These two albums are being released as one budget CD on 12 April 2012. It is priced cheaply at £10.24.

The link to Amazon UK is shown below. It will be interesting to learn what the sound is like.

[www.amazon.co.uk]

Bob Wallace.

Perhaps this is the reason I was able to find the EMI two-fer with "If You Go", and the Capitol CD of "Blues Cross Country" recently for reasonable prices.

I'll be interested to hear opinions of the sound as well.

The label releasing this twofer is Fresh Sound Records, located in Spain. If memory serves, Fresh Sound has been releasing music since the 1970s, with emphasis on reissuing American jazz albums.

During their early years, the label legitimately licensed their reissues -- mostly from RCA Victor. Not these days, though. They now reissue albums that have fallen in the Public Domain (in Spain).

Even if this is a Public Domain label, I must honestly say that the Fresh Sound folks have a few things going for them. They put care into the looks and sound quality of their product. Their CDs generally sound fine; I imagine that this item won't be an exception. These days, they are also boasting about using 24-bit mastering (something that in the past was associated mostly with Japanese EMI and Capitol Jazz releases). Whether Fresh Sound is using the technology itself, or whether this means that they are releasing straight copies from those earlier Japanese and American EMI releases, I know not.

As a bonus track, this twofer includes the sole non-album track from the 1961 Peggy Lee-Quincy Jones sessions ("Hey, Look Me Over," which was also one of the bonus tracks in the official Blues Cross Country CD from Capitol Jazz.)

Fresh Sound's catalogue of vocal reissues has always leaned toward cool jazz (Anita O'Day, June Christy, Chris Connor, Mel Tormé, et cetera). This is their very first Peggy Lee reissue. (However, two labels with which Fresh Sound is associated have issued CDs of Peggy's Decca material. Blue Moon Records released a compilation entitled A Woman Alone with the Blues that has very good sound. More recently, another associated label combined Black Coffee and Dream Street in one twofer.)

My very personal impression is that Fresh Sound picked Blues Cross Country and If You Go not so much because of Peggy, but rather because of the involvement of west coast cool jazz musicians, and because of Quincy Jones. Then again, maybe I'm wrong... Concurrent with this Peggy twofer, they are also releasing a couple of titles by Frank Sinatra, another artist that they had never touched before.

The write-up at their website is good (suitably praising Peggy). At a glance, I noticed only one serious error (i.e., Dave Cavanaugh, not Page Cavanaugh):

[www.freshsoundrecords.com]

Ivan

Bought this CD in HMV and couldn't be more pleased with it. Sound quality excellent, as good as Capitol Jazz "BCC" and EMI "IYG". Ivan spotted the one error I also found re "Page" Cavanaugh... should be "Dave"! Otherwise full size photos of both albums' original sleeves, original liner-notes as well as some new ones. All dates, locations and musicians listed for each track too. I always wanted a CD with these two PL-QJ albums so very happy for this addition to my collection.

Bob.