Complete Jack Johnson Sessions?

[Tjazz]

5 CD set of Jack Johnson - lots of alt versions.

Who's interested?

$51.06 at Deepdiscountcd.com (no tax/ free shipping)

http://www.deepdiscountcd.com/index.cfm?re...pc=696998635920

I'll listen to it. Not interested in buying it.

[rockefeller center]

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...%20johnson&st=0

I'll buy it but won't listen to it.

[GregK]

I'm interested. Looks very good, although I don't know how many repeated listens I'll devote to this. I do like to hear how Teo spliced together these classic albums from longer takes; The Silent Way box is great for this, and I'm hoping the JJ box is just as fascinating. It's at CDuniverse for $48.99. There's a thread on this under the New Releases section. Sorry, I should have pasted the link.

[Peter Johnson]

Eh.

Fan of Miles' albums and boots, not a fan of Miles' archival stuff--except the Gil Evans box. Won't be getting this.

Vive la difference!

[dave9199]

Amazing how on another thread everyone is jazzed up about it, but here, meh. I'll buy it, but I was hoping it was more songs rather than different versions of a bunch of songs. Is anyone looking forward to the last box; Seven Steps To Berlin? It's mostly the live albums of 1963-64.

[Quincy]

I've been running hot & cold about it.

For most of the past 20 some odd years if you had told me such a beast was coming out I'd be jumping up & down unable to sleep for the excitement.

Then I saw the setlist. Do I really want that many "Willie Nelsons?"

Then I got excited again, then I read a review on the board from someone who had previewed a copy...

Finally I realized that how I should listen to it is load the whole thing into the 5 disc carousel, play 1 track (or maybe 2) off a disc and go to the next disc and pick another track. And so on. I don't have to listen to it in order and pretend I'm enrolled in a 400 level Miles fusion class! (Though I might give that a whirl sometime.)

So I ordered it from CD Universe as they've been faster in the past for delivery than Deep Discount. (I'm letting them handle the special edition of The Who's "The Kids Are Alright" DVD - remastered, cleaned up and the music is finally at the right speed! Just $19 with free shipping.)

What a day releases from the '70s! Yup, I'm excited again.

[dave9199]

I just found out yesterday about The Kids Are Alright. I'm more excited by that!!!

I need an opinion: what's one of the best live Miles albums between 1973-75?

[GregK]

I just found out yesterday about The Kids Are Alright. I'm more excited by that!!!

I need an opinion: what's one of the best live Miles albums between 1973-75?

Pangaea is a great one, lots of space with great playing by Miles and the guitarists

[GregK]

Amazing how on another thread everyone is jazzed up about it, but here, meh. I'll buy it, but I was hoping it was more songs rather than different versions of a bunch of songs. Is anyone looking forward to the last box; Seven Steps To Berlin? It's mostly the live albums of 1963-64.

If this one has the live sessions with Sam Rivers and George Coleman then yes I am very eagerly anticipating this one, more so than the Blackhawk set

[sal]

I need an opinion: what's one of the best live Miles albums between 1973-75?

Pangaea is a great one, lots of space with great playing by Miles and the guitarists

[jazzbo]

I'm getting excited about the box. Jack Johnson is NOT one of my favorite lps, but the other material that is here that I have heard I do like, so I'm looking forward to it.

"Live/Evil" I like better than Agharta and Pangea and Dark Magus. . . . I like some boots better than the official releases as well. (Save "Live/Evil"---that is boss; I'm looking forward to the Cellar Door dates!)

[dave9199]

Is Agharta & Pangaea better than Dark Magus?

[GregK]

Is Agharta & Pangaea better than Dark Magus?

To me Pangaea is a little less "cluttered" than Dark Magus or Agharta, which are more dense and livelier. I like Pangaea because at least to me it has the classic Miles feel of less-is-more, with lots of openess. But all 3 are very good. The guitarists on each of these records play in a very distorted white noise-ish sense. Don't forget Live/Evil too, which is completely different, more funky

[DrJ]

I'm lookin' forward to the JACK JOHNSON box - I have not heard ANY of this music yet, been holding out for this release. Can't wait. I listen to the IN A SILENT WAY box all the time, and find much of the extra unreleased material fascinating (even if much of it is ultimately quite flawed). It gets inside the subconscious, and I find it is more worthwhile than most of the extras in the BITCHES BREW box.

