The Sheik of Araby

Charlie Christian - The Genius Of The Electric Guitar (1939-1941) {4CD Deluxe Set Columbia C4K 65564 rel 2002}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 836 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 674 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 31 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1939-41, 2002 Columbia / Legacy / Sony Music | C4K 65564
Jazz / Bop / Swing / Big Band / Guitar

First, a few myths get cleared up by the very existence of this box, which goes far beyond the original Columbia compilations with the same name. For starters, Columbia goes a long way to setting the record straight that Charlie Christian was not the first electric guitarist or the first jazz guitarist or the first electric guitarist in jazz. For another, they concentrate on only one thing here: documenting Christian's seminal tenure with Benny Goodman's various bands from 1939-1941. While in essence, that's all there really is, various dodgy compilations have been made advertising Christian playing with Lester Young or Lionel Hampton.

Louis Armstrong - The Complete Louis Armstrong and The Dukes of Dixieland (2011) {3CD Set, Solar Records 4569905 rec 1959-1960}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.00 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 413 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 121 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1959-60, 2011 Solar Records | 4569905
Jazz / Dixieland / Trumpet

The complete recorded output, on a 3CD Deluxe Boxed Edition, by Louis Armstrong and The Dukes Of Dixieland - for the first time ever in a single collection. This collection contains both the master takes and all the alternates. Half of this music appears here on CD for the first time ever. These original LPs “The Definitive Album by Louis Armstrong” (1959) and “Louis and the Dukes of Dixieland” (1960) were among the first stereo recordings to fully capture Louis’ magic sound. His trumpet playing & vocals were as fine as ever - on classic songs that weren’t part of his usual repertoire, such as “Dixie”, “New Orleans” and “Sweet Georgia Brown”, which he had never previously recorded.

This collection of Ellington's Thirties recordings is generous in that it offers 95 selections and meagre in that there is no discographical information at all (no recording dates, no personel, no matrix numbers). The liner notes give some information but leave one pining for more too. There the criticism ends. Audio restoration by Dutchman Harry Coster (who is attached to the Dutch Jazz Archive and has an outstanding reputation for painstaking restoration of old material) is beyond reproach and the recordings never sounded so good before. And of course there is the music itself, which is formidable, both in musical content and in execution by that peerless group of proud individuals that constituted the Duke Ellington orchestra…

This box set is drawn exclusively from the years 1932 to 1939. You get 75 tracks of prime Ellington from the 30s, including the first recordings of a number of undisputed masterpieces, such as 'Sophisticated Lady', 'Solitude', 'Prelude to a Kiss', 'Clarinet Lament', 'Echoes of Harlem' and 'Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue', among many more. There are of course other great Ellington recordings from the 30s not represented here - his elegy for his mother, 'Reminiscing in Tempo', for one - for Ellington recorded for a bewildering variety of labels, and these are just the ones currently owned by Sony. There are no sleeve notes, and no listings of the musicians, which is a bit frustrating. But for a 3 disc survey of the period in question, you really can't do better than this.