Search - Harry James :: Sweet Georgia Brown

One of the BEST bargains on Amazon,of the one of the greates

Robert Badgley | London,Ontario,Canada | 11/19/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is an astoundingly CHEAP CD set but considering the high quality of its' contents in selection AND sound it is about THE best bargain you are ever likely to get on Amazon!!

What we have here is a German release of four CDs jam packed with 74 tracks remastered in 24 Bit sound.This CD set would be a bargain at four or five times the price!

The tracks cover a roughly 20 year musical span in Harry James career one of the greatest trumpet men in musical history,from the later 30s to the mid 50s.

The first 20 or so tracks feature some of his early recordings.Here's the hot horn man fresh from the Goodman band,totally in command of his instrument and burning up every inch of groove in these recordings.His phrasing and technique are astounding.

The passing years show that he never loses his technical abilities whatsoever.The discs pass through his most commercial period during the war years and into the late 40s where he delves into the current bebop trend,doing it his way and as usual never falling short.

The final disc takes us into his early to middling 50s period where by now Harry would settle into that wonderful Basie like groove he would continue to play around with until his passing in /83.

This set contains not one clunker in the bunch.As I stated above all songs are remastered in 24 bit and the sound(especially in his 30s and 40s material) is as good if not better than you've heard from those companies who hold the original masters.

It is a great starter set for anyone wishing to learn more and get a great general overview of James' musical career.It is also a great addition to the collections of those long time James fans(like myself).Either way for the price of this set alone,you just cannot go wrong!!

I don't know why or how this 4 CD set is so cheap(as are the other myriad of artists in this collection) but I'd advise you to scoop up this bargain of the century now before they are long gone to the Yukon!!"