This 24-CD box, which dwarfs even most Bear Family sets in scope, is essentially everything Ellington cut for RCA-Victor over a 46-year period. There are gaps, especially after 1946 when he jumped to Columbia, but otherwise, this is all of it. One quickly discovers that, by virtue of its leader's taste, combined with the good sense of RCA-Victor's recording managers, this was a band that did little, if any, wrong on record. Better yet, from the opening cut on Disc One (which encompasses 1927 and part of 1928), there's scarcely a trace of tinniness, and the bass and middle are rich and natural. Disc Three takes us from 1929 into 1930, and even only two years into their recording career, the Ellington band was evolving into something more sophisticated than a dance band. Disc Five includes the 1930 session that yielded the first recording of "Mood Indigo," where the band sort of announces to the world that they're the most musically sophisticated and adept outfit in jazz. Disc Eight picks up in 1940 -- this is the Blanton-Webster band transferred properly to CD, and it never got any better than this, at least within the context of big-band swing. The excerpts from "Black, Brown and Beige" included on Disc 14 are among the most famous parts of this body of work, and they've never sounded better. Discs 18 through 20 encompass the complete trio of Sacred Concerts, and Discs 21 thru 24 cover the Far East Suite, Ellington's mid-'60s recuttings of his classic hits, and his tribute to Billy Strayhorn, through to his final concert release from 1973. This material is all worthwhile, and the 122-page book that comes with the set is chock full of extraordinarily informative and well-written essays, plus vital sessionography information. The set is also, alas, incredibly unwieldy, the individual CDs sliding out too easily from their separate sleeves. They're still a bargain, of course, but someone should have given more thought to the needs of real listeners. ~ Bruce Eder
Rovi