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The array of box sets for toe-tappers of all tastes is stupendous this holiday season. Warning: You probably won't be able to resist adding your own name to your gift list.
By GINA VIVINETTO
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 24, 2001
Well, winter must be getting close. The avalanche of musical box sets is hitting the stores in time for holiday gift swapping.
Nothing says, "Honey, I adore you. Please accept this gift as a small indication of my love on Christmas/ Hannukah/ Kwanzaa/ Festivus/ (fill in the blank with your own quirky holiday)" like a big, fat box set of your loved one's favorite tunes.
This season we've got great collections to choose from, including:
LADY DAY: THE COMPLETE BILLIE HOLIDAY ON COLUMBIA, 1933-1944 ($152.97, SONY/LEGACY) Talk about Holiday for the holidays! Not only is Lady Day the finest box set going this season, it's the finest box set I've ever known. Lady Day will knock the socks off fans of the great jazz singer. It's a 10-CD collection with over 230 tracks that Holiday recorded for the Columbia label during the most important phase of her singing career, when she was in her 20s.
The musicians on these tracks are some of jazz music's greatest. There's Lester Young, who gave her the name Lady Day. There are also Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Gene Krupa, Artie Shaw, Teddy Wilson and Duke Ellington, among others.
The songs are classics, from Holiday's own composition God Bless the Child, to the haunting tale of a lynching in Strange Fruit, to more love-filled wonders such as What a Little Moonlight Can Do, Night and Day and A Fine Romance.
Nobody sang like Holiday. The story goes she got so fed up with cutesy Tin Pan Alley tunes that she deliberately experimented with her phrasing to make singing more interesting for her. Her nuanced, pain-tinged delivery gave lyrics a workout and gave listeners the shivers. Often Holiday's interpretations made mediocre songs shine. Her raw singing inspired so many after her (notably today's R&B powerhouses Erykah Badu and Macy Gray).
But there will never be another Holiday, and loyalists will want to hear Lady Day's delicious obscurities and alternative tracks.
A detailed booklet includes a bio by jazz critic Gary Giddins and an interesting essay about Holiday's influence on African-American culture. Holiday's life was doused in heartache and addiction. How she continues to inspire so much emotion -- both joy and sadness -- in people of all ages is a jazz legacy.
GRATEFUL DEAD: THE GOLDEN ROAD, 1965-1973 ($149.97, RHINO) Deadheads will be so grateful for The Golden Road, a 12-CD collection of the nine essential Dead albums, as well as seven hours (seven!) of previously unreleased music.
Known for its unconventional marathon live shows, the Dead was also a band with some very fine records. In 1970 the Dead released not one but two albums of fine Americana: American Beauty and Workingman's Dead, turning on lovers of rich, country rock with Ripple, Box of Rain and Truckin'.
This box set is packaged in a cool custom box and includes a great big booklet of essays and photos. Although we lost "Captain Trips," er, Jerry Garcia, six years ago, the band's Northern California vaults of "secret" music, where The Golden Road's unreleased material was mined, seems never to run dry, assuring the Dead remains alive.
Q: THE MUSICAL BIOGRAPHY OF QUINCY JONES (RHINO, $59.97) We all know Quincy Jones, composer and producer extraordinaire, is a genius, but you don't think about how much music this guy had a hand in until it's all right there in front of you.
Q: The Musical Biography of Quincy Jones, a companion to Jones' recent autobiography, is four discs of Jones' magic, categorized into phases of Jones' brilliant, prolific career. (Think about it; the guy has won 26 Grammy Awards!)
The first disc is filled with bebop and big band jazz numbers arranged and conducted by Jones. Disc Two showcases Q's film and television soundtracks, everything from the rollicking Sanford & Son theme, to Ease on Down the Road from The Wiz, and Miss Celie's Blues (Sister) from The Color Purple.
Disc Three highlights Q's legendary production work, everything from hits with Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald to his groundbreaking work on Michael Jackson's Thriller. The final disc features recordings from his solo albums. The set includes a breathtaking booklet with essays, biography, photos and plenty of quotes from friends of Q, including Maya Angelou, U2's Bono and former President Bill Clinton.
