Gene Krupa At His Very Best

EMERSON LAKE & PALMER (ELP) reformed for the first time since 1998 to headline the High Voltage Festival on Sunday July 25th 2010. 2010 marked the 40th anniversary of the creation of Emerson Lake and Palmer, the band that was formed from King Crimson, The Nice and Atomic Rooster. They became the first true prog-rock Super Group and defined an era…

Anita O'Day - The Complete Anita O’Day Verve/Clef Sessions (1999) {9CD Box Set Mosaic MD9-188 rec 1952-1962}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 3.17 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 1.40 Gb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 105 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1952-62, 1999 Verve / Clef / Mosaic Records | MD9-188
Jazz / Vocal Jazz

Anita O'Day is one of the very best jazz vocalists of all time. Her recordings for Norman Granz represent her best recorded work. Here it all is. The sound quality of these CDs is better than any others of the same recordings. I know because I have them all, in shellac, in vinyl, in CD. In addition, the booklet that comes with the set, like the ones in all Mosaic sets, is first class. Well written, nice photos, accurate information. The one shortfall is that Anita was very much a visual artist, the way she worked, led the band, her timing all that was fascinating to watch and of course other than the photos in the booklet, this is an entirely audio experience. Without question this is the best Anita you will ever hear. It is a shame that it is out of print.

Dan Morganstern makes an excellent point in his liner notes when he laments the tendency to refer to Roy Eldridge as a “link between Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie.” For one thing, Diz eschewed the kind of brilliant trumpet tone that characterized the work of Eldridge and Armstrong. Considered in this light, if one starts with Armstrong’s early achievements and then looks for anything like that kind of distilled joy in all the subsequent history of the music, one gets no further than the spectacular sides the man they called “Little Jazz” made for Columbia in January 1937. There’s just no one after that to “link” to, ever…