Never No Lament the Blanton-Webster Band

I enjoy most anything Duke has ever released, from his earlier band from the 30's (quite underrated) up to the 1956 Newport concert and the Great Summit meeting with Louis and so on. But this band was definitely the apex of his career. I mean Webster, Blanton, Nance...wow! It doesn't get much better than that, although some would argue, me included, that Basie's lineup of Pres, Jo Jones, Walter Page, Clayton, Evans & Sweets along with Jimmy Rushing was better (I say it's too close to call). But that's neither here nor there, as any lover of jazz will have as much of both of these bands as they can get their hands on. If you get this set in other forms (I believe another reviewer suggested Proper which uses too much noise reduction, resulting in almost no high end at all to go with the absence of surface noise), you're likely wasting your money. I will admit that I go that route on the occasion when I can't find reissues of the original source. JSP is a label you can trust to be judicious in the use of noise reduction. Before his death they frequently used John RT Davies to do their remastering and now Ted Kendall does some work for them. There have been complaints about the packaging. If it bothers you that much simply put the discs in jewel cases. Bottom line is this is essential listening and you won't find it with better sound anywhere, slight surface noise notwithstanding. I don't want to sound like I'm picking on any other reviewer because I used to be the same way about surface noise, just hated it. But after listening to Bird on proper then hearing him on Savoy and Verve, I finally got it. You gotta put up with a little noise on old recordings to hear ALL of the music and when the musical quality is this good, you definitely want to hear it all.

I think this was the best band Duke ever had, and the best CD's available by Duke. I also think the restoration and remastering are superb. While the sound quality of the first disc isn't as good as the other two, it's still very good. The claims of harshness and of being unlistenable are ridiculous. Yes, there is hiss, but that situation is better than sucking the life out it by using excessive noise reduction. The sound quality of the second and third discs are the best I've heard from the early forties. They are incredible. If you agree that leaving some hiss is preferable to killing the high end and the ambiance of a recording, then you'll appreciate what they did here. Personally, I wish all the reissues of old recordings such as these, were of this calibre.

The music is just as advertised.........great jazz......the sound clarity is excellent.........I recommend it for all followers of jazz, whether longtime fans or those trying to learn about jazz for the first time.

I suppose if I had to pick one Ellington "era" to listen to for the rest of my life, it would be the superb 1940-1942 band featured on this set. Classic follows classic; impeccable swing, spectacular ensemble scoring and great solo work abound. As for the sound quality.... Yes, some of the acoustical warmth and depth lost on the dreadful "Blanton-Webster Band" set have been restored here - you can actually HEAR the bass this time around! But on some tracks - mostly on disc one - there are obvious and annoying digital "artifacts" that make the high-end almost unlistenable. ??!! How could BMG get so close and then blow it by not re-doing the first, obviously inferior disc? Still worth it for the sonic upgrades of 2/3 of the material.

Excellent!

Very Good

What more need be said. This collection is 3 CD full of this great band - released tracks and outtakes. I cannot recommend this highly enough.

very bad purchase , no booklet inside the CD box

Je n'ai jamais reçu ce produit, et ça me désole. Par contre, je connais bien ces albums et c'est pourquoi j'ai mis 5 étoiles concernant la qualité artistique

物価高騰のこの時代に、この名盤がこの価格で！コスパ最高です。

The music in this set is wonderful. No doubt about it. The compositions, arrangements and solos are classics. I can't agree with the first reviewer of this three CD set in that the remastering is unbelievably poor. The producer has tried to emphasise the treble end of each side and in doing so has left a truly horrible distorted noise in the forefront of most of the recordings. If you play it on inferior PC speakers it is bearable, but in your car or on a good hi-fi you find yourself truly frustrated at the sound quality. In fact the discs wouldn't play at all on my hi-fi until I made copies. On saying that, I have barely stopped playing the discs since they arrived so good are the original recordings.

Disco fondamentale per conoscere Duke Ellington come musicista, compositore e direttore.

One of the reviews mentions the shoddy packaging, so I thought it might be worth pointing out that my set, supplied by Likeable Japan, arrived in the standard multiple jewel-case, three CDs and booklets in Japanese and English, all bubble-wrapped inside a bubble envelope inside another envelope, in perfect condition, and days before the earliest delivery date given. Given the range of opinions about the remastering, there'd be no point in me adding to the debate - this music would sound great on 78s. And if it really is the same version as used in the great centennial edition, there's no reason to complain. To put it mildly. A big thank you to Likeable for their excellent service.