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Never No Lament: The Blanton-Webster Band

Duke Ellington - Never No Lament: The Blanton-Webster Band Audio CD

A fair review of the Duke Ellington "Never No Lament: The Blanton-Webster Band" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Duke Ellington reviews here, or go back to the Duke Ellington tabs.

Band: Duke Ellington
Title: Never No Lament: The Blanton-Webster Band
Rating:

Release Date: 2003-04-01
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: You, You Darlin' 2: Jack the Bear 3: Ko Ko 4: Morning Glory 5: So Far, So Good 6: Conga Brava 7: Concerto for Cootie 8: Me and You 9: Cotton Tail 10: Never No Lament (Don't Get Around Much Anymore) 11: Dusk 12: Bojangles 13: Portrait of Bert Williams 14: Blue Goose 15: Harlem Air Shaft 16: At a Dixie Roadside Diner 17: All Too Soon 18: Rumpus in Richmond 19: My Greatest Mistake 20: Sepia Panorama 21: There Shall Be No Night 22: In a Mellow Tone 23: Five O'Clock Whistle 24: Flaming Sword 25: Warm Valley 26: Across the Track Blues 27: Chloe 28: I Never Felt This Way Before 29: Sidewalks of New York 30: Flamingo 31: Girl in My Dreams Tries to Look Like You 32: Take the "A" Train 33: Jumpin' Punkins 34: John Hardy's Wife 35: Blue Serge 36: After All 37: Bakiff 38: Are You Sticking? 39: Just A-Sittin' and A-Rockin' 40: Giddybug Gallop 41: Pitter Panther Patter 42: Body and Soul 43: Sophisticated Lady 44: Mr. J.B. Blues 45: Ko Ko [Alternate Take] 46: Bojangles [Alternate Take] 47: Sepia Panorama [Alternate Take] 48: Jumpin' Punkins [Alternate Take] 49: Jump for Joy [Alternate Take] 50: Chocolate Shake 51: I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good) 52: Clementine 53: Brown-Skin Gal (In the Calico Gown) - Duke Ellington 54: Jump for Joy 55: Moon Over Cuba 56: Five O'Clock Drag 57: Rocks in My Bed 58: Bli-Blip 59: Rain Check 60: What Good Would It Do? - Duke Ellington 61: I Don't Know What Kind of Blues I Got 62: Chelsea Bridge 63: Perdido 64: C Jam Blues 65: Moon Mist 66: What Am I Here For? 67: I Don't Mind 68: Someone 69: My Little Brown Book 70: Main Stem 71: Johnny Come Lately 72: Hayfoot, Strawfoot 73: Sentimental Lady 74: Slip of the Lip (Can Sink a Ship) 75: Sherman Shuffle

Essential Ellington for Jazz Fans
Instead, I'll focus on the much-debated sound-quality issue in the other reviews. I won't waste space here explaining how great this music is and why it's, in my opinion, essential for all jazz collections. First, there is more audible surface noise throughout this three-disc set than I would have preferred, but Discs 2 and 3 are both quite listenable and sound pretty good over all, at times even very good (lifelike, vibrant, etc. ). The reviewers who have complained about Disc 1, however, are exactly right: there is noticeable (cringe-producing) distortion--clipping or overloading--in several tracks on Disc 1, most notably "Jack the Bear," giving the music a harsh, unpleasant quality. You'll notice that some other tracks, especially "Warm Valley," have a noticeably high level of surface noise (hiss) too. In short, 2/3 of this set sounds quite good, but Disc 1 takes a lot of patience to listen to, in my opinion. Though I love this music, I've taken away one star for the remastering of Disc 1.

