In 1992 Time-Life Music began issuing a subscription set of monophonic CD’s, using material which had already been transcribed for their original ‘Big Bands’ LP series almost a decade earlier. Time-Life used the best technology available at the time in producing both releases of this series. ‘1/2 speed mastering’ was used in the production of the original LP series – …
The Mercury Songbook
Sub-titled “100 Jazz Vocal Classics”, this compilation, on 4 CD’s, is a representative anthology of the Jazz Division of the label operating during the 1950’s and 1960’s. The artists here are legendary, most lured to the label in the late 1940’s and into the 50’s by the founding fathers of the division, John Hammond and impresario Norman Grantz. Some of …
That Travelin’ Two-Beat
What fun! This magnificent ‘twofer’, issued in 1990 by the Australasian arm of EMI could as easily have been titled Dixie Done Right … The “best in the business” – doing what they liked doing best – making joyous jazz music. The CD contains the complete (stereo) contents of sessions recorded, (obviously multi-track), before most of us had even heard …
Great Ladies and Gentlemen of Song
What better way to start off this blog than with a “four poster” that has it all. These are the ‘girl singer’ | ‘boy singer’ vocalists that got their start, (but limited exposure), during the earlier era of big bands. These compilations, assembled from material in the Capitol Records vaults, put the singers right out at center stage – supported …