Compilation or "Best of" Recordings

[LJazz]

When, if ever, do you buy a "best of" CD or box from an artist rather than the individual CDs/LPs? With the vast catalogues of material that many musicians have, it seems it is just not economically feasible or practical to buy them all.

I started wondering about this because I was looking to increase my Dexter Gordon recordings and saw that BMG had a 2 CD set of "the Classic Blue Note Recordings" (which has 18 tunes) for a little more than $8 in its current sale. Alternatively I could buy each of the individual Blue Note CDs that they have (which is not all of them by a long shot) at about $6.00 each and search out the remainder. The same kind of question/analysis comes up with almost every musician whose music I buy. So, I got curious when others decide to put aside the "collect 'em all" idea and just go for the highlights.

[Claude]

I buy samplers only occasionally, when individual albums are not available, not consistingly good or when they are too expensive.

I'm a big Jackie McLean fan, but from his Prestige recordings I only bought a "Best of" sampler, because the individual albums are short and quite expensive (before the Fantasy sell-out started).

[Stereojack]

"Best Of" compilations serve to introduce a novice to the artist's work, but ultimately it is the complete albums that provide the most satisfaction. In pop music, often all one would want is the hits, but jazz musicians don't usually have "hits" in the same sense, and what you are offered on a "Best of" set is somebody's rather subjective idea of what should be included.

My favorite Dexter tracks might be completely different from those of the compiler.

[Dan Gould]

Sometimes best of discs are necessary, however. There was a BN Kenny Burrell disc that had a couple of tracks from Freedom as well as other tracks that weren't available until BN put out that two disc Conn. whose name escapes me.

I also bought a Donald Byrd soul-jazz sampler that was a true mixed bag but was the only way to hear at least one classic track from Slow Drag or Blackjack before those albums were reissued.

I'd also like to point out that comps that are not artist-centered but bring together obscurities that wouldn't be available otherwise are great values. I'm sure we all have some, my BFT used an obscure Coleman Hawkins tune to bring attention to Jukebox Jazz! From the Southside of Chicago.

[JSngry]

Best-Ofs, etc. are useful when one is playing in a pop band and one needs to learn tunes.

[paul secor]

Best-Ofs, etc. are useful when one is playing in a pop band and one needs to learn tunes.

True - I just gave a musician friend an Earl Bostic compilation. He wanted it to learn some tunes that he might need to know when he plays in an r&b/pop setting.

I have a lot of compilations in my collection - not always called "best ofs", but generally they are that. Most of them are r&b or rock & roll, and they tend to be of artists that I don't want to have "everything" by. Just pulled a few:

Sonny Thompson, Ivory Joe Hunter, Gary "U.S." Bonds, James & Bobby Purify, The Prisonaires, Freddy Scott, Flying Burrito Brothers

I also tend to buy blues comps, especially on Yazoo - Blind Blake, Scrapper Blackwell, among others.

In all of these cases, and others, I feel that what's on the comps is enough for me. I realize that someone else is making the choices of what's on them, but I'll live with that.

[JSngry]

Best-Ofs, etc. are useful when one is playing in a pop band and one needs to learn tunes.

True - I just gave a musician friend an Earl Bostic compilation. He wanted it to learn some tunes that he might need to know when he plays in an r&b/pop setting.

I have a lot of compilations in my collection - not always called "best ofs", but generally they are that. Most of them are r&b or rock & roll, and they tend to be of artists that I don't want to have "everything" by. Just pulled a few:

Sonny Thompson, Ivory Joe Hunter, Gary "U.S." Bonds, James & Bobby Purify, The Prisonaires, Freddy Scott, Flying Burrito Brothers

I also tend to buy blues comps, especially on Yazoo - Blind Blake, Scrapper Blackwell, among others.

In all of these cases, and others, I feel that what's on the comps is enough for me. I realize that someone else is making the choices of what's on them, but I'll live with that.