[Jazzmoose]

Confession time: I don't even have the original Jack Johnson, and I'm unlikely to get this. I just ran out of my Miles kick before getting to it, and there's just too damned much to listen to out there. Those of you who have been listening to jazz for years and years probably can't relate, but I didn't start really loading up on jazz until earyl in '99. I've got about thirty Miles discs, and that just may be all I ever own.

[Rooster_Ties]

Well, Moose, when the remastered version of the single disc of Jack Johnson comes out, you really ought to check it out. It's probably one of my top-5 Miles discs, or so I've claimed for over 10 years. The first 10 minutes of side 1 is worth it's weight in gold.

[BFrank]

Well, Moose, when the remastered version of the single disc of Jack Johnson comes out, you really ought to check it out. It's probably one of my top-5 Miles discs, or so I've claimed for over 10 years. The first 10 minutes of side 1 is worth it's weight in gold.

Yes. It rocks harder than many "rock & roll" albums!

Astounding.

[Quincy]

Is anyone looking forward to the last box; Seven Steps To Berlin? It's mostly the live albums of 1963-64.

7 Steps and Quiet Nights are the only 2 pre-'80s Columbia Miles that I don't own. Perhaps 5 years ago I ran across the webpage that listed the planned box sets and so I decided to show great patience and wait for the box to get 7 Steps.

The Tokyo concert is terrific as it's exciting to hear Miles with a "new" saxophonist. The '64 Carnegie (My Funny Valentine and Four & More) has long been a favorite. I had a copy of it stolen 2 years ago and had to buy it again as I knew I couldn't wait for the remaster with that one! Gotta have those hip Mort Fega announcements at the beginning and end of the sets!

I'm hoping they can dig up some extra material, but even if they don't I love the "transition" years (especially if you include the recent complete Blackhawk) so I think this will be a nice little package that can sensibly wrap it all up with improved sound. Maybe they'll even include some neat never-before-seen pictures too, assuming I can turn the pages in the tight little books these boxes have!

Plus the tracks off of 7 Steps that weren't performed live will be brand new songs for me, which is pretty exciting stuff, seeing as Miles isn't recording much new stuff nowadays.

[Quincy]

Confession time:  I don't even have the original Jack Johnson, and I'm unlikely to get this.  I just ran out of my Miles kick before getting to it, and there's just too damned much to listen to out there.  Those of you who have been listening to jazz for years and years probably can't relate, but I didn't start really loading up on jazz until earyl in '99.  I've got about thirty Miles discs, and that just may be all I ever own. - Jazzmoose 

I can relate. There is too much out there!

I've only been a "more than Miles" jazz buyer since around the same time. Oh, there'd be the occasional stray Mingus, Monk or Coltrane that'd sneak in, but I was buying mostly rock, a smattering of "real" country (Cash, Hank Sr., etc.), a bit of folk and this or that until about '99 as well.

Though I don't regret being Miles obsessive for all of those years as he had some wonderful playmates who I eventually got around to investigating which brought me further into jazz, there's a great deal I missed out on, namely because so many artists didn't play with Miles (or for very long.)

With age and quitting smoking (and not just tobacco ) 'round the same time has come more money that's available for music (which now means jazz!) It's a thrill to have so much out there to discover, be it '70s Dexter, Moran & Osby, Tristano-Konitz-Marsh, you name it (and it all gets named somewhere on this board!)

Jack Johnson is a monster. If or when you have a hankering for electric Ali-Frasier heavyweight champion Miles with rip-snorting guitar it's the one you need. Until then pursue the 147 other things on your happy hunting list with glee!

Edited September 15, 2003 by Quincy

[king ubu]

I will pick up the Jack Johnson box - I love those Sony Miles boxes anyway, and would not want to miss one of'em! Never heard the Jack Johnson album, though, waiting for the box to come. Yet I like the post-Bitches Brew stuff better every time I listen to it. Got all those live 2CDs - a pity they decided not to bring out more stuff from those dates (the first Fillmore - wow! I'd love to have all those complete sets! And of course, Live-Evil, my favorite Miles of that period - maybe the latest Miles album to really belong to my personal top 5 or top 10 Miles albums.)

