Black Saint/Soul Note Box Sets

[felser]

10 hours ago, T.D. said:

Any opinions on the Mal Waldron Volume 2 (11 CD) box?

I loved Volume 1, am considering Vol. 2 but am always wary of such large boxes. Four of the discs are essential (6 Monk's Compositions, the solo album and the 2 Lacy duets), and I'm sure I'd enjoy the trio album ("Colline"). The 2 discs with Chico Freeman and Enrico Rava respectively seem at least interesting, but I'd probably never listen to the 2 vocal albums (Kim Parker, Judi Silvano), and the 2 discs with David Friesen are complete question marks.

I own it and am glad for it, though I will never re-listen to some of the discs.  The discs with Friesen are really good, prime Waldron.

[T.D.]

Thanks, John. BTW, I (only recently) picked up the Andrew Cyrille box which you recommended above, and it's fantastic.

[Pim]

On 2-3-2019 at 3:36 AM, T.D. said:

Any opinions on the Mal Waldron Volume 2 (11 CD) box?

I loved Volume 1, am considering Vol. 2 but am always wary of such large boxes. Four of the discs are essential (6 Monk's Compositions, the solo album and the 2 Lacy duets), and I'm sure I'd enjoy the trio album ("Colline"). The 2 discs with Chico Freeman and Enrico Rava respectively seem at least interesting, but I'd probably never listen to the 2 vocal albums (Kim Parker, Judi Silvano), and the 2 discs with David Friesen are complete question marks.

Well as a Waldron completist I want this of course. The Lacy duets, Update and Our Collines a Treasure are essential Waldron. The duets with Friesen are very nice. The work with Freeman and Rava is not so good as you might expect and the works with the singers are truly not my taste. Still: enough interesting stuff especially for that price!

[felser]

2 hours ago, Pim said:

The work with Freeman and Rava is not so good as you might expect and the works with the singers are truly not my taste. 

I definitely  agree with that.   

[T.D.]

Thanks. I'm going to order. I've heard the 6 Monk's Compositions disc with Braxton et al.; maybe not essential Waldron per se but an outstanding recording. If 7 out of 11 CDs are good to excellent (assuming the worst of the Freeman and Rava albums; can't imagine I'll dig the 2 with vocals), the box offers value for money.

[T.D.]

Waldron 2 just arrived.

Want to put in a word for the Lester Bowie box. Just 3 discs, only one (5th Power) of which was released under Lester's name (other two by "The Leaders"), seems almost like an afterthought in the series, but damn, the music's excellent.

[T.D.]

Any thoughts on the George Lewis box? I've been on the fence, but may take advantage of the current (see recent thread) sale.

[JSngry]

Come down off that fence!

Personally, I think it was some of the more..."outside the box" music being made at the time in that part of the music world. And it's held up for me very well.

[T.D.]

Thanks, highly relevant comment...I'm more than fine with "outside the box" but often feel that electronic material doesn't age so well (hence the fence ).

[JSngry]

Well, there will be that, (tape more than electronic, per se) but I don't find it to be really "aged" not as in "dated". It all seems natural enough to the music at hand, it's just one more thing going on, not the thing itself.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I finally started cracking open my Black Saint/Soul Note boxes today and the first one I got open was Gianluigi Trovesi's box. I got to "Baghet" and discovered that it won't play the last track. Is anyone else finding this to be true?

[Jason Bivins]

I haven't noticed any tracks not playing, Kevin, but some of these discs are way more skippy/glitchy than typical commercial product.

[Kyo]

On 18.1.2018 at 2:02 AM, Patrick said:

Any speculation about what might appear next as a box set?

It looks like this series has sadly been discontinued (many old titles are still available, but no new releases for years now). But if they ever add more sets to it, I would like to see a Hamiet Bluiett set - he recorded seven albums for BS and SN as a leader.

[Dub Modal]

On 4/5/2020 at 9:37 PM, bresna said:

I finally started cracking open my Black Saint/Soul Note boxes today and the first one I got open was Gianluigi Trovesi's box. I got to "Baghet" and discovered that it won't play the last track. Is anyone else finding this to be true?

 

On 4/6/2020 at 4:37 PM, Jason Bivins said:

I haven't noticed any tracks not playing, Kevin, but some of these discs are way more skippy/glitchy than typical commercial product.

I've had some issues with tracks on my Jimmy Lyons and Lester Bowie sets too. 

2 hours ago, Kyo said:

It looks like this series has sadly been discontinued (many old titles are still available, but no new releases for years now). But if they ever add more sets to it, I would like to see a Hamiet Bluiett set - he recorded seven albums for BS and SN as a leader.

Kind of unbelievable that this wasn't one of the first sets produced. Great artist and albums for this label. 

[felser]

4 hours ago, Kyo said:

It looks like this series has sadly been discontinued (many old titles are still available, but no new releases for years now). But if they ever add more sets to it, I would like to see a Hamiet Bluiett set - he recorded seven albums for BS and SN as a leader.

Billy Bang is the one I always hoped for.

[greggery peccary]

1 hour ago, felser said:

Billy Bang is the one I always hoped for.

Agreed.

[Guy Berger]

As an only-partly-recovered CD addict, worth mentioning most of the BS/SN stuff is on Spotify.