The Complete Verve Master Takes [Box set]

Editorial Reviews
Album Description
In a remarkably short span of time, Charlie Parker rewrote the rules of jazz and established himself as one of the most important musicians of the twentieth century. Parker made his mark in many ways -- as a virtuoso saxophonist, and innovative composer, a trend-setting bandleader, and a galvanizing force in the development of modern jazz. He was on this earth for only thirty-four years, but he left behind several lifetimes' worth of immortal music.

Much of that music was documented by Norman Granz, the legendary record producer and founder of Verve Records, between 1947 and late 1954, just a few months before Parker's death. These three discs contain the master takes from every studio session Parker did for Granz, including the famous Charlie Parker With Strings recordings. With an all-star supporting cast that features Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Max Roach, and many others.

This deluxe package includes:
- 73 tracks on 3 CDs
- almost 4 hours of music
- a 60-page booklet
- many rare photographs

Tracks:

East of the Sun
Blue Moon
You Go to My Head
You Turned the Tables on Me
Easy to Love
These Foolish Things
I Only Have Eyes for You
Solitude
Everything I Have Is Yours
Love for Sale
Moonglow
Tenderly
If the Moon Turns Green
Remember
Autumn in New York
My Man
Lover, Come Back to Me
Stormy Weather
Yesterdays
He's Funny That Way
I Can't Face the Music

Tracks:

How Deep Is the Ocean?
What a Little Moonlight Can Do
I Cried for You
Love Me or Leave Me
P.S. I Love You
Too Marvelous for Words
Softly
I Thought About You
Willow Weep for Me
Stormy Blues
Say It Isn't So
I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm
I Wished on the Moon
Always
Everything Happens to Me
Do Nothin' Till You Hear from Me
Ain't Misbehavin'

Tracks:

I Don't Want to Cry Anymore
Prelude to a Kiss
I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You
When Your Lover Has Gone
Gone with the Wind
Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone
It Had to Be You
Nice Work If You Can Get It
Come Rain or Come Shine
I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues
What's New?
Fine Romance
I Hadn't Anyone Till You
I Get a Kick Out of You
Everything I Have Is Yours
Isn't This a Lovely Day?

Tracks:

Trav'lin' Light
I Must Have That Man!
Some Other Spring
Lady Sings the Blues
Strange Fruit
God Bless the Child
Good Morning Heartache
No Good Man
Do Nothin' Till You Hear from Me
Cheek to Cheek
Ill Wind
Speak Low
We'll Be Together Again
All or Nothing at All
Sophisticated Lady
April in Paris

Tracks:

I Wished the Moon
Moonlight in Vermont
Foggy Day
I Didn't Know What Time It Was
Just One of Those Things
Comes Love
Day in, Day Out
Darn That Dream
But Not for Me
Body and Soul
Stars Fell on Alabama
Say It Isn't So
Love Is Here to Stay
One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)

Tracks:

They Can't Take That Away from Me
Embraceable You
Let's Call the Whole Thing Off
Gee, Baby, Ain't I Good to You?
All the Way
It's Not for Me to Say
I'll Never Smile Again
Just One More Chance
When It's Sleepy Time Down South
Don't Worry 'Bout Me
Sometimes I'm Happy
You Took Advantage of Me
There'll Be Some Changes Made
'Deed I Do
All of You
Baby, Won't You Please Come Home?

Amazon.com

The final decade of Billie Holiday's life was one in which the singer, in the clutches of drugs and poor taste in men, slowly withered away. Amid this tragedy, Lady Day carried on with a bittersweet dignity that seemed only to grow as the years passed. Her matchless phrasing added a profundity to a worn-out lyric and her dark, ragged timbre exuded a venerable wisdom, but at the same time she acquired a faded vulnerability not heard in her earlier years. Collecting her studio work between 1952 and 1959 (when she died), this six-CD/100-song set offers a long and loving look at the Holiday of this era. She's joined here by the crème of jazz with an orchestra session at the end. And whereas The Complete Billie Holiday on Verve, 1945-1959 also offers uneven rehearsal tapes as well as live and radio performances, this collection zeroes in on prime studio cuts. This is for lovers of Lady Day, but not the obsessive. --Tad Hendrickson

