Herbie Hancock Complete Columbia Box

[mikeweil]

My wife understood my pains, so I made comparisons with some of the older CD versions I already had. The sound is more detailed, a bit more room ambience, softer and clearer at the same time. Not much, but noticeable. They did a good job. Belden's essay is a good read.

In retrospect, it shows how influential and groundbreaking Herbie really was .... at the center of things, there is some - in my ears - very African way of treating rhythm and sound in his work, and some devices that were already there during his Blue Note years. Listen to the horn section licks he wrote. Herbie was very influential to me, so I do not regret getting this, even though I do not really like all of the music in the box.

[king ubu]

Mine is waiting with crappy DHL ... what lousy service they offer ... I'll pick it up myself, don't trust them so sing that "if it gets lost we aren't responsible" clause for the second delivery option ... really, what are they, do they even want to deliver anything? Anyway, this took a loooooooong time to arrive and I can only pick it up Monday now (at regular post, I'd have picked it up this morning, but DHL is oooooooooooooh soooooooooooooooooooooooooo sloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow).

[erwbol]

I never thought I would end up owning several dull disco albums in box set format, and the worst is probably yet to come with the eighties stuff.

[mikeweil]

DHL over here is okay. I registered for a Packstation recently, I get an SMS with a TAN and have a card to open the box at the office to pick it up - open 24 hours a day. Very convenient. When JPC sends me an e-mail they shipped, usually it's there at the station the next day. And I get alink to the DHL site so I can check the state of delivery. No problems. The Herbie box was here the day after they shipped. (The parcel was eight times the size of the CD cube .....)

My pain in the neck are are the postmen: We have six blocks here, numbered 220, 220A, 220B, 220C, 220D, and 220E. Some do not get it when the sender writes 220d. One CD was returned because they couldn't locate me at the adress supplied .... how dumb can one be? It was all written correctly, as it turned out. At least the CD still exists. Two from that Swiss classical shop never turned up here .....

[king ubu]

I know, but there are no packstations over here ... they're just darn slow and totally unreliable with regards to second delivery (they just don't show up in the slot or even on the day you were asking for). Stuff being sent back is a nuisance! Happened once to a private parcel and that was a huge gaffe on all sides that could never be cleared up ... at least the parcel made it back and on second attempt to me, then (DHL again on the German side, but Swiss Post took over - which is the usual procedure, not sure why this one is beign delivered by DHL at all - I assume it's the Hancock box anyway, DHL doesn't even allow you to know what country the parcel is coming from ... totally no info whatsoever!)

[mikeweil]

It's time Switzerland joined the European Union, heh?

[king ubu]

No, it's time postal services get unprivatized again!

[erwbol]

Luckily, these are all distant horror stories to me, though things aren't perfect over here either. Certainly not outside of the long privatised Dutch postal service. I avoid couriers like DHL, GLS and UPS whenever possible.

[king ubu]

Luckily, most parcels that start out with DHL in Germany get handed over and delivered by regular Swiss Post ... no idea why sometimes they don't. DHL really can't compete here, no way. I'd not even blame the people actually carrying out stuff, I assume their work conditions are beyond horrid.

[sidewinder]

I never thought I would end up owning several dull disco albums in box set format, and the worst is probably yet to come with the eighties stuff.

Strangely, I'm quite partial to some of Herbie's disco stuff but then I guess that's just me

I've got one of his twelve inch singles filed away somewhere. And I remember seeing him strutting around on BBC 'Top Of The Pops' with vocoder round his neck doing 'You Better Bet Your Love' or something of that ilk..

[erwbol]

I never thought I would end up owning several dull disco albums in box set format, and the worst is probably yet to come with the eighties stuff.

Strangely, I'm quite partial to some of Herbie's disco stuff but then I guess that's just me

I've got one of his twelve inch singles filed away somewhere. And I remember seeing him strutting around on BBC 'Top Of The Pops' with vocoder round his neck doing 'You Better Bet Your Love' or something of that ilk..

http://youtu.be/SEtS2cRWjOk

[felser]

That's a loooooong way down from here....

But no doubt pays better, Still, there is much of value in his Columbia catalog.

Edited November 17, 2013 by felser

[David Ayers]

Let's face it we just love box sets. We'd buy anything.

[sidewinder]

That's a loooooong way down from here....

Not to underestimate the nostalgia factor of us boomers boogie-ing around the dance floor to this stuff. Brings back good memories

That's my excuse anyway..

[mikeweil]

Not a bad one ...

.... I'd not even blame the people actually carrying out stuff, I assume their work conditions are beyond horrid.

They are, that's for sure! And the wages are, too!

[JSngry]

Eddie Watkins on bass, that justifies it. The shifty-geeky cadences make if fun, but Essie Watkins on bass justifies it.

OTOH - this needs no justification at all, since being delightful is its own justification!

Just wondering, is the Kimiko Kasai album included, since IIRC, it's for all intents and purposes a Herbie album with Kimiko out in front.

[king ubu]

Yes, it's there (disc 20).

