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Reviews Written by
Brian H. Williams (Manteca, CA United States)
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Benny, the later years, and he's in TOP FORM, June 2, 2009
As a Benny Goodman fan and collector since I was in elementary school, I can tell you that for most of my music collecting life, I only focused on Benny's prime period, the 30's to the early 50's. I practically ignored any of his later recordings (not counting his classical recordings in the 60's. For the intent of this review, I am only focusing on jazz.) I saw this disc used for cheap, so being a huge Benny fan, I bought it. Let me tell you that after hearing this, I am now TOTALLY much more interest in Benny's twilight years. The songs here are not the ones he's known for and that's a blessing. I'm tired of hearing the same things over and over again. The absolute gem of this disk is the wonderful version of the Stephen Sondheim tune "You Must Meet My Wife". I dare ANY jazz musician to capture the sheer brilliance and relaxed atmosphere of this arrangement. It is just superb. Practically all the songs are from the 40's except this one. And you can immediately tell that the composition is on a MUCH higher level of complexity than the other tunes. To hear Benny play the work of a contemporary composer is rare. Another gem is the ballad version of Please Be Kind. It is so smooth and relaxed that it can easily be said that this is one of the BEST versions of this song. The engineering is superb and you can hear Benny's full, throaty tone with sterling effect. So Benny fans that are skeptical of his later recordings, fear not. This is a wonderful compilation of the King of Swing's later recordings. Sound is wonderful and the liner notes are very good. Nice one to add to your collection.
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Jazz Pops
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| Price: $12.98 |
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| Availability: In Stock |
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Jazz Pops released at last! GREAT remastering, May 16, 2009
I've waited literally for over 20 years for this to be reissued. One of Hefti's best and the wait didn't disappoint! This has my favorite version of Coral Reef. A wonderful big band arrangement must better than his version on Epic. Filled with great tracks you can not go wrong with this cd. If you love big band jazz, then this cd of Hefti's great arranging is a must! The arrangement of his classic Lil' Darlin is smooth and relaxed. The Dave Brubeck classic Take 5 is given a nice big band arrangement. You can't go wrong with this wonderful reissue. Great liner notes too with an interview with the man himself! A must buy!
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Rare Mel transciptions, May 16, 2009
This is a wonderful cd of radio transcriptions. With just a small quintet backing him, the entire disc has a sense of intimacy that is rare in Mel's later work. The remastered sound is good, some better than others, but on the whole, very good. This cd has in my opinion, Mel's best version of Isn't It Romantic. Straight forward with a small group for an intimate backing of a sweet and romantic song. A must buy for Mel fans!
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Early Mel in good sound, May 16, 2009
This is a great cd. The transcriptions from 1947 are the gems. The later 1950's ones are good too, but are more readily available on other collections in their entirety. So I'll limit my review to the 1947 transcriptions. With just a small jazz combo backing up Mel, these make for some of the most intimate Mel around. His version of I Cover The Waterfront is just marvelous. So tender and heartfelt. He sings it complete with the RARELY heard verse. Mel's wonderful voice just sound beautiful on these early cuts. If you love Mel, do yourself a favor and get this cd!
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Sinatra collectors take note, this is a must buy!, May 16, 2009
I discovered this by accident and I'm happy I did. This features nothing but the Lucky Strike radio shows. Filled with songs Frank NEVER recorded in the studio. It was a thrill to hear Frank sing the Don Cornell song, It Isn't Fair. The arrangements on here are similar to his studio versions, but there is a Body and Soul that is similar to the studio version, but is different enough to make you excited to hear a live version of this classic song by Frank. The orchestration is unique enough to make you feel excited to hear those different inflections and make you glad that so much of Frank's legacy was recorded. Great notes and excellent remastering. Considering that these are all radio transcriptions of RARE performances, no Sinatra collector should be without this cd.
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Alternate takes and good remastering with unissued Body and Soul!, May 16, 2009
I bought this to hear the new arrangement of Body and Soul. I have the original Quincy Jones orchestration on a privately circulated limited edition cd. After hearing it, albeit in awful sound quality, one can totally understand why Frank didn't release it. Quincy cooked up an AWFUL chart that goes against Frank's tender reading of the song. The loud big band without strings just didn't allow for the tenderness of the song to come through. So they removed the band and isolated Frank's vocal and had Torrie Zito make a new arrangement. What has happened is nothing short of miraculous. Which goes to show how important it is to have a great arranger in order to make the song work. To my surprise, Come Fly With Me ends with a different tag from the previous issues. The Best is Yet to Come is also differnt, in the bridge, Frank phrases "Come the day your mine" differently. It's not as good as the previously issued version although the difference is slight, it's noticeable. And for hard core Sinatra collectors like me, it's essential. Strangers In The Night fades later than on previous issues. Two alternate takes, one track with a longer ending and an unissued Body and Soul make this a must buy for Sinatra collectors. Now the remastered sound. Overall it's excellent except for a few tunes. Drinking Again is MUCH better than the original issue. You can hear marimbas on this remaster. The older remastering you didn't even know marimbas were used! And you'll notice that the channels are reversed in the previous issues. One must assume that this is the correct set up. That scratchy part of the tape on Strangers In The Night at about 1:04, is FINALLY removed. For some reason, all previous issues had this flaw. My Way sounds much better than any of the previous incarnations. The only track that is "over remastered" is The Girl From Ipanema. For some reason, this remaster is overly dry, and colder sounding. The 1998 20 bit reissue is much better. But on the whole, it's a nice compilation and is a good one to recommend to people who are just getting into Frank.
