt, Al Haig, and Slam Stewart. Problems with this set (and what Laserlight doesn't have problems) are poor documentation and some bizarre handlings of a few tracks, such as a wild echo on "East of the Sun..." with Sarah Vaughan and some fade-outs on some tracks that did NOT have fade-outs originally. Laserlights are cheap and have some great music, but I've never gotten a single one that didn't have some gratuitous and inexplicable flaw, as if the people who put them together thought you shouldn't get TOO much at this price.

This CD of 1945 radio broadcasts is surprisingly good. Dizzy plays with several small groups. The sound is OK. The music is great! Unlike many [less expensive] CDs, the liner lists all of the players. The program features Sarah Vaughn on three numbers, and Charlie Parker on five numbers (one of them with Vaughn). This CD is not listed in the All Music book on jazz CDs, but it should be.

Yeah, some of the songs are on other CDs, but many of these are early bop tunes and worth a listen if you like Dizzy and recordings from this era. To hear a young Sarah Vaughn is particulary interesting.