Billie Holiday Box Set on Verve

[Face of the Bass]

I guess my complaint about the Mosaic stems from the fact that they don't change their design at all from set to set. Elvin Jones is Bobby Hackett is Bix Beiderbecke is Anthony Braxton is Louis Armstrong is Sam Rivers is the Four Freshmen...you get the idea. The design is perfectly fine taken in isolation, but used a hundred times over? I think a little adventure wouldn't hurt. Maybe something to keep the same overall design and size but a tweak for each box? I don't know. I don't think the b&w look fits all boxes as well.

[Ken Dryden]

I've never heard of Mosaic full sized boxed sets described as boring. Easy to read liner notes, with lots of details, no magnifying glass needed. While the idiotic design of the various small cubes where you can't lie the liner notes flat on a surface to read them, the metal box's rust spreads to whatever it touches, or the cardboard holders scratch the CDs as they are removed and inserted...

No contest, give me Mosaic's designer and fire the bozos who designed the Verve Bill Evans set, the Billie Holiday Verve set, the Charlie Christian Columbia boxed set, the Thelonious Monk Columbia best of set (with rubber holders barely holding onto the discs, etc.

[tranemonk]

I'm totally with you Ken...

There is a simple elegance to the Mosaic sets... And in this day and age... we could use with a LOT more simple elegance.... :blush2:

I've never heard of Mosaic full sized boxed sets described as boring. Easy to read liner notes, with lots of details, no magnifying glass needed. While the idiotic design of the various small cubes where you can't lie the liner notes flat on a surface to read them, the metal box's rust spreads to whatever it touches, or the cardboard holders scratch the CDs as they are removed and inserted...

No contest, give me Mosaic's designer and fire the bozos who designed the Verve Bill Evans set, the Billie Holiday Verve set, the Charlie Christian Columbia boxed set, the Thelonious Monk Columbia best of set (with rubber holders barely holding onto the discs, etc.

[gmonahan]

I guess my complaint about the Mosaic stems from the fact that they don't change their design at all from set to set. Elvin Jones is Bobby Hackett is Bix Beiderbecke is Anthony Braxton is Louis Armstrong is Sam Rivers is the Four Freshmen...you get the idea. The design is perfectly fine taken in isolation, but used a hundred times over? I think a little adventure wouldn't hurt. Maybe something to keep the same overall design and size but a tweak for each box? I don't know. I don't think the b&w look fits all boxes as well.

I take your point, and I confess that I wouldn't mind having pictures of the original cover art like the best of the old Fantasy/Prestige booklets used to do. (Also wouldn't mind an alphabetical list of tunes.) To its credit, Mosaic does include the color cover art on the Selects. My guess is that with the big boxes, it's a combination of choice and cost. Color costs more, and there are presumably copyright issues with getting all the cover art. All that said, like others here, I love the black and white (as I think Mosaic obviously does). It gives the big boxes a certain cachet, and I sort of like the egalitarianism inherent in treating Sam Rivers with the same respect one does with Louis Armstrong!

gregmo

[Van Basten II]

Mosaic in their own way have branded their boxset, it would be foolish for them to do otherwise. Enjoy the classy way they are done all in black and white. Can't say the same about the Select Series though.

[Christiern]

I find nothing "classy" about the Mosaic boxes. Unless one still has room on the old LP shelves, they are a bloody nuisance to store. Granted, it's great to not have the photos in miniature and to be able to read the notes, but a booklet half the size would do nicely, I think. I used to take the jewelboxes out of the big box and shelve them with the rest of my CDs. That may not have been the best system, for almost all my Mosaics were stole and I was left with only the outer boxes and booklets.

[gmonahan]

I find nothing "classy" about the Mosaic boxes. Unless one still has room on the old LP shelves, they are a bloody nuisance to store. Granted, it's great to not have the photos in miniature and to be able to read the notes, but a booklet half the size would do nicely, I think. I used to take the jewelboxes out of the big box and shelve them with the rest of my CDs. That may not have been the best system, for almost all my Mosaics were stole and I was left with only the outer boxes and booklets.

Stolen??! OUCH! That would be really terrible! I do take the jewel cases out and store them with the rest of my cds, but I'd be undone if they got stolen! (And I keep the booklets on a separate shelf close to my listening chair!)

gregmo

[Chuck Nessa]

I find nothing "classy" about the Mosaic boxes. Unless one still has room on the old LP shelves, they are a bloody nuisance to store. Granted, it's great to not have the photos in miniature and to be able to read the notes, but a booklet half the size would do nicely, I think. I used to take the jewelboxes out of the big box and shelve them with the rest of my CDs. That may not have been the best system, for almost all my Mosaics were stole and I was left with only the outer boxes and booklets.

Be careful with those keys.

[corbin]

I have the Japanese-issue 10-LP box set (blue box with obi). Nicest sound and presentation (booklets in English and Japanese) of any reissue I've seen or heard.

