Which Jazz box set are you grooving to right now?

[Matthew]

The Dave Brubeck Quartet: The Columbia Studio Albums Collection 1955 -- 1966. I'm really enjoying this one and very happy I finally bought it. Paul Desmond is fast becoming a favorite of mine now, he reminds me of Johnny Hodges, in that when his solo is over, you get a tremendous sense of completion, that it couldn't be done any better by anyone else.

[brownie]

Tubby Hayes 'The Little Giant (Proper)

[brownie]

George Shearing 'The Complete Quintet Studio Sessions' (United Archives)

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Jazz Crusaders complete PJ studio recordings. Now on disc 3.

MG

[StarThrower]

[brownie]

Bud Powell Complete Verve box, CD 3

[mr jazz]

Jimi Hendrix purple box set. not jazz but I am groovin to it.

Edited August 13, 2012 by mr jazz

[Valeria Victrix]

One of the all time greats

[Matthew]

Weather Report: The Columbia Albums 1971 - 1975.

[B. Goren.]

Bud Powell Complete Verve box, CD 3

I always preferred Bud's Vreve recordings over his recordings for BN.

[romualdo]

Dexter Gordon Steeplechase Trio/Quartet Box Edited August 17, 2012 by romualdo

[JSngry]

Full-length "Eurydice"...nice from a musical standpoint, but that's not how it was released, nor how it stayed released until now...oh well, who's complaining?

[Head Man]

Bought this on a whim recently and it's really very good. Nice when that happens

[romualdo]

Picked this up from Honest Jons

[Head Man]

Picked this up from Honest Jons

A good 'un

[BFrank]

MS-007 Mosaic Select: Curtis Amy

[JSngry]

Full-length "Eurydice"...nice from a musical standpoint, but that's not how it was released, nor how it stayed released until now...oh well, who's complaining?

Still.

[Matthew]

Full-length "Eurydice"...nice from a musical standpoint, but that's not how it was released, nor how it stayed released until now...oh well, who's complaining?

Still.

I know I'm supposed to be digging Live in Tokyo the most out of all the albums on this set, but I've been enjoying the studio albums more -- for some reason, "Live In Tokyo" didn't do anything for me. Strangely enough, I have come to really love their debut album the most, even though Zawinul is quoted in the booklet as saying that they were just trying not to step on each other's toes during those sessions.

[JSngry]

Live in Tokyo is just uninhibited electric-blowing, like a Miles-less Lost Quintet that kept going to its next logical destination. Very high-energy, but if you don't dig it, you don't dig it. I saw WR about 6-7 times over the years, and the live shows were always and significantly higher energy & more open than the studio albums, so the Tokyo thing is just another example of that, really. There was a taste of it on Body Electric, and that's a concentrated blast if ever there was one, but the whole thing spread out is more "like it was".

The two I found myself most "reevaluating" were Sweetnighter & Tale Spinnin', both of which I've always really dug, but have seemed kind of "transitional" in the group's arc. They're still that, but now that it's box set time rather than real time, I find myself enjoying them even more "as is".

Looking forward (hoping, that is) to more live compilations along the lines of Live & Unreleased (or whatever it was called), and from the pre- and post- Jaco years. People at the time wondering where Wayne had disappeared to and all that weren't going to the live shows, I'll tell you that for sure. Those guys were always on fire, and Wayne was at the peak of the flames.

[Matthew]

I also came away with a much deeper appreciation of Miroslav Vitouš, he makes some outstanding contributions on these albums. I found Zawinul's condescending attitude toward Vitouš a little over the top, but this whole question of a "funkier feel" to Weather Report was interesting, and Vitouš' statements that he wasn't into the Funk intriguing -- I guess if you don't have the feel, you don't have the feel.

Edited August 22, 2012 by Matthew

[JSngry]

Zawinul over the top? About anything? I'm shocked, I tell you, SHOCKED!

