The Best of CD's

[Hardbopjazz]

I don' think there are many board members here that would buy a best of CD by a jazz artists. We rather have the music in its original state. But it seems every major jazz artists such as Bird, Miles, Coltrane, just to name a few, has a best of CD. But I am going to ask; do you have any best of compilations by a jazz artist?

[Popper Lou]

I got one as a gift. I wouldn't buy one narmally.

Edited February 22, 2005 by Popper Lou

[Morganized]

I started my jazz journey with Kind of Blue and The Best of John Coltrane on Atlantic. I started there because I didn't know what I was doing.

When I first started listening to jazz I used to pick up a Best OF from an artist I was not familiar with occasionally. My rationale was that I really wasn't sure I liked the guy that much so a Best Of ought to do me. It was always a mistake. Usually ended up getting the majority of the cataloge anyway.As I listened more my taste expanded and that guy I didn't think I liked that well suddenly became my favorite player.

I have a few that I have found at garage sales for a $1 or $2. I will pick those up for the car mostly. Otherwise I avoid the Best Of genre' as much as possible.

[ghost of miles]

There are a lot of casual listeners out there who do not have the "disease" the way we do, and who just want 5, 10, 15, or 20 jazz CDs for their music libraries... Therefore something like a Burns compilation is right up their alley.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

According to Tom Evered at Blue Note Records, these "Best of" compilations sell very well. Quite a few of their recent "Ballads" CDs sold well enough that they were able to keep other reissue programs going. I know I bought several of these "Ballads" CDs. They are perfect for mellow dinner music when I can't give the music a good listen. People seem to like these mellow comps too.

It was only a few years ago that 32Jazz made a mint on those "Jazz For A XXXXX" series of comps. Not enough to stay in business though...

Later,

Kevin

[scottb]

Have I ever? Yes.

Will I again? Probably not.

[Hardbopjazz]

According to Tom Evered at Blue Note Records, these "Best of" compilations sell very well. Quite a few of their recent "Ballads" CDs sold well enough that they were able to keep other reissue programs going. I know I bought several of these "Ballads" CDs. They are perfect for mellow dinner music when I can't give the music a good listen. People seem to like these mellow comps too.

It was only a few years ago that 32Jazz made a mint on those "Jazz For A XXXXX" series of comps. Not enough to stay in business though...

Later,

Kevin

These best of CD's then act as a learning tool for the novice.

I have to admit I have one box set of four CD's that are the best of from a group of different artists. The only reason I bought it, was for two tracks that were not available elsewhere.

[Brandon Burke]

I don't buy them myself but can understand why someone might want to get a sampling of a few different styles before diving in. Not unlike how short story anthologies can hip somebody to a particular style or author they wouldn't have otherwise noticed. (That's how I discovered metafiction as an undergrad.) Same thing for wine or single malts or cheeses....

Makes sense to me.

[Rooster_Ties]

I started out with several of the BN "greatest hits" compilations in the very early 90's, Herbie, Wayne, Joe Henderson, Lee Morgan, etc...

They definitely serve a purpose, and are a great way for many people to get some exposure to the music.

I don't think I own very many jazz GH packages any more (maybe one, at most), and have given all I had away to others, hoping they'd catch the bug too. They certainly were a good way for me to get hooked and want to hear more!!!

[.:.impossible]

I don't buy them myself but can understand why someone might want to get a sampling of a few different styles before diving in. Not unlike how short story anthologies can hip somebody to a particular style or author they wouldn't have otherwise noticed. (That's how I discovered metafiction as an undergrad.) Same thing for wine or single malts or cheeses....

Makes sense to me.

What is metafiction?

and to answer the question, The Best of Buddy Guy was apparently geared toward me. Honestly, though, I can't think of another best of that I own!

[John B]

What is metafiction?

This, for example:

[Jazzmoose]

I have one; a Prestige Coltrane sampler. The wife bought it for me, and I didn't have the heart to tell her I already had two-thirds of it and would likely have the rest of it eventually...bless her for trying!

I think 'best of' collections are great for pop/rock artists of which you might have fond memories, but don't want to spring for a bunch of discs. For example, I enjoy my 'Best of the Guess Who' occasionally, but that's plenty for me. Seems a bit odd for jazz, though; it's not like you could do the 'greatest hits' bit, and actually picking 'the best' seems to be a pretentious exercise no matter who makes the attempt.

[Jazzmoose]

What is metafiction?

This, for example:

I'm curious myself; can anyone offer a definition rather than an example?

[GA Russell]

I like compilations, particularly ones of ballads. Compilations are often available cheap, which allows me to pick up something extra without taking it too seriously.

I'm listening to a Lionel Hampton best of right now. I had a good hunch that I would not likely buy more than one of his CDs, so I just picked up this one. Makes sense to me!

[Chuck Nessa]

It was only a few years ago that 32Jazz made a mint on those "Jazz For A XXXXX" series of comps. Not enough to stay in business though...

Later,

Kevin

[Quincy]

What is metafiction?

It's fiction that deals with the subject and writing of fiction.

A link.

[vibes]

According to Tom Evered at Blue Note Records, these "Best of" compilations sell very well.

Look at the jazz section at your local Best Buy, and it's not hard to see why. BBY has enormous music market share and slowly but surely, compilations have taken up more and more of what little space is allocated to jazz.