Fortunately, there's a fairly simple solution for those willing to pay about $10. 44 extra (at this writing) and who don't mind spending a little extra time in a music application like Windows Media Player. One can find much better sounding tracks corresponding to all 25 of the tracks on Disc 1 of this set right here at Amazon. com. Amazon sells, as downloadable mp3's, the tracks from some out-of-print or hard-to-find reissues on the now-defunct French label Chronological Classics, which did a masterful job of reissuing older jazz recordings from a variety of artists for a number of years. The original Chronological Classics reissues are now quite difficult to find as CDs and can be quite expensive. The Chronological-Classics albums "Duke Ellington et son orchrestre: 1940" (Classics 805) and "Duke Ellington et son orchestre: 1940, Vol. 2" (Classics 820) contain the needed tracks. "Jack the Bear," for example, sounds fabulous to my ears on the Classics reissue. There's clearly more noise reduction in the Classics versions, so a little of the high-frequency content is sacrificed, but the awful distortion is completely absent--thank goodness. RCA, according to the liner notes, insisted on using the original metal parts in remastering this music, and those original metal parts for certain songs have clearly deteriorated to the point where a secondary source (e. g. , a good 78) would have made more sense. In summary, I recommend buying this set for Discs 2 and 3 but supplementing Disc 1 with the downloadable counterpart tracks from the Chronological Classics reissues mentioned above, at least for the several tracks with distortion. In my case, I decided to make an alternative Disc 1 from the tracks on the Classics reissues. Now I can truly enjoy ALL of this great music.

What is the problem?
I too have the original Blanton Webster band CD for some years. I recently bought this off Amazon. I do not propose to say haw wonerful this mudi is as it is self evident .
In my opinion the quality of these recordings are excellent throughout. The recordings are now well over sixty years old. I have listened to these CD's on my car CD player and also on my very good quality system at home. The sound coming out of my Sonus Faber floorstanding speakers are excellent.
Combine this with the bargain price from Amazon US this is a deal that cannot be passed up. British readers please note. Never No Lament: The Blanton-Webster Band
An out and out bargain in anyone's book. .

The great 1941 Ellington band showcase.
This collection is 3 CD full of this great band - released tracks and outtakes. What more need be said. I cannot recommend this highly enough.

MY 2 cents - IT'S GRAND! EVEN THE ECO-PACKAGING! Who needs another bulky jewel box on the shelf anyway?
I have recently purchased this set to replace the RCA Blanton-Webster black box that I've had forever. This timeless, classic music has never sounded better. This set wins - hands down - overall the sound is much clearer and cleaner. More importantly, as others have note, you really hear Blanton's basswork.

Some, like me, will appreciate the eco freindly cardboard sleeve, currently in vogue for the many complete classical sets being repackaged and remarketed by the major labels. True, this one is a little "softer", but the discs are well protected, the slim outline fits in nicely within my library, and the color scheme makes it easily identifiable.

Again - I can't overemphasize how good these recordings sound, particularly through an audiophile system. It's like hearing the master shellacs at the time of recording. Actually, they probably sound better than what was available to sound engineers nearly 70 years ago.

This is classic music. As oft said - the greatest recordings produced by the greatest big band of the era. Ellington's arrangements and sonorities continue to amaze and astound. Put Cottontail on for your kid in the high school jazz to show him, or her, what a swing band really sounded like. One heartbeat, one swingin' pulse.

As Sinatra used to say: "If you don't like THAT, you don't like Ice Cream!"

It's currently selling for under $20 on amazon. Revel in a piece of musical history. Let the critics be damned. This is music for the ages.

Shameful packaging! Great music.

There is no tracks listing. This should have been a five-out-of-five star review, but the packaging is so crummy that it is generous to only grade it as a three star. You have to take out the booklet and hunt for the tracks titles in the margins of 18 pages of liner notes. This alone is terrible. But what is worst of all is the all-paper packaging which is very lightweight and cheaply done. It's very hard to extricate the discs from the cardboard sleeves, if you like to handle your discs with care, you'll be cursing the packaging as you put finger prints all over the read-side of the discs.

The music is wonderful. The quality of recordings are stellar. Buy this and rip it to your iPod (and then you'll have the track names and you won't have to hunt through the paper booklet) or maybe burn copies on expendable CD-Rs so that you don't ruin your set trying to handle the discs from this shamefully packaged set. .

You can see a complete list of all Duke Ellington discography, or go back to the Duke Ellington tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.