Favourite Miles Columbia Box set

[Gary]

I' m 2 off having them all & are toiling over ordering them (i have all the single CDs in them ) rather than asking the usual -' what do you think of this?' i thought it would be more fun to see how they got on in a poll.

What's your favourite ??

[Parkertown]

MD Quintet 65-68.

Blazing a trail...outstanding compositions...This band could just beat the shit out of every other band (IMO).

[Jim Alfredson]

I'm going to move this thread if you don't mind.

[Gary]

I'm going to move this thread if you don't mind.

Thanks

[sal]

100% agree with Parkertown. The 65-68 Miles Davis quintet is the greatest small working group in the history of jazz, and the music on this set is my favorite jazz in my entire collection. After years of listening to it, every time I spin it, I am still awestruck at their skill, chemistry, and overall mastery of the jazz idiom. Definitely the finest jazz has to offer.

Gotta go with the Coltrane sessions as a second choice.

[jlhoots]

I've got all of them.

I voted for the Coltrane.

Plugged Nickel would have been my 2nd choice.

[JohnS]

I love them all, "Silent Way has to near the top but I've gone for the "With Coltrane"

[dsgtrane]

As a Coltrane fanatic, I had to go with the Trane set. Can't go wrong picking any of them though.

[John L]

I voted for the Plugged Nickel. When that set came out, it was a revelation. As concerns the music, the first and second quintet sets are also somewhere beyond ranking, of course. The reason they didn't have the same impact on me upon release is that I had already heard it all so many times before.

Off Columbia, the Prestige set is a big favorite of mine. Nothing sums up the best of the 50s in jazz like that set.

Edited July 31, 2003 by John L

[jazzbo]

Well, I've gotta be different. . . the Gil Evans set for me. Fantastic music, and the new material really gives insight into its construction. I like all the dates, and the booklet is fascinating. . . I l just dig this one a lot!

I love the others too. I'm so happy to have them all. But the Gil Evans set really I value a bit more as a box.

[Jazzmoose]

I should have refrained from voting, I suppose, but went with Bitches Brew, the only one I have. I'm just too darned cheap to get boxed sets when I have the individual discs. I've got to get that Plugged Nickel box someday though...

[sidewinder]

Gotta go with Jazzbo on this one and vote for the Miles & Gil. The CD set was phenomenal enough but when I heard it on the Mosaic LP it was a revelation. Almost too many highlights to list - 'Miles Ahead' in stereo, all those fantastic rehearsal takes of 'Ahead' and 'Porgy and Bess', the fascinating development of 'Falling Water' and the embryonic sketch-score of 'Time of the Barracudas'. This one is real desert island material for me, end to end.

Number two in my order is the 65-68 Quintet - again, desert island material no question. Nice additional material with the Herbie compositions too.

Really though, they are all brilliant and hard to choose between.

Edited July 31, 2003 by sidewinder

[Jim R]

I voted for Miles & Gil also. My overall favorite in terms of the music alone would have to be the set with Trane, but as a boxed set (taking everything into consideration) I think the job done on the Gil Evans collaberations was done better.

[clandy44]

The Coltrane followed by the Evans. Miles' work in the 50s and early 60s remains my favorite. After 1968, who is that and what is it that he is playing?

[paul secor]

I voted for Miles and Trane. Before I voted, I figured that one would easily get the most votes. Interesting - I guess that shows how well I can predict other people's tastes.

[kenny weir]

Easy - the Evans set. I recently played Miles Ahead, Porgy & Bess and Skteches Of Spain in their entirety on successive weeks on my show, and have also played the fabulous second version of Miles Ahead that follows the first in this amazing box.

[DrJ]

Close match, but the Plugged Nickel box beats out the Gil Evans by just a nose.

They're all wonderful in terms of the music, though, none are less than essential IMHO. Personally, I'd add in the recent Blackhawk 4 CD set as belonging in the same class as this listing.

Edited August 1, 2003 by DrJ

[BFrank]

I would have voted for the 65-68 set, but the Plugged Nickel box is such a rare opportunity to hear a band (and not just ANY band) over the course of a week, I just had to go with that one.

