Time Life Classic Jazz

Have no experience with Time Life. However, I would recommend the Ken Burns set if you are just getting into jazz. For Christmas I received twelve of the Ken Burns CDs, which my wife was able to buy through a music club (I think BMG) at 12 for the price of 1. Can't miss at that price and will expose you to a good sampling of the some of the more major artists. Sound quality is acceptable but note the previous post regarding old recordings.

Good one Frogman, your going to fit in just fine :~)

I just picked up the Time life jazz first two cd's. Keep in mind this is my very first jazz cd but I am very pleased with them. The recording are great and it offers an excellent selection of artists. I will post all the artist and songs when I get home.

Another source for those wetting their whistle in jazz is to use your local library. The slections obviously vary from town to town, but the price is right. In my area, when I run into a new name I want to investigate I can just log on via the net or dialup, see what's in the county-wide system, have it delivered to my local branch, and get an email notifying me when it's in!

I want to generalize if appropriate:

I've had baaad experiences buying boxed sets since most-likely this is not a remastering but rather re-re-re-remastering of previous releases to make a compilation so that you can play it on some mega disk changer or car player(god forbid to play it on a descent component setup). I was crazy to buy a Led Zep boxed set and was extreamly dissapointed with the quality of these CDs. After all I avoid buying any compilations(except movie soundtracks sometimes they're great) or boxed sets.

And after all 10 discs for $94 isn't such a great deal for the boxed set -- still tooo much.

It sure is!

A last offer on compilations which I usually am not a great fan of but are one way to find what you like. Try "The Best Blue Note Album in the World Ever!" It is really close to that. 2cd set and cd1 is an outstanding selection of classic jazz. Nothing inaccessable and great for someone new. CD1 includes tunes by Horace Silver, John Coltrne, Art Blakey, Lou Donaldson, Cannonball Adderly (with Miles Davis), Kenny Burrell, Lee Morgan, Herbie Hancock, Donald Byrd and Grant Green .. and all well produced. Try to beat that cast on one cd! I have never put this on without someone (usually a non jazz friend)asking "WHAT IS THAT?". (cd2 is ok too but can't compare with 1)

Thought on getting into Jazz ( or classical or whatever) as Chelillingworth noted, it takes some time and effort and it is easy to waste a lot of $$$$ on stuff you just don't like (even if the critics rave about it). Best long term solutions I have found:

1) Find the best Jazz programs on local Radio and listen up. Best free sampler around. Beats the snot out of Time-Life. If your computer is up to it there are great national and international stations available on line too.
2) You may not know it but odds are that you know or are acquainted with someone who has a great jazz collection. Make it a project to find em and shamelessly brownnose. There is nothing like borrowing from a great collection and believe me the collections are out there. I have found that the general rule is that jazz listeners love to share and talk about their music. You're doing them a favor borrowing their tunes! Good jazz deserves a few good listens before pronouncing judgment (it ain't am radio) and this is the best way to do it.

Ain't life Great!

Clueless,

You were actually kind. The Time-Life stuff is mostly dreadful. Not only for content but also for production qaulity....or lack thereof. Doug, the suggestions of Chelillingworth were very good. Actually, many of the great jazz labels, Verve, Blue Note, CTI for example have excellent samplers themselves and offer superb production and liner notes for educating oneself.

Sorry .. didn't mean to take any cheap shots.

THe Ken Burns set is actually quite good and has the merit of being cross-label compilations. You could start with the boxed set and then move on to the compilations of individual artists and that will set you on your why to finding some great albums and will eventually lead you to a lot of the great music and musicians that weren't included in the set. Take a look at the bookstore and read up and keep asking around. I would say that this is not at all a bad place to start as they give you a good sampling of some of the artists best work throughout their careers.
For someone starting to check out jazz this is a more reasonable place to start and learn the tradition of the music so that they can then move on to some of the more modern records like some of those listed on the Downbeat best of 2001. Finding the music that you like and relate to in any given style takes time, patience and exploration.
Good luck and have Fun!

It is only my opinion but Time-Life is so so. It depends a lot on what yours tastes are and how serious you are. Look at a couple of the recent posts by Sdcampbell "best recording I heard in 2001" and "Downbeat Best Recordings of 2001". E-mail him and ask, he is a nice guy. Time life willl find a way to homoginize anything and is... well... one step below Ken Burns.

I have a couple of time-Life Box sets(cassettes) Dolby B/HX Pro and digitally Remastered. The quality of the tapes are good but remember remastering anything from the 20's-50's are poor quality and you can only do so much. Steve