Why no more Blue Note 60s box sets?

[take5]

The Complete Blue Note 60s Recordings box sets for both Dexter Gordon and Herbie Hancock are packaged nicely, sound fantastic and of course have some of the finest content of music.

Why have they not made more sets like this for Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan, Kenny Dorham, Grant Green, Kenny Burrell, Horace Silver, Wayne Shorter, etc?

Does anyone know if Blue Note lost money on those boxes, or do they just figure that people won't have as much interest in their other artists as they did for Dex and Herbie? I would think there would be a great demand for such boxes. Yes, most of it is available on CD, but surely there's a market for this stuff?

[tranemonk]

I assume part of the answer is that most of the 60's BN stuff for many of those guys is still in print... (and some of it being reissued as RVG editions...)

that's my guess...

[ghost of miles]

I think I remember reading somewhere--possibly on the old BNBB--that these sets hadn't done all that well for Blue Note, financially speaking. Complete sets for some of the artists that you mention (Green, Silver) would be pretty big, with a price tag likely to scare off all but the most fanatical.

[J.A.W.]

I think I remember reading somewhere--possibly on the old BNBB--that these sets hadn't done all that well for Blue Note, financially speaking.

You're right, there was some comment on the BNBB about the sets not being profitable, on the contrary.

There was also some talk about a possible reissue of the Dexter Gordon box with less expensive packaging, but that project seems to have died.

Edited December 28, 2005 by J.A.W.

[take5]

Then how can Columbia and Fantasy and Universal sell these huge-ass box sets? Yeah I know 'Trane and Miles and Billie and Evans are popular, but are the markets for an 18 CD Evans Verve set really that much bigger than an 10 CD Shorter set would be?

[J.A.W.]

Then how can Columbia and Fantasy and Universal sell these huge-ass box sets? Yeah I know 'Trane and Miles and Billie and Evans are popular, but are the markets for an 18 CD Evans Verve set really that much bigger than an 10 CD Shorter set would be?

Who says the Evans set and the other sets you mentioned are big sellers? They may have just pressed a lot...

[crookednumbers]

I assume part of the answer is that most of the 60's BN stuff for many of those guys is still in print... (and some of it being reissued as RVG editions...)

that's my guess...

I think that is absolutely it. There are so many RVG titles now that only Mosaic could do a 60s BN box justice. Name an artist that you cannot find anything on CD by. By my count, The Three Sounds are the only seriously underrepresented Blue Note artist on CD. Individual titles or minor BN artists are ending up on third party reissue labels, so slowly but surely, everything is coming out.

I would like Blue Note to revisit some of the funky 70s stuff.

[ghost of miles]

By my count, The Three Sounds are the only seriously underrepresented Blue Note artist on CD.

And I think Dan has posted elsewhere that Cuscuna says a Three Sounds Select may be in the offing.

[take5]

I assume part of the answer is that most of the 60's BN stuff for many of those guys is still in print... (and some of it being reissued as RVG editions...)

Yeah but the examples I cited also have the albums available individually. Both the Miles Davis Columbia "metal spine" sets and the individual albums of the same material sell, apparently. Yes I know Miles is very popular but those sets are also particularly costly to make, I would think.