REISSUES : A Jazz History Lesson in RCA Victor 5-CD Set

VARIOUS ARTISTS

“RCA Victor Jazz: The First Half Century”

RCA/Bluebird

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This is a unique, five-CD, 96-track album. No other record company except Columbia could have assembled a comparable package--they are the only two labels who have been in business long enough.

The time span here runs from 1918 (“Tiger Rag” by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band) to 1967. The only artist represented in five of the six decades is Duke Ellington, with his “Black Beauty” in the ‘20s and a version of Billy Strayhorn’s “Blood Count” in the ‘60s. Several artists recur as a leader or sideman in two or three decades, among them Earl Hines, Roy Eldridge and Lionel Hampton.

Most avid collectors already own many of these works, but some have long been unavailable, particularly two historic cuts by the first giants of the tenor sax: “One Hour” by Coleman Hawkins and “The Eel” by Bud Freeman.

Such undeservedly forgotten singers as Mildred Bailey and Lee Wiley are included here. The Swing Era is a gold mine of hits: Charlie Barnet’s “Cherokee,” Bunny Berigan’s “I Can’t Get Started,” Benny Goodman’s “King Porter Stomp” and Artie Shaw’s “Little Jazz,” featuring trumpeter Roy Eldridge.

Almost every piano giant is accounted for: Fats Waller, James P. Johnson, Basie, Tatum, Mary Lou Williams, Lennie Tristano, Erroll Garner, Bill Evans and Bud Powell.

There are drawbacks, to be sure. In an attempt to be comprehensive, Bix Beiderbecke is included, although heard for just 30 seconds on a Paul Whiteman number. Charlie Parker absurdly gets top billing for a tune on which he solos for 22 seconds. Billie Holiday, who never recorded for RCA except for a 64-second performance on Shaw’s “Any Old Time,” is heard in the umpteenth reissue of that item. Pianist Phineas Newborn is present on a painfully atypical commercial track and two artists are heard before they achieved a firm style: Oscar Peterson, in 1947, and a too-early Jimmie Lunceford.

It is better to judge this anthology--for which producer Orrin Keepnews deserves credit--by what it includes rather than these deficiencies. Whatever is missing or inadequate, at $69.98 it’s still a bargain.

New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to four (excellent). A rating of five stars is reserved for classic reissues or retrospectives.