Miles Davis - Columbia Box Sets

[Uncle Skid]

Jazzmatazz Upcoming Releases has the following Miles Davis Columbia/Legacy box sets listed:

• Miles Davis & John Coltrane - Complete Columbia Recordings - 6 CDs (Columbia/Legacy) May 4
  
• Miles Davis & Gil Evans - Complete Columbia Studio Recordings - 6 CDs (Columbia/Legacy) May 11
  
• Miles Davis - Miles Davis Quintet 1965-68 - 6 CDs (Columbia/Legacy) May 11
  
• Miles Davis - Complete In Silent Way Sessions - 3 CDs (Columbia/Legacy) May 11
  
• Miles Davis - Complete Bitches Brew Sessions - 4 CDs (Columbia/Legacy) May 11
  

All of these say "new edition with less expensive packaging (no metal spine)". I guess that metal spine was pretty expensive -- the 65-68 Quintet box is normally $95, the new edition is $49!! The new Miles/Coltrane edition is $53, the original one was also around $95.

Does anybody know more about these? Is the lack of a metal spine the only difference?

[Rooster_Ties]

Wonder if the liner-notes will be easier to read?? The "color text on color background" in the "Miles & Gil" and "IasW" boxes was particularly difficult, to the point where you literally couldn't see what several words were -- because the color of the text was nearly identical to the color of the background.

[Claude]

Wonder if the liner-notes will be easier to read??

Yes it will! The booklet couldn't be changed (for contractual reasons), but the new boxes will include this special foldable reading device

[J.A.W.]

Wonder if the liner-notes will be easier to read??

Yes it will! The booklet couldn't be changed (for contractual reasons), but the new boxes will include this special foldable reading device

[PHILLYQ]

That was great, Claude!

[JSngry]

I bit the bullet and spent money that I had but shouldn't have spent if I was a REALLY responsible individual buying up all the metal-spine edition sets over the last few weeks (I only had the Miles/Trane set previously), because

• I'm a geek.
  
• The music is really that special to me and I wanted to have it as "deluxely" as possible while it was available in such a manner .
  
• I just think that the metal spine is cool, if expensive.
  

Interestingly enough, finding the older sets at local retailers was not a particularly easy task. It seems that the "sendback" operation has begun in some places, which either means that you get them now if you want them, or that they will soon be clearance items at ridiculously low prices. Some things I'll gamble on, but this was not one of them.

Either way, they's some hellaciously good packages.

Edited April 22, 2004 by JSngry

[WD45]

The metal-on-metal concept of the Miles/Trane box always got to me like nails on a chalkboard.

Nothing a little WD-40 wouldn't cure.

I thought the most nifty-est one was the Miles/Gil box, with the brass-lookin' spine, like the horn itself.

[dave9199]

Wait, hold on just a nose picking minute...IASW never had a metal spine, so why are they reissuing it?

[tatifan]

Oh, well. Maybe I'd buy 'em again if they came out as hybrid SACDs and in the original album order. At those prices, that is.

[LAL]

Thanks for all the information. Glad I bought none of the earlier box sets. Now I can indulge.

[Z-Man]

Metal spine, paper spine, whatever. Skip the CD's altogether and buy the Mosaic LP sets. FAR superior to their CD counterparts in every way, and all still in print (except the Gil Evans).

[B. Goren.]

Columbia people could be the world champions in marketing. After all the addicted (like me) bought it, they are going to sell it to the rest of the world. I am working in sales and I can learn something form Columbia.

[Uncle Skid]

Columbia people could be the world champions in marketing. After all the addicted (like me) bought it, they are going to sell it to the rest of the world. I am working in sales and I can learn something form Columbia.

Indeed. I wonder if this type of marketing is planned way in advance, or if somebody realized that sales of these boxes had dropped off quite a bit, and only then decided to repackage and slash prices?

I never bought any of the metal spine boxes simply because it was much cheaper to buy the individual CDs. At this point, having a bunch of alternate takes and additional material isn't terribly important to me.

Now with these drastically reduced prices, I might have to go the box set route. The individual CD's I already have would make great gifts, especially for non-jazz loving family members!

I'm still surprised about the price of the new ones -- the same CDs for about half the cost of the originals!

[Tjazz]

Columbia people could be the world champions in marketing. After all the addicted (like me) bought it, they are going to sell it to the rest of the world. I am working in sales and I can learn something form Columbia.

