How much is enough?

[Guest Bill Barton]

RRK and fela are my 2 got-to-have-it-all artists at the moment!

:party: at your house! throw in a live set by Ira Sullivan and I'll be drivin' cross-country...

Edited August 20, 2009 by Bill Barton

[AndrewHill]

Just because I want all of a certain artist's Blue Note sessions from the 60s does not mean that I want his disco album from 1976.

If that disco album came out in 1978, I'd swear you were talkin' bout McLean here!

[AndrewHill]

That is a function of a variety of several factors:

1. The greatness of the artist (in your personal view).

2. The length of time one has admired the artist.

3. The size of their recorded discography.

4. The rarity of their work.

5. Whether the quality of the artist's work is maintained over their entire career.

For a truly great artist and I have admired over a long period of time, I would probably have all or substantially all of their work, unless their discography is too enormous (e.g., Duke Ellington), or difficult to obtain (a factor that tends to become less of a factor over a longer period of time), or the artist was in decline at some period in their career.

I agree with this chart. Its very subjective and not everyone is going to agree on what's great and what's not, e.g., recall the 'Why I hate Miles Davis' thread here a couple of years back. To each his own.

[RDK]

I guess I'm not much of a completest. I probably have around 50 Ellington CDs/LPs, 30+ by Mingus, most of the official releases by Monk, Coltrane, etc. - those "Complete Whatever" boxes come in handy - but I've never felt the need to acquire everything by a particular artist, whether good or bad. I'm actually kind of "Ellington'd out" at the moment, despite considering him one of the top 2 or 3 jazz artists of all time. I'd much rather sample artists who I'm less familiar with or whose work is underrepresented in my collection, even if their work is technically "inferior" to Duke, Mingus, Monk, etc. - and really, how could it not be? I'm really in an exploratory phase at the moment, listening to lots of new (and not so new) artists, and I wouldn't be able to sample them if my funds were perpetually tied up in "completing" my Ellington or Miles collections.

[thomastreichler]

I've gone deep on a lot of artists:

[15+ discs] Donald Byrd, Scott Hamilton, Jackie McLean, Hank Mobley (and who knows how many side dates of Mobes)

[20+ discs] Chet Baker, Count Basie, Jazz Crusaders/Crusaders, Stan Getz

[30+ discs] John Coltrane, Dexter Gordon, Bill Evans, Lester Young

[50+ discs] Art Pepper

Well, let's see:

(15+ discs): Louis Bellson, Ray Bryant, Buck Clayton (incl. 1 Mosaic Box), Lionel Hampton, Coleman Hawkins, J.J. Johnson (incl. 1 Mosaic Box), Hank Jones, Rob McConnell, Art Pepper, Art Tatum, Clark Terry, Fats Waller, Ben Webster

(20+ discs): Monty Alexander, Ruby Braff, Ray Brown, Benny Carter, Eddie Condon (incl. 1 Mosaic Box), Johnny Hodges (incl. 1 Mosaic Box), Dick Hyman, Milt Jackson, Dave McKenna, Zoot Sims

(30+ discs): Ella Fitzgerald, Woody Herman (incl. 1 Mosaic Box), Earl Hines

(40+ discs): Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman

(50+ discs): Duke Ellington)

(80+ discs): Count Basie (incl. 3 Mosaic Boxes)

(100+ discs): Oscar Peterson (incl. 1 Mosaic Box and several other box sets)