My sentimenst exactly. It's all about personal prioritization. For example, I really dig a lot of the Capitol Louis Prima stuff, but a good comp of it is all I really want/need. Just the highlights is enough for me, as the rest of it seems to be either lesser variations thereof or novelty #s that hold no interest for me. And if I find out about a nugget here and there that's been overlooked, I 'll find it somehow at some point. Same for the Nat Cole pop material, etc.

[GA Russell]

I enjoy getting Best of's when I have no intention of picking up much of an artist, and the price is cheap. Getting a sampler of an artist from Your Music for $5.99 is a painless way to find out what he sounded like during the period he was with the label.

I picked up a couple of Jazz Giants compilations from the Concord Blowout sale, and I'm sorry I didn't order more. I consider compilations to be promotional tools, and as a matter of principle I don't like to spend more than five dollars for one. But for what they are, I think they're great.

Finally, as everybody knows, I'm a sucker for ballads compilations. My favorite is a four-CD set by EMI/Blue Note called 60 Jazz Classics For Lovers. Both Concord and Blue Note released a number for Valentine's Day this year. I got most of the Concords, and I hope to get some of the Blue Notes next year.

Best of's and compilations are not works of art. They are often collections of a single mood. So when I am in the appropriate mood, they hit the spot. No need to swear off buying regular albums when you are picking up some inexpensive compilations.

[JohnS]

Occasionally it's appropriate to have a sample of an artists work. For instance the Keith jarrett Impulse Story might find its way into my collection. I disposed of the vinyl years ago but it would be useful to have a sample of the American quartet. I certainly wouldn't want much more by this group.

I've also bought the odd Blue Note collection for an unissued track.

[JSngry]

Compilations of any sort are also useful for entertainment purposes, like for background music at parties, or driving with a group.

[kulu se mama]

i buy quite a few best of's - more popular music than jazz - they are great for long road trips.

i get to hear music that i enjoy, and my wife doesn't have to hear music that she is not all that interested in.

[(BB)]

I have always used compilations as samplers, to get a taste of a style of music or of a particular artist I don't know anything about. They are kind of like hors d’oeuvre, a good place to start before you hit the entree. One of my first exposures to blue note was the compilation Straight No Chaser "the most popular, most sampled songs from the vaults of blue note". I have not listened to it in 5 years at least, but that was my intro to Blakey, Silver, Donald Byrd, and others.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I don't really like compilations, particularly various artist compilations. Of course, recordings made before the LP era HAVE to be compilations. In those cases, I prefer to get a single artist compilation. Whether I go for a best or try to get the lot depends on what's on the "best" and how much I like the artist. I did buy a Dinah Washington "best", and also a blues compilation of hers. But then I decided to get the Proper box, which made most of the compilations redundant (as well as the Delmark edition of her Apollo sides). This sort of thing is SO bloody annoying, that I really want only to buy full compilations of artists I'm serious about and forget about the rest.

But there are some R&B artists for whom a compilation is ideal: Al Green; Brass Construction; Earth Wind & Fire; The Whispers; and so on.

And various artists compilations that explore areas in which it's difficult to get albums are OK, too: "Honkers and screamers"; "Honkers & barwalkers"; "Saxophony: Jubilee honkers"; "Singing preachers and their congregations"; "Atlantic R&B"; "Atlantic honkers" for example.

But, for me, the way music is intended to be presented to the audience is an important part of what I'm looking for in music, so I would invariably prefer to get music as an original album (in whatever medium).

MG

[take5]

Compilations make up a significant portion of my music collection and listening.

For jazz, how else can you get music from before the LP era? I don't like those large complete-recordings-of box sets because they're filled with outdated novelty numbers, alternate takes and boring vocals. I like to be able to pop a CD in, hit play, and not worry about making playlists or programming the CD player.

I recently picked up a CD comp of Art Tatum's peak years. Wereas most jazz/Tatum fans would bristle at the notion of only owning one CD of his music, but that is enough for me, as I can only take so much of what he does.

