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Have you packed all your cds/vinyl carefully/secure/safely? That's all that matters Good luck moving there.

https://www.acerecords.co.uk/eternal-journey--the-arrangements-and-productions-of-charles-stepney-1 This should be interesting, though they missed badly on the Terry Callier selections (How do you not select "Dancing Girl", which is Stepney's masterpiece, and "Alley-Wind Song" for this set?), and on the Dells ("I Can Sing A Rainbow/Love is Blue" is inexplicably absent).

I love my boxed sets but must say I never listen to a complete boxed set: mostly individual discs. Boxed sets must be pieces of art to me that really distinct in artwork or liners. If it's just music only in chronological order I prefer the seperate sessions. I also like if if they compile music that's pretty hard to obtain. The Byard Lancaster set by Souffle Continu is an example of an essential boxed set I must say. I havent ripped a cd since streaming is avaible. The places where I stream I don't play much jazz: in the gym and in the car. Jazz doesn't work in the gym for me and my car has awful sound for jazz music. I play jazz at home and i'd prefer to pick out a cd or an lp instead of playing digital files from my computer.

There would be a lot to say ... In brief, I find them convenient for exploring an artist or a musical area in a comprehensive manner (provided the box sets are compiled thoughtfully), and those that come with just as comprehensive liner notes (often not just booklets but BOOKS) are not just an audible but also a visual treat. Though the investments sometimes are heavy ... if bought new. When found secondhand, anything is possible, either they soar in price or they can be found dirt cheap (such as about a year ago when I came across the 4-CD box set of "Sidney Bechet in Switzerland" in mint condition for a measly 10 Euros at our local record shop - but in the music BOOKS section because they clearly had taken it to be a BOOK ). And FWIW, I still like or even love my VINYL box sets too. There were some nice ones there too. But of course you cannot reshuffle their contents the way you do with yours. OTOH, sometimes these box sets even turn out to be the most economical way of purchasing a chunk of music (and I am not at all talking about Public Domain label multi-CD compilations, though some of these "XX classic albums by YY" are convenient too). Way more affordable than buying the individual CDs or LPs that made up the box set. Both new or secondhand. So sometimes it pays if you did not (or were unable to) snap up certain items right after they were released but quite a while later when they had progressed from several individual records to all in one box set.

Pre-internet, I bought a Japanese book on the Riverside discography from Tower Records. It was invaluable to see even the album covers and personnel for albums I never knew existed. But as Lou Reed sang "those were different times". I'm too old, tired, and sated for all of that!