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My Way
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| Price: $14.99 |
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| Availability: In Stock |
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Stunning remastering, May 16, 2009
If you have ANY of the previous issues of My Way, including the remastered track on the cd "Nothing But The Best", it doesn't matter, this issue is the one to buy. The My Way track on "Nothing But The Best" was a VAST improvement over all the previous issues of My Way. Indeed, when I heard it, I couldn't believe how much better it sounded. So when I bought the 40th Anniversary issue, I compared it to the original cd issue, the 1990 issue on "The Reprise Collection", and the 1995 issue on "The Complete Reprise Recordings. This latest remastering trumped every previous issue. So the only one left was the 2008 issue on "Nothing But The Best". So what did I find? The 40th Anniversary issue was even better! Almost hard to believe, but it's true. The 40th Anniversary issue has a sense of warmth and presence that is even better than the one on the "Nothing But The Best" issue. That one still sounds good but seems colder and has a touch more reverberation. The surprise on this issue was "A Day In The Life Of A Fool". For decades, Warner has issued it with the first 3 seconds missing. Imagine my suprise to hear the drum introduction first, then have the bass and piano enter. This has never been issued with the drum intro. The new remastering gives the band a startling presence that is sorely lacking on the original issue. Indeed, I was hearing instrumentations that was buried on the master tapes that are now heard in clarity. On the original issue, Frank sounds so far away and echoey on "Watch What Happens". Not so on the new one. Frank sounds like he's in the room with you. The difference is day and night. So do yourself a favor and put your original issue in your car, or give it to a friend. If you collect Frank, the incredible remastering job on this cd will have you playing it over and over again.
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lots of space and reliable, May 1, 2009
I've had great experience with past Kingston products and this is no exception! Plenty of space to transfer your files and it works perfectly!
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2 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Great graphics, awful game play, feels tired and predictable, April 18, 2009
Fun:
As a huge fan of the Resident Evil franchise, I couldn't wait for this to come out. Now that it has, I realize this game was all hype and no substance. For starters, the controls are VERY awkward. You spend time thinking about how you will execute the movement in parts of the game when they should just come natural. The biggest flaw design is that the designers have set up the game play where you must decide what items you want to use for each chapter BEFORE you begin the chapter. This seems fine at first, but as you play the game, they don't even give you the option to drop ANY items! So once you are full you are STUCK with them. How stupid is this??? Then there is the story. The designers decided to tie ALL the Resident Evil stories together to give it a sense of "full circle". Initially this seemed intriguing, but then as you play the game, the SAME old bosses that you encountered in Resident Evil 4 are here too. You attack one and the little creatures spring out from his back or head. Gee, didn't see that one coming. But what really got me was their decision to go from a night time horror game to a daylight one. You can see EVERYTHING in the day light. What genius thought this up? Since the bad guys can be seen, they have them "hiding" in areas where it doesn't make much sense, like the marshland. They were hiding in the water and just jumped out. I know they are infected with the Las Plagas, but can they BREATHE underwater? Apparently they can. Then absolute worst part and horribly corny is these infected beings (I can't call them zombies since they are really not zombies) will RUSH up to you and attack and then almost come to a stop when they approach you. Oh and they like riding motorcycles too. Speaking of running, you can't reload when you are running. Your character comes to a COMPLETE stop to reload. Ugh, can it get any worse?? Yes, it can. Your partner Sheva's artificial intelligence is okay, but not the best. When she is armed with a gun and she runs out of bullets, for some reason she doesn't switch over to the grenades or other weapons. She will switch from gun to gun, but when she's out of ammo for those, she will go to the knife. You'll also find that she uses ammo like it's going out of style, you are always giving her bullets. I really wanted to like this game, but it's just tired and predictable. I laughed when the "mystery" character that saved Irving appeared. Why was he dressed like Batman? Didn't have the ears but it was close. Completely laughable. And they call this survival horror? Please, not a single thing was scary. The game play was boring and not even exciting. No sense of urgency or anything. I felt like I was going through the motions. All of their their previous games gave a sense of fun and excitement. Not this one. We've seen it all before in their other games. It's as if they remade RE 4 and changed a few things. Completely boring. The graphics and sound however is incredible. If you have an audiophile system with an HD TV, it looks and sounds awesome. But you know what they say, all style and substance. That accurately describes this game. Save your money and don't buy this. This is without question the WORST Resident Evil game in the series.
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long cord for creative use, March 24, 2009
The 3 ft cord which I have as well is no where near long enough for practical purposes. Skip that one and buy this long instead.
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(Manteca, CA United States)
