Customer Reviews

The Jazz Scene

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

 

 

Over a dozen years after receiving "The Jazz Scene" as a Christmas present, I'm still delighted by it and recommending it to others. Want to talk about a great gift for a Jazz fan that keeps on giving, this is it; recorded music to listen to, fine B&W photographs to look at, and an interesting text to read. It's a Jazz time capsule from 1950 and may be one of Norman Granz's most underrated achievements.

The Jazz Scene is definitive and sublime in every aspect -- the packaging, the liner notes, and most of all the music. You will understand and enjoy jazz better once you have experienced this CD set. If you have friends or family who enjoy jazz and who are not familiar with the Jazz Scene, do them (and yourself) a favor and order a couple of these at the outset to share with them.

I have bought this for two friends PLUS myself. If you want to experience the early makings of "modern" jazz then this CD is a must.

Forget that you'll have alternatives versions of Duke, Machito and Burns. Forget that you have Parker, Strayhorn and Coleman Hawkings at their best. This package, its design, the little brochure and the hole graphic conception is a must-have by itself. And at $30 bucks is an offence.

3 1/2

This is a great collection of elderly smoked jazz primarily from the late forties, which for guys like me worked perfectly as overview for periods I'm not particularly committed to. What was initially a fascinating studio time capsule of the blossoming era of brass though becomes a little over-weighed with self-importance after two lengthy discs reveal multiple takes of multiple tracks. Together with labored packaging and track whittling this could have been a definitive one disc collection for young and old alike but instead rests more as a historian's treat.