January 31, 2026: Jackie Venson, Antone's, Austin Hamilton de Holanda Trio, Windmills, The Colony Jason Moran (Ellington Tribute, solo and with UT Jazz Orchestra), Bates Recital Hall, Austin February 2, 2026: Ari Hoenig Trio with Tivon Pennicott, Drink and Think, Denton February 3, 2026: Ari Hoenig Trio, Parker Jazz Club, Austin February 4, 2026: Ari Hoenig Trio with Tivon Pennicott, Doc's, Houston February 5, 2026: Ari Hoenig Trio, JazzTX, San Antonio February 7, 2026: Quamon Fowler, Scat Jazz, Fort Worth February 17, 2026: Peter Bernstein Quintet, Parker Jazz Club, Austin February 19, 2026: Bruce Saunders Quintet with Peter Bernstein, Monk's Jazz Club, Austin February 20, 2026: Shemekia Copeland and Ally Venable, Granville Arts Center, Garland February 21, 2026: Shelley Carrol, Scat Jazz, Fort Worth February 22, 2026: Branford Marsalis Quartet, Wortham Theater, Houston February 24, 2026: Larry Goldings, Peter Bernstein, Bill Stewart Trio, Parker Jazz Club, Austin February 25, 2026: Larry Goldings, Peter Bernstein, Bill Stewart Trio, JazzTX, San Antonio February 26, 2026: Larry Goldings, Peter Bernstein, Bill Stewart Trio, Scat Jazz, Fort Worth March 5, 2026: Pat Metheny, Charline McCombs Empire Theater, San Antonio March 6, 2026: Pat Metheny, Paramount Theater, Austin Jackie Venson, Windmills, The Colony March 7, 2026: Pat Metheny Side-Eye, Wortham Theater, Houston Jackie Venson, Windmills, The Colony March 13, 2026: T.K. Blue and African Rhythms Alumni, A Tribute to Randy Weston, Walton Arts Center, Little Rock, Arkansas March 14, 2026: Bnois King, Blues and Tattoos Festival, Gainesville March 20, 2026: Sarah Hanahan, Monk's Jazz Club, Austin Chirag Katti (sitar), Windmills, The Colony March 21, 2026: Sunny War, Anne Harris, Sable Sisters (Kaia Kater), Buffalo Nichols, Jake Blount, Justin Robinson, Fort Worth African American Roots Music Festival, Southside Preservation Hall, Fort Worth Chirag Katti (sitar), Windmills, The Colony March 22, 2026: Sarah Hanahan, Eldorado Ballroom, Houston March 26, 2026: Pat Metheny Side-Eye III, Marc Ribot, Ches Smith Clone Row, Isaiah Collier, William Hooker Quartet, Big Ears Festival, Knoxville, Tennessee March 27, 2026: Chucho Valdes Royal Quartet, John Scofield Trio, Ghost Train Orchestra: The Music of Moondog, Jeff Parker Expansion Trio, Miles Okazaki Trickster, Nate Smith, Ned Rothenberg, Nik Bartsch, Sullivan Fortner Trio, Tim Berne, Thomas Fujiwara: Dream Up, Saha Gnawa, Big Ears Festival, Knoxville, Tennessee March 28, 2026: Darius Jones Trio, Either/Orchestra, Incerto, Marquis Hill Blacktet, Mary Halvorson, Miles Okazaki: The Compete Monk, , Nate Smith, Nik Bartsch Ronin, Patricia Brennan Septet, Shabaka, Yasmin Williams and William Tyler, Incerto, Electrical Field of Love, Big Ears Festival, Knoxville, Tennessee March 29, 2026: Brandon Woody's Upendo, Chicago Underground Duo, Dave Douglas Gifts Quartet, Either/Orchestra Plays Eithiopiques, Julian Lage Quartet, Marc Ribot, Matt Mitchell's Zealous Angles, Miles Electric Band, Nels Cline: Lovers, Openness Trio, Tom Skinner,, L. Shankar, Big Ears Festival, Knoxville, Tennessee April 1, 2026: Samara Joy, Winspear Opera House, Dallas Pat Metheny Side-Eye III, Majestic Theater, Dallas April 2, 2026: Kaia Kater, Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, Little Rock, Arkansas Samora Joy, Austin City Limits April 4, 2026: Samora Joy, Tobin Center, San Antonio Melissa Aldana, Bates Recital Hall, Austin April 10, 2026: Coltrane at 100 (Joe Lovano, Melissa Aldana, Ndudzo Makhathini, Matt Garrison, Jefftain Watts), Cullen Theater, Houston April 11, 2026: Rakesh Charaurasia (flute) and Amit Kavthekar (tabla), Matchbox4, Houston April 12, 2026: John Beasley's Unlimited Miles (John Beasley, Mark Turner, Sean Jones or Marquis Hill, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Ben Williams, Terreon Gu)), Eisemann Center, Richardson April 23, 2026: Nicholas Payton featuring Butcher Brown Presents the Supreme Blue, Monty Alexander "Jamericana", Charlie Musselwhite, Kyle Roussel, Kenny Neal, Vieux Farka Toure (Mali), Nidia Gongora (Columbia); Yusa (Cuba), Aurora Nealand and the Royal Roses, Jamil Sharif, Peter Harris Presents Firm Roots, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival April 24, 2026: Hiromi's Sonicwonder, Adonis Rose and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra featuring Andromeda Turre, Astral Project, Parlor Greens (w/Jimmy James), Tribute to Ragtime Piano Legends feat. Terry Waldo, Tom McDermott, and David Boeddinghaus, Lil Ed and the Blues Imperials, Sevana (Jamaica), Joy Clark, Wendell Brunious, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival April 25, 2026: Mahmoud Chouki, Louis Ford, Little Freddie King, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival April 26, 2026: Ron Carter Quartet, Catherine Russell, Roger Lewis and Baritone Bliss, Love Is Supreme: A Tribute to John Coltrane feat. Derek Douget, Trevarri Huff-Boone and Ricardo Pascal, Chris Thomas King, Tuba Skinny, People Museum, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival April 30, 2026: Isaiah Collier (The World is on Fire), Steve Masakowski Family Band, Sasha Masakowsti as Trash Magnolia, Helen Gillet, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival May 1, 2026: Terence Blanchard with Ravi Coltrane; Charlie Gabriel; Victor Campbell, Stephen Walker, D.K. Harrell, Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival Jackie Venson, Main Street Crossing, Tombull May 2, 2026: Dianne Reeves; Uptown Jazz Orchestra; Alexey Marti, Leroy Jones, Tribute to Jelly Roll Morton’s Red Hot Peppers feat. Dr. Michael White and Shaye Cohn, Larry McCray, Leyla McCalla, , New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival May 3, 2026: Herbie Hancock; Jason Marsalis, Trumpet Mafia featuring Keyon Harold, Jackie Venson, Lila Ike (Jamaica), Doreen's Jazz New Orleans, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival May 9, 2026: Hiromi's Sonic Wonder, Cullen Theater, Houston May 16, 2026: Chucho Valdes, Paramount Theater, Austin May 17, 2026: Lucia, Eldorado Ballroom, Houston October 10, 2026: Niladri Kumar (sitar), Stafford Center, Houston October 18, L. Shankar (violin), Selvaganesh Vinayakram, Swaminathan, Amit Kaythekar (percussion), Matchbox4, Houston

