Best Box Sets of the Last 10-15 Years, non-Mosaic Division

[Kevin Bresnahan]

18 hours ago, Stonewall15 said:

Los Angeles Jazz Institute released 6-CD set titled "The Complete Crazy Sunday at the Lighthouse" September 13, 1953. Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All-Stars. Many previously unreleased songs. Great notes by Ken Poston.

Kinda hard to agree with this when this box is impossible to hear. I tried to join IAJE just to buy this and their website was a mess and I couldn't find any way to buy it. There's not even a download available.

[Niko]

18 minutes ago, mhatta said:

They may be a bit short for box sets, but recently released important archives of Japanese jazz.  Well worth searching for.

Great 3 Complete Sessions 1994 (4 CDs) / Masabumi Kikuchi, Gary Peacock & Masahiko Togashi

Complete Tohoku Sessions 1971 (3 CDs) / Kaoru Abe

Masayuki Takayanagi: Archive I (5 CDs)

Love Dance:  Solo Live at Galerie de Café Den Tokyo 1987-1997 / Mototeru Takagi (5 CDs) 

the others I don't know but I fully agree on the Great 3 set!

[colinmce]

9 hours ago, T.D. said:

[Italics added]

This is true. So many good box sets in free/improv sector that I'm not even qualified to rank them.

This is older material but I like it a lot:

There's a boatload of Barry Guy box sets, many of which could qualify. I've only scratched the surface of these.

No Business has released many good box sets. Won't claim any of these are "best", but I enjoy Jemeel Moondoc Muntu Recordings (although it's a 2009 release and 1 year too old), William Parker Centering, Howard Riley Complete Short Stories and Constant Change, ...

Yes, definitely thinking about all those Barry Guy sets on Not Two that sort of kicked this whole thing off. Those are all uniformly excellent. Fundacja Słuchaj also got in on the action and also put out a number of fantastic ones. Some specific favorites:

Various - Long Story Short (arguably the best of them all in my book)
Ken Vandermark - Resonance
Joëlle Léandre – A Woman’s Work
Zlatko Kaučič – Diversity
Steve Swell - Kanreki: Reflection & Renewal
Agustí Fernández – River Tiger Fire

The Black Saint/Soul Note boxes were a great line. I would say the Bill Dixon is completely essential, and the Threadgill, Motian, Hill, Lyons, Haden, and Ran Blake ones are also very, very strong bodies of work. The ECM Old & New Masters line was also great in this vein-- the Motian and Arild Andersen ones especially.

A few others, randomly:

Various - FMP Im Rückblick - In Retrospect
Sven-Åke Johansson – Blue For A Moment
Sven-Åke Johansson – The 80's Selected Concerts
Various - Just Not Cricket!
Jürg Frey – Weites Land, Tiefe Zeit, Räume 1 - 8
Bengt Frippe Nordström – Vinyl Box
Peter Kowald - Discography

I would also second the Hemphill on New World, Wood Flute Songs, Nation Time, Evan Parker, Ahmed, and all the ones on No Business.

 

Edited yesterday at 02:23 PM by colinmce

[tranemonk]

21 hours ago, jazzbo said:

Here's one that I really never expected to see and am so glad that it was conceived and released:

 

I second this!! Probably one of the few Blue Note anything I've bought in the last decade. 

[mjazzg]

5 hours ago, Niko said:

 

Yes indeed! All of the TUM WLS boxes add immeasurably to his discography, including the string quartets one

[T.D.]

4 hours ago, Niko said:

the others [Nadja Japanese boxes] I don't know but I fully agree on the Great 3 set!

I have three of the four (all except Takayanagi) and they're excellent.

Non-speakers of Japanese don't get the full "box set experience" because the booklets are in Japanese sans translation. 😉

[danasgoodstuff]

Written In Their Soul, the Stax Demos Box