Full info here:

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=45750#.UojwAFywWu0

Albums in the box:

• 1. Sextant (1973)
• 2. Head Hunters (1973)
• 3. Dedication (1974)*
• 4. Thrust (1974)
• 5. Death Wish /OST (1974)
• 6. Flood (1975)*
• 7. Man-Child (1975)
• 8. Secrets (1976)
• 9. V.S.O.P. (1976 – 2CDs )
• 10. Herbie Hancock Trio (1977)*
• 11. V.S.O.P.: The Quintet (1977)
• 12. V.S.O.P.: Tempest In The Colosseum (1977)*
• 13. An Evening With Herbie Hancock & Chick Corea (1978 – 2 CDs)
• 14. Sunlight (1978)
• 15. Feets Don’t Fail Me Now (1978)
• 16. Direct Step (1978)*
• 17. The Piano (1978)
• 18. V.S.O.P.: Live Under The Sky (1979 – 2 CDs)
• 19. V.S.O.P.: Five Stars (1979)*
• 20. Butterfly w/ Kimiko Kasai (1979)*
• 21. Monster (1980)
• 22. Mr. Hands (1980)
• 23. Magic Windows (1981)
• 24. Herbie Hancock Trio w/ Ron Carter + Tony Williams (1981)*
• 25. Herbie Hancock Quartet (1981)
• 26. Lite Me Up (1982)
• 27. Future Shock (1983)
• 28. Sound-System (1984)
• 29. Village Life (1984)
• 30. Round Midnight / OST (1985)
• 31. Perfect Machine (1988)

* First time on CD outside of Japan.

taken from here:

http://www.superdeluxeedition.com/news/herbie-hancock-the-complete-columbia-album-collection-1972-88/

[JSngry]

Wow, that's a lot of albums...almost all of which have something of merit to offer (I remember Monster as being pretty much altogether worthless, and the techno-albums wearing out most of their welcome after, at best two times through), and a few, such as Mr. Hands & Village Life, being near-masterpieces that kinda got lost in whatever shuffles were going on at the time.

Nothing there that I don't already have in some (adequate enough) form or fashion, but if a person doesn't know most/any of this music, doesn't insist on expecting it do be something it's not even thinking about trying to be, and can put up with the fails in the service of getting to the successes, it seems to be a good investment, really. At the right price, of course!

Now - when does somebody do the same thing with Cannonball's Capitol output? That's a similarly sprawlingly chameleonic collective body of work that also has a good number of buried gems.

[king ubu]

Oh, I'd LOVE that Capitol box! Can't keep up the pace with the japanese reissues of those, but at least go some .... but a few seem to be real rare and out only in blogosphere, if at all ... who owns the EMI jazz catalogue now, Universal? Does that include all the other "holdings" (Capitol, Blue Note, United Artists, Roulette, Roost, Colpix, FM, etc)?

Guess with Universal there's less of a chance than there'd have been with Sony, but still ... nice idea for sure!

And yeah, I'm really looking forward to exploring the Hancock box. I know a mere six albums so far. Hope I can indeed pick it up tomorrow afternoon!

[felser]

Cannonball box would be awesome (even though some of the latter stuff is at times borderline unlistenable to me when they decided they were vocalists). but only Sony seems to have seen the light on these kind of boxes. I'm amazed I'm getting this Hancock box for $3 a disc.

[Sundog]

One a side note, over the last few days I've been transfering this music into my iTunes library and noticed instead of the actual album titles showing up when imported each album comes up as either The Acoustic Collection or The Electric Collection. I wonder if there are future plans to subdivide this music and release as two additional boxes with different target audiences? Stranger things have happened.

[king ubu]

Cannonball box would be awesome (even though some of the latter stuff is at times borderline unlistenable to me when they decided they were vocalists). but only Sony seems to have seen the light on these kind of boxes. I'm amazed I'm getting this Hancock box for $3 a disc.

Universal is doing some similar sets, but it seems they all come out of Italy (and they include Concord/Fantasy material, as Universal is their distributor in Euorope).

[felser]

Cannonball box would be awesome (even though some of the latter stuff is at times borderline unlistenable to me when they decided they were vocalists). but only Sony seems to have seen the light on these kind of boxes. I'm amazed I'm getting this Hancock box for $3 a disc.

Universal is doing some similar sets, but it seems they all come out of Italy (and they include Concord/Fantasy material, as Universal is their distributor in Euorope).

Seems like those have all been EU public domain type of material, haven't they? I have the Parker, am aware of the Fitzgerald and a couple of others.

[king ubu]

Cannonball box would be awesome (even though some of the latter stuff is at times borderline unlistenable to me when they decided they were vocalists). but only Sony seems to have seen the light on these kind of boxes. I'm amazed I'm getting this Hancock box for $3 a disc.

Universal is doing some similar sets, but it seems they all come out of Italy (and they include Concord/Fantasy material, as Universal is their distributor in Euorope).

Seems like those have all been EU public domain type of material, haven't they? I have the Parker, am aware of the Fitzgerald and a couple of others.

Yes, I guess so. There are sets by Billie Holiday, Clifford Brown and others ... in classical they do some non-PD stuff, too.

[JSngry]

Cannonball box would be awesome (even though some of the latter stuff is at times borderline unlistenable to me when they decided they were vocalists). but only Sony seems to have seen the light on these kind of boxes. I'm amazed I'm getting this Hancock box for $3 a disc.

Universal is doing some similar sets, but it seems they all come out of Italy (and they include Concord/Fantasy material, as Universal is their distributor in Euorope).

Oh well now! That means you could have a set covering Cannonball uninterrupted from first Capitol to last Fantasy, and...people who find the Herbie Columbia run maddeningly inconsistent because the only single answer to it all is that there is no single answer to it all would be sent running and screaming to the nearest asylum with a one-way ticket in hand by that thing.