Required Music Collection

[SFSEAN]

In my opinion, anyone here should have some or all of the following in their collection:

1) Sinatra
2) The Big Bands-The Dorsey Brothers, Harry James etc.
3) Ella Fitzgerald/Sarah Vaughn/Billie Holiday
4) Chet Baker/Miles Davis/Charlie Parker
5) George Gershwin/Ira and Irving Berlin

Feel free to comment or add to the list.

 

[Kimberly]

Those are all excellent choices! I just bought my 1st Billie Holiday CD and can't stop listening to it.

I also have some Ray Charles in my collection and am drawn to bluesy, jazzy type of music so am always looking to add to it.

 

[LadyStardust]

Good starters! I would add:

1. AMBROSE & HIS ORCHESTRA (sorry, I love this ensemble just a little too much lol )
2. Ben Selvin
3. Crosby
4. Johnny Mercer
5. Annette Hanshaw or Ruth Etting, per your preference!

 

[mikepara]

more..

Johnny Cash
Carl Perkins
Roy Orbison
Slim Whitman
Tammy Wynette

 

[Kimberly]

I forgot about Johnny Cash. I LOVE his music.

I also love Bing Crosby and the Andrew Sisters. I have a diverse taste in music.

 

[Paisley]

For male and female singers, I'd substitute Sam Cooke for Frank Sinatra (I can hear Sinatra on the satellite radio anytime) and Anita O'Day for Holliday (I'm just not a fan of Holliday). But I love Ella, Sarah and big bands.

As for classical music, I prefer Dvorak, Liszt and Debussy to the Gershwin and Berlin boys.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The Complete Fats Waller.

 

[Cousin Hepcat]

Mustn't forget America's Greatest Composer, Duke Ellington (1940-41 complete works, atleast)

 

[HadleyH]

Isham Jones and His Orchestra

Everyone here, there and everywhere should own at least one CD of Isham Jones who by any standard can be considered to have had one of the finest dance bands in the history of music!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love you, Isham Jones!!!!!

 

[Snookie]

In my opinion, anyone here should have some or all of the following in their collection:

1) Sinatra
2) The Big Bands-The Dorsey Brothers, Harry James etc.
3) Ella Fitzgerald/Sarah Vaughn/Billie Holiday
4) Chet Baker/Miles Davis/Charlie Parker
5) George Gershwin/Ira and Irving Berlin

Feel free to comment or add to the list.

If you're on a budget, is it okay to get Sinatra with Harry James, and Ella singing the Gershwin Songbook? lol

 

[feltfan]

I could never equate Chet Baker, a very minor
figure, with Miles Davis or Charlie Parker, true
innovators. Baker before Monk?

There is SO much good Ellington:

- The "Ma Clinkscales to the Cotton Club" box
- The "Blanton Webster Years" set
- Early years on Brunswick set on Decca
- The Small Groups set

Let's not lump greats like Benny Goodman in under
the rubric "Big Bands".

What about Cab Calloway? Paul Whiteman? Ruth Etting?
Roland Hayes? Raymond Scott? Art Tatum? Very encouraging
to hear Isham Jones is not forgotten.

I can't do it. Where to stop?

 

[Flivver]

One of my favorites is Bix Beiderbecke. There is an excellent 5 volume (13 CD) collection out there called "Bix Restored", covering all of his recordings from 1924 - 1930. It's expensive, but well worth it.

And for those who can play LPs, Victor did an outstanding series of records in the late 1960s called "Vintage Series". For this series, Victor selected what they considered to be their most significant recordings of popular music from the 1920s and 1930s. Each recording was lightly restored then compiled into a seies of albums by band, topic or year. Some of the best of these were the ones on the Coon-Sanders Nighthawks, Paul Whiteman, and the yearly compilations for 1926, 1927 and 1928. These are available today for next to nothing, and are well worth seeking out.

My introduction to the music of this era came at age 15 via the 1927 volume in this series. That led me to the local Salvation Army store where I found 78s from this era selling for five cents each! I'm still enjoying these records today!

