Masterpieces 1926-49

Duke Ellington from 1926-1949 is an excellent way to get a taste of jazz from a giant in the jazz field.Not only do you get four cd's of great jazz,you get a 52 page booklet on Duke and a booklet on other sets you can get from the same people.

this is a A+ cd set...really all his works on several cds in the pkg. ..i enjoyed the sounds of this eras music...i have eclectic tastes this fills in this eras sounds. i really recommend this one

Another great collection of music from a bygone era. Terrific collection of classic works from a classic artist.

This 4 CD set is a terrific overview of one of the 20th century's most important musicians.The sound quality is generally very good. A few tunes on the first CD are a bit scratchy, but that's understandable since the masters are nearly 80 years old.With the low price and the great music, this is a bargain you shouldn't pass up!

Essential.

This is Duke Ellington and his orchestra during the years 1926 through 1949. It is great jazz. It is representative. In a very real sense it follows the developement of jazz in those years. IMHO it is also the most original and heartfelt music of any swing bandleader of the period. It is beautiful music that swings, gets sentimental, moody, frisky, sad, hot, thoughtful and jumpin'. Proper put together an amazing collection of Ellington recordings from the twenties, thirties and forties. It is not inclusive. If you want that you have to buy complete box sets for much, much more, but it hits all the major contributions from one of the most prolific of all swing band leaders during that period.. For most people, these 90 plus sides will be more than enough. As another reviewer correctly pointed out, the sound quality ranges from OK to fairly good.There are better sounding offerings, but you would have to spend hundreds of dollars on various sources and no end to the amount of time searching them out. You see, these were culled from the original releases whether on Brunswick, RCA, Columbia, Okeh etc. Proper has done all the work. To add to what the other reviewer said regarding the early hot jazz numbers, if that interests you, you might want to seek out the Early Ellington set on Brunswick (Decca). It has some hiss but the music is very bright and clear.Somehow, Proper managed to reduce almost all the hiss from the originals without sounding quite as abysmal as the old Bluebird CDs. So that might be a plus for some. I would give this 5 stars except for the varying sound quality. The other reviewer who docked one star for the same hit the nail on the head. This is still a great collection. It is probably most noteworthy for containing a good deal of Ellington's hard-to find thirties output which was primarily released on Brunswick. I would add that if you really want a lot of this music with better sonics do get the The Real Duke Ellington CDs on Sony, which cover most of the Brunswick from the thirties.Then you would also need Never No Lament The Blanton-Webster band and the complete recordings from 1944-1946 if you really want all the best from his classic big band period. That is, if you can splurge a little.

It's a wonderful collection that I listen to over and over again! I've given it as gifts as well.

A wonderful collection of essential Ellington recordings at a great price -- hard to ask for much more than this.

The booklet was originally produced for a set of vinyl LPs and as such is now very small with the text is difficult to read. The music collection is well laid out by differing periods in Ellington's life. The sound quality is very good.

I purchased this CD collection quite a while back. Looking back now I definitely made a very good choice.What is so great about this collection is it cherry picks many seminal recordings of most of Ellingtons classic compositions from this period. The choice has not been restricted as many other Ellington compilations are to one particular label. Particularly in the earlier stages of his career Ellington and his orchestra did multiple recordings of each major composition for different labels, often under different pseudonyms. Understandably the tunes evolved and particular recordings are better than others.These CD's offer a great opportunity to get familiar with the absolute classic compositions Ellington made with his massively infuential early line ups. A practical advantage of the CD's is they have all the titles available for read out on CD players which is particularly useful if you are playing them in the car as initially you may well be overwhelmed by 93 compositions on this collection.As far as sound quality this is an issue particularly of the early recordings. I admit I was puzzled reading about how much effort Ellington made in relation to sound quality in the studio compared with for example Fletcher Henderson as some of the earliest recordings sound a bit like they were recorded down a toilet. I now realise that to make this collection affordable various sources have been used and they are of variable quality. The sound quality however substantially improves from Bojangles onwards and is very good for the seminal Blanton Webster recordings.There are compilations with much better sounding early recordings particularly Early Ellington and the Complete RCA Centennial Edition but they are no longer available so are very pricey and are restricted to particular labels so they are nowhere as good a starting point as this complilation for someone to dip their toe into the Ellington ocean to see what its like.If you love what you find you can work on the sound quality later with either the later recorded versions or the more expensive high quality compilations like those on Mosaic later. All of the recordings are studio based with the exception of Pussy Willow which comes from the classic Fargo concert. If you asked me for my favourite tracks on this compilation I would struggle there are just too many. Better option is just to buy it instead.

Duke Ellington is a master. This box set samples from the first couple of decades of his career. It is an excellent place to start. Highly recommended.

If one wishes to find the best of Duke Ellington's work, one need only acquire a handful of recordings; the work of his blanton-webster band is (alongside Count Basie's Decca recordings) the greatest big band jazz ever recorded. That music is available on a 3 disc compilation called 'never no lament', and has suitably been accorded both a crown and core collection status in Penguin's guide. The set covers the period 1940-42, and that greatest of big bands sadly came to a premature end with the death from TB at the tender age of 23 of its brightest star, the bassist Jimmy Blanton.Add to this Duke's famed live concert recordings from Fargo (1940) and Newport (1956) and you will arguably have all that you need. What none of these discs cover though are a generous handful of ellington's classics, such as take the A train, the early version of the black and tan fantasy and indeed a host of other numbers to emerge from his fruitful partnership with billy strayhorn. Throw in those, add a healthy dose of ellington's indispensable work at the cotton club and you have this 4CD set, in my opinion just what you need to complete your core collection of ellington recordings. As such, it deserves no less than 5 stars.

It's sacrilege really giving the Duke any less than 5 stars I know. However, this collection was recorded - as it says on the box - between 1926 and 1949, and that's what you get, with all the sound quality issues that entails. By and large, they have done a great job with these recordings. However, you should know exactly what you are buying here. The Duke recorded many of these "Masterpieces" several times and some listeners might prefer his later recordings which went through various evolutions. Take Sophisticated Lady, recorded in 1933: are you hoping to hear the sumptuous sound of his 1966 orchestra - or the vocal dominated version he recorded in 1956? These recordings all predate the LP and the essence of each those brilliant compositions is here in its original compact 3 minute format. That said, this budget priced collection leaves very little out from the early years in which he established his reputation.Oh heck. I just listened to In a Sentimental Mood Again.I'm giving it 5 stars after all. 93 tracks at about 10p a track for goodness sake. If you love Ellington, you'll need this collection some day