Miles More
Eighty-four years ago today, Miles Dewey Davis III was brought into the world. His contributions to the fabric of American music – jazz, pop, rock, whatever you want to call it – are immense. Accordingly, he has been celebrated often by the label with which he had his greatest successes, Columbia Records. Last year, the label released The Complete Columbia Album Collection, a 70 CD/1 DVD box set which captured just that: every one of the LPs Davis recorded for the label from 1957 to 1985.
It ended up setting quite a precedent for massive box sets on CD (at a time when wildly enormous box sets were common), and now Legacy Recordings is slated to repeat that precedent with Davis’ catalogue once more. The Genius of Miles Davis is a 43-disc compilation that collates eight box sets – the previously-released “sessions” boxes released between 1996 and 2007 – all packaged in their original limited edition metal slipcases (except The Complete In a Silent Way Sessions, which never had one of those metal cases) in a collector’s trumpet case packed with other swag (most notably a replica of Davis’ own trumpet mouthpiece).
All 21 pounds of this set should be available for pre-order sometime today, per a notice from Legacy (the same notice that gave us this), at Davis’ official Web site. Check back often, since it’s not there last I checked before hitting “publish.”
And here are the boxes included in The Genius of Miles Davis. The track lists are far too complex to post (even for The Second Disc), but you can read some fantastic round-ups of them (as well as other session info and reissues done for Miles by Legacy) right here. Not sure if they’re being placed inside the box in chronological or release order, but we’re opting for chronology here.)
Discs 1-6: The Complete Columbia Recordings of Miles Davis with John Coltrane (Columbia/Legacy C6K 65833, 2000)
Discs 7-12: Miles Davis & Gil Evans: The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings (Columbia/Legacy CXK 67397, 1996)
Discs 13-19: Seven Steps: The Complete Columbia Recordings of Miles Davis 1963-1964 (Columbia/Legacy C7K 90840, 2004)
Discs 20-25: The Complete Studio Recordings of The Miles Davis Quintet 1965-1968 (Columbia/Legacy C6K 67398, 1998)
Discs 26-28: The Complete In a Silent Way Sessions (Columbia/Legacy C3K 65362, 2001)
Discs 29-32: The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions (Columbia/Legacy C4K 65570, 1998)
Discs 33-37: The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions (Columbia/Legacy C5K 86359, 2003)
Discs 38-43: The Complete On the Corner Sessions (Columbia/Legacy CK 706239, 2007)
The Second Disc 
Sony Music executives must be out of their freakin’ minds. $2000? And there is no previously unreleased music in this set. 6 of the 7 “Complete Sessions” box sets are still in print in the U.S.A.(I have 3 of the boxes). The 7th box(“The Complete On The Corner Sessions”) is out of print in the U.S.A., but still available as a Japanese import, or as a download in the U.S.A.
The only additional things that this enormous price tag will bring you is a reproduction of Miles’ trumpet case and mouthpiece, a T-shirt and a reproduction of a Miles Davis drawing.
Phil Cohen
May 26, 2010 at 14:28
Phil, I hate to seem uninformed, but where did you read the price tag was $2000? Legacy never named a price in their release, and none of the usual suspects (Amazon, Miles’ official site, the ICE boards, etc.) have yielded any price tag. Two grand is rather steep; just wondering if I missed something.
Mike Duquette
May 26, 2010 at 15:19
Check the preorder info at the link provided in the article.
Phil Cohen
May 26, 2010 at 17:57
The preorder link at The official Miles Davis website clearly states the price as $2000.
Phil Cohen
May 26, 2010 at 18:35
Jesus, they buried that preorder link. I figured there’d be a blurb on the front page of the Web site. I guess they’re embarrassed at the price tag.
I haven’t done the math, but I’m sure Sony’d argue that it’s less than buying them separately (they took a similar tack in that NYT link). Even still, though. If this is two grand I’m horrified over what that Elvis set might ask for, especially since there’ll only be a thousand of those.
Mike Duquette
May 26, 2010 at 23:14
$2000 for people who have money to burn.
This is the lowest a record company can get.
It’s a FU#K you to the people who want to buy this compliments of Sony Music.
Ranasakawa
May 29, 2010 at 21:55
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