EMI Modern Jazz Collectors Edition

[crisp]

Looks like EMI is offering its own answer to Sony BMG's boxed set discussed in this thread.

Available from April 26 at Amazon.

Details of contents here.

CD 1 - The Bud Powell Trio

CD 2 - Miles Davis / Birth Of The Cool

CD 3 - Lennie Tristano & Warne Marsh / Intution

CD 4 - Stan Getz / At Storyville Vol 1 & 2

CD 5 - Gerry Mulligan Quartet

CD 6 - Laurindo Almeida Quartet

CD 7 - June Christy / Somethin' Cool

CD 8 - Chet Baker / Sings

CD 9 - Clifford Brown / Jazz Immortal

CD 10 - Chico Hamilton Quintet Featuring Buddy Collette

CD 11 - Sonny Stitt / Plays Arrangements From The Pen Of Quincy Jones

CD 12 - Benny Goodman / The Benny Goodman Story

CD 13 - Serge Chaloff / Blue Serge

CD 14 - Sonny Criss / Go Man!

CD 15 - Nat King Cole / After Midnight

CD 16 - Art Pepper / Modern Art

CD 17 - Count Basie / Atomic Basie

CD 18 - Art Farmer / Modern Art

CD 19 - Ray Bryant / Plays

CD 20 - Maynard Ferguson / A Message From Birdland

CD 21 - Julie London / Around Midnight

CD 22 - Nina Simone / At The Village Gate

CD 23 - Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington / Together For The First Time

CD 24 - Sarah Vaughan / After Hours

CD 25 - Peggy Lee / Mink Jazz

CD 26 - Bill Evans & Jim Hall / Undercurrent

CD 27 - Duke Ellington / Money Jungle

CD 28 - Joe Pass / For Django

CD 29 - Cannonball Adderley / Mercy, Mercy, Mercy!

CD 30 - Chick Corea / Now He Sings, Now He Sobs

Ominously, that site describes it as a "2010 Korean 30 CD Set", but the cover and Amazon suggests it's official EMI: "Limited Edition 30 disc box set with albums from the Capitol Records, Pacific Jazz, Roulette and other Jazz labels. All packaged in Mini-LP sleeves. EMI. 2011."

[ejp626]

This looks to me to be a better overall set, but I still have far too much of it already to justify buying it.

[crisp]

And another one! Released on the same day. This time from Concord/Universal: Original Jazz Classics (30 Albums).

Details here.

1 Art Blakey - Caravan (All Music Guide: 4 Stars)

2 Art Pepper - Meets The Rhythm Section (All Music Guide: 5 Stars)

3 Benny Carter - Jazz Giant (All Music Guide: 4 Stars)

4 Bill Evans - Waltz For Debby (All Music Guide: 5 Stars)

5 Bill Evans - Portrait In Jazz (All Music Guide: 4 Stars)

6 Bobby Timmons - This Here Is Bobby Timmons (All Music Guide: 4 Stars)

7 Cannonball Adderley Quintet - In San Francisco (All Music Guide: 4 Stars)

8 Abbey Lincoln - Abbey Is Blue (Amg 4 Stars)

9 Sonny Stitt / Bud Powell / J.J. Johnson - Sonny Stitt / Bud Powell / J.J. Johnson

10 Chet Baker - Chet

11 Coleman Hawkins - The Hawk Flies High (All Music Guide: 4 Stars)

12 Eric Dolphy - At The Five Spot, Vol.1 (All Music Guide: 4 Stars)

13 John Coltrane - Soultrane (All Music Guide: 4 Stars)

14 John Coltrane - Lush Life (All Music Guide: 4 Stars)

15 Kenny Burrell & John Coltrane - Kenny Burrell & John Coltrane (All Music Guide: 4 Stars)

16 Kenny Dorham - Quite Kenny (All Music Guide: 4 Stars)

17 Kenny Drew Trio - Pal Joey (All Music Guide: 5 Stars?)

18 King Pleasure With Annie Ross - King Pleasure Sings/Annie Ross Sings (Amg: 4 Stars)

19 Miles Davis Quintet - Cookin' (All Music Guide: 4 Stars)

20 Miles Davis Quintet - Steamin' (All Music Guide: 5 Stars)

21 The Modern Jazz Quartet - Django (All Music Guide: 4 Stars)

22 Nat Adderley - Work Song (All Music Guide: 4 Stars)

23 Barney Kessel, Shelly Manne & Ray Brown - The Poll Winners (All Music Guide: 4 Stars)

24 Ray Bryant - Ray Bryant Trio (All Music Guide: 4 Stars)

25 Red Garland Trio - Groovy (All Music Guide: 4 Stars)

26 Shelly Manne & His Friends - My Fair Lady (All Music Guide: 5 Stars)

27 Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Colossus (All Music Guide: 5 Stars)

