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Aces Back to Back
: :Bolstered by his impressive box set, Dog Years in the Fourth Ring, the profile of the late Rahsaan Roland Kirk has been significantly elevated. It's about time. Kirk's singular technique (he was capable of blowing multiple horns simultaneously) and ability to be consistently inventive is drawing a new generation of fans. This new set offers a selection of four Kirk LPs spread out throughout his career. Roland Kirk Left and Right (1968) is a low-key affair with Kirk darting in and out of melodies showing both a light touch and nimble ...
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Bird: The Complete Charlie Parker on Verve
: :This 10-CD set collects all of Parker's recordings for Norman Granz's various labels, beginning with an isolated Jazz at the Philharmonic appearance in 1946. Parker recorded exclusively for Granz beginning in late 1948, and the relationship continued to his final studio session in 1954. While the most brilliant flowers of Parker's creativity bloomed before that contract began, this set documents in meticulous detail Bird's longest relationship with a single record company and a period in which he was the most influential musician in jazz. While labels such as Savoy and Dial ...
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The Roaring Twenties
: :This 10-CD set collects all of Parker's recordings for Norman Granz's various labels, beginning with an isolated Jazz at the Philharmonic appearance in 1946. Parker recorded exclusively for Granz beginning in late 1948, and the relationship continued to his final studio session in 1954. While the most brilliant flowers of Parker's creativity bloomed before that contract began, this set documents in meticulous detail Bird's longest relationship with a single record company and a period in which he was the most influential musician in jazz. While labels such as Savoy and Dial ...
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Complete Galaxy Recordings
: :This 10-CD set collects all of Parker's recordings for Norman Granz's various labels, beginning with an isolated Jazz at the Philharmonic appearance in 1946. Parker recorded exclusively for Granz beginning in late 1948, and the relationship continued to his final studio session in 1954. While the most brilliant flowers of Parker's creativity bloomed before that contract began, this set documents in meticulous detail Bird's longest relationship with a single record company and a period in which he was the most influential musician in jazz. While labels such as Savoy and Dial ...
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Jazz Weekend
: :This 10-CD set collects all of Parker's recordings for Norman Granz's various labels, beginning with an isolated Jazz at the Philharmonic appearance in 1946. Parker recorded exclusively for Granz beginning in late 1948, and the relationship continued to his final studio session in 1954. While the most brilliant flowers of Parker's creativity bloomed before that contract began, this set documents in meticulous detail Bird's longest relationship with a single record company and a period in which he was the most influential musician in jazz. While labels such as Savoy and Dial ...
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Self Portrait
: 's Best of 2001:As a clarinetist, he was one of the best, but as a bandleader and jazz innovator, Artie Shaw was peerless. In the various ensembles he led from 1936 to 1954, Shaw pushed swing jazz into new territory. He incorporated classical instrumentation into his arrangements and pretty much invented the genre of 'third stream jazz'; he ignored the color barrier by recording with Hot Lips Page in the late '20s and by touring with Billie Holiday; he created volumes of timeless, beautiful, and swinging jazz. But mostly, Shaw kept ...
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Forty Years: The Artistry Of Tony Bennett (4CD)
: :Tony Bennett's commercial renaissance, complete with MTV Unplugged appearance, hadn't yet peaked when this four-CD set appeared in 1991. Forty Years, however, makes clear just why Bennett's comeback was so richly deserved: from early hits such as 'I Left My Heart in San Francisco' and his version of Hank Williams's 'Cold, Cold Heart' to late-life triumphs such as 'When Do the Bells Ring for Me,' this is a testament to the singer's verve and unstinting good taste. --Rickey Wright
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Cote d'Azur Concerts on Verve
: :This eight-CD set is a sleek affair, packaged in a plain-Jane, silver-ribbed box with just a peephole in the center. The peephole, though, looks in on the fluorescent jewel cases, each of which faithfully reproduces fantastic Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald sets from July 1966 at France's Cote d'Azur. The Ellington tunes show his orchestra in long form, taking multiple sets (with some tune repetition across the CDs) and thriving in Ellington and Billy Strayhorn's tightly scripted ensemble sections. This is some fairly standard Ellington for the era, with hard-flying solos ...
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Duke Ellington: The Reprise Studio Recordings
: :This magnificent five-CD collection accomplishes two things: It chronicles Duke Ellington's overlooked recordings for Frank Sinatra's Reprise label, which were produced from 1962 to 1965, and it refutes the ridiculous claims made by some critics that Ellington lost his musical creativity in his '60s. Sinatra gave Ellington tremendous creative freedom as the label's A&R man, and the maestro responded with some of the most unique and accessible music of his astonishing 50-year career. To paraphrase a famous saying, this set contains something old, something new, something borrowed, with all things blue. ...
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Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia (1933-1944)
: :This box set earns the 'deluxe' designation not only because of its handsome packaging, insightful essays by Holiday scholars, and testimonials from the likes of Tony Bennett, Sonny Rollins, and Etta James, but also because of the vastly improved remastered sound that makes Lady Day the definitive issue of Billie Holiday's pivotal 1930s and '40s Columbia/Vocalion/Brunswick/OKeh oeuvre. The sides here include epochal collaborations with Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Lester Young, Teddy Wilson, and others. Six-plus discs chronologically present 151 masters, with the rest of the 10 CDs' space given to alternate ...
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