The Fats Navarro Story [Box set]

The Fats Navarro Story [Box set]

ASIN: B000051TPA

Track Listings
Disc: 1

1. Air Mail Special

2. Don't Blame Me

3. Opus X

4. Love Me or Leave Me

5. Long, Long Journey

See all 22 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Just a Mystery

2. Red Pepper

3. Spinal

4. Hollerin' and Screamin'

5. Fat Girl

See all 23 tracks on this disc

Disc: 3

1. Half Step Down Please

2. Jumpin' Jane

3. Dextrose

4. Index

5. Dextivity

See all 20 tracks on this disc

Disc: 4

1. Skunk

2. Boperation

3. Double Talk

4. Guilty

5. Yardbird Suite

See all 22 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews
Product Description
87 track, 4 CD box-set showcases the immense talent of BeBop's trumpeter extraordinaire. 40 page booklet tells the story of a genius still to be properly recognized. Rare photos and full track information are also included. Additional artist's include, Billy Eckstine, Coleman Hawkins, Illinois Jacquet, Tadd Dameron, Charlie Parker and Miles Davis. 2000 release. 4 standard jewel cases housed together in a deluxe slipcase.

Tracks:

Air Mail Special
Don't Blame Me
Opus X
Love Me or Leave Me
Long, Long Journey
Tell Me Pretty Baby
Second Balcony Jump
Without a Song
Epistrophy
52nd Street Theme
Oo-Bop Sh'bam
Rue Chaptal
Boppin' a Riff
Fat Boy
Everything's Cool
Webb City
Calling Dr. Jazz
Fracture
Maternity
Stealin' Trash
I Mean You
Bean and the Boys

Tracks:

Just a Mystery
Red Pepper
Spinal
Hollerin' and Screamin'
Fat Girl
Ice Freezes Red
Eb-Pob
Goin' to Minton's
Jivin' With Jack the Bellboy
High on an Open Mike
Sweet Georgia Brown
Chase
Squirrel
Our Delight
Dameronia
Be-Bop Carol
Tadd Walk
Gone With the Wind
That Someone Must Be You
Nostalgia
Barry's Bop
Be-Bop Romp
Fats Blows

Tracks:

Half Step Down Please
Jumpin' Jane
Dextrose
Index
Dextivity
Good Bait, No. 1
Good Bait, No. 2
Anthropology
Oh, Lady Be Good
Symphonette
Tadd Walk
Squirrel
Dameronia
Our Delight
Eb-Pob
Jahbero
Lady Bird
Symphonette
I Think I'll Go Away
Stealin' Apples

Tracks:

Skunk
Boperation
Double Talk
Guilty
Yardbird Suite
Stranger in Town
As Time Goes By
Move
Move
Overtime
Sid's Delight
Casbah
Bouncing with Bud
Wail
Dance of the Infidels
52nd Street Theme
Wailing Wall
Go
Infatuation
Stop
Night in Tunisia
Dizzy Atmosphere

Album Description

87 track, 4 CD box-set showcases the immense talent of BeBop's trumpeter extraordinaire. 40 page booklet tells the story of a genius still to be properly recognized. Rare photos and full track information are also included. Additional artist's include, Billy Eckstine, Coleman Hawkins, Illinois Jacquet, Tadd Dameron, Charlie Parker and Miles Davis. 2000 release. 4 standard jewel cases housed together in a deluxe slipcase.

Customer Reviews:

If you only want to own one Fats Navarro album, this is it........2007-06-05

No less a person than Dizzy Gillespie said of Fats: "Fats was the best all round trumpeter of them all. He had everything a trumpeter should have: tone, ideas, execution and reading ability." Considering that that comes from one of the true greats of jazz, that is high praise indeed.

This 4 CD compilation spans Fats Navarro's short but utterly brilliant career, from the legendary Billy Eckstine Orchestra through his Savoy and Blue Note studio recordings, a great selection of his session work and broadcasts for and with people such as Coleman Hawkins, Illinois Jacquet, Tadd Dameron, Bud Powell and Charlie Parker. Also included are his two legendary 1947 Saturday Night Swing radio show tracks. Anyone can pick fault with any compilation but this is as good a compilation as I've ever seen for a jazz artist.

