Favorite Free Jazz/Avant Garde Box Sets

[mjzee]

Huh. I've owned the Sam Rivers Mosaic for years, but never thought of it as a "Free Jazz" box...maybe disc 3, but otherwise pretty straight-ahead. Perhaps Free Jazz can be thought of as a continuum with "abstract" at one end and "noise" at the other, but not sure it encompasses "melodicism." Anyway, for Free Jazz box sets, Coltrane's Live in Japan, also Impulse Box Sets 4 and 5. Sun Ra's Artyard In A Box. And how about:

[jazzbo]

Vol. 5 of the Coltrane Impulse Collection

Beauty is a Rare Thing

Albert Ayler Revenant box

Henry Threadgill Mosaic

[romualdo]

Kaoru Abe 7CD set (1970-73) - any Kaoru fans out there?

Trio X 7CD set (2006 US Tour)

[mjazzg]

Peter Brotzmann Chicago tentet +1 - 3 nights in Oslo

five discs, two of the tentet+1, the other three a variety of configurations from the tentet personnel

(saw this band in London earlier this week - stunning)

[ElginThompson]

Huh. I've owned the Sam Rivers Mosaic for years, but never thought of it as a "Free Jazz" box...maybe disc 3, but otherwise pretty straight-ahead. Perhaps Free Jazz can be thought of as a continuum with "abstract" at one end and "noise" at the other, but not sure it encompasses "melodicism." Anyway, for Free Jazz box sets, Coltrane's Live in Japan, also Impulse Box Sets 4 and 5. Sun Ra's Artyard In A Box. And how about:

Fair point on Rivers.

[JSngry]

Perhaps Free Jazz can be thought of as a continuum with "abstract" at one end and "noise" at the other, but not sure it encompasses "melodicism."

I don't know what this means.

[mjzee]

Perhaps Free Jazz can be thought of as a continuum with "abstract" at one end and "noise" at the other, but not sure it encompasses "melodicism."

I don't know what this means.

Think Braxton's "For Trio" at one end, and Brotzmann's "Machine Gun" on the other.

[Chuck Nessa]

For anyone wanting to "upgrade" the Art Ensemble box for the new masterings, I will send the new disc packages in a new AEC 1967/68 box/sleeve. I have a couple hundred extras and sent one to a good customer earlier.

[JSngry]

Perhaps Free Jazz can be thought of as a continuum with "abstract" at one end and "noise" at the other, but not sure it encompasses "melodicism."

I don't know what this means.

Think Braxton's "For Trio" at one end, and Brotzmann's "Machine Gun" on the other.

And think "Lonely Woman", "Ghosts", "New York Is Full Of Lonely People", any number of Frank Lowe tunes, etc., in between, and I'd say that "melodicism" (and I'm still not sure what that really means, melody being in the ear of the behearer and all that) is certainly encompassed.

"Free" is just a way approaching a destination, it's not a list of ingredients. Same with "jazz". One could make the argument that jazz = freedom, therefore "free jazz" is a redundancy, but that time has come and gone. As Ray Price famously and heroically once said, don't look so sad, I know it's over.

[jeffcrom]

Isn't Ornette Coleman just melody (+ swing)? Or is he not considered "free jazz" anymore?

[johnlitweiler]

Kaoru Abe 7CD set (1970-73) - any Kaoru fans out there?

Yes. A challenging artist. At best he sounds like the first person who ever played a saxophone. Who issued this 7CD set?

[romualdo]

Kaoru Abe 7CD set (1970-73) - any Kaoru fans out there?

Yes. A challenging artist. At best he sounds like the first person who ever played a saxophone. Who issued this 7CD set?

It was released earlier this year on the Japanese "Youth" label - it's a compilation of his PSF material (including Winter 72) plus an unreleased disc

I bought my copy via Amazon Japan - have a lower price than other dealers but the shipping is the killer

I see you didn't include a chapter on "Free Jazz in Japan" in your text (The Freedom Principle, 1984 edn) - had a relook at the book today

Edited November 15, 2012 by romualdo

[ATR]

Aside from Brownie and the Threadgill, any love for the recent Black Saint/Soul Notes?

Appealing, based on price and availability.

The Harry Miller set on Ogun hasn't yet been mentioned. It's a notch below my favorite avantgarde box-sets, but there's still some pretty great music on it!

