Search - Various Artists :: Best of the Big Bands

Great basic collection

Candace Scott | Lake Arrowhead, CA, USA | 04/09/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you're just getting into big band music, this is a fine place to start. It contains the big numbers with few superfluous songs. I am usually wary of multi-disc collections of jazz works because frequently the audio quality is dismal. This is happily not the case here, and the value is astounding. I have all of these tracks on various other albums, but purchased this so I can have a convenient way to listen to the music in the car. This is a great collection of jazz works and the audio quality is quite good. There are some tracks which have a little too much background hiss, the Basie songs in particular, but the bulk of the disc is excellent. There are no live versions here, so if you're searching for the original recordings, you'll find them here. I might quibble with the curious inclusion of Jimmy Dorsey's "The Nearness of You," hardly a jazz tune, but the majority of the songs will have you dancing in the aisles.
A magnificent stand out is Basie's "Jumpin' at the Woodside," and this is the 40's version, not the inferior 1952 Be Bop version which he released and is only included in various Big Band collections. You can't go wrong with this set. Three discs for under ten bucks is a small investment to hear some of the greatest music of the 20th century."