Bixology 1924-1927

It's beyond me how anyone with halfway decent ears can wax lyrical about this set of Bix Beiderbecke CDs. The premise as such is not bad: to present in chronological order every recording on which Bix plays a solo, with alternative takes to make things even more interesting, but without some of the dross that artists then (as now) recorded to keep record companies happy and managers wax fat. That it is not feasible at this price to include extensive liner notes, recording dates and other discographical information, so be it. But to have the nerve to print boldly "remastered and enhanced for superior quality" is as boldfaced a lie as any tweet by The Donald. Sound quality is ATROCIOUS. Many tracks are in "stereo" (has anybody here seen Robert Parker?) and quite a few have been so strongly remastered as to be almost unlistenable. Even Bill Hebden would be ashamed.Putting this product on the market does a disservice to the memory of Bix, and shortchanges anyone with a set of normally fuctioning ears. How the other reviewers fail to remark on this is baffling, to say the least. Please, please, please, dear listener, steer clear of this shoddy piece of cynically marketed junk and look out the wonderful five volumes of Bix Restored, compiled and restored with hours of painstaking attention to detail and love for the music, the musicians AND the listener, despite the dent it will put in your savings. But it's worth every penny. But don't buy this.

I'm writing this review to suggest that anyone who quickly wants to grasp the Bix Beiderbecke legend buys this CD First. And to counter the extraordinary negative "opinions" of the one star reviewer.The problem with larger collections, aiming to include his full output in chronological order, is one has to wade through a whole lot of mediochre tracks to get to the ones which every Bix fanatic knows are his "Greatest Hits". Simply put, those where his perfectly conceived solos dominate those of the other band members.Whoever chose the order of the tracks for this CD is (in my opinion) a genius. For the first 9 tracks he simply gives you one masterpiece after another. It's as if it's only Bix playing. And I'm pretty sure he also adjusted the volume so that Bix's cornet solos are much clearer than those of his band mates. Nevertheless the overall sound quality is great - with no trace of vinyl hiss.Ignoring his early trivia and short solos during his tenure with the Paul Whiteman band may sound like heresy to Beiderbecke purists but for me it's an obvious decision. If I want to lift my spirits and time-travel back to a more innocent era when music was produced for pleasure rather than for fame and fortune then slip this disc into your CD player and for half-an-hour your cares will fade away. It works every time.

Arrived very promptly... great