Twenty-four track compilation of rare unissued takes of jazz recordings from the 1920s and 1930s, featuring Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang, Mamie Smith, Adelaide Hall, Mae West, with accompaniment from the orchestras of Duke Ellington, The Dorsey Brothers and others. <p>Before the Second World War, commercial recordings were invariably made using wax masters. Under this recording regime, there were no opportunities to go back and correct a mistake on the same master; it was only when recordings were mastered onto magnetic tape that such a notion could become a practical reality, and this only became possible in the 1950s.</p> <p>As a result, artists recording in the 1920s and 1930s were required to make two or three takes (sometimes more), thus giving the recording company the opportunity to choose the best version for subsequent issue. Often, the rejected masters were simply destroyed, but sometimes they were held for possible future issue - and luckily for us, some of these have survived to the present day. As a collector of 78s, there are few experiences more satisfying than hearing for the first time an unissued version of a favourite recording - and there is a plethora of these rejected "takes" on this eclectic selection.</p>
