Customer Reviews

Kind of Blue Deluxe 50th Anniversary Collector's Edition

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Interesting. When I first went to but this product there were about 1/2 a dozen reviews, mostly about the packaging.I guess Amazon must have taken them down because they all had unfavorable things to say about the packaging. Well it's true the packaging SUCKS. The record company should be flogged for putting out such a mess. But I had to have it and so do you.
We don't really need to talk about the music do we?
Supposedly, Kinda Blue is the best selling jazz album of all time.
So if you are buying this in vinyl it's because you believe that it's collectible and you want all of the optional extras.
Well the CD's will be damaged because they aren't in sleeves and probably fell out during shipping. Because of this I recommend you buy it in a brick and mortar store or be prepared for the hassle of returning it multiple times.
The music? What can I say that hasn't been said before?
Buy at your own risk.

Yes, "Kind of Blue" is a Jazz(and music) classic, and musically speaking, this is a definitive edition. The main album sounds fine(to me, that is, because I've only owned one of the many previous CD editions). There's little material that can be added:one alternate take, plus numerous bits of session talk & false starts. The second CD adds other selections by the same line-up(Davis, Adderly,Coltrane,Cobbs,Evans) and a live version of "So What". The DVD features the excellent "The Sound of Miles Davis" T.V. broadcast from 1959, which you'll want to watch again and again, and a documentary about the making of "A Kind of Blue", which is interesting, but it's something you'll want to watch only once. The box also features a blue vinyl L.P. pressing of the "Kind of Blue" album. I was lucky, and my copy was flat and played fine. There's an attractive hardcover book with essays and plenty of photos of Miles & his group, a black & white poster featuring 3 photos of Miles at Columbia Studios plus an envelope of memorabilia, including a reproduction of pianist Bill Evans handwritten rough draft of the album's liner notes,a reproduction of a Columbia Records promotional brochure, and six 8' x 10" photos of Miles & his musicians(one photo was missing from my set, and I got a duplicate of one of the other 5)

The problem with this set which cause me to give it only three stars is Sony's disc-damaging packaging. The 2 CD's & The DVD fit into excessively snug pockets inside the L.P. record's gatefold sleeve. As the many(now removed) reviews established, there is no way that you'll get the 2 CD's & the DVD in anything remotely resembling decent condition, and if you put the discs back into this packaging, the marks will get worse and worse.

If you want to own this set, make plans to send the two CD's & the DVD to a CD resurfacing/repair company. That's what I did, and now my three discs are in the perfect condition that they should have been from the outset. Needless to say, I'm storing the 3 discs in regular CD jewel boxes now.

After Sony Music's superb effort to put things right for people who bought the 71-disc "Miles Davis-The Complete Columbia Studio Albums"box set (they provided replacement box sets for everyone who bought the first production run of the 71-disc set, after the original sets suffered from glue stains on the discs, and a torn,dented, extremely fragile outer box), I am surprised that they didn't remedy the problems with this set, because everyone got badly scratched CD's & DVD's. While Amazon themselves are no longer selling this set, Sony Music is still selling it through the official Miles Davis website.

I'm expecting that the forthcoming "Miles Davis-Bitches Brew" CD + DVD + L.P. set will have similar problems, but I'm a Miles Davis fan, and I'll buy it. This will undoubtedly result in my having to send discs out to the CD resurfacing company. This is "Kind of Sad".

As an update to the above, Sony may have learned their lesson:The disc pockets in the "Bitches Brew" box set were designed differently, and they don't damage the discs.