Where do I start with Louis Armstrong?

I assume by "big Duke box" he's referring to this one, which wasn't a Mosaic set.

Mosaic has released three Ellington sets; two covered Duke's Capitol and Reprise recordings respectively and have been OOP for several years, and there's also the currently-available small groups set.

 

Are you referring to the SACD?

 

No, strictly speaking of plain old CDs. It's packed right now but I think the date on the old one was 1987 and the newer one 1997.

 

There is a listing for an Analogue Productions SACD (!) of Plays King Oliver available for pre-order:
http://store.acousticsounds.com/d/72681/Louis_Armstrong-Satchmo_Plays_King_Oliver-Hybrid_Stereo_SACD
Don't know anything else about it. It's been listed pre-order for many months.

Didn't realize the genuine pressed CD was hard to find. I have it.

Amazon reviews are completely wrong regarding sound, it won't surprise you to hear; the CD mastering is quite poor. The original album cuts are sourced from an overprocessed, junky needledrop while the bonus cuts are from a tape source that's been heavily NoNoised (as in full-on Bob Norberg time). Which makes zero sense, but that's what we have. All credit for remaining quality goes to the superb original recording. Too bad since the bonus tracks are welcome. The SACD should be far preferable, if it comes out.

 

I like the stuff with Ella Fitzgerald... which confines itself to a fairly small subset of material.

Basically that covers two LPs on the Verve label (both easily found on CD), the Hollywood Bowl live double LP, the Porgy and Bess album, and a handful of 78s...


I'd recommend the Porgy and Bess album. It's a classic. Not all Armstrong - but its very worthwhile.

And the Hollywood Bowl album was out of print for years but was recently released as a complete concert.... I think on Hip-O... shouldn't be hard to find.

 

I'm not sure Springsteen owns multiple versions of Satchmo doing "St. James Infirmary" and picked one or the other... unless the magazine includes verbage from Bruce - I suspect he just rattled off some general information (artist and title) and left it up to the the editors of the magazine to find the songs for the CD.


You might try calling his local record store in Red Bank NJ and ask them if they sold him a specific version... but it's not clear he would have even bought it there. The guy does have a lot of opportunity to shop all over the world - and it is possible he buys on Amazon too

 

Here's a 15-cd box that I've not heard, but one lone reviewer seems to think they did a good job with it:

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Hist...d=1340143745&sr=1-58&keywords=louis+armstrong

I used to see this next set at B&N all the time and wondered how it sounded - at least one reviewer opined that JSP did a better job and that's no surprise.

http://www.amazon.com/Portrait-Arti...d=1340143876&sr=1-69&keywords=louis+armstrong

And then there's this up-to-1940 set on Snapper:

http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Rec...d=1340144065&sr=1-80&keywords=louis+armstrong

 

Bounce up on this thread ... I have read through this one and others many times and now this is my question. I have purchased more ....... and more.

Where do I stop? .. Love Pops.

 

This thread has been fantastic; thank to everyone. It's going to cost me a wild amount of cash...I'm probably going to have to just put off the purchases until winter so that dire decisions re: air-conditioning don't even become an issue.

Two questions about some of the current Louis/Ella collaboration options:

The classy-looking Verve 3cd seems to be long OOP and spendy now; I don't see an official equivalent, but there is this somewhat less snazzy 3cd option with about the same total number of tracks (45):


Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald: WHAT A WONDERFUL DUET [aka TRILOGY] (2006/2007)
http://www.amazon.com/Ella-Louis-Tr...F8&qid=1373094616&sr=1-13&keywords=louis+ella

Can anyone vouch for the quality of sound? I haven't yet done a careful comparison of contents, so it would be good to know if they are basically the same performances as the Verve collection.
I get a worrisome gray-market feeling about the "label". (Music Brokers? Huh?)

A quick comparison of track listings seems to indicate that none of the P&B recordings have been included in that TRILOGY comp above. I see three virtually identical editions of the Verve release, and I wondered which of them sounded best, if there's any difference. I wondered if the aforementioned Dennis Drake "80s" mastering was only present on the earliest issue (1990)?

1990:
http://www.amazon.com/Porgy-Bess-El...25&sr=1-1&keywords=louis+armstrong+porgy+bess

2008:
http://www.amazon.com/Porgy-Bess-Fi...25&sr=1-2&keywords=louis+armstrong+porgy+bess

2012:
http://www.amazon.com/Porgy-Bess-Fi...25&sr=1-6&keywords=louis+armstrong+porgy+bess
(this 2012 disc seems to have an additional two track, 17 compared to the previous two's 15)

 

Hey Gang, Thanks for all these wonderful selections. It helps to make some sense of his long and varied career.

 

Belated thanks to hodgo for his response. I don't want to belabor the question, but considering that the Dennis Drake ~1990 (or earlier) Verve master of Armstrong/Fitzgerald's PORGY & BESS sounds great, and I mean this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Porgy-Bess-Ella-Fitzgerald/dp/B0000046Z5/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t
has anyone heard the Poll Winners label reissue from 2012, and how does it compare? I only ask because it contains a couple bonus tracks from the Hollywood Bowl concert, and I'd just as soon get the expanded edition if the new mastering isn't inferior to Drake's. This is the (alleged) newer mastering from Poll Winners:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008CZDVW4/ref=ox_sc_act_title_7?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3DJR8M9Y3OUPG

(Some comment from the label makes a big deal about the album not having been mastered for 20 years, but this doesn't at all mean that a new mastering is better.)

Also, I was careless and did not notice an Amazon comment re: that 3cd knock-off Louis/Ella box mentioned in my post just above. It seems, if the Amazon reviewer can be trusted, that there is one disc of Ella w/o Louie, another disc of just Armstrong, and one disc of duets. No point in buying knock-off gear, anyway...I had a moment of cheapness there.

 

The recording is public domain in the EU (where that Poll Winners CD comes from). Unless the label is paying to license the release, they do not have any access to the masters. So unless you know that's a label which does pay and also does quality remastering, avoid it.

 

That 2012 CD was released by Disconforme, a public-domain label based in Andorra. As apileocole indicated above, they do not pay to license material, so they have no access to the master tapes.

 

Thanks apileocole/JAW for the feedback; I didn't know how on-the-level the Poll Winners (=Disconforme?) label was, esp. with identical cover art. I'll stick with the Verve edition.

 

No one has commented on the Carnegie Hall concert. Opinions? Sound quality?
http://www.amazon.com/Satchmo-Symphony-Hall-65th-Anniversary/dp/B008XNPNBW

 

What would be the best way to get the RCA Victor stuff on CD?

 

Since this thread was revived, what is this CD like? Some of the 40s I have heard sound good, others not so much?

 

Is this the album you are suggesting?
http://www.amazon.com/Satchmo-Music...3-fkmr1&keywords=Satchmo:+a+musical+anthology

 

Has anyone compared the original mono 6 eye Columbia version of "Plays W.C. Handy" with the Pure Pleasure 2008 reissue? I'm about to buy a clean copy of the former for $20, but will hold off if the Pure Pleasure is in a different league, sound-wise.

 

This!

 

Yes, that is the one.

CD:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005LAND/

 

Satchmo At Symphony Hall - The Complete Performances this is a fine 2 cd st of a classic lp