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COOL, MAN, COOL!!

Michael Heminger | Pardeeville, WI | 07/23/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Geez, where are all the reviews for this incredible British collection?? Just look at all the artists here - all recorded between 1944-1949 (and cleaned up very nicely for cd issue). This is the real deal!! If you weren't old enough to live through the bop era (like me) and want to hear examples of the coolest jazz of all time, this box is for you. The cover art is nostalgic and colorful, all discs clock in at over an hour, and the 55-page booklet is packed with photos (see Dizzy Gillespie in 1944!) and very informative. To collect all this elsewhere would cost a small fortune. I thought the first few cuts leaned a bit toward the Big Band sound, but they also offer a peek into where this great American style of music was born. This is by far the best jazz collection I own."

Smilin and Scattin

E. Carroll | San Antonio, TX United States | 03/17/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Like eating really good filet mignon for the first time, and feeling slightly sorry that you deprived yourself up that point. But otherwise, just smiling, swaying to the beat and scatting along.



A good friend of mine who is a semi-professional musician attempted to teach me about modes, how jazz is often constructed. I'm just an appreciative music fan, but clearly the artists on this collection were high adepts, skillful in weaving together some of the most complex yet unpretentious music ever heard. Too many fabulous artists to single out; they're all good. I hope jazz fans back in the day enjoyed this music as much as I do.



BUY THIS COLLECTION AT ONCE!!!"

Amazing and Essential

Jazz Fan 59 | Toronto, Canada | 05/25/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This huge compilation casts a wide net, capturing the classic recordings of the giants of bebop: Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Bud Powell, the early recordings of future stars like Dexter Gordon and Stan Getz, the popularizers who made it accessible to a larger audience: Woody Herman, Benny Goodman, Charlie Barnet and Charlie Ventura and the rarities by now-obscure musicians: Freddie Webster, Sonny Berman, Tom Archia, Tony Fruscella and many others.



Why buy this set? You won't hear this music anywhere else as radio these days won't play anything made before the LP era.

You will discover that although this music was far-out, Dizzy Gillespie was popular enough to have his own big band and a

major-label record contract. Charlie Parker could play any style,

his first record with Tiny Grimes is pure swing and Parker plays superbly. You'll hear Trummy Young, Louis Armstrong's trombone player, play superbly on "Good Bait" with Dizzy Gillespie and Dexter Gordon. You will hear so much rare and excellent music, otherwise completely unobtainable, by musicians, like Tadd Dameron, so influential and yet now forgotten. You will hear the

greatness of those who died far too soon like Wardell Gray and Fats Navarro.



If you want to experience and understand this music, this is essential listening. Reasonably priced, excellently documented too!"