The Don Pullen box is the only one I have and it is outstanding. Agree on the Harry Miller Collection. CT/Buell Neidlinger on Mosaic sets the standard, although long out of print of course as is the Art Ensemble box. Could be that the forthcoming ICP box will set a new standard.

[colinmce]

The most recent batch of BS/SN boxes was the strongest yet: Hemphill, Lewis, Abrams, Dave Douglas, George Adams. The Hemphill & Douglas sets are especially wonderful. Of the older ones, Braxton, Lacy, Murray, Dixon and Haden are my favorites. The only ones I've skipped on are the Pieranunzi, Rava, and Russell are the ones I've taken a pass on, though I'm open to those. Higher priorities & all.

[ElginThompson]

I sure wish there were more boxes like the Albert Ayler and Jimmy Lyons ones ... so many figures that could benefit from this treatment, most notably (imo):

Marion Brown-- check his online discography ... TONS of unreleased sessions from a man so painfully underrepresented on record, especially in his prime

Sam Rivers-- we know the recent Select just scratches the surface of what's sitting around, both from his creative orchestras and the old trio

Horace Tapscott-- again, so, so many private tapes from a major artist who was rarely recorded

Bill Dixon-- Odyssey is there, but I'm sure there's much more. I'd say the same for him as for Tapscott: too rarely recorded.

Joe McPhee-- John Corbett has done great putting out early private recordings and gigs but I'd love to hear more from the late 70s and 80s.

Sunny Murray-- probably the Major Figure least acknowledged as such. An anthology of his career would do wonders in asserting his eminence.

Black Artist Group-- Mentioned about as often as AEC but not much original recordings to point to

And while there's certainly no shortage of their stuff on the market, I'd always welcome odds & ends boxes from Taylor, Lacy & Braxton-- gigs, rehearsals, speeches, etc. Also, why not an official Ornette bootleg series?

Sorry, I'll be back to reality in a minute ...

There's a ton of stuff in Bill's archive. It's just a matter of getting some of it out in a way that does it "right."

Sunny's music is strewn about on too many different labels and I've heard a fair amount of live stuff that was definitely on the "miss" side of things, so it would be a challenge to put together a comprehensive set documenting his work.

+1 for Marion Brown and Sunny Murray.

[clifford_thornton]

Kaoru Abe 7CD set (1970-73) - any Kaoru fans out there?

I added this to my running list of things I will buy when I have more bread!

Abe is great. I have a few of his LPs kicking around that I enjoy, as well as Jazz Bed and the duos with Takayanagi. Even though there's a little duplication here it looks like a must own.

[Could be that the forthcoming ICP box will set a new standard.

As one of those who blithely forked over for this, I'm curious as hell to see whether the finished set will match my expectations. I have a number of the LPs and they are all excellent, though I've never been willing to fork over crazy prices for them. The only one I spent any extra lunch money on was the chocolate box.

[Hoppy T. Frog]

The ICP Box has rocketed up to the top of my list, maybe even above the Cecil Taylor FMP box.

[Д.Д.]

This is the box I plan to gt eventually:

I would be actually interested in a retrospective Keith Rowe box. Would love an Italian Instabile Orchestra one - with offshoots and all that.

[B. Clugston]

There's a video of one of the concerts floating around on the interweb. Great band. Philly Joe is smokin'!

This is the box I plan to gt eventually:

I would be actually interested in a retrospective Keith Rowe box. Would love an Italian Instabile Orchestra one - with offshoots and all that.

[johnlitweiler]

Kaoru Abe 7CD set (1970-73) - any Kaoru fans out there?

Yes. A challenging artist. At best he sounds like the first person who ever played a saxophone. Who issued this 7CD set?

It was released earlier this year on the Japanese "Youth" label - it's a compilation of his PSF material (including Winter 72) plus an unreleased disc

I bought my copy via Amazon Japan - have a lower price than other dealers but the shipping is the killer

I see you didn't include a chapter on "Free Jazz in Japan" in your text (The Freedom Principle, 1984 edn) - had a relook at the book today

I'd certainly like to hear more of and know more about the outside-jazz scene in Japan. Apparently there haven't been lots and lots of players and listeners. I bought 3 DIW CDS of Abe at DMG in NYC: "Last Date," "Solo Live at Gaya Vol. 3," and duets w/Takayanagi "Mass Projection." Incredibly intense saxophone improvising. The safest way to listen to them is naked, while rolling around in the snow. The couple pieces Abe did w/Derek Bailey are very disappointing, then. Apparently he was quite a variable player.