GREAT BOX SETS

Ken Burns Jazz: The Story of American Music Yes, it's a little light on music from the late 1960s and 1970s, but overall this is a terrific survey of jazz music, particularly for those who are not overly familiar with it and don't quite know yet what they like best. It's all here--Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Chick Webb, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker & Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday, Lester Young,and more. If you aren't in the market for the whole set, there are individual CDs by a variety of artists featured in the series that are quite good.

A Jazz Romance: A Night With Verve The legendary Verve Record vaults yield this highly engaging and listenable collection featuring the likes of Ben Webster, Bill Evans, Clifford Brown, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, and many more. Most of the music here is from the 1940s and 1950s, giving listeners not familiar with those eras a chance to hear some of its best artists, and allowing those who are familiar with it to bask in some sepia-toned nostalgia.

Louis Armstrong/Complete Hot Fives and Hot Sevens This music, recorded between 1925 and 1929, is among the most important in jazz. The music of the Hot Fives, recorded by Armstrong along with his wife, Lil, Johnny Dodds, Kid Ory, and Johnny St. Cyr, altered the course of jazz by replacing the importance of the collective New Orleans ensemble with that of the soloist. The music of the Hot Sevens, on which Earl Hines and Jack Teagarden are added, further refine and fulfill Armstrong's individualistic concept. Great sound quality on this JSP Records release.

Ornette Coleman/Beauty Is A Rare Thing Coleman's music sounds less revolutionary than it did when these recordings were originally released, but no less uncompromising. What is amazing is how melodic and soulful much of this material is, stripped of its political and radical musical rhetoric.

John Coltrane/Classic Quartet If you were to buy only one John Coltrane collection, this is the one you'd have to have. Everything done by the quartet between 1961 and 1965 is here on this 8-CD set, and it is breathtaking. This music stands with the best in jazz--Louis Armstrong's Hot Fives and Hot Sevens, the original Bill Evans Trio, and both of Miles Davis' classic quintets.

Miles Davis/The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions Using the same creative concepts as In A Silent Way, Miles expanded the combo to include more percussion, bass clarinet, and two basses. The result is amazing--the rhythms of rock and the freewheeling interplay of free jazz. Richer, darker, and with more motion than In a Silent Way, it is the album that set Miles on the course he would follow until his semi-retirement of the late 1970s. Not for everyone--if you primarily like bebop Miles or the Gil Evans/Miles Davis collaborations, you might find this one tough going. On the other hand, if you are coming to Davis' music from funk or rock, this is a great place for you to start.

Miles Davis-Gil Evans/Complete Columbia Studio Recordings The complete work that Evans and Davis did together, including the near-perfect albums Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess, and Sketches of Spain as well as the less-inspired Quiet Nights and a wealth of alternate takes that help demonstrate the process by which these recordings were made.

Miles Davis/Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965 This eight-CD set captures Miles Davis's second great quintet at its fiercest, loose with both the blossoming of familiarity between the players and the broadness of its attacks on the mostly well known tunes the group called during two nights at Chicago's Plugged Nickel in 1965. And you can hear it all, from "The Theme" that closed the quintet's sets to multiple, radically different takes of several tunes. Davis formed this band with its heated potential in mind, opting for youth in Wayne Shorter's tenor sax, Herbie Hancock's piano, Ron Carter's bass, and Tony Williams's rhythmic energy.

Duke Ellington/Masterpieces The genius of Duke, bandleader extraordinaire, pianist and greatest American composer of the 20th century is celebrated in the 93 docal masterpieces featured in this 4 cd box set. Ellington's achievements as composer, arranger, pianist and bandleader touch a bewildering variety of levels, producing music that has never been surpassed.

Bill Evans/Complete Riverside Recordings Evans's Riverside years encompass his early dynamos: Everybody Digs Bill Evans is resplendently here, as is the material from Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby. So, too, are sessions with Cannonball Adderley, Jim Hall, and Zoot Sims. Through it all, Evans remains firmly planted in a winding style that's creatively unstoppable and visceral in its intensity.

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