28 Thelonious Monk - Brilliant Corners (All Music Guide: 5 Stars)

29 Wes Montgomery - The Incredible Jazz Guitar Of Wes Montgomery (Amg: 4 Stars)

30 Wynton Kelly - Kelly Blue (All Music Guide: 4 Stars)

[Dan Gould]

I don't get it - instant label-specific-collection box sets? The price seems right on a per-disc basis but who is the target audience? Hard to see someone being that much of a fan but not already having some portion of the set already.

[.:.impossible]

Emergency jazz collection kits.

[JSngry]

Interesting that EMI puts out a mega-jumbo jazzbox w/no Blue Note music in it...are they "saving" the label for its own box and/or brand-name, or what, exactly?

[T.D.]

... but I still have far too much of it already to justify buying it.

Agreed.

[A Lark Ascending]

Lifestyle decor. Ideal for kitting out that penthouse, a nice sign of your hidden depths.

There's clearly a bigger market in this than issuing OOP recordings to the dedicated audience.

[Patrick]

Lifestyle decor. Ideal for kitting out that penthouse, a nice sign of your hidden depths.

There's clearly a bigger market in this than issuing OOP recordings to the dedicated audience.

Absolutely. For the image-conscious would-be playboy that has learned how to "talk jazz" from another website.

[crisp]

Maybe. Alternatively, these might appeal to those who have no jazz but want to get into it. Attractive packaging, a low price and the suggestion that these are major recordings might be enough to tempt them.

From another perspective, when I had very little classical in my collection, Sony's Original Jacket Collection boxed sets served exactly that purpose for me. I don't put them "on display": they are kept in a drawer and in any case I have very few home visitors. But they offered a good range of famous recordings at a low price and I enjoy owning them and looking at the sleeves whenever I play them.

I think these boxed sets are pretty nice. Like most people here I have nearly all the recordings and probably won't be buying, but it's good to see certain catalogue items being kept alive. If I were starting out as a jazz fan now I'd love them.

[Shawn]

I've got some friends that are just now getting into jazz, these kind of sets are pretty awesome for newbies. Lots of classic albums in 1 place for a decent price. I'd recommend them on that basis alone.

My guess is that Jim is probably correct and a Blue Note set will show up anytime now.

A Savoy box would be cool too....

[A Lark Ascending]

Maybe. Alternatively, these might appeal to those who have no jazz but want to get into it. Attractive packaging, a low price and the suggestion that these are major recordings might be enough to tempt them.

From another perspective, when I had very little classical in my collection, Sony's Original Jacket Collection boxed sets served exactly that purpose for me. I don't put them "on display": they are kept in a drawer and in any case I have very few home visitors. But they offered a good range of famous recordings at a low price and I enjoy owning them and looking at the sleeves whenever I play them.

I think these boxed sets are pretty nice. Like most people here I have nearly all the recordings and probably won't be buying, but it's good to see certain catalogue items being kept alive. If I were starting out as a jazz fan now I'd love them.

True - I just get a bit irritated by the endless ways the companies keep finding to repackage the same music. I know it's not a commonly accepted opinion but I'd prefer them to just get their past catalogues (where possible from a licensing point of view) available - as downloads suits me. The effort put into all this packaging strikes me as wasted effort - like the way you can go into a supermarket and buy what are essentially sausages wrapped up in a polystyrene wrap, clingfilm and a pretty picture slapped on the front.

Does the boutique packaging shift units? It clearly must.

(All credit to Columbia for their Stravinsky and Billie Holiday boxes - all the fripperies kept to a minimum, making the music available at a very low price.)

[crisp]

I hear what you're saying -- in an ideal world and all that -- but it's clear that, in the perfect storm of a global recession, illegal downloading and myriad rival demands on the attention and pockets of the young, the majors have no budget for digitising OOP recordings and are trying to survive in the cheapest way possible. That means repackaging already digitised releases in an eye-catching way.

During discussion like this, I sometimes imagine older jazz fans in the eighties looking at all the CDs and thinking: "Blue Trane again? It's been reissued umpteen times on vinyl already!" But there are always people coming up for whom this music is new (lucky them).