 

[SFSEAN]

Thanks for the responses

Thanks everybody for their input. I just wanted to get the ball rolling so to speak with my short list. There used to be a radio station in San Francisco that played music from the 1930's to 1950's and unfortunately, clear channel bought the station and changed the format to talk show. But, thanks to itunes and others, the music lives on.
Sean

 

[SFSEAN]

Oakland?

I could never equate Chet Baker, a very minor
figure, with Miles Davis or Charlie Parker, true
innovators. Baker before Monk?

There is SO much good Ellington:

- The "Ma Clinkscales to the Cotton Club" box
- The "Blanton Webster Years" set
- Early years on Brunswick set on Decca
- The Small Groups set

Let's not lump greats like Benny Goodman in under
the rubric "Big Bands".

What about Cab Calloway? Paul Whiteman? Ruth Etting?
Roland Hayes? Raymond Scott? Art Tatum? Very encouraging
to hear Isham Jones is not forgotten.

I can't do it. Where to stop?

Nobody with any taste can just stop at the 5 I listed. I just didn't want to list my entire collection of music. So, since you don't buy hats on e-bay, do you get them at the Hat Guys on Broadway and 18th?

 

[Kimberly]

For those of you who are fond of the music during WWII I highly recommend the 3 CD disc set called

"As Time Goes By-World War II Songs.

I have had it for a couple of years now and I still play it weekly which is rare for me because I tend to get sick of CD's fairly quickly.

It includes

-I'll Be Seeing You
-Til Then
-Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy
-I'll Be Home For Christmas
-Don't Sit Under The Apple Tree
-GI Jive

And one of my favorites

-White Cliffs of Dover

 

[Mike in Seattle]

Readers' Digest used to have collections by type (jazz, swing, big band) or by the decades, too. Alas, I think they've pretty well done away with most of them.

 

[Flivver]

Time-Life has also done some great compilations, although most of the better ones are now out of print. But they are all easily available on the used market as CDs, records or cassette tapes.

My favorite series is "Your Hit Parade" which covers pop (not rock) tunes from 1940 through the mid 1960s. There are a total of 40 albums in this series, with 20 covering the years 1940 - 1959, and the remaining 20 representing additional material from the era. Each album contains 24 songs. The year albums are quite common and are relatively inexpensive. The last 20 add-ons are harder to find and can get quite pricey. They're all well recorded, and worth searching for.

 

[RedHotRidinHood]

Ya'll forgot:

Art Tatum
Jimmie Lunceford
Mel Torme
Lowell Fulson
Johnny Otis
Wynonie Harris
Nina Simone
Freddie Slack and Ella Mae Morse

And what about Louis Armstrong? Bessie Smith? Dinah Washington?

I could go like this all night!fftopic: Every Thursday night, I attend a very unique meeting. Picture a bunch of 50-60 year old guys, a couple older ladies and me sitting in a large circle, listening to old records. Yes, I said records, as in VINYL! The primary interest with all these old guys is doo-wop, but I have been turned onto some amazing stuff that I never knew existed. I am really honored to be a part of this informal group! Plus, it's like hangin' out with 12 dads-it is so fun!

Ok, back to the music!
Vince Guaraldi
Otis Redding
Charles Brown
And on and on......

 

[HadleyH]

gotta have it!!!

You know, to be succinct I'd say everything that was recorded between 1927 and 1937, the truly Golden Age in music!!!! (for me at least)

 

[Amy Jeanne]

Everyone should own the ASV Living Era Record Label's "Hits Of..." year-by-year collection.

They have a CD of "hits" for every year from 1920 to 1955 (last time I checked). They haven't released 1926-1929 yet, but I've heard that they're currently in the works. I have 1920, 1921, 1930, 1931, 1933, 1937, and 1939. They're all fantastic and I eventually want every volume from 1920 to 1940.

There's also another CD series that has issued year-by-year CDs spanning 1890s to 1920, but I haven't invested in them since there are many PD websites where I can freely download music from this era and make my own CDs.