Lady For a Day (1933)

Thirteen hours of unreleased and ultra-rare music. The Eternal Myth Revealed is a 14 disc docu-biography of Ra's life and career, from his birth in 1914 up to 1959. In addition to his own music, it includes music he was influenced by, and a lot of stuff he may or may not have had a hand in as arranger, vocal coach, pianist or something else. Sun Ra's output was as prolific as Ellington's, and discographers have had nightmares and arguments attempting to document it accurately.

Throughout much of the 20th century, Benny Carter was an accomplished composer, arranger, leader, sideman, and multi-instrumentalist. In 2004 the U.K.'s Proper label served his memory well with Proper Box 68 which carefully examines a 22-year segment from his unusually lengthy career. If a reasonably priced 88-track, four-CD set of swing and early modern mainstream jazz dating from 1930-1952 seems like too much of a good thing, maybe you really need to hear more jazz and not less, for here in the land of its birth we still have a lot of catching up to do in order to better comprehend this important part of our cultural heritage…

The Genius of Duke Ellington, bandleader extraordinaire, pianist and greatest American composer of the 20th century is celebrated in the 93 ducal masterpieces featured in this 4 CD box set. Ellington's achievements as composer, arranger, pianist and bandleader touch a bewildering variety of levels, producing music that has never been surpassed, music that has been a constant inspiration to numerous other musicians, and those who truly appreciate Ellington's achievements.

Yehudi Menuhin was a dazzling virtuoso from childhood who became a key humanitarian in addition to being a celebrated concert artist.
The legendary violinist Yehudi Menuhin was the eldest child of Russian-born Hebrew scholars who met in Palestine, emigrated to New York City, and moved to San Francisco soon after their son's birth. After just three years of violin study, Yehudi made a legendary debut at age seven with the local symphony. His Carnegie Hall debut three years later, in the Beethoven Violin Concerto, garnered praise that likened him to Mozart as a prodigy, whereupon the family (which now included sisters Hephzibah and Yaltah) lived gypsy-like in hotels wherever Yehudi was engaged at enormous fees…

The future "King of Swing", Benjamin David Goodman, was born on the 30th May, in Chicago, Illinois. He was the son of Jewish immigrants and grew up with 11 brothers and sisters. Benny Goodman learned to play the clarinet in a synagogue and took his first steps as a musician on the pleasure boats on the nearby Lake Michigan.
He worked for several years from the middle of the Twenties with Ben Pollack, but also played with several other bands. Goodman met the well-known music producer John Hammond in 1933, and was persuaded by Hammond to form his first big-band…