Topic: Which is the best source for Blind Lemon Jefferson?

[CF]

 . . . this belongs more in the discography section but it should be mentioned here RE Jefferson & the question of completeness:

The Documents & The JSP pretty much contain everything EXCEPT:

Document's 'Too Late Vol. 11' has three very rare alt takes from early sessions

AND, most interestingly, an alt take of BL's Penitentiary Blues' was discerned by WC contributor Blind Arthur & posted here a while back. Go here to read the details
http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=7182.msg57224#msg57224

After you get the Complete Lemon you want to get Yazoo's Lemon releases for best sound.

[misterjones]

I'm assembling my own BLJ set, using the following basic prioritization:
(1) Black Swan
(2) Yazoo's "Best of"
(3) Yazoo's "King of the Country Blues"
(4) Blues Images
(5) Document (including volume 11 of "Too Late Too Late")
I'm also adding the alternate of Blind Lemon's Penitentiary Blues from the Tradition CD.

If anyone has any suggested changes to the above, I'd like to hear them.

[Rivers]

Has anyone heard the Black Swan BLJ set? I know they did a good job with Charlie Patton (to my ear) but as we all know from other labels there are no guarantees the same would apply to other releases in their catalog. Unless there are encouraging indications on that specific release I'd personally hesitate to make it #1 on my list, that would be a leap of faith.

Cheapfeet, I absolutely agree with you, the best sound I've found, actually astoundingly so, is the semi-recent Yazoo "Best of BLJ". I've said it before and will say it again, I hope Mr Nevins will do a 'Complete BLJ" project at some point.

[later: having read back through the thread I see you already have the Black Swan set misterjones and are hence recommending, not making a wish list. Apologies, and thanks for the recommendation]

[misterjones]

The Black Swan ranges from slightly better that Yazoo - presumably the result of better source material - to the same as Yazoo.

[jpeters609]

Based on my listening to Black Swan's Charley Patton set (which are his complete Paramount recordings, minus the alternate takes), it seems pretty clear that Black Swan has access to different copies of at least some of the original 78s. Because Black Swan's parent company is the owner of John Steiner's Paramount materials, I wonder if his holdings are where some of these different copies are coming from. (It also begs the question: does Black Swan have and/or plan to reissue those metal mothers of Skip James' "Devil Got My Woman" or, if it indeed still exists, the "buckled" metal mother of Willie Brown's "Grandma Blues" that Steiner was said to have in his possession. See the Frog Blues & Jazz Annual #1 for that whole story!)

I may be wrong about this, but Black Swan also doesn't seem to use a whole lot of noise reduction (if any). I find myself listening to their Charley Patton set a lot. It has a great deal of presence. I am curious to hear their Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Blake sets.

[misterjones]

Black Swan is similar to Yazoo in that it does not use a lot of noise reduction.  In those instances where I say Black Swan is better than Yazoo, I mean the underlying music sounds better.  I really haven't focused on the surface noise, but off-hand and without a re-listen, I'd say  they're probably about the same.