As for jazz singers, I realised I never listen to more than one or two CDs of even my favorite singers in a year, and so 2 CD comps of Billie, Ella, and Sarah suffice.

However, for someone like Dex (to cite an example given earlier), I love his prime Blue Note albums so much that I can't just have some comp. So, as of now, my Dexter Gordon collection consists of:

- the French label Classics CDs of his early work

- Go!, A Swingin' Affair, and Our Man In Paris Blue Note CDs

- The Panther, CD

- Tower of Power on vinyl

a nice mix of comps and albums that encapsulate his best work

For rock and pop, there are few albums that hold my interest from beginning to end. However, those "few" still add up to quite a bit, but I'm close to having pretty much all the albums I want). Rock and pop are primarily singles-oriented. This particularly true for R&B and soul- Stevie Wonder's 70s albums, where both the individual songs are killer and whole albums are wonderful to listen to, are the exception.

And so I enjoy the various artists comps- Atlantic R&B box set, the Motown Hitsville USA, Rhino's Nuggets sets, that sort of thing.

[Quincy]

Funny you should bring this up now. Normally I avoid them, at least if I think there's a chance I'll want more by the artist. Being a big boy now I'm more likely to buy a mulit-disc box than a single disc comp if I'm starting with a new-to-me artist. However just a couple of days ago I ordered 2 compilations from yourmusic.

Although I have 7 Coleman Hawkins discs and plan on getting more, I picked up the Centennial Collection in part because it has a DVD, plus I don't have many of the audio tracks.

Also grabbed the 2 disc/1 dvd Ultimate Billie Holiday collection. For years I've intended to grab one of her label boxes but never got around to it. (Used to be adverse to jazz vocalists too.) Finally decided this will force me to make some decisions (or maybe not.) And if I do decide to go nuts I'll still get a dvd out of the deal.

As mentioned earlier many of the pre-LP artist cds are comps, though I suppose there's a difference between "complete Brunswick" and a "best of." My Lester Young collection started with the Verve Swings comp, and I still find it useful. And like take5 I haven't moved beyond my Tatum's Finest Hour disc, despite all the stars assigned the Pablo boxes.

After borrowing some Beth Orton discs from a friend I've decided to either just get her first album or get a comp (for someone without that many albums she has several.)

So yeah, maybe it took a scarcity of shelf space to realize "best of" cds have their place!

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

So yeah, maybe it took a scarcity of shelf space to realize "best of" cds have their place!

Very true. Cost and space are about equal constraints for me, though space isn't an imminent problem; I think I've got two or three years' worth of space.

MG

[LJazz]

Thanks for all the interesting views/responses. I've never really had any issues or hesitation buying compilations of Pop, R&B, etc. because like others have stated, I often am only interested in certain tunes and feel these genre's are often more "hit" oriented.

I don't know why, but I have a thing about having duplicates of tunes, so I am much more hesitant to buy a Jazz compilation because I am more likely ultimately to go buy the individual sessions. This probably doesn't make much sense, especially if a particular musician is new to me, because buying an inexpensive sampler could prevent me from buying CDs from a particular period of the musician's development that doesn't agree with me.

[take5]

I don't know why, but I have a thing about having duplicates of tunes,

I know why I do- it's because those songs cost valuable cash and take up valueable CD/shelf space, and so having them repeated is wasteful.

We collectors all have our various OCD quirks- for some it's artist completion, for some it's by label, or maybe Japanese mini-LPs or whatever. For me, it's collection that's not small but compact, with minimised track repetition, and where every CD is eminently enjoyable to listen to. Comps, of various types and sizes, and sometimes when combined with albums, can be really helpful with that.

[LJazz]

I don't know why, but I have a thing about having duplicates of tunes,

I know why I do- it's because those songs cost valuable cash and take up valueable CD/shelf space, and so having them repeated is wasteful.

I think maybe you understand me!

[Noj]

I have over 230 compilations and tons of best ofs.