Album Description

For many people, Billie Holiday (a.k.a. "Lady Day") wasn't just a jazz singer. She was the jazz singer, and remains so today. Thanks to her lifelong struggles with men, alcohol, and drug addiction, Holiday is often viewed as an archetypal example of the suffering artist--a singer who sang her life. And there's no denying the often heartrending quality of the classic recordings she made with musicians like Ben Webster, Oscar Peterson, and Harry "Sweets" Edison.

But Holiday's sophisticated sense of rhythm, subtle melodic improvisations, and nuanced way with a lyric enabled her to invest everything she sang with new meaning, from swinging dance tunes to mournful ballads. And her cool, effortless manner only heightened the emotional impact of her delivery. She influenced several generations of singers and instrumentalists alike, and stands shoulder-to-shoulder alongside such iconic jazz figures as Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Charlie Parker.

Original recordings produced by Norman Granz and others.

Customer Reviews:

the packaging is a crime.......2006-06-29

The music is absolutely great and I love these disc.

BUT, the tin box and the packaging is beyond my worst imagination. The picture they choose for Lady Day and the way they put it---I am so angry with it that the first thing I did was to repachaging these discs myself....

It is a crime against the great music.....

Essential, in a silly box.......2006-03-17

The last phase of Billie Holiday's career is captured here in great sound (the very slight hiss means they didn't take off a layer of sound just to get pristine silent background, a good sign, a mistake Japanese issues often make). With a return to great jazz backup, as in her 30s recordings (arguably the greatest jazz/popular recordings ever made), Holiday isn't in great voice and she sometimes isn't up to the material, which is much better than the material she was handed in the 30s. But that's a rare sometimes, and her take on anything is always interesting. And often great. She completely remakes "Love for Sale" (which was a rather silly risque Porter number til she took it on) or "Solitude", unearthing colors the composers likely didn't realize they'd buried there; much as her daughters Aretha Franklin and Nina Simone would do so often after her. The damage she had done to her instrument and herself, as well as the damage the world inflicted on her, shows and sometimes she is using it and sometimes it is using her. On a few cuts you're listening to a woman in great pain, and it's not art; it becomes voyeurism. In the end, it's an essential collection, and preferable to the fuller complete collection - her false takes in this period aren't useful, as the 30s outtakes were, where nothing she did was the same twice. The packaging is silly, and has nothing to do with her style; the photo on the inside front cover is just ugly, though there is an Aztec quality to it that would be interesting if there was anything Aztec about Holiday. She was also very beautiful and a chameleon (at different times, she looked Chinese, African, patrician, no two photos from different shoots look the same), which highlights her essential nature as an actress. The greatest singing actress, in fact. But the perfumed soap tin box doesn't disguise the unique music inside.

I Second the Horrible Packaging.......2006-01-29

Okay, the music is flawless. Nothing needs to be said.

And yes, the packaging is horrible. However, it's not the functionaliy of the packaging the irks me (even though this is also poor). My wife and I are both designers, and nothing about the packaging is aesthetically cohesive. The disc art looks like it can also be used on an XTC or Theivery Corporation album (or maybe it was stolen from one). The photos are very unflattering. All of this would not be such a crime if it wasn't coming from a period and label that wasn't known for classic, trend-setting and influential album covers. It honestly looks as if different people designed parts of the package without seeing what the other was doing.

Oh well, it's going right on my iPod anyway where I'll swap out the art for something nicer. Here is a great hint/trick for fellow iPod jazzers....

Change your encode settings to MONO on anything recorded before 1958. Stereo wasn't used until 1958, and changing the setting to MONO will make the file half the size with 0% loss of quality. (The "automatic" setting in iTunes cannot differentiate mono from stereo, so you need to do this manually.) If your entire iPod is pre-1958, you will get twice as much music on it.

great set but horrible packing.......2006-01-13

the music itsel worth five stars.

