Good Budget Price Set.

Proper have released a great deal of boxed sets now. Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, Jo Stafford, etc. In terms of the Budget Priced labels, these are indeed doing an excellent job. I picked this one up for just £13 actually.



These four discs span Armstrongs career throughout the 1940s, taking selections from both studio sessions, and, along with these, quite a lot of "live" recordings, taken from various concerts. You get an unbelievable amount of tracks with this set, and its sure enough to please any fan of Armstrong's for many hours.



The sound quality is quite good throughout. The Proper sets often have a little too much bass added on some tracks. But this set is actually not so bad in that area, but still, they need to take note. I have a lot of the recordings on various other discs, in many cases where the sound quality is better. But for the price of this set, you can't possibly go wrong. In terms of selections, I think this is one of the best boxed sets out there. Sure, it's not the Hot Fives and Sevens stuff, but 40's Louis is still great.



The four discs all have their own seperate Jewel Cases, with a good tough card box to keep them together, if you so wish. It also comes with a seperate booklet, about 40 odd pages I think, giving wide details of Armstrong's career throughout the 40's, and also recording info for each track presented in the set. So pick this set up, it's worth it.

Over four hours of GREAT music

I can't believe I've gone this long in my life without owning this fantastic collection of Satchmo in the Forties.

Do you like pure jazz?

Do you like the big band sound?

Do you like blues?

Do you like the New Orleans sound?

Do you like awesome trumpet playing?

Do you like Louis Armstrong?

It's all here. Some of the best music you'll ever own. I just recently purchased "C'est Ci Bon" and can't be bothered with listening to anything else.

The two renditions of "Rocking Chair" are worth the purchase price alone. As with many other cuts this one features the vastly underrated Jack Teagarden along with Satchmo.

Other featured performers include Billie Holiday, the Mills Brothers, Barney Bigard, Earl Hines, Benny Goodman and Lionel Hampton. A veritable who's who of the mid century music industry.

Of course Armstrong is the star attraction and I have to revise my previously held views and say that this was when he was at this best. He was, by comparison, rougher in the Thirties and blander in the Fifties. His voice, his horn playing and his arrangements are at their best in this set. Enclosed with the set is one of the better insert booklets you'll come across, replete with background information, full discography and pictures.

Great music and a great bargain.