Downloads of unreleased material would be great (as long as they are lossless) but that would surely also require digitising from scratch, wouldn't it? Which brings us back to the beginning.

In these circumstances, thank goodness for companies such as Collector's Choice, Vocalion and Mosaic. Long may they survive!

Edited April 21, 2011 by crisp

[A Lark Ascending]

Yes, I suppose I am thinking of the ideal world. In my ideal world an effort would be made to put out a decent version in frugal packaging and then just keep it in print (which would satisfy both the long term listener and the new arrival).

It's just a pity that these same discs keep coming around again and again in 'new improved' formats or packages, 40th Anniversary editions and all the rest.

I have most of the Miles boxes that came out in the 90s/00s - they made sense, collecting together a significant body of material in improved sound. It also made sense to then make available the indivdual albums from that mammoth task for those who just wanted those - and for new listeners. But I'm very dubious about what has come since, bolting on odds and sods, creating new packaging etc. It's at that point that I wish the people working inside these companies would look elsewhere. inside their resevoirs.

But they know their business and clearly constantly reselling the same thing in a new coat makes good business sense.

[ejp626]

But they know their business and clearly constantly reselling the same thing in a new coat makes good business sense.

Actually I'm not so sure they do know. Their business model is more or less collapsing. They do know what is comfortable and safe, but they've never really tried other options. There are actually a fair number of projects where they have already paid for remastering and everything, then just shelved it. Those seems like things they should use to test the download route.

[crisp]

There are actually a fair number of projects where they have already paid for remastering and everything, then just shelved it.

I didn't know that. Which projects are they?

[ejp626]

There are actually a fair number of projects where they have already paid for remastering and everything, then just shelved it.

I didn't know that. Which projects are they?

Well, on this forum we discussed briefly the compilation "Impressed 3" which was all put together and then shelved. The producer is allowing a blog to host it, since Universal won't release it, but I can't link to it. You can find it pretty easily.

There are several other projects like this, mostly discussed in the Mosaic thread. And presumably more that we don't hear about. In some cases, right may be an issue, but more often it seems to be the "bean counters" saying that pressing the CDs won't give any return on investment, which seems a perfect opportunity to try download only.

[crisp]

I see. Thanks.

[king ubu]

Looks like EMI is offering its own answer to Sony BMG's boxed set discussed in this thread.

Available from April 26 at Amazon.

Details of contents here.

CD 1 - The Bud Powell Trio

CD 2 - Miles Davis / Birth Of The Cool

CD 3 - Lennie Tristano & Warne Marsh / Intution

CD 4 - Stan Getz / At Storyville Vol 1 & 2

CD 5 - Gerry Mulligan Quartet

CD 6 - Laurindo Almeida Quartet

CD 7 - June Christy / Somethin' Cool

CD 8 - Chet Baker / Sings

CD 9 - Clifford Brown / Jazz Immortal

CD 10 - Chico Hamilton Quintet Featuring Buddy Collette

CD 11 - Sonny Stitt / Plays Arrangements From The Pen Of Quincy Jones

CD 12 - Benny Goodman / The Benny Goodman Story

CD 13 - Serge Chaloff / Blue Serge

CD 14 - Sonny Criss / Go Man!

CD 15 - Nat King Cole / After Midnight

CD 16 - Art Pepper / Modern Art

CD 17 - Count Basie / Atomic Basie

CD 18 - Art Farmer / Modern Art

CD 19 - Ray Bryant / Plays

CD 20 - Maynard Ferguson / A Message From Birdland

CD 21 - Julie London / Around Midnight

CD 22 - Nina Simone / At The Village Gate

CD 23 - Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington / Together For The First Time

CD 24 - Sarah Vaughan / After Hours

CD 25 - Peggy Lee / Mink Jazz

CD 26 - Bill Evans & Jim Hall / Undercurrent

CD 27 - Duke Ellington / Money Jungle

CD 28 - Joe Pass / For Django

CD 29 - Cannonball Adderley / Mercy, Mercy, Mercy!

CD 30 - Chick Corea / Now He Sings, Now He Sobs

Ominously, that site describes it as a "2010 Korean 30 CD Set", but the cover and Amazon suggests it's official EMI: "Limited Edition 30 disc box set with albums from the Capitol Records, Pacific Jazz, Roulette and other Jazz labels. All packaged in Mini-LP sleeves. EMI. 2011."

Just had to check... #11 is part of the Stitt Mosaic.

Most of these have been around in the bins, but I've never seen #19, #25, #28 (it's in the Joe Pass Mosaic).