However, I really couldn't get it. why did Verve have to add so much ornamentation to the lunch box? the idea of packing 6 cds in the metal box is just stupid and the use of the cardboards inside the box is even worse. it was just way too tasteless and dishonorable.

Moreover, Verve should consider replacing your graphic design team. Look at those horrible visual effects appeared on Billie's pix. This happend to VME series as well.

Once again, verve has done such a horrible design job on the packing.

Great music; poor packaging.......2006-01-08

The music is great. The packaging is annoying. It consists of a metal box, with each CD placed on a glossy silver colored, flimsy cardboard tray that folds up and out (accordion style). The tray cannot be removed because it's glued to the bottom of the metal box. Also, the top of the tray has a sleeve into which the booklet is placed. The sleeve has a zig-zag pattern cut out vertically along its left-hand edge, making it difficult to replace the booklet without getting it stuck on the zig-zagged cardboard protrusions. Also, the art work is simply bad, especially the drawing of Billie Holiday that greets you when you open the box up (this is probably the most unflattering picture of Ms. Holiday I've ever encountered - why couldn't they (the designer) have just picked a nice photograph? ... In the end, it seems as if Verve went out of its way to make the packaging annoying and the artwork superficial and ugly. ... or else the package designer(s) had absolutely no interest in or appreciation of this music.

It would've been nice if Verve had taken an understated approach and packaged the set in a simple cardboard box, with each disc in a removable cardboard sleeve, as is usually done in classical music box sets. It would also have been nice (and interesting/relevant) if they had used artwork from the original releases of these recordings, or photos from the period instead of the bad-high-school-art-class-level stuff used here.

Anyway, other than the packaging, the set is great and worth getting if you like Billy Holiday.

Average customer rating:

Bird saint now !
Worth every penny
wonderful music, of course! but...
An inexpensive way to get Bird's Verve years
essential

The Complete Verve Master Takes
Charlie Parker
Manufacturer: Verve
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Latin Music | Styles | Music

Bebop General | Bebop | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

Latin Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

Classic Big Band | Swing Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

Contemporary Big Band | Swing Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

Traditional Vocal Pop | Broadway & Vocalists | Styles | Music

Verve | Verve Music Group | Specialty Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Charlie Parker: A Studio Chronicle 1940-1948
The Complete Savoy & Dial Master Takes
Complete Savoy Live Performances: Sept. 29, 1947-Oct. 25, 1950
Complete Jazz at Massey Hall
Town Hall, New York City, June 22, 1945

ASIN: B0000ARNDA
Release Date: 2003-10-21

Tracks:

The Bird - Shelly Manne
Cardboard - Max Roach
Visa - Max Roach
Segment - Charlie Parker
Passport - Charlie Parker
Passport - Max Roach
Just Friends - Ray Brown
Everything Happens To Me - Ray Brown
April In Paris - Ray Brown
Summertime - Ray Brown
I Didn't Know What Time It Was - Ray Brown
If I Should Lose You - Ray Brown
Star Eyes - Ray Brown
Blues (Fast) - Ray Brown
I'm In The Mood For Love - Ray Brown
Bloomdido - Thelonious Monk
An Oscar For Treadwell - Thelonious Monk
Mohawk - Thelonious Monk
My Melancholy Baby - Thelonious Monk
Leap Frogs - Thelonious Monk
Relaxin' With Lee - Thelonious Monk
Dancing In The Dark - Ray Brown
Out Of Nowhere - Ray Brown
Laura - Ray Brown

Tracks:

