German budget-price 40 CD box-set (764 tracks) subtitled The Complete Works From 1924 - 1947. Includes Hop Head, Jubilee Stomp, High Life, The Duke Steps Out' Black and Tan Fantasy, Creole Rhapsody, Sophisticated Lady, S... more »olitude, Scattin' at the Cotton Club, Jazz a la Carte, Rendevous with Rhythm, Prelude to a Kiss, I'm Checkin' Out, Goom Bye, Cotton Tail, Blue Serge, Chelsea Bridge, Mood Indigo, New World a Comin', Magenta Haze and In a Mellow Tone. This colorful box (9 x 5 x 5 inches) comes filled with 20 double slimline jewel cases.« less
German budget-price 40 CD box-set (764 tracks) subtitled The Complete Works From 1924 - 1947. Includes Hop Head, Jubilee Stomp, High Life, The Duke Steps Out' Black and Tan Fantasy, Creole Rhapsody, Sophisticated Lady, Solitude, Scattin' at the Cotton Club, Jazz a la Carte, Rendevous with Rhythm, Prelude to a Kiss, I'm Checkin' Out, Goom Bye, Cotton Tail, Blue Serge, Chelsea Bridge, Mood Indigo, New World a Comin', Magenta Haze and In a Mellow Tone. This colorful box (9 x 5 x 5 inches) comes filled with 20 double slimline jewel cases.
An Unbelievable Collection at an Incredible Price!!
D. Glassner | West Hollywood, CA United States | 06/20/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Don't be fooled by the bargain price of this collection, this is the only way to aquire Duke's complete works from 1924-1945 (the collection states it goes up to '47, but past '45 it gets a little less complete) across 40 compact discs, packaged in 20 slimline jewel cases. The sound quality is stunning, to my ears much better than the domestic RCA recordings that sell for 10 to 20 times more. (I compared sound quality between this and RCA's Blanton-Webster set.) Here is what you DON'T get: fancy booklets, fancy artwork, extensive liner notes. Basically this is just the music, with session players and recording dates. The music is indispensable. Gorgeous."
The bargain of the century.
Yul S. Pariah | Baltimore, Maryland USA | 10/01/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I have nothing to add to the previous reviewer. I only wish to second his/her praise of this set. This is absolutely one of the most incredible bargains in recorded music. Forty CDs of Duke Ellington's complete recorded output from the first half of his long career. If you are especially fond of the early Cotton Club/"Jungle music" years, as I am, you get it all here, in incredibly good sound. The sound quality is easily as good, if not better than the expensive lavishly packaged name-brand releases of this same material. Basically, what you have is 20 "slimline" jewel boxes (which are exactly like ordinary jewel boxes, except that they hold two CDs) inside a simple cardboard box. Each jewel box has a two page mini-bio of Duke Ellington (the same in every booklet) followed by a detailed date, location, and personnel listing for each and every track. Everything you need is here, but nothing extra, which at this price, is nothing to complain about. I simply discarded the box and put the 20 jewel boxes on my shelf in chronological order. They look great, sound great, and the price is mind boggling. Take two...they're small....NOT!!!"
Music 5 stars; Presentation 2 stars
Patto53 | 02/19/2004
(3 out of 5 stars)
"While no one can argue with the music here -- which is simply indispensible -- this box set is a poor knock-off of the Classics of Jazz Ellington series (my guess is simply stolen from their cds!), eq'd bright and harsh and run through an excruciating digital filter to get out more of the hiss. The track order follows the Classics series exactly (even misplacing a 1939 vdisc session in the 1941-44 volume).I guess I don't regret having all the music at this price, but you do get what you pay for --"
Not Quite Complete
Patto53 | Lawson, NSW Australia | 03/29/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The Complete Works 1924-47 is a great bargain but it is NOT complete! It does not include alternate takes, only the official releases, which is not really of concern except to completists. The vast number of radio transcriptions are not even sampled. There are missed songs throughout including several of the very early releases. Most seriously, it misses 20 releases from late 1939 to early 1940 and completely botches up 1946-47. The former are absolutely critical as they include the seminal first recordings with Jimmie Blanton and Blanton/Ben Webster. Besides scrambling the Chronological order, the 1946-47 misses out on most of the Musicraft recordings (most of which are very good) and almost all of the Columbia recordings up to the recording ban at the end of 1947 (not a great loss). The recordings have been re-equalised into stereo and amplified. The addition of bottom end and some top end actally makes them sound more open. Maybe not for purests but I find quite acceptable compared to the 'natural' releases and I tend to be a purest.
The set is erratically based on the Classics Records 'Chronological' series which are now mostly out of pressing and being very eratically reissued by Naxos. To fill the holes you will need to get, if you can, Classics 1939-40 (definitely), 1946-47 (worthwhile), 1947, 1947-48. Luckily there is minimal overlap of tracks."
Too good to be true? It's true!
T. Rogers | St. Louis | 03/22/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"When I saw this CD set priced by 3rd party retailers for ~$35, I obviously assumed it was too good to be true. But I'm looking at it right now, all 40 CDs of Duke Ellington in his prime, and I can definitely say its true! The sound might not be as good as the Columbia and Decca sets I own of the same material, but its close. I was lamenting the fact that the insanely expensive RCA Centennial set was out of print before I ever had a prayer of being able to afford it when I ran across this one. I feel much better now."