Also it's nice to see the Sonny Criss and Chico Hamilton albums in there... it's a pretty interesting selection, I'd say!

The Laurindo Almeida was part of the two "Brazilliance" discs, I assume?

[Bluesnik]

most of it i have. and what i don't have i really don't want, with maybe one or two exceptions. the main selling point here seem to be the mini-lp covers. to make you buy again what you already have... the usual.

[Bluesnik]

The Laurindo Almeida was part of the two "Brazilliance" discs, I assume?

or it's a reissue of that pacific jazz album almeida recorded with bud shank in 54, i think. if the year is this (which i seem to remember, but am not quite sure about), it would be the first encounter between bossa nova and jazz. you know there were pretty much crossed influences... both ways! but bossa nova's birthyear was 58 (now that i remember), so it would be prebossa, because almeida's guitar playing is kind of bossa, but not yet entirely it.

i listened to that album the other day (it's with harry babasin and roy harte, so a dedicated west cost thing). i have it in a japanese mini-lp, and i think (but am not sure) it was never released here.

[king ubu]

Just lost my post, but the Bud Shank (two PacJazz albums with Babasin/Harte) is on the Brazilliance discs!

The 1954 material, I mean.

Except that the CD (Brazilliance Vol. 1, CDP 7963392, 1991) gives the year of both the April (15th and 22nd) sessions as 1953 (15 tracks all in all, including the alternate take of "Speak Low")

Brazilliance Vol. 2 (CDP 7961022, 1991) has the 1958 material that came out under Shanks's name as "Holiday in Brazil" (WP 1259) and "Latin Contrasts" (WP 1281), all from March 1958.

[Bluesnik]

Just lost my post, but the Bud Shank (two PacJazz albums with Babasin/Harte) is on the Brazilliance discs!

i don't have the braziliance albums, and the album that i have is called laurindo almeida quartet, so that's why i thought it was this one. and i thought the almeida/shank collabos were three, the quartet, the earliest, plus the later braziliances, but maybe the braziliances are compilations of "brazilian" material out there that include the quartet album. in any case, i just wanted to make that clear, that maybe the almeida quartet was the one i have, which, following the japanese tradition, is an exact reproduction of that issue. but i'm not sure now what is what. probably it would much easier to reissue one of the braziliance albums, which had european and american distribution, than the one i have. so you might be right.

[king ubu]

Just have a look here:

http://www.amazon.com/Brazilliance-1-Laurindo-Almeida/dp/B000005HH3/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1304376074&sr=1-1

This is all Almeida/Shank Quartet material, and I guess half (?) of it is on the album/reissue you have?

[crisp]

[Jimmy Durante]Everybody's gettin' into the act![/Jimmy Durante]

Jazz Train : Verve Collector's Edition

Details here.

1. Antonio Carlos Jobim - The Composer of "Desafinado", Plays

2. The Ben Webster Quintet - Soulville

3. Bill Evans - Conversations with Myself

4. Bill Evans - At the Montreux Jazz Festival

5. Bud Powell - The Genius of Bud Powell

6. Charlie Haden and Pat Metheny - Beyond the Missouri Sky

7. Charlie Haden Quartet West - In Angel City

8. Charlie Parker - With Strings: The Master Takes

9. Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie- Bird and Diz

10. Count Basie and His Orchestra - April in Paris

11. Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges - Side by Side

12. Ella Fitzgerald - The Complete Ella in Berlin: Mack the Knife

13. Gene Ammons & Sonny Stitt - Boss Tenors in Orbit!!!

14. Gene Krupa-Buddy Rich - Buddy and Rich

15. Gerry Mulligan - Night Lights

16. Herb Ellis - Nothing But the Blues

17. Herbie Hancock - The New Standard

18. Jimmy Smith & Wes Montgomery - Jimmy & Wes The Dynamic Duo

19. Joe Henderson - Lush Life: The Music of Billy Strayhorn

20. John McLaughlin - The Promise

21. John Scofield - A Go Go

22. Johnny Hodges - With Billy Strayhorn and the Orchestra

23. The Lester Young-Teddy Wilson Quartet - Pres and Teddy

24. Lester Young: with the Oscar Peterson Trio

25. The Lionel Hampton Quintet

26. Mel Torme: The Marty Paich Orchestra - Swings Schubert Alley

27. Michael Brecker - Nearness of You: The Ballad Book

28. The Oscar Peterson Trio - We Get Requests

29. Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd - Jazz Samba

30. Wes Montgomery - Willow Weep for Me