East Of The Sun (And West Of The Moon) - Ray Brown
They Can't Take That Away From Me - Ray Brown
Easy To Love - Ray Brown
I'm In The Mood For Love - Ray Brown
I'll Remember April - Ray Brown
Au Privave - Miles Davis
She Rote - Miles Davis
K.C. Blues - Miles Davis
Star Eyes - Miles Davis
My Little Suede Shoes - Charlie Parker
Un Poquito De Tu Amor - Charlie Parker
Tico-Tico - Charlie Parker
Fiesta - Charlie Parker
Why Do I Love You? - Charlie Parker
Blues For Alice - Ray Brown
Si Si - Ray Brown
Swedish Schnapps - Ray Brown
Black Home Blues - Ray Brown
Loverman - Ray Brown
Temptation - Will Bradley
Lover - Will Bradley
Autumn In New York - Will Bradley
Stella By Starlight - Will Bradley
Mama Inez - Max Roach
La Cucuracha - Max Roach

Tracks:

Estrellita - Max Roach
Begin The Beguine - Max Roach
La Paloma - Max Roach
Night And Day - Ray Brown
Almost Like Being In Love - Ray Brown
I Can't Get Started - Ray Brown
What Is This Thing Called Love? - Ray Brown
The Song Is You - Hank Jones
Laird Baird - Hank Jones
Kim - Hank Jones
Cosmic Rays - Hank Jones
In The Still Of The Night - Gil Evans
Old Folks - Gil Evans
If I Love Again - Gil Evans
Chi-Chi - Max Roach
I Remember You - Max Roach
Now's The Time - Max Roach
Confirmation - Max Roach
I Get A Kick Out Of You - Roy Haynes
Just One Of Those Things - Roy Haynes
My Heart Belongs To Daddy - Roy Haynes
I've Got You Under My Skin - Roy Haynes
Love For Sale - Charlie Parker
I Love Paris - Charlie Parker

Album Description

In a remarkably short span of time, Charlie Parker rewrote the rules of jazz and established himself as one of the most important musicians of the twentieth century. Parker made his mark in many ways -- as a virtuoso saxophonist, and innovative composer, a trend-setting bandleader, and a galvanizing force in the development of modern jazz. He was on this earth for only thirty-four years, but he left behind several lifetimes' worth of immortal music.

This deluxe package includes:
- 73 tracks on 3 CDs
- almost 4 hours of music
- a 60-page booklet
- many rare photographs

Customer Reviews:

Bird saint now !.......2005-12-01

I write reviews since I knew Amazon but I have always been afraid thinkin' about writing a Charlie Parker review because he is so important to me and he is, I mean, Charlie Parker. I think every word is unusuful here to describe what a giant he has been and how much important his recordings are not only for me but for the entire Jazz community. I think his music speaks for his genius. Anyway. What he did was "simply" reinventing Jazz from it's fondamentals. He literaly invent modern jazz. Sorry if it's not enough. He established the new language, he create the idiom almost from nothing. Obviously he had his influnces but he cooked them through his genius and his creativity and he came in with something absolutly new, absolutly unique, absolutly pure genius. Absolutly Parker. Bebop. Bebop and Charlie Parker are synonimous. And bebop is in every Jazz record since 1938. Even today. No jazz musician can play today without being perfectly aware of Bird language and musical discoveries. An without playing them. Even the most atonal player will play a couple of things that you can relate to Bird. Bird is simply modern jazz. I, as a jazz musicians myself, am completly in love with Bird music and language. I'm trying to play my own things but his things are so right, so logial, so perfect you can't do nothing but playing them everywhere. Every musician after him have learned his language, maybe developing it their ways, but ... the modern jazz language is Bird phrasing and composing. Period.

Talking about Bird's music I think everything from the man deserved to be listened. Personally I own more than 150 Bird cd's (not mentioning all the thousands jazz records I own which are related to Bird and his language). I treasure even the ones recorded in the worst way. In the end it's always genius at work. After a while you will discover that he had his own licks and ideas which return here and there, the same things he returned to in his music, in his improvisations I mean, but they are his trademarks licks, his signs. Don't worry, his genius and fantasy will surprise you at every music corner, and in bebop there are a lot believe me! Maybe he could sound uninspired one moment and absolutly stellar one second later. Who can dream to play better than Bird? There are no Trane, no Miles, no Bud, no Ming, no Brownie, even no Diz for me even if I really love them all. But BIRD!

