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Favorite packaging of box sets


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We spend a lot of time complaining about how some sets are packaged (Hell we spend a lot of time complaining about everything-- jazz fans are a cranky bunch), but what kind of packaging do we like? I just pulled out the Ornette "Beauty is a Rare Thing" box and was struck by how much I liked the way it was packaged: Nice looking, easy to access and informative notes. Anyone else got favorites.

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The Heavyweight Champion. Love that set. The discs are nicely contained in sturdy digipaks, the booklet is easy to read and well constructed, plus there's the cool tape reel box for the bonus disc. It's nice to handle a set that doesn't seem fragile, one that's actually USABLE and a booklet you can read, unlike the Miles metal boxes.

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The Heavyweight Champion. Love that set. The discs are nicely contained in sturdy digipaks, the booklet is easy to read and well constructed, plus there's the cool tape reel box for the bonus disc. It's nice to handle a set that doesn't seem fragile, one that's actually USABLE and a booklet you can read, unlike the Miles metal boxes.

I know some people don't like them, but I love the packaging of the Columbia Miles Davis box sets. I find it easy to get to the disks and the booklet, and like that they always stay together.

The kind I most dislike are the Mosaics that are unnecessarily large and bulky.

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The kind I most dislike are the Mosaics that are unnecessarily large and bulky.

Yes, but once you set aside the box, nothing beats their books for ease of use. Same for the full-sixed Fantasy boxes (Monk, Evans, Montgomery). The Mosaic Selects are pretty handy too. Come to think of it, the Mosaics are probably my favorite.

Seconds on the Heavyweight Champion, although I usually just pull out the individual CDs.

Edited by Eric
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The Heavyweight Champion. Love that set. The discs are nicely contained in sturdy digipaks, the booklet is easy to read and well constructed, plus there's the cool tape reel box for the bonus disc. It's nice to handle a set that doesn't seem fragile, one that's actually USABLE and a booklet you can read, unlike the Miles metal boxes.

I don't know about "sturdy digipaks"- mine crack every time I open them, and I think a few are about to disintegrate.

I've always liked the Miles Davis boxes, and the Albery Ayler Holy Ghost is pretty fancy, although not the easiest or most practical to access.

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Ideal box set packaging: Complete Herbie Nichols Blue Note Recordings and Complete Stan Getz Roost Recordings. Nice slimline jewelcases. Compact.

Runners-up: Miles Davis at the Plugged Nickel (a big plus for using jewel cases, but should've used slimline), Mosaic Selects, Keith Jarrett Impulse boxes

I dislike envelopes and digipaks.

Guy

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I just pulled out the Ornette "Beauty is a Rare Thing" box and was struck by how much I liked the way it was packaged: Nice looking, easy to access and informative notes.

The contents of my Ornette box slide out too easily and too quickly: if I don't handle the box very carefully, I find the contents on the floor. Same with the Mingus Atlantic box. The individual digipaks in the Ornette box are beautifully designed, and the book is very readable.

The Heavyweight Champion. Love that set. The discs are nicely contained in sturdy digipaks, the booklet is easy to read and well constructed, plus there's the cool tape reel box for the bonus disc.

The kind I most dislike are the Mosaics that are unnecessarily large and bulky.

I totally agree about the Coltrane box - I love seeing that cool tape reel box. I dislike Mosaic packaging because the black and white photo covers are artless and the typeface is ugly (not as bad as Pablo LPs but close), and the booklets separate on different pages the track listings and personnel listings.

The Miles boxes are nice, but the book spines are too stiff - it's difficult to open the books.

Other box sets I like: Capt. Beefheart Grow Fins, Charlie Parker Savoy & Dial box, also the Savoy Live Recordings box, The Savoy Story (nice large type in the booklet), Clifford Brown Blue Note (just beautiful design and use of photos), Grant Green retrospective. A booklet that I think is top notch, both for design and content, is Sonny Rollins Complete Prestige Recordings.

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Ideal box set packaging: Complete Herbie Nichols Blue Note Recordings and Complete Stan Getz Roost Recordings. Nice slimline jewelcases. Compact.

Runners-up: Miles Davis at the Plugged Nickel (a big plus for using jewel cases, but should've used slimline), Mosaic Selects, Keith Jarrett Impulse boxes

I dislike envelopes and digipaks.

Guy

:tup

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The kind I most dislike are the Mosaics that are unnecessarily large and bulky.

Yes, but once you set aside the box, nothing beats their books for ease of use. Same for the full-sixed Fantasy boxes (Monk, Evans, Montgomery). The Mosaic Selects are pretty handy too. Come to think of it, the Mosaics are probably my favorite.

Seconds on the Heavyweight Champion, although I usually just pull out the individual CDs.

I love the Mosaics because I can take the jewel boxes out of the big boxes and put them right on the shelf. Same for the booklets. Then I just store the empty big boxes in the garage. I find that if I don't take the jewel boxes out of the bigger ones, I don't play them as often. Laziness, I know, but there it is. I like the old Fantasy/Prestige/Milestone and Bear Family boxes for the same reason.

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I have a nagging feeling that envelopes will scratch CDs (moving in and out) at a pace that standard jewel cases and spindle-digipaks will not. I have not tested this idea so I don't know if it is actually true.

My dislike for digipaks has to do with the fact that once the packaging inevitably deteriorates, it can't be replaced with the artwork intact.

Guy

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I have a nagging feeling that envelopes will scratch CDs (moving in and out) at a pace that standard jewel cases and spindle-digipaks will not. I have not tested this idea so I don't know if it is actually true.

