1928

Django Reinhardt - Djangologie 1928-1950 (2009) {20CD BoxSet EMI Music France 64bit mastering 5099960605023}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 3.55 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 1.92 Gb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 529 Mb | 5% repair rar | 64bit mastering
© 1928-1950, 2009 Pathé / EMI Music France | 5099960605023
Jazz / Continental Jazz / Swing / Gypsy / South/Eastern European Traditions / Guitar

277 tracks 1928-50, 64bit mastering. Django Reinhardt recorded prolifically in many different group settings over 4 decades. It's difficult to know where to start or where to go once you've gotten started collecting a few of his recordings. The 20 cd Djangologie box set is the place to go once you've decided to take the plunge into Django's music. It covers all 4 decades chronologically, but rather than trying to comprehensively collect all of Django's recordings (including all of the ones where he is a sideman in dance bands etc) it largely concentrates on the Quintette and other small group recordings, which is what most people want to hear. The sound quality is very good and relatively consistent throughout the collection. There is a minimum of tape hiss, clicks and pops. The sound mastering hasn't overemphasized any portion of the audio spectrum and has instead gone for a balanced group sound. Highly recommended if you want to get serious about listening to Django without all of the confusion that comes from piecing together smaller complilations.

Jack Purvis was a strange figure in jazz history. A talented trumpeter who could also play effective trombone starting in the late '20s, Purvis was also a petty thief, a smuggler, a cook, an airplane pilot, and a charming con man. He was in one legendary escapade after another, which finally resulted in a jail sentence, and he never seemed to regret any of his adventures or make any attempt at reform. His remarkable and somewhat unbelievable tale is outlined in detail in Michael Brooks' lengthy and definitive liner notes to this superb three-CD set. Purvis made all of his recordings during 1928-1931 (except for a lone session by pianist Frank Froeba in 1935), leading eight selections of his own and otherwise mostly adding some hot jazz trumpet to dance band dates…

The years spanned by this seven-disc Warner Classics collection coincide with the peak years of Jean Sibelius' popularity. At that time, he was widely regarded in Western countries as the greatest living composer, though he had essentially stopped producing major works after the mid-1920s, when he wrote the Symphony No. 7 in C major, the incidental music to The Tempest, and Tapiola.

In 2002 the Transatlantic Radio label fortified their catalog with a 26-track anthology of historic sides by the Jean Goldkette Orchestra. Victor Recordings 1924-1928 neatly samples some of the group's best works by beginning in March 1924, a good nine months before Bix Beiderbecke first sat in, and ending in December 1928, more than a year after Bix had joined the ranks of Paul Whiteman's Orchestra, along with some of Goldkette's most capable players. During the mid-‘20s the Goldkette band played its best music in front of live audiences, using arrangements by Bill Challis. Studio recordings captured some of the magic in the form of sweet and hot dance music punctuated by period pop vocals. Rather than packing in a lot of alternate takes (which may be found on other equally fine collections), the folks at Transatlantic chose to lay out a sensible selection that accurately embodies what the Goldkette band was all about.

By 1928 and '29 jazz was beginning to mature and recording technology was growing up along with it. Even taking into account his remarkable accomplishments on phonograph records from 1923 through early 1928, the exciting material gathered together on this disc represents - without question - some of the very best jazz ever recorded by New Orleans/Chicago clarinet archetype Johnny Dodds. On the first 11 selections, Natty Dominique blows one tough little cornet, and Bill Johnson's bull fiddle comes across more clearly and dramatically than ever before. Throughout the 1920s, many bands relied on the tuba to provide the bassline on their recordings…