No other opinions?

Over the years I've taken to buying a lot of box sets. I have individual cds too but somehow I seem to have plunged for the big sets quite often. In the beginning I would just play the disks one by one and maybe look at the discography a bit. Later I decided to rip everything to hard drives and other storage and play everything on computers and other devices. I used to be an IT database and systems guy so I just treat my music the way I used to handle data and have backup scripts etc. This arrangement means I can break up the box sets into digital playlists. Whenever a set has lp size albums on it, I break them out into single album playlists. I usually add a number in the playlist name (and sometimes a set abbreviation) so that the playlists for the albums in each set sort and show up in chronological order. There is a significant amount of curating work in doing all this and some might ask wouldn't it be easier to just buy the individual albums? No answer for that. I guess I just like the completeness of having the sets. Mosaics and some others have good sound, I suppose... How do you approach listening to these box sets and what do you think of the whole box set thing?

I bet his guitar kills fascists too!

Since his music was written over a wide time period, there are a lot of different publishers for his music.

yup.

Kan Mikami / John Edwards / Alex Neilson - Live at Cafe OTO https://otoroku.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-cafe-oto-3 Anyone familiar with this album? I downloaded it semi-randomly from bandcamp (it's on the Otoroku label of course) and I'm loving it. It's basically a Japanese bluesman "singing" in a more experimental setting. It reminded me of Keiji Haino's Black Blues album (the soft one).

A couple recorded at the Festival de jazz de Montréal, where I lived between 1987 and 1993. And in Vienna, where I now live.

I'm not surprised. Unlike many Jazz musicians, he's had a good paying job for almost 40 years. His contract runs out (June of 2028) when he's about to turn 67, which is when he's eligible for full social security benefits. If he's managed to stash away enough in his IRA, he might be one of the few Jazz musicians who can actually retire and enjoy life outside of "work". I can personally attest that retirement can be great. I doubt he'll retire, but maybe. Or maybe we'll start to see him touring with smaller groups in local Jazz clubs instead of concert halls with the LCJO. I saw him years ago with a sextet and he was great.

