[JPL] CD BOXED SETS (The New Yorker)

[Jazz Promo Services]

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/recordings/2008/11/24/081124gore_GOAT_
recordings
CD BOXED SETS

NOVEMBER 24, 2008

“Atlantic Vocal Groups 1951-1963” (Atlantic)—American popular music in the
fifties was a stew of jazz, jump blues, and close-harmony groups; by the
middle of the decade, rock and roll had taken hold. This four-disk set
lovingly illustrates the transition through the era’s vocal groups—the
Clovers, the Drifters, the Regals, the Penguins. The music is superb, with
disks divided into the up-tempo numbers and dreamy ballads that spawned rock
and roll, and material from the vocal-group revival of the early sixties.
Johnny Cash, “Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison (The Legacy Edition)”
(Columbia/Legacy)—In January of 1968, Johnny Cash played a pair of shows at
Folsom State Prison in Northern California, solidifying his outlaw image
while delivering a spectacular set of crime-and-punishment-themed country
music. The album, offering selections from those performances, has never
been out of print, but this fortieth-anniversary set includes both concerts
in their entirety, plus a documentary DVD.
Benny Goodman, “Classic Columbia Orchestra Sessions (1939-1958)”
(Mosaic)—Goodman’s stint with Columbia Records wasn’t what made him the King
of Swing, but it was among his most creative work. Concentrating mainly on
instrumentals, which reaffirm Goodman’s fabled virtuosity on the clarinet,
this seven-disk set also reacquaints listeners with the innovative work of
the overlooked arranger Eddie Sauter.
“Hommage à Nesuhi” (Rhino Handmade)—The late record executive Nesuhi Ertegün
may not have possessed the celebrity of his younger brother, Ahmet, but his
visionary production work for Atlantic Records with John Coltrane, Ornette
Coleman, Charles Mingus, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Ray Charles, Hank
Crawford, and others made him a behind-the-scenes legend. This five-disk
tribute was the last project completed by Joel Dorn, the producer who
followed Ertegün at Atlantic and who died late last year.
The Jesus and Mary Chain, “The Power of Negative Thinking: B-Sides and
Rarities” (Blanco Y Negro/Rhino)—The Jesus and Mary Chain opened up their
career with a blast: the epochal fuzzed-out album “Psychocandy,” in 1985.
For more than a decade, William and Jim Reid continued to make like gothic
Everly Brothers, combining intense feedback and an equally intense love of
early rock. This box collects stray singles, soundtrack contributions, and
demos, and, while four disks may be more than most fans need, the set
delivers a surprisingly satisfying and cohesive portrait of the band.
“Love Train: The Sound of Philadelphia” (Philadelphia
International/Legacy)—In the early seventies, commercial soul music moved
away from its twin bases in Detroit (Motown) and Memphis (Stax) and ended up
in Philadelphia, in the prolific and sometimes transcendent songwriting
hands of Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff. Gamble and Huff, along with the
producer Thom Bell and a stable of performers that included the O’Jays,
Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, the Spinners, and Billy Paul, delivered a
stream of hits that bridged the gap between the sixties and disco. While
some of the earliest hits, like “Expressway (To Your Heart),” are more
generic, Philly soul soon came to specialize in intensely romantic music—the
Delfonics, the Stylistics, and lesser-known groups like the Ebonys—and
upmarket protest soul. The box set has a wealth of essays and interviews,
though no song-by-song annotation.
Charlie Parker, “Bird in Time: 1940-1947” (ESP-Disk)—This astonishing set,
produced by Michael D. Anderson, collects the seminal jazz modernist’s rare,
revelatory earliest recordings, such as radio-station transcriptions of
Parker with the raucous Jay McShann band, acetates cut privately in a
Chicago hotel room, and an intimate trio session, from 1942, in which Parker
seems to be present beside a solitary listener at home. The set also
includes high-flying live dates featuring the saxophonist with Dizzy
Gillespie and Lennie Tristano, as well as archival interviews with Parker
himself and fascinating recent ones, realized by Anderson for his radio
broadcasts, with musicians from Parker’s circle, including the strikingly
candid Earl Coleman and Roy Porter.
Nina Simone, “To Be Free: The Nina Simone Story” (Legacy)—Nina Simone’s
output was divided across so many labels and so many styles that it has
always been difficult to summarize. This set tries and largely succeeds.
Starting with her relatively straight jazz from the late fifties and early
sixties, the three CDs document her move into protest and pop music. Most of
her canon is represented here, including the powerful “Don’t Let Me Be
Misunderstood” and covers of songs like the Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun”
and Randy Newman’s “Baltimore.” (Inexplicably, there’s no “Sinnerman.”) What
the set proves repeatedly is that she was an iron-fisted interpreter; once a
song got close to her, it rarely got away.
Hank Williams, “The Unreleased Recordings” (Time Life)—In 1951, Hank
Williams and his band performed live on the Nashville radio program
“Mother’s Best Flour.” These fifty-four cuts from the show, which were
rescued from a garbage bin, show that Williams was a veritable human
jukebox. Irish ballads, forgotten spirituals, and sea shanties offset
Williams’ cracked-heart laments, as though he sought refuge in the music of
past centuries, even when hawking cornmeal. ♦