Giacomo Meyerbeer was one of the most important composers in Paris during the mid-1800s. He is considered the founder of the French Grand Opera and his works dominated the French stage. Meyerbeer changed the face of opera in Paris, and yet, much criticism is directed toward him and much of his music is seldom heard today. This 3-CD set is the first of two volumes, which together honor Meyerbeer and reacquaint the listener with his marvelous music and some very interesting singing. These two volumes contain at least one version of every recorded Meyerbeer excerpt sung by French singers.
The link between Phil Napoleon and Red Nichols does not stop at their meeting on this record under the auspices or a new CD edition. The present disc opens with recordings of Red Nichols (five sides in all) and presents him leading his own band, whether it be Red Nichols and His Orchestra or Red and his Big Ten, nine or ten musicians in all. Part of the space devoted to Phil Napoleon includes small formations - five to seven musicians. Phil and Red both were important musicians and both had to suffer from a relative critical exclusion reserved by some to white jazz musicians. Phil recorded a large number of sides between the twenties and the thirties, a time at which he knew considerable success…
Set of Fremeaux’s definitive Integrale Django Reinhardt collection. Mastered by Daniel Nevers, there are 20 volumes of these, and each volume has 2 CDs – 40 CDs total. Each volume also comes with a fairly thick booklet with discography and notes. And the booklets and inserts have very nice B&W pictures of Django. Une réédition d’exception ! Depuis quelques années maintenant, les éditions Frémeaux ont entrepris la publication d’une intégrale des enregistrements de Django Reinhardt.