Jazz At The Philharmonic

Sometimes you can buy a record although you have your doubts about the music on it. I did when I bought a very cheap box of 8 CD called Jazz At The Philharmonic. But I got my money's worth. The box doesn't give much information about musicans or recording dates, only that the music was recorded between 1945 and 1946. Each CD gives a track list and the musicians on the set. As I tried to make some order to the tracks I learned that some tracks were recorded early 1950s and that most of the tracks are not inserted in chronological order. So a hotchpotch of tunes.

But the music is most of the times excellent. The first tracks on the seventh CD contain a jam session with musicans like Oscar Peterson, Buddy Rich, Ray Brown, Barney Kessel, Flip Philips, Charlie Shavers, Benny Carter, Lester Young and Roy Eldridge and must have been recorded somewhere early 1950s. Great music with great names and excellent solo's. Another example is CD 2 with lenghtly sessions featuring Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Lester Young. Thanks to the fact that this were live recordings, organised by Norman Granz it has that atmosphere, not limited to the 3-minutes barriere of the ordinairy 78rpm recording. Some titles were origninally recorded on three or four 78 rpm record sides.

If you have an opportunity ..... try to find this stuff. Most are great !!