Hello,

Apologies for answering so late and best wishes of the season.

UA is a legitimate label founded and run by Eric Guillemaud, late of Sony
France and currently also running (or helping to run) Jordi Savall's Alia
Vox label. It briefly closed down while M. Guillemaud assessed his position
in the light of impending (and since realised) retrogressive and restrictive
changes to European copyright laws.

The UA classical reissues that I have heard or of which I have heard or read
reliable opinions have all been excellent. I own several of the label's
classical sets, such as the complete European Landowska, which is superb.
Transfers from the early LP era have been taken from some kind of master, I
understand. The recently revived UA has branched out into reissuing more
recent material, such as Michel Chapuis' complete late 1960s Bach organ
music, licensed from Valois. I have that too and, 6 CDs in (out of 14) it's
outstanding.

I'm not a jazz listener so I can't comment on that side of UA's production
but, based on what I know about the rest, I wouldn't hesitate.

Best wishes,

Nick Morgan
Sheffield University / CHARM PhD student

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Hirsch" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, December 24, 2011 3:53 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] United Archives label


> I hate to appear that I am responding to my own message, but I realize
> that I left out the source of the United Archives CDs that I came
> across.
>
> In case anyone is interested (now that I have gotten my own order in,
> this info can be made public <g>), they are listed at the Berkshire
> Record Outlet (broinc.com) at $3.99 a disc. There are also some of
> their classical releases, too, including the Budapest Quartet
> Beethoven cycle, for one.
>
> Peter H.
>
>
> On Sat, Dec 24, 2011 at 10:26 AM, Peter Hirsch <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > Thanks, Mike,
> >
> > I agree that it might have been useful to include the little
> > information that I had beyond pasting the catalog blurbs. I ordinarily
> > would have done so, but I just didn't notice that this wasn't part of
> > what I had copy/pasted.
> >
> > If it is still of use, the catalog numbers are:
> >
> > NUA 06: Dizzy Gillespie: Complete Big Band Studio Sessions, 1946-1960'.
> >
> > NUA 07: Ellington, Duke: 'The Complete Orchestral Suites'.
> >
> > NUA 08: Miles Davis: Live Recordings, 1948-1957
> >
> > At this point, I think I can see enough info about the original
> > albums, to avoid too much replication of what I already own, but I
> > still would be curious to hear from anyone who has listened to the UA
> > releases. I have lots of cheapo CDs of European origin that are barely
> > listenable and not even worth the 1 or 2 $ a disc I may have laid out.
> > Sometimes the entire package is the discs and container with a single,
> > uninformative, sheet slipped in that has a title and maybe a picture
> > and close to zero about the origins. I do have access to Lord's Jazz
> > discography on a CD-ROM, so I could probably spend hours extracting
> > all the dates and personnel, but maybe this has already been done by
> > some helpful soul and this labor could be avoided.
> >
> > I will take some more time following the discussions that you have
> > linked in your message and maybe I can locate specific comment on the
> > audio and packaging.
> >
> > I may just bite the bullet and order and chance the consequences. If
> > so, I guarantee to report back.
> >
> > Thanks again,
> >
> > Peter H.
> >