The sound quality is uniformly excellent throughout, the 40 page booklet well-written and impeccably researched, and the packaging tastefully done. In short, an outstanding box set. That said, it's what I've come to expect of the Proper label (I will buy anything they put out, sight unseen).

Oh, did I say that it's dirt cheap for what you get? It is. Buy it before it goes OOP.

Proper Box Navarro Set.......2006-05-08

I agree with all of the above reviewers that the material is great. Navarro has always been one of my favorite trumpeters. I wonder what he would have been doing if he lived through the 1950's. We might have heard some wonderful music in even better sound. I don't have a problem listening to old recordings with limited sound. If the music is really good, you tend to forget the circumstances of the sound.

My problem with the set is that the sound is a bit muddy. I have all of these sides on lp and have heard them on Blue Note and Savoy discs. The sound is livlier on Savoy and Blue Note. I suspect that Proper Box did some sound filtering which probably cleaned up the sound from whatever their source was, but it seems to have lost some of the treble. You do not hear any crispness from the drumset--especially the cybals.

The price is certainly right and the material is wonderful. I would recommend spending a bit more to get the Blue Note and Savoy issues. I do not think that you will regret spending the difference for the "greater presence" of the other editions of the same music.

Another Great One Lost..........2005-12-21

Too bad ...what a trumpet and tone...and the greats he played with...this compilation is an important one and does justice to him and his short life...unlike a "student" of his, the great Clifford Brown who died in a car crash,Fats was an emotional case of excess..his vulveribility was felt in his music and this generous collection does a service to Jazz history as far as quality and price. Proper records did a great one here..it seems nobody reviewed this one in years...Too bad.

A big bopper is always impressive..........2002-08-06

There are many reasons one would not want to invest in a
reissue box set of an artist already in your collection. This
set overpowers all concerns and then some! The evidence here
indicates Fats Navarro was indeed a heavyweight in his chosen field of Bebop trumpet. Really, there is no filler on these
meaty sides. This set captures not only Fats but also numerous
Pre-Bop and Bop players in their prime-stunningly so. I will
let you discover each disc's delights on your own but am compelled to suggest that you get this set to hear how master improvisors work quotations into solos (My favorite so far:
Fats starts his "Fats Blows" solo with a hilarious Howdy Doody
reference). For music lovers, Jazz fans, or music students
worldwide...indulge your ears with this inexpensive but valuable
set. The second version of Move on Disc four is simply Bebop ecstacy- on par with the trumpet/percussion Gillespie version of
Caravan or the transcendant "Donna Lee"solo by Clifford Brown. A perfect gift for any trumpeter.

Off the Beaten Track -- and Worth it.......2001-12-31

Fats Navarro had a sweet, flawless technique which few trumpeters of his generation possessed. It is, on the one hand, unfortunate that
Navarro's discography is s0 small. On the other hand, except for the recent Savoy reissue of Navarro's best -- which is generous and remastered with great skill -- Proper's FATS NAVARRO STORY is probably the best summation of Navarro's achievement on record. The final sessions with Charlie Parker alone are worth the investment, but for those who shun Parker's brand of bebop, there are ample cuts to soothe and inspire, from a lavish rendition of "Gone with the Wind" to "A Night in Tunisia." The value of the set is simply extraordinary, with four discs, 87 cuts -- most beautifully remastered to capture the warmth of Navarro's tone-color, and an illustrated booklet which provides a brief, but educated, history of an American legend who worked for just a few years, but prepared a new generation of trumpeters for the promise of modernism. All this and a sturdy slipcase, too and you can't go wrong at this price. As someone who respects Miles Davis (especially for his Plugged Nickel set on CBS), I fear too much attention has been paid to Miles and too little to Navarro and Clifford Brown. As usual, Proper Records has developed a package that delights as it educates. And there's absolutely nothing like it in the catalog. Warmly recommended.

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