My dislike for digipaks has to do with the fact that once the packaging inevitably deteriorates, it can't be replaced with the artwork intact.

Guy

Just like the "originals" on vinyl.

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I like the packaging on Chuck's AEC box.

I really like the Ayler "Spirit Box". . . though I put the cds into a four banger and a six banger that I made artwork for.

I really like the Miles Davis Columbia sets with the spines. . . a little clunky but beautiful and I've never scratched the cds.

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I really like the Miles Davis Columbia sets with the spines. . . a little clunky but beautiful and I've never scratched the cds.

I too love the way the Mies Columbia boxes are presented...a little difficult to read sometimes but nice pieces to own. However, I had to take back my first copy of the BB set because after a few months of sitting on the shelf, the glue paper sleeves had lost adhesion and the glue was all over the CDs ---- every single one was unplayable at some point on the disc.

That Impulse Coltrane quartet set is an awkward bugger though.

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I really like the Miles Davis Columbia sets with the spines. . . a little clunky but beautiful and I've never scratched the cds.

I too love the way the Mies Columbia boxes are presented...a little difficult to read sometimes but nice pieces to own. However, I had to take back my first copy of the BB set because after a few months of sitting on the shelf, the glue paper sleeves had lost adhesion and the glue was all over the CDs ---- every single one was unplayable at some point on the disc.

That Impulse Coltrane quartet set is an awkward bugger though.

I have an unplayable disc 2 in my Davis/Coltrane set...due to glue. That was the last one of those I bought.

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Nothing (well, nothing that I really am familiar with) beats the BEAR FAMILY box sets. Can't find anything wrong with the packaging, and the liner note "booklets" that are more like an LP-sized coffee table book really are something else that sets them apart from the crowd.

Yes they even beats the Mosaics 'cause they're not afraid of using colour! The booklets are the most elaborate I know. Wish they would do more jazz.

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We've been here before haven't we? I don't think I've got a single box set where it isn't an incredibale amount of trouble to follow the track and recording details information. That even goes for Mosaics (I do quite like the books - but I only get them out on 'special occasions' - sick, aren't I?). So maybe my preferred sets are the ones that do least - probably like the EMI classical budget boxes which have a flip top, all CDs in card sleeves, a short and perfunctory booklet, and are very cheap! I still want EMI to issue the long oop Basie (x2) and Ferguson Mosaics in this format - I'm convinced they'd sell.

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I do like box sets, generally... the readability of the booklet often is a bit of a problem though. In that respect, Mosaic and Fantasy, as well as the smaller boxes by Blue Note (Getz Roost, Nichols, Morgan Lighthouse) are perfect.

Highlights for me would be the Ayler box, the Ray Charles set.

I always liked the Rhino Atlantic boxes (Mingus the least, but it's still nice, Coltrane is fine, Ornette is fine, too).

The Fantasy Cube boxes are too fat, using the normal jewel cases - even more stupid since except for tracklists, there's no info at all in the booklets - Mosaic beats them there. In fact, Mosaic is pretty good in that respect: you can read the liners and have the discographical info from the booklet and the tracklist from the traycard in front of you, all at the same time.

Less liked boxes include the Parker Savoy/Dial - it's the best there is, musically, but the packaging isn't that easy to handle, also the infamous Evans Verve. The booklets of several otherwise great boxes are lacking in different respects (Billie Holiday Columbia and Duke RCA - almost falling apart, Miles Columbia - hard to read, Billie Verve, Dexter & Hancock Blue Note - they'll always close again unless you virtually break them apart, which I don't, also the JATP - too fat for its small size, not bound well enough).

The Granz Jam Sessions with its open back is also a bit of an oddity... though the packaging of the CDs is nice, as well as the booklet!

The Coltrane Fearless is a bit annoying with the layering of the discs, and the Coltrane Impulse has another awkward booklet and rather annoying disc placement, too (the Pres Verve is much better done).

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The Ayler box is fun, but walks a fine line between practicality (boxed sets do furnish a room) and impracticality (getting CDs out requires excavation).

I like Leo's 8-CD New Music from Russia, Conspiracy and the Kuryokhin box. Album size boxes with nice colour booklets.

I like the fact the Rhino Atlantic boxes put liner notes in book form. Same goes for the Naked City box, though the book is uninformative.

Uptown's Mingus CD has a better booklet than most boxed sets do. Would love to see them do a boxed set.

While I like the metal spines, overall I don't like the Miles Davis Sony boxes. Major offences include unreadable yellow type on the In a Silent Way box and glue leeching out and wrecking CDs on the Bitches Brew set.

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Uptown's Mingus CD has a better booklet than most boxed sets do. Would love to see them do a boxed set.

That may be the most thorough booklet I have ever seen. And for a single disc! I imagine that if they ever did a box set that the booklet would dwarf the discs by a fair margin.

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I like Dave Brubecks's For All Time because three of the titles in the box do not seem to be available domestically, but they look like regular Columbia/Legacy cd reissues, and they are very easy to access. Miles Davis at the Black Hawk is packaged similarly to the Brubeck and I like it for the same reasons: that they reproduce the original artwork.

The Ayler Spirit Box gets major plaudits just for the book alone; I have never seen such an informative inclusion in any box set that I've encountered. And the reproductions of the Spiritual Unity Booklet and Slugs flier are really cool bonuses, not to mention the treasure trove of music. The only down side is that its a big awkward box and it actually sits on top of my bookshelf all by itself; there's no real convenient place to put it. A tiny quibble for such a monumental achievement nonetheless.

Edited by Holy Ghost
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