Corbin

[crisp]

Looks like the Schaap-produced 10-disc set is the latest to be reissued as a budget box. 32 euros at Amazon Italy.

Schaap's 10-disc Bird box is in the same series for 28 euros. Handy if you didn't get these the first time round -- I've ordered the Bird.

[Christiern]

The Schaap-produced Mosaic Bird box box easily gets my vote for the second-most ludicrous reissue ever (His Benedetti box, containing everything but a coffee-stained set of menus, was a masterpiece).

Hope you enjoy the "recently discovered" 48-second intro of Ella F.

or the 5-second "previously unreleased" rehearsal coda to My Melancholy Baby

or the "previously unreleased" and "incomplete" 1st take of Leap Frog — a quick hop, it runs 27 seconds, but don't worry, there are many other snippets of this selection, ranging in duration from 18 to 43 seconds. My favorite is the 23-second one.

Then there is that wonderful 8-second false start of Relaxing with Lee, the 10-second false start of I'll Remember April, a true classic!

If you're into latin rhythms, try not to miss the 4-second false start of Estrellita or the generous 10-second La Cucuracha.

Many, many more great, speedy snippets for Bird lovers on the run, so I am only scratching the surface* here, as it were.

Finally, as if that isn't generous enough, Schaap—a lover of the spoken word—also clarifies the chatter:

* Metaphorically speaking, not the way Schaap scratched Benny's Carnegie Hall concert.

[jazzbo]

All due respect Chris but the Holiday Verve and the Mosaic Bird are among my favorite box sets!

Nice that the Holiday will be available at such an attractive price for new fans.

[Larry Kart]

I have the old LP Holiday on Verve box (put together in Japan IIRC). Just right.

[J.A.W.]

The Complete Billie Holiday on Verve 10CD-set is sonically one of the worst I've heard. It was mastered by Suha Gur, whose mastering work is not my cup of tea, and produced by Phil Schaap. I sold it and got the far better sounding 6CD-set The Complete Verve Master Takes instead; that one was mastered by Bob Irwin and Jayme Pieruzzi, Schaap had nothing to do with it.

Edited May 9, 2013 by J.A.W.

[Chuck Nessa]

I have both Holiday sets and agree with J.A.W.

[jazzbo]

I agree that the master take box sounds better, but the complete is not the worst I've heard and has better notes and is . . . well, complete. I am very glad to have it.

And glad it's available cheaply for those who want to explore this period of this great artist.

Too bad Hip-O Select is not going to put out another set with the rest of the Holiday material. That would be cool.

[crisp]

Hip-O did put out a Commodore/Decca masters set -- this one -- is that not everything from Universal?

I have both Verve Holiday sets and listen to the master takes one far more. I don't think I've ever played the disc of rehearsals recorded in her living room on the Schaap one; such things just don't interest me. The original Schaap box has beautiful packaging and liner notes, however, and was my introduction to this music, so I have a sentimental attachment to it.

I have the master takes Bird set but want the complete box because it has other finished takes. The ideal release would be a box of all Bird's completed takes, plus perhaps any lengthy breakdowns, newly remastered by a decent engineer, but it doesn't exist. I'll just put both on my hard drive and make a playlist excluding all the snippets.

[king ubu]

(Yes, the Commodore and Decca material is Universal now, too ... but I assume Lon meant another box with the alternates, rehearsals and live dates.)

Now, I was not aware of this one here, same series:

http://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B00B9YDT68/

[crisp]

Yes, I've ordered that with the Bird. Really pleased to be able to get the Nineties boxes I missed first time round when I was an impoverished student (as opposed to an impoverished journalist).

Now, will they reissue the Roland Kirk Mercury?

[J.A.W.]

Hip-O did put out a Commodore/Decca masters set -- this one -- is that not everything from Universal?

No, the Verve sides are also owned by Universal; so "everything from Universal" would be all Commodore, Decca and Verve recordings.

[crisp]

That's what I meant -- the Verve set under discussion plus the other Hip-O set is everything from Universal.

[Chuck Nessa]

The Hip-O misses the alternates from Decca and Commodore.

[Teasing the Korean]

On this, Billie Holiday's 100th birthday, let me once again reiterate my hatred for this dreadful Verve box set, easily the ugliest in terms of design and the most clumsy in terms of functionality.

I've enjoyed it much more since I slipped the discs into flat envelopes, so now I don't have to look at the thing.

Only the best for Billie.

[king ubu]

Lots of venom here ... okay, I sure don't enjoy the fact that the Bird and Billie boxes need so much shelf space. And the even does so without giving us a thick booklet. The Billie booklet however, is quite nice, I find ... and sonically, I guess I'm impaired or whatever, I find no issue with the box.

As a short, belated aside to the above discussion of studio banter: did it ever occur that not all of us were there? And that some of us might indeed be thrilled (or just: interested) to get a glimpse of that studio atmosphere and the banter and all of that?

[Teasing the Korean]

Sounds like we're talking about two different sets.