Then the 63/64 stuff: Hell! There's some real GREAT playing on those concerts! The double CD of My Funny Valentine/Four & More was one of my first Miles records, and I still LOVE it! Not only because of the obviously great rhythm section, BUT because of George Coleman, too! I dig his playing on the records he made with Miles very very much! He is so fast, always accurate, clean execution, full of ideas, with a beautiful (Trane-influenced? So what!) somewhat veiled sound... And on the liners of the CD, they say the quintet performed tunes not on record (I can only remember Autumn Leaves being listed, but there may be some more). To listen to that whole (hope they can dig up that stuff!) concert as it happened (though I like the sequencing of the original albums, too) will be a thrill!

Then the Antibes concert was a very good one, too (I guess we already have the complete set from there on CD). And the "Miles In Berlin" album - HELLYEAH!! Beautiful sound (the Philharmonie of Berlin), and great playing by all. That's one of the best albums of the MD-Shorter-Hancock-Carter-Williams-band, if you ask me!

Hope they dig up some more tunes from the Berlin concert!

Never heard the stuff with Sam Rivers, but I'm waiting eagerly for it!

And the early studio stuff with Coleman - I only heard those recordings once or twice, several years ago, but I don't remember them as being bad (well, not BAAAD either, I guess), but if only for the possibility to hear Miles with some unlikely musicians (Frank Butler), they should be pretty interesting.

ubu

[danasgoodstuff]

As I understand it the Jack Johnso box will have only the "as played" bits and pieces of "Go Ahead John" but NOT the "as originally released" final mix that Teo assembled from them. For that you still need Big Fun which overlapps with the Bitches Brew box and has one tune from the On the Corner sessions not available elsewhere ("Ife"?). And here I thought I could get everything just once by going the boxed set route, silly me. That not so minor annoyance aside, I'm still looking forward to this as much as anything recently--lots of stuff I haven't heard and I've heard all the officially released Miles. Will there be a collection of Miles studio stuff from On the Corner thru Get Up With It?

[dave9199]

No, the Jack Johnson box is as far as they're going.

[chris olivarez]

After a less than positive experience with the 4 cd "Bitches Brew" I think I'll pass on this but the shorter remastered version sounds interesting.

[king ubu]

As I understand it the Jack Johnso box will have only the "as played" bits and pieces of "Go Ahead John" but NOT the "as originally released" final mix that Teo assembled from them. For that you still need Big Fun which overlapps with the Bitches Brew box and has one tune from the On the Corner sessions not available elsewhere ("Ife"?). And here I thought I could get everything just once by going the boxed set route, silly me. That not so minor annoyance aside, I'm still looking forward to this as much as anything recently--lots of stuff I haven't heard and I've heard all the officially released Miles. Will there be a collection of Miles studio stuff from On the Corner thru Get Up With It?

Don't they include the original tracks at the end of the box? As with the In A Silent Way box? I thought that was a good idea! AMG says those tracks are right there, at the end of disc 5.

Then another question regarding "Ife" - I did wait to get into the studio electric Miles until the box-sets came ahead (with some exceptions of course), so I don't have any of the 2LP (now 2CD) sets (Big Fun, Get Up With It etc). Now my question: that track "Ife" - does it not belong in the timeframe of one of the boxes? Or did they "forget" it? And are there other things available NOT as parts of the box-sets, and if so, what tracks on what CDs?

As I understand it, the whole of "On the Corner" is not included (and not scheduled to be either) in any of the boxes. So why did they not give us a CD or a double CD containing all the tracks from those dates?

Then: are there other studio sessions, post Jack Johnson, available only on those compilations?

thanks,

ubu

[Quincy]

Then another question regarding "Ife" - I did wait to get into the studio electric Miles until the box-sets came ahead (with some exceptions of course), so I don't have any of the 2LP (now 2CD) sets (Big Fun, Get Up With It etc). Now my question: that track "Ife" - does it not belong in the timeframe of one of the boxes? Or did they "forget" it?

It appears on Big Fun and doesn't belong in the timeframe of any of the boxes as the session date is June 12, 1972. It's sort of an outliner on Big Fun as all of the other tracks take place between November 19, 1969 and March 3, 1970. I should note I'm trusting the liner notes which might be a dangerous thing to be doing.

And are there other things available NOT as parts of the box-sets, and if so, what tracks on what CDs?

I'm fairly certain that all of the extra tracks that have been appearing on the reissues are from the boxed sets. Having upgraded all of the '65-'68 Quintet reissues but not buying the box (yet?) I counted up about 40 minutes worth of music that was only available on the box (all other outtakes were available on the individual album reissues.)