Duke Ellington

It looks like Ellington In Order is available for download on HDTracks. I listened to a few samples, compared them with The OKeh Ellington, and...this feels like a missed opportunity. Maybe the comparison to the Robert Johnson set isn't fair (after all, guitar and voice is probably easier to futz with mastering-wise than a 12-15 piece orchestra), but the new remasters don't sound dramatically different. They do sound different, and a little better -- slightly fuller, a little more bass -- but it's not the revelation it could or should have been. I dunno, I probably had unrealistic expectations that advancements in technology over the last 30+ years would've resulted in more of a sonic upgrade. ymmv.

i remember getting the remastered Blanton-Webster CD set in the mid-'00s. it sounded fucking awful because they decided to leave in all this digital clipping, or something?

https://i.discogs.com/LkVQURXYwybpf77OllTlS47I9e6ITPkFqsNJGqvJGpA/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:543/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTI2MDI3/MzYtMTYxNzUwMTYw/MS02MTA3LmpwZWc.jpeg

so i have stuck with my original CD from the '80s. much better in my opinion:

https://i.discogs.com/wMShlgdGSP8MLEbXuVMg2qsVHbi8R6GZOWIYkz5RKSQ/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:594/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTEwMTc1/MTQ3LTE2MzE0MzY0/MzgtNTgxNi5qcGVn.jpeg

but i'd be interested in checking out another, new remaster of these recordings.

Yeah, that was a real disappointment — same mastering as on the big 1999 RCA box, as far as I know. Things like “Jack The Bear” especially are really frustrating for what you mentioned, when the reeds come in at the beginning — I don’t think it’s digital distortion, but just a shitty mastering job that over-emphasized the high end so that any distortion on the 78 would be magnified. That said, I still prefer it to the ‘80s set, but it sucks that the choice is limited to either something that sounds like a megaphone, or dealing with that brittle/bright mastering.

For early ‘40s Ellington, the 1940 Fargo set has vastly superior sound to any ‘40s Ellington studio recordings I’ve heard. I’d almost recommend it to a newbie over the ‘40s studio dates for that reason, despite not having certain key songs (like “‘A’ Train”), and you really get a sense of how exciting it must have been to see that orchestra live.

If you want a cheap, easy way of hearing how good early '40s Ellington can sound, find this CD:

https://www.discogs.com/release/4740444-Duke-Ellington-Rockin-In-Rhythm

Very common, very cheap, but it was remastered by the late, great John R. T. Davies. (Part of a series of jazz samplers that formed a survey on jazz history, courtesy of the UK magazine publisher Marshall Cavendish.) "Ko-Ko," "Cotton Tail" and "Jack the Bear" actually sound natural - no shrill EQ, no excessive noise but no noise processing like NoNoise or CEDAR either. It's a damn shame Davies didn't do a complete and comprehensive collection before he died.

this is what I have, any of you tru headz wanna comment on the mastering/sound?

https://www.discogs.com/release/2949550-Duke-Ellington-An-Explosion-Of-Genius-1938-1940

Sony/RCA put out a 4CD set in 2008 covering 1932-1939 in what I assume are newer transfers than The Okeh Ellington. The mastering is less aggressive than the RCA Centennial box. I always thought the latter sounded remarkably present but also, as mentioned above, unduly harsh at times with that weird high-pitched noise coming in, usually toward the end of a track.

...but that set doesn't cover the Okeh material, I see. Never mind, carry on!

in my opinion, for pre-war ellington, you need:

The Okeh Ellington 2xCD (Columbia) [1927-1930]
The Complete 1936-1940 Variety, Vocalion & Okeh Small Group Sessions 7xCD (Mosaic)
The Blanton-Webster Band 3xCD (RCA Bluebird) [1940-1942]

curious what others would add, but this has been enough for me.

Just now seeing: In Order Volume 1 (1927-1928)---43 songs, 2 hrs. 11 min.--is also on YouTubeMusic; maybe they've got the rest, or will have:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_l_NlTYi1pu5LbIIUR-eDP6MPfBuUSMJD4