This list, first of all, is reflecting my stylistic preferences: I am obviously rooted in mainstream jazz, though I have a lot of be bop and hard bop as well. Besides that I am far from being a completist. As long as I am finding interesting records, I am purchasing them, regardless of whether I already have a lot of albums by the respective artist. A lot of the artists mentioned above have/had long recording careers, so my collection covers more or less the whole timespan of their respective musical lives and guarantees much diversity simply because of the stylistic evolution of the music and the musician. This applies for example to my collections of Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Ruby Braff, Benny Carter, Woody Herman, Earl Hines, Benny Goodman, Johnny Hodges, Duke Ellington, Milt Jackson, Count Basie and Oscar Peterson. Other artists I simply like that much that I cannot get enough of them, even when there is not much diversity between different recordings, e.g. Dave McKenna, Zoot Sims, Hank Jones, Monty Alexander, Dick Hyman, Art Tatum (the fact that I am an amateur pianist myself may explain the over-representation of pianists). Big bands are also well represented; being a huge fan of big bands (20's to contemporary), roughly one fifth of my whole collection consists of big band records (I have albums of 269 different big bands from 17 different countries). I for myself cannot say that a certain number of albums by a certain artist is enough; it is a matter of how much good music do you find of musicians you like and how big or how small their overall recorded output is. This may sound trivial, but that's how it is in my case.

Edited August 20, 2009 by Tommy T

[Bright Moments]

RRK and fela are my 2 got-to-have-it-all artists at the moment!

:party: at your house! throw in a live set by Ira Sullivan and I'll be drivin' cross-country...

lets do it!!!

[DMP]

Wes Montgomery on Riverside - 100%; on A&M, one CD.

[sal]

I've got almost every available Miles Davis recording between Birth of the Cool and Pangaea. I'm trying to amass every recording Coltrane put out as well. They're my only two "completist" artists.

[AmirBagachelles]

never/not enough:

Cecil Taylor

Jimmy Lyons

Derek Bailey

Frank Zappa

Sam Rivers

58-64 Art Blakey

Mulligan and CJB

Woody Shaw

Thad Jones, and TJ/ML Orch

Richard Thompson

69-72 Grateful Dead

Art Pepper

[BruceH]

Got every commercially-available recording by Bud Powell. (Love Bud.) My only got-to-have-it-all jazz artist.

Cool!

Myself, I'd put Sonny Clark in that same category.

[Teasing the Korean]

Between all of us, we have everything, so there's nothing more to buy.

[Chuck Nessa]

You can sell the duplicates.

[Teasing the Korean]

You can sell the duplicates.

Better yet, you can sell your duplicates to me. Would you have any dupes from a label called Nessa?

[mmilovan]

There is no border line for Lester Young... 10, 20, 50... no... every second of his playing is worth hearing and preserving.

Edited August 22, 2009 by mmilovan

[StarThrower]

I don't want another Blue Note album by anybody. In fact, I've heard all of the bebop/hardbop I need to hear. I want to hear more from the Black Saint/Soul Note artists, and ECM, and other contemporary labels. And any creative composition for larger ensembles. John Hollenbeck is a current favorite. I need to get some Joachim Kuhn too. Some electric albums were recommended to me, but I'm not interested. He's a great pianist, and I want the acoustic stuff. Just like McCoy Tyner. They create their own electricity.

[JETman]

I don't want another Blue Note album by anybody. In fact, I've heard all of the bebop/hardbop I need to hear. I want to hear more from the Black Saint/Soul Note artists, and ECM, and other contemporary labels. And any creative composition for larger ensembles. John Hollenbeck is a current favorite. I need to get some Joachim Kuhn too. Some electric albums were recommended to me, but I'm not interested. He's a great pianist, and I want the acoustic stuff. Just like McCoy Tyner. They create their own electricity.

As far as Joachim Kuhn goes, try to find as many of his acoustic trio recordings with J.F. Jenny Clark and Daniel Humair as you can. I'm not sure, but some may be very difficult to find.

You can catch up on the previously issued Black Saints and Soul Notes through Cam Jazz's (current owner of these 2 labels) boxed set reissue series.

I won't argue against ECM; too much of that goes on here already. I am a fan though. When people say that so and so's sound has been ECMified, I just laugh!

[StarThrower]

I have a few Joachim tracks on the two CMP Records samplers I own. There's a solo record, Dynamics that I want to pick up. Some of the other CMP titles are too expensive. Too bad the catalog is in limbo.

I just got the George Russell Soul Note box, and I love it! I also have the Threadgill box. Next will be Paul Motian, and Cecil Taylor. Maybe Mal Waldron too!