Collecting Ellington

I believe that all his previous live "recordings" were for remote broadcasts for radio shows. I'm not aware of any earlier recordings of Ellington concerts for other reasons.

 

Hello, I was wondering if anyone had heard and could comment on the mastering of these Japanese Sony CD issues of Ellington albums:
The Popular Duke Ellington: http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/SICP-30230
Jazz at the Plaza Vol. 2: http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/SICP-4243
Thanks

 

I like them. The Popular doesn't sound that much different than the former US version, certainly decent sound. The Jazz at the Plaza sounds improved from the previous Japanese version. . . sounds quite good.

 

Great, thank you very much.

 

The Portland Libraries, known for buying both Mosaic and Bear Family, discarded many of their box sets over the years due to low circulation (as most library systems do). It is too bad you missed the library sales. Some of my friends got great deals on barely used box sets

 

In my quest for Ellington material, I have largely abandoned digital reissues. There are, however, some that are worthy of note. Mosaic put out a great sounding single disk reissue of "The Cosmic Scene," featuring Duke Ellington and his Spacemen. Other Columbia lp era records, such as "Jazz Party in Stereo" and "Blues in Orbit" were given excellent Legacy reissues by Mark Wilder.

I'm in NYC all the time, so I've put together quite a stack of Ellington lp's over the years, there was enough choice available that I restricted my collection to promo records or very early stampers. I find that 78's are the way to go for sound quality with the early releases, but the RCA Black and White series and the similar Columbia series (both pressed in Europe on lp) come very close to the 78's and offer many alternate takes.

Also, there are many great air checks available, my favorite of which is the 1940 Fargo concert.

 

I just got this a couple of days ago, and working my way through it..

 

The music on that set is immortal, among the greatest ever recorded, but the sound quality is infamously atrocious. The 2003 reissue is far better, but is out of print and expensive.

If the music moves you, you should grab the reissue when you're able to find one at a price you can live with.

 

I just recently fell down the rabbit hole of collecting Ellington. So much great music.

 

I have his Memoir, Music is My Mistress, inscribed by Ellington. That is special. He went in to the hospital very shortly after its publication, and saw very few people after that, so there cannot be too many inscribed copies

 

Was Never No Lament ever reissued? Is it still the best mastering for this material?

 

No and yes. As far as I can tell.

 

Thanks!

 

Are the digital downloads of Mosaic box sets legit? I'm under the impression that they don't operate in that market.

I do agree with the general gist of what Syd is saying, that stuff should be kept in print. However I do acknowledge the other side of the coin, that it isn't financially viable. The best solution in the digital age we live in is for these out of print releases to be made available as CD quality downloads by the rights owners (not Mosaic et al who only have short term licenses).

I'd like to obtain a couple of tracks from the Ellington Capitol years, but there's no legit source for downloading them (unless I want to give my money to Public Domain labels which have probably copied tracks from Mosaic). I'm sure Blue Note could put the lot out as a digital download, no CDs to be pressed. And yes, Sony BMG could do the same with the 24CD set.

 

Legit or not, I object to paying money for downloads. Us old school collectors do think about legacy, whether that means handing over your collection to your kids or your friends, or having your widow sell it for cash. But when was the last time you went to your local used music store and tried to unload or trade your mp3 or flac files? They ain't worth 5 cents.

By the way, there are more than just a couple of Duke's Capitol tracks that are worthwhile. The piano tracks alone are gold.

P.S. I do not believe there is a single download of a Mosaic title that is legit

 

I believe those on legit sites are legit. . . they are being presented by the owners that Mosaic leased the material from. Those owners can use their own material when they went. They are not marketed precisely as Mosaic products, and they are bout in physical form, but they are licensed for download by the owner's and legit.

 

I recently saw 16 volumes of the French RCA complete Ellington LP series for $2 each in a used store in Boston. But I passed them up cause I already had them

 

Examples? Not that I want to buy a download, but I am curious. I remember when pre-recorded cassettes came out, I told some of my friends in the record industry that these were the biggest rip-off ever, they said, "Please don't tell anyone. We are making lots of money on them."

 

Ask someone else for examples, I don't do downloads myself, but reading on another jazz board this has come up and they are said to be legit. . . titled something similar to the Mosaic titles but worded differently. I don't see what the correlation is to pre-recorded cassettes. The thousands of those for sale were also legit. Record companies are there to make money, not to offer us timeless treasures . . . it's business that happens at times to be art. . . and sometimes a good deal for artist, company and fan and collector.

 

Did a bit of a search for the information I read before. Here are a few pages with information as to sets:

Capitol Vaults Series »

Mosaics for sale on iTunes. »

 

I see a Japanese version on Amazon for $58 - a little cheaper if you use a Japanese seller. I think this is the same as the one issued in the USA.

 

Luckily, I found a cheap copy in the bins earlier this year, but thanks!

 

PonoMusic | Store »

There are others too, Max Roach, Horace Parlan, Duke Ellington Reprise, etc, on Qobuz and Pono. They aren't all on each site. The Ellington and Parlan use the same cover image and the track listing is identical. The Roach, Capital Jazz Vaults and some others I don't remember off the top of my head, use different images but have the same track lists. No booklets.

I've bought the Don Pullen and Elvin Jones Capital Jazz Vaults from Ponoand the Parlan from Qobuz. I'd rather have the Mosaic sets with the books, but they're prohibitively expensive so this is a good alternative. They were all OOP before I heard of Mosaic. Since I've heard of Mosaic, I've bought everything I'm interested in when it goes to last chance. Of course, I buy stuff also before last chance.

 

one of my favs...

 

Blues in Orbit has just been released on an Analogue Productions SACD.