Another yard sale budget Charlie Parker compilation find. It'd be cool if I had some original issues, but I don't have that kind of money or patience.
This features a great selection of tunes, some of which were recorded live. But, it all sounds like crap. The company that put this out, Everest, did tons of these types of releases. All of which nail down on some great tracks, but none of which sound that good. They first centered around releasing folk, like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, but found jazz as another quick avenue for releases. The jazz LPs get the "Jazz Series" tag.
Again, great track selections, however, most of the releases are culled from 78 RPM discs. Not the original tapes, but the actual beat to hell 78 RPM disc that were taped, then pressed onto vinyl. You get the crackle found on the source along with creepy ambient noise. As stated, some tracks used here are old live recordings. For Charlie, they just threw on recordings you can find elsewhere in better fidelity. Further, Everest "re-channeled" everything for Stereo, which usually doesn't help anyone. So, if you can deal with that, purchase the crap out of all these releases for a dollar. Another issue I have with these, nothing is said about where they got these tracks from? Outside of a "Statement of Purpose" on the back cover that explains to you it'll sound like shit, they don't notify you who played on the tunes or the original 78 disc...that's some crap archiving if you ask me.
Biggest problem I've always had though, is not the label itself, it's if you see the comps at an antique mall or a store where vinyl is not primary, the store or dealer thinks they've got something special and throw a $10 price tag on it. There's a Volume II for Charlie Parker I've spotted a number of times, never once have I seen it a price I'd feel comfortable with.
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