Never No Lament the Blanton-Webster Band

Duke Ellington - Never No Lament the Blanton-Webster Band

Never No Lament the Blanton-Webster Band
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CD Details

Artist: Duke Ellington
Edition: Music CD
Format: Box set
CD Release Date: 2003-04-01
Music Label: RCA
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
  1. You, You Darlin'
  2. Jack the Bear
  3. Ko Ko
  4. Morning Glory
  5. So Far, So Good
  6. Conga Brava
  7. Concerto for Cootie
  8. Me and You
  9. Cotton Tail
  10. Never No Lament (Don't Get Around Much Anymore)
  11. Dusk
  12. Bojangles
  13. A Portrait of Bert Williams
  14. Blue Goose
  15. Harlem Air Shaft
  16. At a Dixie Roadside Diner
  17. All Too Soon
  18. Rumpus in Richmond
  19. My Greatest Mistake
  20. Sepia Panorama
  21. There Shall Be No Night
  22. In a Mellow Tone
  23. Five O'Clock Whistle
  24. The Flaming Sword
  25. Warm Valley
Music CD 2
  1. Across the Track Blues
  2. Chloe
  3. I Never Felt This Way Before
  4. The Sidewalks of New York
  5. Flamingo
  6. The Girl in My Dreams Tries to Look Like You
  7. Take the "A" Train
  8. Jumpin' Punkins
  9. John Hardy's Wife
  10. Blue Serge
  11. After All
  12. Bakiff
  13. Are You Sticking?
  14. Just A-Sittin' and A-Rockin'
  15. The Giddybug Gallop
  16. Pitter Panther Patter
  17. Body and Soul
  18. Sophisticated Lady
  19. Mr. J.B. Blues
  20. Ko Ko [Alternate Take]
  21. Bojangles [Alternate Take]
  22. Sepia Panorama [Alternate Take]
  23. Jumpin' Punkins [Alternate Take]
  24. Jump for Joy [Alternate Take]
Music CD 3
  1. Chocolate Shake
  2. I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good)
  3. Clementine
  4. Brown-Skin Gal (In the Calico Gown)
  5. Jump for Joy
  6. Moon Over Cuba
  7. Five O'Clock Drag
  8. Rocks in My Bed
  9. Bli-Blip
  10. Rain Check
  11. What Good Would It Do?
  12. I Don't Know What Kind of Blues I Got
  13. Chelsea Bridge
  14. Perdido
  15. C Jam Blues
  16. Moon Mist
  17. What Am I Here For?
  18. I Don't Mind
  19. Someone
  20. My Little Brown Book
  21. Main Stem
  22. Johnny Come Lately
  23. Hayfoot, Strawfoot
  24. Sentimental Lady
  25. A Slip of the Lip (Can Sink a Ship)
  26. Sherman Shuffle

Music reviews of Never No Lament the Blanton-Webster Band

Music Review: Essential Ellington for Jazz Fans
Rating: 4 Stars

I won't waste space here explaining how great this music is and why it's, in my opinion, essential for all jazz collections. Instead, I'll focus on the much-debated sound-quality issue in the other reviews. First, there is more audible surface noise throughout this three-disc set than I would have preferred, but Discs 2 and 3 are both quite listenable and sound pretty good over all, at times even very good (lifelike, vibrant, etc.). The reviewers who have complained about Disc 1, however, are exactly right: there is noticeable (cringe-producing) distortion--clipping or overloading--in several tracks on Disc 1, most notably "Jack the Bear," giving the music a harsh, unpleasant quality. You'll notice that some other tracks, especially "Warm Valley," have a noticeably high level of surface noise (hiss) too. In short, 2/3 of this set sounds quite good, but Disc 1 takes a lot of patience to listen to, in my opinion. Though I love this music, I've taken away one star for the remastering of Disc 1.

Fortunately, there's a fairly simple solution for those willing to pay about $10.44 extra (at this writing) and who don't mind spending a little extra time in a music application like Windows Media Player. One can find much better sounding tracks corresponding to all 25 of the tracks on Disc 1 of this set right here at Amazon.com. Amazon sells, as downloadable mp3's, the tracks from some out-of-print or hard-to-find reissues on the now-defunct French label Chronological Classics, which did a masterful job of reissuing older jazz recordings from a variety of artists for a number of years. The original Chronological Classics reissues are now quite difficult to find as CDs and can be quite expensive. The Chronological-Classics albums "Duke Ellington et son orchrestre: 1940" (Classics 805) and "Duke Ellington et son orchestre: 1940, Vol. 2" (Classics 820) contain the needed tracks. "Jack the Bear," for example, sounds fabulous to my ears on the Classics reissue. There's clearly more noise reduction in the Classics versions, so a little of the high-frequency content is sacrificed, but the awful distortion is completely absent--thank goodness. RCA, according to the liner notes, insisted on using the original metal parts in remastering this music, and those original metal parts for certain songs have clearly deteriorated to the point where a secondary source (e.g., a good 78) would have made more sense. In summary, I recommend buying this set for Discs 2 and 3 but supplementing Disc 1 with the downloadable counterpart tracks from the Chronological Classics reissues mentioned above, at least for the several tracks with distortion. In my case, I decided to make an alternative Disc 1 from the tracks on the Classics reissues. Now I can truly enjoy ALL of this great music.
More Never No Lament the Blanton-Webster Band free music reviews:
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Description of Never No Lament the Blanton-Webster Band

Jimmie Blanton, Ben Webster, Johnny Hodges, Cootie Williams the 1940-1942 Ellington Orchestra might just be the best big band ever. Using masters from the Grammy-winning Duke Ellington Centennial Edition , this set collects that band's masterpieces- Take the "A" Train; Cotton Tail; Warm Valley; I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good; Sophisticated Lady; Chelsea Bridge; Perdido , et al.-plus Blanton/Ellington duets and selected alternate takes. Best-ever sound quality, too!
This 75-track, three-CD set from Duke Ellington's RCA dates from 1940 to 1942, was culled from the massive, 1999 Bluebird mega-set. It's named for bassist Jimmy Blanton and tenor saxophonist Ben Webster. Blanton's astonishing technique made him one of the greatest bass players of all time, and Webster's warm, raw-boned tenor tones inspired future saxophonists. Along with the famous Ellingtonians, alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges, trumpeter Cootie Williams, violinist Ray Nance, and trombonist Tricky Sam Nanton, the addition of Blanton and Webster, along with the arrival of composer/arranger/pianist Billy Strayhorn, make this aggregation Ellington's first "superband."

All the vivid and varied dimensions of Ellingtonia are included in this digitally remastered set, with songs written by his son, Mercer. There's Ellington's silky blues numbers such as "Jack the Bear" and "C-Jam Blues." The Puerto Rican valve trombonist Juan Tizol's "Conga Brava," "Moon Over Cuba," and "Bakiff" contribute Latin and Middle Eastern colors. "Harlem Airshaft" and "Sepia Panorama" are but two examples of Ellington's tonal portraits. The legendary Ellington/Blanton duets, with the bouncy "Pitter Panther Patter" and the emotive "Sophisticated Lady" still sound modern. Webster's surging, pre-bop solos drive the George Gershwin-based "Cottontail," and soulfully signature Strayhorn's ballad "Chelsea Bridge." This set also marks the introduction of other Strayhorn's classics, including "Take the 'A' Train" and "Johnny Come Lately." All told, these World War II-era sides are essential for the Ellington canon. Eugene Holley, Jr.

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