Oddly enough, the Miles/Gil box is the only one on this list that I don't have. I was never a fan of "Sketches" and this particular side of Miles' music doesn't do a lot for me.

[brownie]

The Plugged Nickel set got my vote. With all its new material, this one in its continuity

brought a new perspective on the way Miles Davis was working with his musicians.

Same could be said about the Miles-Gil Evans box (the sound on the Mosaic LP set

is really superb) and the Miles- Coltrane set but the Plugged Nickel had much more

unissued material.

[Free For All]

Man, this reminds me of "Sophie's Choice". The impossible decision. Each one of these sets has brought so much pleasure it's hard to pick just one- each recording has its own unique delights.

I remember before the Plugged Nickel set came out, it was like the secret "Holy Grail" of jazz. Anyone who owned it was immediately elevated to a higher social status.

The 65-68 set contains some of the most innovative and fresh playing and composition. And it's still totally fresh. Wayne's tunes are timeless.

The Cannonball/Trane group was the first Miles I ever heard and changed my priorities about music forever.

I've got 'em all, but I guess if I have to choose one it'll have to be the Gil set. Great playing by Miles plus some of the most detailed, engaging and imaginative arranging/orchestration of all time- the arranger in me can't help but focus on that. Gil's orchestration is, to me, on a level of someone like Stravinsky. My only regret is that Gil should've gotten a little more rehearsal time from Columbia; the only blemish is some of the loose ensemble passages, especially on the Porgy stuff. Certainly forgiveable given the big picture.

The Miles portion of my music collection represents my favorite music. His music encompassed, if not directly influenced, many of the major stylistic shifts in jazz. A significant number of the most influential musicians in the history of jazz share the space on these recordings: Bird, Monk, Sonny, Gil, Cannonball, Coltrane, Wynton, PC, Hank, Wayne, Tony, Herbie, McLaughlin, Corea, Jarrett, Liebman, Grossman, Scofield, Kenny Garrett, etc., etc. etc. Whenever I need "grounding" or inspiration, whether I need to mellow out (IASW, KOB) or get pumped up (Milestones, We Want Miles) I listen to a Miles side.

There were those who were better trumpet players but few who were better musicians or better leaders.

Edited August 1, 2003 by Free For All

[Gary]

thanks for all the votes & great posts .

Definately a close run thing between 4 of the sets so far.

By the way I only need 1 of the sets now , my mouse finger got itchy with all this Miles talk .

1 to go (ironically its of my favourite miles period ).

Please keep the votes coming if you havent done so yet.

[Matthew]

Went with Plugged Nickel, which continues to be a magical, mysterious, boring, exciting, mystical, infuriating, wonderful, and confounding a set of music as I've ever heard.

[JSngry]

My "favorite" is Plugged Nickel. simply because it had the most music in it that I'd never heard before. My appetites had been whetted, not sated, by years of listening to the 1st 2 Japanese LPs and the 3rd one Columbia put out. Those made up, what, less than 25% of the box? Pretty much like getting a box of ALL new stuff, and mind-boggling stuff at that. But if Sony ever puts out a "Lost Quintet" set, be prepared to view the Plugged Nickel material as tame and predictable. Almost...

Was anybody else like me in being kinda, uh, "obsessive" about hounding their local stores when the various release dates shifted about, what, 3 times? "Are you SURE?" "Can you call your distributor?" "What's Sony's phone nember?" (yeah, I was calling THEM...).

[Gary]

Was anybody else like me in being kinda, uh, "obsessive" about hounding their local stores when the various release dates shifted about, what, 3 times? "Are you SURE?" "Can you call your distributor?" "What's Sony's phone nember?" (yeah, I was calling THEM...).

I will be when i get the slightest hint of the LIVE EVIL box release date!

[jazzbo]

Yeah I've been obsessive like that. . . One of my best friends here is the jazz buyer at Tower Austin, and I would call and make him call Columbia and. . . well we both would get obsessive about this, and we both almost always bought the first copies in the store, at the same time!