Verve records are some of the best recorded music he did. He was not at his peak which was some years prior to this recordings but he is still Bird. Verve's records are good without a doubt, think about Bird and Diz, Hi fi, With strings and you have the picture. Here they are very well presented in a remastered edition. Stylistically this edition is splendid. Verve did it big this time. The box seems a metal sigars box. Inside birds, colours, pictures, graphisms, chromed papers flourish for a quite spectacular effect. Absolutly the best bird box from an aestethically point of view. The music, well. It's Bird stuff. He graced so many lifes and gave so much pleasure to so many persons of every race and of every generation since 1940 with his music, he has been so much important to so many people and musicians that I'm absolutly not afraid in askying loud ...

BIRD SAINT NOW!

Worth every penny.......2005-04-24

You get a whole lot, for a whole little amount of money with this box set. Which is rare for Verve, becuase usually get alot, for paying alot. With that said, this box set really opened my eyes to what Parker was capable of. I have hundreds of jazz cd's (from New Orleans to the Avant Garde) and I never got into Parker. I was missing out on alot. The Charlie Parker with Strings sets are beautiful, and the latter bop sessions with Max Roach and Roy Hanes swing like mad. The only problem is that the sessions change sound quality a little bit. Some of the sessions sound perfect. (ie. The Bebop Sessions with "Kim" sounds like it was recorded in 2005) and some sound bad for even the time (The last two Spanish Orchestra Tracks on the second disc, and the Big Band Sessions). And some sound just fine for the time (Charle Parker with Strings). This is a minor complant because the music here is great.

wonderful music, of course! but..........2005-01-31

...what an ugly cover! seriously repulsive design! ugh! what were they thinking?!?!

-yakov.

An inexpensive way to get Bird's Verve years.......2004-08-13

For those new to Charlie Parker, his output roughly can be summarized by two collections (not taking into account the rarer sessions of his early years or the recordings made under Dizzy Gillespie's name): the sides he recorded for the Dial and Savoy labels between 1944 and 1948, and the sides he recorded for Verve (Mercury/Norgran/Clef) from 1948 until his death. So you can get an excellent Bird retrospective by purchasing a "Savoy and Dial" box set and a "Verve" box set. Until this collection came along, many people bought the $150 "Complete Bird on Verve." It contains alternate takes, live recordings, and 5 or 6 tracks not under his leadership. I wouldn't recommend that set to anyone but ardent ornithologists. You probably don't want to listen to 11 takes of "Leap Frog." You'll have to decide if the live and "non-leader" tracks are worth the extra $100.

With this set, you get all the master takes of the studio recordings in a very handsome package. It comes in a tin case and a 70+ page booklet. It covers the bebop recordings he did with Gillespie and Thelonious Monk, with Miles Davis, with Kenny Dorham, and with Red Rodney, among others. Also here are the famous "Charlie Parker with Strings" sessions, latin-flavored sides, and the big band sessions (including some with the great Gil Evans).

Many people argue that the Verve years were too controlled by producer Norman Granz, who cultivated a kinder, gentler Bird, in comparison to the rawer, bluesier, more energetic classic bebop recordings on Savoy and Dial. While I also prefer those earlier sessions, I cannot find any fault with the Verve sides. Different? Yes. Inferior? No. C'mon, this is Bird we're talking about! These recordings are teeming with magic (take a listen to "Just Friends" for proof). This is a must-have for any self-respecting music fan.

To clarify comments made by a reviewer below, no songs are missing. This is a collection of studio recordings under Charlie Parker's name. "Repetition" is credited to the Neal Hefti Orchestra, the four latin sides mentioned are by Machito and His Orchestra, and the Hawkins track was recorded under no one's name in particular. I agree: it would have been nice to have included those on a fourth CD, but I think Verve was trying to make this a more affordable 3CD set.

