It’s the Music Stupid 45 : Jazz CD Box Sets

Wish those Miles Davis Boxes were in Print because they are gorgeous.

Thank you Mazzy for showing those fantastic cd jazz boxsets… So damn cool… I’m not covetous by nature… but you have given me serious case of boxset envy!

Nice video on your jazz boxes You should do more videos on the stuff that you have on CDS Those boxes you showed today are great! It looks like you have as many CDS as you have vinyl Would be nice to see more of your CDS collections

Wonderful selection of jazz box sets. Thats the format that will keep the CD alive. Vinyl cant compete with that on any level. Cheers

Haven't seen that Bill Evans set in ages. Fantastic collection. I miss going into Tower Records and seeing such sets among the new releases. Always inspiring.

Been looking for the Miles Davis Cookin at the Plugged Nickel box set for years!

Wow , wow , wow ….what brilliant suggestions 🎉 and prolific artists to chose from ! Well good session Mazzy , cheers 👋

Have a Cup of Coffee on Me Mazzy! Thank you for all your hard work Buddy!!!

My favourite box set of Miles is The Complete live sessions at the Plugged Nickle. It might not be his best live show or best music or whatever. I came to Miles late and prefer his electric years. I never saw him live. I put this on maybe once a year and play the second day. I sit down with my beers and wine (whatever.) sit at a little round table in front of the band just like in one of those film noir movies and take it all in. What a brilliant experience! ALL the best.

very very cool...i dont buy or play cds but..those boxes are all great..love coltrane at the village vanguard..went to the vanguard several times..would have loved to see trane, but, unfortunately...would love a sequel..maybe some dinah washington if possible... stay well my friend..peace always..rocky

Thanks for this one! I still love (and often prefer) the CD format, especially for well recorded classic jazz. The Japanese SHM CDs are often hard to beat, sound-wise, imo. And yes, it's still all about the music!

Hey Mazzy! The era those box sets come from is a golden period in commercially available historical recordings. In the late 70’s when I was broadening my musical interests out out the “classic rock” that I grew up on, there wasn’t alot sitting in the bins in a mid sized Canadian city that would feed that growing passion. (Thank the stars for the local library though!) Once the digital/cd revolution got really going ( and the bugs worked out) someone like me had access to the legendary recordings I could only read about or hear sporadically on a good college radio station. In the days before the internet (please effect old man voice here) this was treasure beyond belief! You can say the record companies were making a cash grab, but it was much to my benefit. I’m a little jealous of the youngsters today discovering all this great music today on vinyl. I remember the thrill!! Cheers Mazzy! It’s always the music stupid!!

I had the same problem with my Herbie Hancock box set. I never could remember how to open it. Plus, I always use gloves or paper towels to open my Bill Evans on Verve. When it came out, I took out all 18 CDs and put them in a small Case Logic binder to make them portable to take to work. As for your others, I have the first editions, too. I like the time it takes just to open the boxes. Doing so puts me in the mood to slow down and listen to the music. And, yes, "look at that friggin' hat."

Your earlier video on In a Silent Way made me listen more carefully to it, it's now my favorite Miles album. Thank you Mazzy, I love it now!

great video Mazzy! Thumbs way up! Trish

What a collection. But I was surprised you left out my favorite, Thelonious Monk. I have several box sets of his and I love them.

Mazzy, love to see all of these CD box sets. I don't have much of what you showed, though I really enjoyed the Mile Davis metal spine boxes. I didn't know about the Seven Steps set, and I am checking on the In A Silent Way box, but the On the Corner box set I have been looking at for a while but so expensive. Most of these Miles Davis releases were acquired through the Columbia Record Club service. Thanks, Chris

I have the ‘in a silent way sessions boxset’ but it’s in a different format. Still amazing and my favourite of his, pipping Sketches of Spain for the win. I like you struggled with Bitches Brew and although I appreciate it more, even decades later, it hasn’t really landed yet. Great video. Like you I have a large CD and vinyl collection. CDs have taken a bit of a kicking of late but having invested significantly in my CD player, they do sound lovely. Also I’m mopping up gaps in my collection as they’re now dirt cheap in charity shops etc as people offload them. As you say the format is sort of irrelevant “it’s the music stupid!”

Mazzy!!!

That video was just awesome !!! Friday evening, beer in hand, so entertaining. I am not even a big Jazz fan.

There were fun to see. The only jazz set I have is Django on the Radio. It isn't in very arty packaging (I agree about preferring Digipak to jewelcases) & it sounds OK at best, since the recordings are '30's - '40's era. It's a fun listen & a time trip. It's kind of amazing to realize Django died fairly young & his collaborator, Stephane Grappelli, lived well into the rock era & appears on several jazz-rock recordings.