I can't help but wonder if this isn't some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. Compilations sell well, but it has more to do with how much space they get than how much people really like them. But, retailers assume they sell well because people buy them, so they get allocated more and more space, and reissues and contemporary releases don't sell as well as a result. It's unfortunate.

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

According to Tom Evered at Blue Note Records, these "Best of" compilations sell very well.

Looks like BN has produced a boatload of these things over the years.

BN covers

As an aside....it's nice the way they went the extra mile and drew up a 2nd censored version for the Marisa Monte LP (p. 7) for sales to Utah.

Edited February 23, 2005 by Son-of-a-Weizen

[Dan Gould]

Like Rooster, early on I bought some Best of comps. Best of Kenny Burrell was the only way at the time to hear, if I recall correctly, a track off the Freedom release, and also D.B. Blues from the album he did with Hank Mobley. I also had the Horace Silver Best of, and way back when, probably about 1990, long before the Blue 'N series, they had a comp of funky jazz that was really good. I also bought the Best of the Three Sounds because at the time, a number of those tracks were not available on CD, and I only had them on Japanese vinyl, with no capacity at the time to do transfers.

In the last few years, I've also bought the Benny Carter and Coleman Hawkins OJC compilations. They were used, so the price was right, and both were probably 80% things I didn't have, so I had no problem making that purchase.

[TedR]

Looks like Fantasy (Concord?) wants to tap this market too. Just added to yourmusic.com were Best Of's for Milt Jackson, Eric Dolphy, Sonny Rollins, Kenny Burrell, Red Garland Quintet, Miles Davis, etc. (2004 releases)

[GloriousBlues]

I don't buy them myself but can understand why someone might want to get a sampling of a few different styles before diving in. Not unlike how short story anthologies can hip somebody to a particular style or author they wouldn't have otherwise noticed. (That's how I discovered metafiction as an undergrad.) Same thing for wine or single malts or cheeses....

Makes sense to me.

Where can I buy a Single Malt Sampler?

[Brandon Burke]

I don't buy them myself but can understand why someone might want to get a sampling of a few different styles before diving in.  Not unlike how short story anthologies can hip somebody to a particular style or author they wouldn't have otherwise noticed.  (That's how I discovered metafiction as an undergrad.)  Same thing for wine or single malts or cheeses....

Makes sense to me.

Where can I buy a Single Malt Sampler?

here. B-)

[Brandon Burke]

What is metafiction?

This, for example:

Not surprisingly, "Lost in the Funhouse" (the story, not the book) was my introduction. Read it in an undergrad English class. I believe it's in the Norton Anthology of Fiction. In my opinion, it's still the definitive metafiction work. Well...okay. Maybe it isn't. There's a lot out there. But its aesthetic intentions are clear from the word go and it seems to encapsulate an entire genre in just a few pages.

The first paragraph wastes no time:

For whom is the funhouse fun? Perhaps for lovers. For Ambrose it is a place of fear and confusion. He has come to the seashore with his family for the holiday, the occasion of their visit is Independence Day, the most important secular holiday of the United States of America. A single straight underline is the manuscript mark for italic type, which in turn is the printed equivalent to oral emphasis of words and phrases as well as the customary type for titles of complete works, not to mention. Italics are also employed, in fiction stories especially, for "outside," intrusive, or artificial voices, such as radio announcements, the texts of telegrams and newspaper articles, et cetera. They should be used sparingly. If passages originally in roman type are italicized by someone repeating them, it's customary to acknowledge the fact. Italics mine.

From there it dives right back into the story of Ambrose and his family's journey to the seaside park. Other than the many textbook-like interjections, there's little to seperate it from a John Updike story: thirteen year old kid, awkward, hormones raging. A lot like A&P, actually. But Barth's M.O. is the relationship between author and reader. Read: the very act of reading is to enter a "funhouse" created by the author while writing places one in a position of power. The power to create worlds.

Edited February 23, 2005 by Brandon Burke

[JohnJ]

Not best of CD's exactly, buy I do enjoy the Blue Note best of box sets like the 4CD Grant Green Retrospective that offer a detailed overview of an artists career.

[MartyJazz]

I only have "best of " compilation discs for the few artists I don't wish to collect and even then I'll hesitate before purchasing such a disc. In other words, it has to be a really good deal monitarily. Accordingly, the only best of compilations I own are:

"Best of Chet Baker Sings" (Pacific Jazz)

"Best of Sidney Bechet (Blue Note)

"Best of Julie London" (Rhino)

Oh, I did make a CD-R of "The Best of the Nat King Cole Trio" (Capitol) off a library CD but I justified that as I have all and more of this material on a few Cole LPs.

BTW, I find that since I own a lot of jazz CDs I can invariably make a better compilation, even given the limitation of using the output of an artist from one label only. To give an example, I once saw a Best of Sonny Rollins Blue Note compilation and I was appalled to see that the tracks chosen from his VOLUME 2 session were "Why Don't I" and "Poor Butterfly" when the remaining four tracks from that album are all superior to the selections chosen. In fact, whoever put that compilation together did not do his homework very well for if you listen to "Poor Butterfly", you hear Rollins state the opening melody only, thereafter it becomes a feature for J.J. Johnson. Great track but definitely not appropriate for a "best of Rollins" compilation. Oh well, enough rambling.