An indispensable collection!
Michael B. Richman | Portland, Maine USA | 07/11/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"As every jazz fan knows Clifford Brown died tragically in car accident at the age of 26. This box set collects all of the excellent music Brown made for Blue Note and Pacific as a leader and a sideman. There isn't a bad session in the bunch -- "Memorial Album," "Jazz Immortal," "The Eminent J.J. Johnson Volume 1" and both volumes of Art Blakey's "A Night in Birdland" are all jazz classics. Put them together in a cool scrapbook-style binder case (that until the recent Miles Columbia and Coltrane Impulse box sets was the most innovative and useful packaging for a cd box set in jazz in my opinion) and you've got one of handsomest reissues in jazz. However, don't judge a cd box set by its cover alone, the music inside is what counts and it's timeless."
Complete?
J. Thomas | Out on the Lost Highway | 12/13/2004
(3 out of 5 stars)
"This might be the complete BN and Pac Jazz recordings, one CJ outing, one JJ Johnson and 2 sides with Art Blakey at Birdland, but it is far from the best and all this stuff is in print and has been for a long time. The box and booklet are beautiful and the pictures are interesting but is that why you buy cd's? These 4 cd's are available for $12 each retail. That's $48 retail. Why is this box like $60 retail? Forget it. Buy all the Verve titles of Brownie and Roach. Much better music and sound."
My favorite Brownie collection!
madamemusico | Cincinnati, Ohio USA | 09/04/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I know that just about everything Clifford Brown recorded is golden; a former friend of mine, more into trad jazz than bebop, once stated simply, "Clifford Brown could play ANYTHING and make it great", and if I had to pick a single Brown track as my favorite it would be his EmArcy version of "Ghost of a Chance." But these Blue Note and Pacific Jazz recordings, for some reason, just sound more "alive" than much of the EmArcy output. Maybe there was just something about the feeling of discovery, of other musicians listening to what Brownie was playing and responding in kind; maybe it's just because I like Gigi Gryce and the other saxists here better than I like Harold Land; or maybe it's because there is more variety of settings and tunes here than in his EmArcy output; but for whatever reason, this music just sounds so "alive" from first track to last. Of course, the final session, a live date at Birdland with the embryonic Jazz Messengers directed by Art Blakey, is indeed an "in-person" experience, but even the earlier tracks are bursting with excitement. And I especially love Brownie's own composition "Tiny Capers," a sort of jazz fugue in the beginning that seems to be custom-tailored for the West Coast musicians he recorded with at that session.
Too many highlights to talk about here, but to listen to the whole thing capped by that brilliant Birdland session will just blow you away. This is without question one of the greatest sets of jazz recordings in the entire history of the music, not a single routine or uninteresting track in the entire box."