By the way, if you want a Savoy and Dial Masters box set, two good sets are out there: the $50 Savoy-released set (search on Amazon) or the less handsome, but cheaper (and slightly better sounding) "Studio Chronicle 1940-1948" by JSP. This latter one has the additional benefit of including early sides with Jay McShann, those under Gillespie's name, and all but two of those mentioned as missing by the reviewer below (the two recorded after 1948). Highly recommended!

essential.......2004-01-22

The remastering on this set is outstanding.Bird was know for such things as his dexterity, speed, expanding the blues, etc. But with the great sound of these cds, you can hear Charlie Parker's beautiful tone with combos, strings, etc.The acoustic bass which is driving the rhythm can be felt and so can the "bombs" from the drummers. Desert island disc-when you can sing along with these solos you begin to appreciate this great artist.

Average customer rating:

Complete 1947-1951 Verve Master Takes
Flip Phillips
Manufacturer: Definitive Spain
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Jazz | Indie Music | Stores | Music

Jazz | Imports | Stores | Music
ASIN: B00007E8LQ
Release Date: 2002-11-26

Tracks:

Cake
Znarg Blues
My Old Flame
Cool
Put That Back
Lazy River
Flip's Idea
This Can't Be Love
Cookie
Two By Four
Bye Bye Blues
Encore
The Beat
Drowsy
Vortex
Milano
But Beautiful
Lover

Tracks:

Don't Take Your Love From Me
Flip's Boogie
Flippin' The Blues
Lover Come Back To Me
Blue Room
Be Be
Dream A Little Dream Of Me
Bright Blues
Cheek To Cheek
Funky Blues
I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm
Indiana
Broadway
Sojoro
Apple Honey
Wrap Your Troubles Up In Dreams
Long Island Boogie
Stardust

Average customer rating:

Complete 1947-1951 Verve Master Takes
Flip Phillips
Manufacturer: Disconforme
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

Jazz | Imports | Stores | Music
ASIN: B00006AG9U
Release Date: 2001-01-01

Tracks:

Cake - Howard McGhee Boptet, Flip Phillips
Znarg Blues - Howard McGhee Boptet, Flip Phillips
My Old Flame - Howard McGhee Boptet, Flip Phillips
Cool - Howard McGhee, Flip Phillips
Put That Back - Flip Phillips, Flip Phillips
Lazy River - Flip Phillips, Flip Phillips
Flip's Idea - Flip Phillips, Flip Phillips
This Can't Be Love - Flip Phillips
Cookie - Flip Phillips
Two by Four - Flip Phillips,
Bye Bye Blues - Flip Phillips,
Encore - Flip Phillips,
Beat - Flip Phillips,
Drowsy - Flip Phillips, Flip Phillips
Vortex - Flip Phillips, Flip Phillips
Milano - Flip Phillips, Flip Phillips
But Beautiful - Flip Phillips, Flip Phillips
Lover - Flip Phillips

Tracks:

Don't Take Your Love from Me - Flip Phillips
Flip's Boogie - Flip Phillips
Flippin' the Blues - Flip Phillips
Lover, Come Back to Me - Flip Phillips
Blue Room - Flip Phillips
Be Be - Flip Phillips, Flip Phillips
Dream a Little Dream of Me - Flip Phillips, Flip Phillips
Bright Blues - Flip Phillips, Flip Phillips
Cheek to Cheek - Flip Phillips, Flip Phillips
Funky Blues - Flip Phillips, Flip Phillips
I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm - Flip Phillips, Flip Phillips
(Back Home Again In) Indiana - Flip Phillips, Flip Phillips
Broadway - Flip Phillips
Sojoro - Flip Phillips
Apple Honey - Flip Phillips
Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams - Flip Phillips
Long Island Boogie - Flip Phillips
Stardust - Flip Phillips

Album Description

All the crucial studio dates with small and medium groups. 2 CD set.

Music:

Music

Music