Ultimate Collection -Live

Liner Note Author: Brian Setzer.
Recording information: Festival International De Jazz De Montreal, Canada; Akasaka Blitz, Tokyo, Japan.
Though this double-disc set does contain versions of many of the Brian Setzer Orchestra's best-loved songs, THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION is not, as the title might suggest, a greatest-hits compilation. Rather, the package represents two Setzer concerts--one from the early 1990s in Montreal, Canada and the other in Tokyo, Japan in 2000. As the former leader of rockabilly revivalists the Stray Cats himself notes, the earlier show is rawer and a bit more rocking, while the later concert benefits from the band's increased experience and musical sophistication.
As promised, just about all of Setzer's best recorded moments are reprised here, from the Orchestra's biggest hit, Louis Prima's "Jump Jive an' Wail," and the Grammy-winning, guitar-driven take on Duke Ellington's classic "Caravan" to raucous big-band versions of the Stray Cats' signature songs, "Rock This Town" and "Stray Cat Strut." The remainder of the discs are filled out with a mix of genre-defining rock & roll standards ("Mystery Train," "Honky Tonk") and exciting, thoroughly re-imagined crowd pleasers, including "The James Bond Theme" and "Rumble in Brighton," during which the city in question is replaced with "Montreal" to the crowd's rapturous approval.