The Box Set Hobby

[Stompin at the Savoy]

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?

[Big Beat Steve]

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. 

 

[Pim]

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. 

[jlhoots]

I used to buy a fairly large number of box sets, now not so many.

[felser]

I often find them prohibitive in terms of both space and cost.  I tend to do cost/benefit analysis as far as buying them and keeping them.  I only kept a handful of the big Mosaic sets  in my collection as the music became available in other CD configurations(though I've kept a lot Selects). Yet things like the 90's Atlantic boxes on Trane, Ornette, and Mingus and the Prestige boxes on Trane, Rollins, Miles, and Dolphy, and the Milestone Joe Henderson box are perfect for my needs.  I tend to work straight through a box set when I listen to it, regardless of size.

[Stompin at the Savoy]

5 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

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. 

 

Yeah, that's true.  Oftentimes the individual cds would be more expensive.  And in some cases the box set is the only practical way to get the music.

[GA Russell]

With a new box set, I typically open up one CD a year.

So I bite the bullet once, and then I'm good to go for years.

[Big Beat Steve]

9 hours ago, GA Russell said:

With a new box set, I typically open up one CD a year.

So I bite the bullet once, and then I'm good to go for years.

Maybe not only one CD a year but one every 1 or 2 months, but basically that's a good idea.
But (at least for me) only for those box sets where it would be too overwhelming (or way too much of a good thing) to absorb all the CDs/records one after another right after the purchase. Sometimes I can't wait to hear it all (but admittedly that's been the case for only a minority). 
Let's see how things work out for my most recent purchase (at a very good price) - the Count Basie Live Roulette 8-CD box set by Mosaic. 

[Stompin at the Savoy]

Yeah, too much at once is over-stimulation and I don't have enough time to digest it. It's like rushing through a huge museum and at the end you feel exhausted and can't really remember much. If a set has recognizable albums I'll usually listen to an album, repeat a few of the tunes that I liked and then put it aside for another day.  Sometimes, like recently with the Bob Crosby set which turns out to be really engaging, I listen to one disk per day and repeat some items.

That Basie Roulette Live set is great!  Desert island stuff.

[scooter_phx]

4 hours ago, Stompin at the Savoy said:

That Basie Roulette Live set is great!  Desert island stuff.

The live set is good stuff but the studio stuff is glorious.  YMMV 

[Rooster_Ties]

I’ve got about 55 box sets (including maybe 20 selects).

At least HALF of them I haven’t spent anywhere near enough time with over the last 20–25 years — which I plan to rectify in retirement, a whole box a week sometimes (with luck).

Most of them are Mosaics — but I think I’ve got about 10 non-Mosaic big boxes too.

[Late]

5 hours ago, Stompin at the Savoy said:

Yeah, too much at once is over-stimulation and I don't have enough time to digest it. It's like rushing through a huge museum and at the end you feel exhausted and can't really remember much.

Excellent analogy.

During acquisition moratoriums, I find I turn to box sets—only to discover how little of the compilation I'm familiar with. Example: while I know the first disc of the Gerry Mulligan CJB set almost by heart, I realized I was more unfamiliar with discs 2-4 than I thought. By logging off all devices and spending more time with sound, this rapidly changed.

[scooter_phx]

What was your first box set?  Mine was the Brownie sessions on EmArcy.  Beyond excellent.

[felser]

12 minutes ago, scooter_phx said:

What was your first box set?  Mine was the Brownie sessions on EmArcy.  Beyond excellent.

I believe my first one was a used copy of "20 Years of Jethro Tull", which I sold off many years ago.  I think the first one I bought that I still have was the Prestige Miles Davis Chronicle set.   

[Stonewall15]

Aside from the great music in Mosaic box sets the accompanying booklets are worth the purchase price alone!

[HutchFan]

32 minutes ago, scooter_phx said:

What was your first box set?

My first box was the Complete BN Art Blakey 1960 set.

These days, I usually rip the discs to MP3 and put them on my phone. Then I make playlists of the original albums. I prefer to listen to the music as it was originally sequenced (assuming it's music from the LP era or later).

[Dub Modal]

I find boxsets increasingly valuable, especially if they're well done with good liners. The first box set I ever got was the Led Zeppelin 4 CD set from way back in 1990. It had unreleased songs and a great sequence to the individual tracks. I listened to it nonstop for a while and was hooked on box sets immediately after that. The first jazz box I got was probably the Moncur Mosaic Select, which hooked me on their reissues. I definitely prefer CD boxsets over LP. Space issues and just overall accessibility of the box set lends itself to CDs better for my uses. 

[T.D.]

I like box sets a lot.

First got into them in the classical genre. Don't recall my first jazz box set.

I only deal with CDs, not vinyl. Having amassed lots of recordings, I'm beginning to downsize and box format has become important. I find Mosaics bulky and have stopped buying them unless something truly compelling is released. I prefer cardboard sleeves for the individual discs, a nice color booklet and compact outer box. The Julius Hemphill box on New World is practically a model in that respect.

Listening-wise, once I pull a box off the shelf I generally prefer to listen to the whole thing. Barring the classical mega-boxes, which can include dozens of CDs. 🤪

Edited 2 hours ago by T.D.

[jazzbo]

My first box set was the Solo Concerts: Bremen/Lausanne and then the Smithsonian jazz one, all LP sets.

My first two box sets, LP sets, were the Keith Jarrett "Solo Concerts: Bremen/Lausanne" and the "Smithsonian Collection of Classic jazz." Soon after that I think were other LP sets, the Colunbia/Smithsonian Ellington sets, "1938,"1939," "1940" and "1941."

[Rooster_Ties]

2 hours ago, scooter_phx said:

What was your first box set?

Technically mine was the Don Cherry Complete BN Mosaics — all of two CD’s total!!  But that was just to dip my toe in the pool with Mosaic, just to see what one of their sets even was like (and I’d never seen a jazz CD box set up close before, of any kind).

But almost immediately after, I bought the Andrew Hill and Jackie McLean Mosaics (same order), and others not a year more later (I forget the chronology).

So I really consider those Hill and McLean Mosaics as my first ‘real’ box sets.