It's like the Sinatra leather Reprise box. (Deluxe version)

Cheaper version released later.

Capitol wooden box Sinatra set. (Deluxe version)

Cheaper version released later.

Columbia/Sony is not the only ones with marketing power.

1st Class.

Coach.

[wesbed]

Anybody know anything else about the new packaging? I just purchased, last week, The Complete Jack Johnson box (with the metal spine). I'd like to have The Complete Silent Way box. It looks like Amazon is still offering the original packaging on the Silent Way box.

I'd rather spend more money, if necessary, to purchase the nicer packaging/set. For me, the dollar cost is not the issue. Is it recommended that I purchase the original packaging before it's no longer available? Or, wait till only the new packaging is available? Or, indifferent?

[wesbed]

Wait, hold on just a nose picking minute...IASW never had a metal spine, so why are they reissuing it?

BFrank: Thanks for the information. I may need to place my order for Complete Silent Way box soon.

What does dave9199 mean? The original Silent Way box didn't have the metal spine?

[chris olivarez]

I'll be getting some of these down the road. The "deluxe" packaging for the 4 cd set of "Bitches Brew" was an absolute nightmare.

[wesbed]

I'll be getting some of these down the road. The "deluxe" packaging for the 4 cd set of "Bitches Brew" was an absolute nightmare.

I've never seen this packaging, except for, maybe, in pictures. What made it a nightmare?

[chris olivarez]

It was unusually difficult to even get the discs out of the sleeves. I eventually thrashed one of the discs that way. Also IMO the "bonus" tracks should have never seen the light of day.

[Uncle Skid]

Interestingly enough, finding the older sets at local retailers was not a particularly easy task. It seems that the "sendback" operation has begun in some places, which either means that you get them now if you want them, or that they will soon be clearance items at ridiculously low prices.

I saw the Jack Johnson, IASW, Bitches Brew, and Coltrane metal spine boxes today at a local retailer. There may have been others there as well.

I'm not sure if the prices were reduced; the original (inflated book store) price tags were stilll on them.

[John B]

I'll be getting some of these down the road. The "deluxe" packaging for the 4 cd set of "Bitches Brew" was an absolute nightmare.

I've never seen this packaging, except for, maybe, in pictures. What made it a nightmare?

I had to call Columbia customer service to have two of the four discs replaced. Glue from the sleeves got onto the discs making large portions unplayable.

[tonym]

I checked the HMV UK website just out of curiousity for prices on the forthcoming repackages and they stated that on the original boxes there was an 'Import Ban'.

I'm assuming that most other big chains will have this in force, therefore avoiding having to sell of the 'deluxe' boxes at sale prices.

It'll be interesting to see how the smaller shops with existing stock handle this.

[wesbed]

What's the style of the packaging of the Complete Plugged Nickel box? I've never seen the Plugged Nickel box in a store. Never.

Is the Plugged Nickel box a full, record-sized box, such as the Mosaic boxes? Or, more of a slimmed-down, narrower-shaped type thing?

[Rooster_Ties]

The Plugged Nicke box is 7 standard CD jewelboxes, with standard linernotes for each CD, all in one slipbox -- so the whole thing ends up being approximately the size of a cube (roughly). There's also a booklet that is the size of the footprint of a standard jewelbox, which fits in the slipbox too.

Note: One of the jewelboxes is actually a two-CD jewelbox, since that set was slightly over 80 minutes in length - and had to be split on 2 CD's. As a result, the discs are numbered 1, 2a, 2b, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 (which makes perfect sense to me).

Nothing terribly fancy about the set, but neither did they do anything dumb when they designed it either -- and the importance of that cannot be underestimated.

If only the Bill Evans Verve box was as well done, design-wise (for instance).

FYI, here's a good pic of the Plugged Nickel box: CLICK HERE

[wesbed]

Thanks, Rooster.

I keep going to the stores and looking for a Mosaic Complete sized box. From the pictures I've seen, I can never determine what kind of box the Plugged Nickel set is in. The pictures have seemed, to me, like a record-sized box. I think, the pictures of this set generally just show a close-up of the cover of the Plugged Nickel box.

I can see from the picture you linked to, however, that the Plugged Nickel box is more like a thick Mosaic Select. Or, more like a thick version of the Miles/Blackhawk box.

Again, much thanks for the Plugged Nickel box picture you supplied.