I had recently started reading the earlier Listening to Prestige Vol. 1 (1949-54) session-by-session book (well, it's not that comprehensive session-by-session wise and otherwise a somewhat mixed bag too), but before additionally getting started seriously on the new "Listening to Prestige" label history book by Tad Richards as well I went back to this one (below) that I had gifted to myself for Christmas (based on recommendations by fellow forumists): Well-written, a fluent and informative read - about the music, the band and the man as an orchestra leader, anyway (as some other reivewer said, there are other books for other aspects of Stan Kenton the man ). I am now a bit more than halfway through the book (up to the Mellophonium years) and can say it really gives today's reader a good look into the "Kenton era" in all its facets. I've seen reviews of this book by, on the face of it, renowned reviewers who faulted Michael Sparke's book for a lack of "critical musical analysis" of Kenton's music. I don't know what they'd have expected this to be - how would anyone do a readable (!!) in-depth analysis of the Bob Graettinger scores or even those of Johnny Richards that remains readable to anyone OUTSIDE the confrerie of advanced musicologists in their ivory towers? I.e. readable to the average layman reader and listener and collector of the Stan Kenton music. For this target group of readers, however, I find the author has found the right balance of presenting, describing and characterizing the music in a way that makes you reach for certain records in the Kenton corner of your record shelves to give them a spin again or to revisit other records where the less than ethusiastic description by the author makes you wonder whether you did right in buying that platter in the first place. So, no, the author is no Kenton fanboy all the way through but does cover the weak spots too. Another bone of contention by some reivewers was the alleged excessive reliance on quotations from former band members and "subjective opinions". It may be only me but I find it is exactly these statements from those who worked with the man that brings the music and the life and working conditions of the Kenton band really into life and makes it all more understandable to present-day readers. This is another point where I wonder how things would have to be done to please these professional reviewers and what, if proceeding by the same yardstick, they would they have had to fault other authors for in THEIR biographies (and there are plenty out there where the weak spots stand out glaringly even to the non-expert reader). In fact, as I had come into posession of the below Kenton biography by William Lee last summer I decided on a two-fold approach and for large stretches of the Sparke biography I read the Lee biography in parallel for additional info - and testimonials (quotations ) from band members. On its own, the Lee biography can be a wearisome read for anyone but unconditional Kentonites who gladly absorb every snippet of everything ever written about Stan Kenton ... The quotations from former band members are even more numerous and even lengthier there, the capsule biographies given in the chronology for most new band members can distract and wear the reader out in the long run, and the reprints of contemporary press coverage of Kenton and his band activities often are redundant and colored by period copywriter blurb anyway (and not totally easy to quickly absorb for the reader due to a clumsy page layout). But if taken piecemeal and in moderate and well-targeted doses, those quotations and period press articles can be interesting and helpful in better understanding the reception of the Kenton band in its times. Even though those testimonials by former band members may be a bit colored by the fact that many seem to have been collected soon after the death of Stan Kenton (so a tone of "de mortuis nil nisi bene" may well have reigned here and there). All in all, when used in a targeted manner as a "source book" the Lee biography complements the one by Michael Sparke in a very useful way. In short, even without having access to the Lee biography, I'd recommend the Sparke bio any time to those who are not yet familiar with any Kenton biography - and thanks again to you forum members who pointed me towards this one.

What shall they do? Everything has been out multiple times. The best they can do is keeping the fine box sets and most important reissues available.

Masterpiece

The set landed just now in Italy, after crossing storm, delays, and the monsters of italian customs! Wow!

This is the story of Hurricane Carter. . . I mean Minnesota Martyrs.

Slightly underwhelming 100th anniversary "Best Of John Coltrane" compilation from Craft featuring tracks from his Prestige LPs. https://craftrecordings.com/blogs/news/best-of-john-coltrane

I've often had the same thought looking at the amazing range of Japanese language books on jazz on sale in Disk Union...