SIMON & GARFUNKEL, THE COLUMBIA STUDIO RECORDINGS, 1964-1970 ($49.97,SONY/LEGACY) Though Simon & Garfunkel's career together was brief -- five albums in six years -- the duo earned a place in musical history by crafting some of the finest folk pop we've ever heard. Though the duo seemed hopelessly well-groomed, literate and "square" in the turbulent mid-1960s, most of the music holds up. (The counterculture hated these guys for having their lyrics quoted in college lit courses.)
This box set includes all five albums and lots of bonus tracks. The debut, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., is obviously drenched in Dylan's influence -- the kids even cover The Times They Are A' Changin'. But the awesome harmonies and acoustic prettiness of The Sounds of Silence, the most well-mannered tale of (sub)urban discontent ever, let folks know these guys packed a wallop.
Sounds of Silence, the album, follows, showcasing Simon's amazing songwriting with Richard Cory and April Come She Will. Next is the masterpiece Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. In just a half an hour the duo wows us with the powerfully political A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission), Scarborough Fair/Canticle and the whimsical, groovy feeling 59th Street Bridge Song.
Album number four, 1968's Bookends, is darker, as was the social landscape of the time, featuring Hazy Shade of Winter, Mrs. Robinson and the naggingly poignant Old Friends. The end came with the mopey and masterful fifth album, Bridge Over Troubled Water.
CAN YOU DIG IT?: THE '70s SOUL EXPERIENCE (RHINO, $99.97) Okay, a hundred bucks is pretty steep, but Can You Dig It?: The '70s Soul Experience is a nifty collection of five discs filled with American classics. And check out the righteous packaging: The set is designed to look like a shelf of old 8-tracks. Neat-o!
The collection includes smooth R&B tunes from Sly and the Family Stone, Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, the O'Jays. Name a soul act -- most are included here. James Brown. Staple Singers. Sure. Even great tunes such as the awesome Ooh Child by the 5 Stairsteps. Can anyone hear this song and not sing along?
Of course, purists will furrow their brows at a few missing artists. No George Clinton? No Stevie Wonder? Oh my goodness -- NO ARETHA??
Still, Can You Dig It? will be the soundtrack to many a soulful New Year's Eve party.
MILES DAVIS, THE COMPLETE IN A SILENT WAY SESSIONS (SONY/LEGACY, $49.97) Miles Davis released his radical, electric jazz In a Silent Way in 1969. The album was another in a series of enigmatic experiments by the great trumpeter, who would have turned 75 this year. In a Silent Way either delighted or outraged his followers with its restless, knotty "acid jazz," combining elements of rock and funk.
The band was stellar, featuring three keyboardists: Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and Joe Zawinul. On guitar: John McLaughlin. Drums: Tony Williams. Soprano sax: Wayne Shorter. Bass: Dave Holland, fresh from England.
This box set features recordings made in the roughly six months leading up to the making of the album. It includes two numbers Davis fans will recognize from Filles de Kilimanjaro, "rehearsal" tracks and several unreleased cuts.
FOUREVER: THE FOUR TOPS (HIP-O, $59.97): This is the definitive collection of the Four Tops' music, trademarked by Levi Stubbs' gruff, love-starved growl and those smooth harmonies. With 85 tracks, the four-disc Fourever contains all the Motown hits and several that came later -- after the act left the label in 1972 -- as well as obscure gems such as Could It Be You, a 1956 recording on the Chess label. It also treats fans to 40 tracks that are making their debut on compact disc, including Just Another Night, a fun cover of the Temptations' tune, with the Temps on backing vocals.
That means you get Baby I Need Your Loving, the first hit the Four Tops had using the Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting machine, all the Motown heyday tunes including I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch), Reach Out I'll Be There, Standing in the Shadows of Love and Bernadette, and later hits such as Ain't No Woman (Like the One I Got), Keeper of the Castle and the wedding ballad favorite I Believe in You and Me. The collection also includes a gorgeous 84-page booklet.