Thanks again for the Mazzy Musical History Tour. Those Miles Davis metal-spined sets from Sony are indeed precious jewels (but not jewel cases!). When it comes to package design, one of my favorites is the (somewhat awkwardly) spiral-bound Antonio Carlos Jobim 3-disc set, "The Man From Ipanema," with colorful paper cut-out sleeves. (I believe it won a Grammy for design, whatever that's worth.) There are 55 tracks: one disc of Jobim's own performances, one of instrumental jazz versions, and one comparing different artists' covers of some of his most famous songs. I've had it since it came out in the mid-'90s and I never tire of it. Another Verve "folio" set that deserves shelf space a little earlier in the alphabet from the Lester Young collection is a somewhat similarly packaged 5-CD Lionel Hampton with the Oscar Peterson Trio book, which has a distinctive burlap spine. Now, let's settle this issue: Is Duke Ellington really "arguably one of the greatest" jazz artists of all time? I suppose reasonable people could argue about whether he's THE greatest (he's "beyond category" in so many categories -- composer, arranger, bandleader, pianist -- who could you even compare him with?) but there can be no argument that he's anything but "one of" the greatest American musicians in recorded history, is there? That's about as inarguable as it gets. Which reminds me: I don't know if they were ever issued as a box set (I bought them one at a time), but I really dig the ten-volume Ellington "Private Collection" series that Atlantic put out in the late 1980s -- all kinds of previously unreleased recordings in a variety of periods and settings.

Mosaic Records is still in business and does release box sets periodically. I have every box set they have released going back to the 1980s except for the Bill Evans set. Cuscuna did a magnificent job with these. Absolute treasures. The Miles Davis sets are on vinyl only.

Love this tour. My suggestion is having g a martini with you as you discuss your jazz. Enjoyed it as usual.

Love your descriptions of these boxsets. I have several of the Mosaic sets including 2by Hank Mobley and 1 by Lee Morgan and 1 by Curtis Fuller. The work put in to produce the informative booklets is impressive. Yes, they're still putting out new sets, Joe Henderson is one of the newer ones. Mobley's sets are sold out.

Thanks for putting this together Mazzy. You're simply the best. I'm learning a lot from already and I just joined your KZhead channel. Thanks again & keep up the good work. Best Regards, David-

Great collection, Mazzy. I often regret not buying a few of those complete Miles metal boxes when they were available. (Obviosuly, Bitches Brew and In A Silent Way. But also Seven Steps, and Quintet. And Miles and Coltrane). Almost impossible to find at sensible price now.

I always enjoy your videos Mazzy, but this is one of the best. Incidentally, the cd's in My Bitches Brew box have been ruined by glue from the cardboard sleeves.

Ella,my favorite female vocalist!

Blimey Mazzy what a coincidence - I went to a narrated concert last night of the Kansas Jazz scene from the 20,s to the 50s ending with some Count Bassie - great evening of a genre i wasn't familiar with. Even my wife was converted, but I think live music is often more accessible than Cds

Great overview. I buy 90% vinyl nowadays but for these kind of compilations I prefer CDs.

If your don’t already have it. Your should check out the Art Pepper Complete Maiden Voyage Recordings CD Box. 7 CDs on Omnivore covering 3 nights of shows.

I dumped all my jewel cases for binders to save space. I have a few Miles Davis metal spine box sets but never seen that On The Corner one. I'd get it just for the metal case alone. I got 2 Bitches Brew box sets because one of the discs in the set was defective. I reported it back to Columbia which sent me a replacement disc then they sent another complete box set.

Jazz! 🥱 🥱 🥱 🥱

Thanks!

Hi Mazzy I always look forward to your Jazz videos. Not a cd guy but still informative. I have an off subject question. Do you have any copies of releases from Sundazed? They had a release a while back Jefferson Airplane Takes Off. Supposedly cut from original mono analog master tape with all 12 songs uncensored. Do you have any knowledge of this? Thanks Mazzy

Conspicuously missing: Art Tatum's The Complete Pablo Solo Masterpieces, Thelonious Monk's Complete Blue Note Recordings and Complete Riverside Recordings, Miles Davis's The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965, and The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz.

I've been finding them inexpensively lately and I'm not talking just grey market stuff either.

Thank you Mazzy, that was a wonderful ITMS. Wow, you have an impressive collection. Yes, another one please. I do have CD's from that time when i lost my way. I have since realized the error of my ways and returned to ALL analog. That is to say i only have so much money and it all goes to analog. OOH i may have to seek out the stan getz box set.

Hey Mazzy. I’m interested in the Weeds 45 if you decide to sell it. I could offer you a fair price. Thanks for considering. D

is that a Dark Horse Records weed box on the shelf i see Mazi ?

11:36 Make sure you have your tetanus shot. That cracked me up!

You rushed the title a little bit. It’s spelled ’It’s the music, stupid’. Unless being music stupid is a thing now 🙂

Always learn something when you do the jazz stuff Mazzy. Like when you give Sketches of Spain da luv. A Miles monster if you ask me but nobody does and who can blame them. I wouldn't ask me either.

Ah nope, the greatest Jazz Vocalists period are Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billy Holiday and maybe a couple more.