Search - Lee Wiley :: Completists Ultimate Collection 3

* Excellent, excellent, excellent!!! *

Jasper | New England | 09/06/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This may be the single greatest Lee Wiley cd available. This disc contains two of the early "songbook" albums recorded by Lee Wiley in her prime years, "The Gershwin Album" and "The Rodgers & Hart Album."



The cd begins with some fine singles and radio work. After that we move straight into the songbooks, considered by many to be Lee's best work, and they sound brilliant! These are the first-ever collections based upon the "songwriter" theme. Of course this type of collection would really take off in the future with the technology of the LP (these sets originally came in a folder of several records) and with proponents such as Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, but Lee Wiley was first. In this Wiley can be considered a pioneer of the concept album. The fact that this music was recorded from 1936 through 1940 underscores just how ahead-of-her-time Lee Wiley was, and how defiantly pro-quality and pro-jazz her stance.



Of course you'll hear the absolute cream of jazz musicians in support, including Eddie Condon, Max Kaminsky, Joe Bushkin, and Fats Waller. What's more, this collection, and the others in this series, were put together by a conglomerate of collectors who really love Lee Wiley and have gone out of their way to get the absolute best-sounding sources, as well as pitch-correcting when needed. In fact, these are without a doubt the best sounding versions of these great recordings available.



This is music history of the most enjoyable and transcendent sort, and this cd is absolutely jam-packed with it, and at a ridiculously low price. If you are in the market for some Lee Wiley music, you must consider this amongst your top options.



Enjoy."

Unbelievably great sound quality!!!

Jay Shigeta | Tampa, FL | 06/22/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One may think that he knows his favorite records by heart. When I heard this CD, I discovered that I never really heard my two favorite Lee Wiley albums "The Gershwin Album" and "The Rogers & Hart Album," (which take up 16 tracks of this 26 track CD) until now. The sound quality on these sides are simply phenomenal. I visited the Baldwin Street Music site to read Ted Ono's detailed notes and found out that he was given opportunity to work on the original source material for these historical recordings. But, how could he manage to do what others obviously couldn't? I hate to put down other labels that put out these recordings previously: Ric, Monmouth-Evergreen, Audiophile, Difinitive/The Jazz Factory, etc., but listening to those previous versions now make me feel like I am hearing this great music through the AM radio signal or on mp3. You MUST have this CD."

Greatest Wiley; Best Restoration

Thomas Bumbera | Maplewood, NJ USA | 06/12/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"These are among the greatest Songbook interpretations ever, with the cream of NY studio jazzmen accompanying the wonderous Lee Wiley. Icing on the cake: we can now hear these recordings at the proper pitch. Tin-eared reviewers aside, the tape transfers that were used through so many previous reissues were sped up to an improper pitch. That has been rectified here, and it sounds like we're in the studio with Lee and the boys. This should be nothing short of a revelation for those of us who have listened to these recordings so often for so long. Buy the whole series while you can!"