Magic Town (1947)

Louis Armstrong - The Complete Town Hall Concert (1947) {2CD 2014 Japan Jazz Collection 1000 Columbia-RCA Series SICP 4005~6}
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© 1947, 2014 RCA / Sony Music Japan | SICP 4005~6 | Mono
Jazz / Classic Jazz / Early Jazz / New Orleans Jazz / Swing

Reissue with latest 2014 DSD remastering. Comes with liner notes. One of the key turning points of Louis Armstrong's career occurred at the Town Hall concert fully documented on this two-CD set, a reissue of the earlier two-LP release. Armstrong, who had been leading a big band for 18 years, was showcased with some musical friends who were all very complementary players (including trombonist Jack Teagarden, clarinetist Peanuts Hucko and cornetist Bobby Hackett), and the results were so exciting that Armstrong soon broke up his orchestra to form a similar all-star sextet.

Louis Armstrong - Satchmo At Symphony Hall - 65th Anniversary: The Complete Performances (1947) {Hip-O Select B0016891-02 rel 2012}
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© 1947, 2012 Decca / Verve / Universal / Hip-O Select | B0016891-02
Jazz / Hot Jazz / Trumpet

Louis Armstrong, a.k.a. Satchmo, is an American icon. Satchmo At Symphony Hall, recorded in 1947 and first issued on Decca in 1951, captured one of his greatest performances, for which a legendary edition of his All Stars band joined him, with Jack Teagarden, Barney Bigard, Dick Cary, Arvell Shaw, Big Sid Catlett and singer Velma Middleton. Verve Music and Hip-O Select now present a newly expanded, 2-CD version of the album, celebrating the 65th anniversary of the original recording.

This eight-CD set should be a part of any collection that presumes to take American music - not just rock & roll or rhythm & blues - seriously. Atlantic Records was one of dozens of independent labels started up after the war by neophyte executives and producers, but it was different from most of the others in that the guys who ran it were honest and genuinely loved music. Coupled with a lot of luck and some good judgment, the results trace a good chunk of the history of American music and popular culture. Disc one opens with cuts which slot in somewhere midway between jazz, bop, and "race" music (as the term was used then). Disc two is pure, distilled R&B, the stuff filling the airwaves of black radio and the jukeboxes in the "wrong" parts of town in 1952-54….

Sarah Vaughan - The Early Years 1944-1948 (2018) {2CD Set, Acrobat Music}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44.1kHz - Digital Download -> 333 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 307 Mb | Cover | 5% repair rar
© 1944-48, 2018 Acrobat Music | ADDCD3251
Jazz / Vocal Jazz / Standards / Traditional Pop

Sarah Vaughan was one of the illustrious coterie of female vocalists who spanned the genres of jazz, big band music and sophisticated pop during the post-war era to provide some of the finest music of their times, not only interpreting the Great American Songbook and putting their own individual stamp on it, but continuing to perform top class new material through the musical upheavals of subsequent decades.

Volume 2 of EMI's comprehensive Herbert von Karajan centenary edition gathers virtually all of the conductor's operatic and vocal output for the label in one place, taking up 71 CDs (Disc 72 contains complete librettos in the form of PDF files). I use the word "virtually" because the package omits four posthumously issued archival items taped live during the 1957-60 Salzburg Festivals (Beethoven's Missa solemnis, Brahms' German Requiem, Bruckner's Te Deum, and Verdi's Requiem). Otherwise, it's all here.

Bennett, whose recorded legacy has been gathered in a 76-disc boxed set titled The Compete Collection, has been doing that for over 60 years: saving our souls with the greatest songs ever written. The Complete box is an absolute necessity, first because it contains several previously unreleased albums, like On the Glory Road and From This Moment On, a live concert taped in Las Vegas that collectors have been salivating over since 1964.