Search - Duke Ellington :: Never No Lament the Blanton-Webster Band

Essential Ellington for Jazz Fans

Thomas M. Croft | Fort Collins, CO USA | 08/10/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I won't waste space here explaining how great this music is and why it's, in my opinion, essential for all jazz collections. Instead, I'll focus on the much-debated sound-quality issue in the other reviews. First, there is more audible surface noise throughout this three-disc set than I would have preferred, but Discs 2 and 3 are both quite listenable and sound pretty good over all, at times even very good (lifelike, vibrant, etc.). The reviewers who have complained about Disc 1, however, are exactly right: there is noticeable (cringe-producing) distortion--clipping or overloading--in several tracks on Disc 1, most notably "Jack the Bear," giving the music a harsh, unpleasant quality. You'll notice that some other tracks, especially "Warm Valley," have a noticeably high level of surface noise (hiss) too. In short, 2/3 of this set sounds quite good, but Disc 1 takes a lot of patience to listen to, in my opinion. Though I love this music, I've taken away one star for the remastering of Disc 1.



Fortunately, there's a fairly simple solution for those willing to pay about $10.44 extra (at this writing) and who don't mind spending a little extra time in a music application like Windows Media Player. One can find much better sounding tracks corresponding to all 25 of the tracks on Disc 1 of this set right here at Amazon.com. Amazon sells, as downloadable mp3's, the tracks from some out-of-print or hard-to-find reissues on the now-defunct French label Chronological Classics, which did a masterful job of reissuing older jazz recordings from a variety of artists for a number of years. The original Chronological Classics reissues are now quite difficult to find as CDs and can be quite expensive. The Chronological-Classics albums "Duke Ellington et son orchrestre: 1940" (Classics 805) and "Duke Ellington et son orchestre: 1940, Vol. 2" (Classics 820) contain the needed tracks. "Jack the Bear," for example, sounds fabulous to my ears on the Classics reissue. There's clearly more noise reduction in the Classics versions, so a little of the high-frequency content is sacrificed, but the awful distortion is completely absent--thank goodness. RCA, according to the liner notes, insisted on using the original metal parts in remastering this music, and those original metal parts for certain songs have clearly deteriorated to the point where a secondary source (e.g., a good 78) would have made more sense. In summary, I recommend buying this set for Discs 2 and 3 but supplementing Disc 1 with the downloadable counterpart tracks from the Chronological Classics reissues mentioned above, at least for the several tracks with distortion. In my case, I decided to make an alternative Disc 1 from the tracks on the Classics reissues. Now I can truly enjoy ALL of this great music."

What is the problem?

Tudor J. Harris | Cardiff UK | 06/26/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I recently bought this off Amazon. I too have the original Blanton Webster band CD for some years. I do not propose to say haw wonerful this mudi is as it is self evident .

In my opinion the quality of these recordings are excellent throughout.The recordings are now well over sixty years old.I have listened to these CD's on my car CD player and also on my very good quality system at home.The sound coming out of my Sonus Faber floorstanding speakers are excellent.

Combine this with the bargain price from Amazon US this is a deal that cannot be passed up.British readers please note.Never No Lament: The Blanton-Webster Band

An out and out bargain in anyone's book."

Easily the Best Issue of These Masterpieces

J. Grant | North Carolina, USA | 02/20/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I enjoy most anything Duke has ever released, from his earlier band from the 30's (quite underrated) up to the 1956 Newport concert and the Great Summit meeting with Louis and so on. But this band was definitely the apex of his career. I mean Webster, Blanton, Nance...wow! It doesn't get much better than that, although some would argue, me included, that Basie's lineup of Pres, Jo Jones, Walter Page, Clayton, Evans & Sweets along with Jimmy Rushing was better (I say it's too close to call). But that's neither here nor there, as any lover of jazz will have as much of both of these bands as they can get their hands on. If you get this set in other forms (I believe another reviewer suggested Proper which uses too much noise reduction, resulting in almost no high end at all to go with the absence of surface noise), you're likely wasting your money. I will admit that I go that route on the occasion when I can't find reissues of the original source. JSP is a label you can trust to be judicious in the use of noise reduction. Before his death they frequently used John RT Davies to do their remastering and now Ted Kendall does some work for them. There have been complaints about the packaging. If it bothers you that much simply put the discs in jewel cases. Bottom line is this is essential listening and you won't find it with better sound anywhere, slight surface noise notwithstanding. I don't want to sound like I'm picking on any other reviewer because I used to be the same way about surface noise, just hated it. But after listening to Bird on proper then hearing him on Savoy and Verve, I finally got it. You gotta put up with a little noise on old recordings to hear ALL of the music and when the musical quality is this good, you definitely want to hear it all."