mark58 wrote on 10/24/15 at 15:52:03:Lon, that Ella looks interesting. I've seen several CDs that you've listened to recently from this French Label. Were they all bought from Dusty Groove? How's the sound quality? How much did they cost? My favorite Ella is from the mid 50's to mid 60's but I'd give these a shot if the SQ isn't too painful. Ditto on the Ellington CDs. Mark.
https://cdn2.dustygroove.com/images/products/f/fitzge_ella_ontheairv_101b.jpg Mark,
These Masters of Jazz cds have perhaps the best sound for these early sides that are available . . . but the sound is not "good" by any stretch of the imagination in comparison with the sound of the "tape" recordings of the 'fifties on. Masters of Jazz took great care to use the best commercial sources and did careful remastering and restoration and didn't use "No Noise" or "Cedar" software to remove noise and deaden the sound. They also had good notes with a few photos, extensive personnel pages, and they were unique in that they featured recordings chronologically both commercial studio and any "air checks," film performances or private recordings available. Most cds of early jazz either do the commercial studio OR the live recordings, don't mix them up together, don't present them chronologically. In some cases such as Basie and Ellington and Lester Young and Charlie Christian the Masters of Jazz series had "air checks" or rehearsal studio material or film or private recordings that I have still not seen on cd elsewhere.
They were expensive imports when they were in print, but worth it to me, and then they went out of business. Not a huge amount were ever printed so they became quickly hard to find and even more expensive. Now and then I find a few I haven't bought for sale reasonably. Dusty Groove seems to have bought someone's collection which included a dozen or so, and recently I found some on ebay at decent prices. I paid between five and twelve for these, but these are rare low prices.
The Ellington ones I posted here sound very good for disc-recorded 78s and early film recordings. As do the Holiday. The Ella ones. . . well they are rough recordings to begin with, recorded onto home disc recorders off the radio. They don't sound good, but they sound as good as they can in the Masters of Jazz series.
Right now
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