But seriously, as time goes by, Zawinul's "world vision" or whatever you want to call it, has really proven valid, I think. If you don't have it and think you might want to hear it, there;s a 2-CD set of live Zawinul Syndicate material that is about as outstanding as it can be. Totally origianl and organic. While the "jazz world" was militantly resisting the influx of too much of anything outsideits immediate self, Zawinul was in heat looking for exactly that. There were a lot of bumps along the way, but this live stuff shows him eventually getting it right, and splendidly so.

As for Vitous, hell he had the gig with Herbie Mann, played on "Philly Dog", locked in with Bruno Carr. So he could if he wanted, but I guess he didn't want to. His prerogative, for sure. ECM called, and he answered.

And the digital/sampling age has not passed him by http://miroslavvitous.com/orchestraSamples.shtml If you want to sample traditional orchestral sounds, he's your guy!

[Mark Stryker]

MS-007 Mosaic Select: Curtis Amy

Hey, some good early Marcus Belgrave on there ...

[Mark Stryker]

Live in Tokyo is just uninhibited electric-blowing, like a Miles-less Lost Quintet that kept going to its next logical destination. Very high-energy, but if you don't dig it, you don't dig it. I saw WR about 6-7 times over the years, and the live shows were always and significantly higher energy & more open than the studio albums, so the Tokyo thing is just another example of that, really. There was a taste of it on Body Electric, and that's a concentrated blast if ever there was one, but the whole thing spread out is more "like it was".

The two I found myself most "reevaluating" were Sweetnighter & Tale Spinnin', both of which I've always really dug, but have seemed kind of "transitional" in the group's arc. They're still that, but now that it's box set time rather than real time, I find myself enjoying them even more "as is".

Looking forward (hoping, that is) to more live compilations along the lines of Live & Unreleased (or whatever it was called), and from the pre- and post- Jaco years. People at the time wondering where Wayne had disappeared to and all that weren't going to the live shows, I'll tell you that for sure. Those guys were always on fire, and Wayne was at the peak of the flames.

Don't have time today for a full Weather Report discussion but thought I'd add that in a fire, the two records I'm grabbing first are "Mysterious Traveller" and "Sweetnighter." Never saw the band live, but would have really liked to have heard them in late '72 and '73 -- sometimes the transitions are more thrilling than perhaps the more aesthetically consistent, polished poles on either side.

Edited August 22, 2012 by Mark Stryker

[JSngry]

Live in Tokyo is just uninhibited electric-blowing, like a Miles-less Lost Quintet that kept going to its next logical destination. Very high-energy, but if you don't dig it, you don't dig it. I saw WR about 6-7 times over the years, and the live shows were always and significantly higher energy & more open than the studio albums, so the Tokyo thing is just another example of that, really. There was a taste of it on Body Electric, and that's a concentrated blast if ever there was one, but the whole thing spread out is more "like it was".

Having a listen to Body Electric from this box now, and if it's true that Cecil Taylor approaches the piano as 88 tuned drums, then it's true that this half of an album side shows Weather Report treating their band as a drum ensemble...remarkably percussive music. Everything stems and grows from and out of that.

If it's also true that a drum is a woman, then this, dear friends, is a harem!

[JSngry]

Don't have time today for a full Weather Report discussion but thought I'd add that in a fire, the two records I'm grabbing first are "Mysterious Traveller" and "Sweetnighter." Never saw the band live, but would have really liked to have heard them in late '72 and '73 -- sometimes the transitions are more thrilling than perhaps the more aesthetically consistent, polished poles on either side.

The first time I heard them was in fall of 1974, when they were promoting Mysterious Traveler. Alphonso Johnson had replaced Miroslav by then. They got into a thing on "Boogie Woogie Waltz" that had people standing up and screaming like they had been possessed.

Zawinul had, and Wayne still has, that mojo thing that can go a-conjurin'. Look out!