So, like Slam, I'm also starting off my run down of my Top 10 favourite box sets too. I'm going in strictly alphabetical order by title, so we're kicking off in the B's with...


#10 - The Beat Generation by Various Artists (1992)




This 3x CD box set was put out by Rhino Records and aims to provide the listener with a decent pocket history of the Beat Generation. For the uninitiated, the Beat Generation was a literary youth movement of the 1950s and early '60s, which, through poetry, prose and a love of jazz, sought to reject the materialism of modern Western society, while focusing on spirituality, sexual liberation, and the use of drugs.

As you would expect, this box set features poetry readings by some of the Beat Generation's leading lights, such as Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and Kenneth Rexroth, but because the movement was so tied to jazz music, it also includes "Beat-centric" musical numbers by the likes of the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Charles Mingus. There are also "Beatsploitation" novelty records, contemporary American news reports about the Beatnik scene in New York's Greenwich Village, and tracks by fellow travellers like Ken Nordine and Lenny Bruce to flesh things out. In mixing the important with the cheap and trivial in this way, Rhino have created a reasonably thorough audio portrait of one of America's seminal 20th century youth counter-culture movements.

The box set doesn't aim to be exhaustive, however – the absence of a recording of Ginberg reading his masterpiece "Howl" seems like a glaring and, frankly, unforgivable omission to me – but it does give a highly entertaining and often rather amusing overview of what the Beat scene was all about. If you're a fan of the Beats or just curious about the movement, this set really captures the zeitgeist and is an excellent place to start.



Here's Jack Kerouac reading his poem "October in the Railroad Earth", with accompaniment from pianist Steve Allen…





And here's the less-than-serious "Like Rumpelstiltskin" from TV presenter Don Morrow's 1961 comedy album, Grimm's Hip Fairy Tales As Dug by Don Morrow…

This is a cool choice.  It's honestly the kind of thing that I would look at and think, "That's super cool and I'd like to have it," but then I'd think, "how often am I really going to listen to it."  Which is probably what would keep me from pulling the trigger on it.  But I'd definitely think about it. 

Nice pick. Given the length of Waylon Jennings' career and the amount of commercial success he had in the '70s, he absolutely deserves the multi-disc retrospective treatment. Does this set feature any of his really early stuff from the late '50s? Some of those records were produced by Buddy Holly.

Four CDs worth of Jennings is probably a bit more than I need, in all honesty, but I can quite believe that there is a lot of good music to be found on here.





Earth, Wind & Fire are a band that I've kinda always intended to investigate, but never have. As a teenager, one of my buddies was quite into them and I found plenty to like in the stuff he played me. I'm a big fan of The Jacksons and Michael Jackson's 70's output, and EW&F's music always sounded like it was coming from much the same place. The albums All 'n All and I Am were the really big ones over here in the UK in the late '70s, along with the hit singles "Fantasy", "September" and "Boogie Wonderland".

Probably a whole box set would be overkill for me, but a decent single "Best of EW&F" type CD appeals.

Waylon Jennings is certainly well known to me (and well liked), so that's a nifty looking box set.

While The Beat Generation is not overall "my thing", I still found it really interesting reading your comments Confessor. There's an "historical significance" component to this I find interesting as my parents were really involved in the Greenwich Village scene in their younger days (we're all native New Yorkers even though I don't live there anywhere), and many stories were told to me over the years.

My dad and I would walk through the Village sometimes all those years later, and he would point out specific places that were significant to him, and sometimes get a wistful look. Especially as I got a little older and he could share more things adult to adult, really interesting seeing a snapshot into that culture and the impact it had.

Jennings and Tommy Allsup were both supposed to be on the plane with Holly. Allsup tossed coins with Richie Valens for the seat and lost. Waylon gave up his seat to the Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson) because Richardson had a bad cold and the buses they used were freezing. According to Waylon when Holly found out he joked, "Well, I hope your ol' bus freezes up!" Jennings jokingly replied, "Well, I hope your ol' plane crashes!"

#9 Chick Corea – Music Forever & Beyond: The Selected Works Of Chick Corea 1964-1996



This 5 CD set is a really nice look back at the sheer diversity of the first few decades of Chick's career. Chick is definitely not one of those artists where you can pick up a few "recommended" albums and you'll mostly get to know him, he was always one to experiment and open to all kinds of collaborations. This is where a box set like this really shines I think.

You have selections from his earliest more straightforward jazz work in the 60's, including a nice number he did with Blue Mitchell. You then move into Return to Forever material which is well represented but does not dominate the collection, which is a plus for me because I prefer Chick more on the acoustic side of jazz. But even with RTF, also a plus for me is they have a couple of number where Bill Connors was on guitar prior to Al DiMeola, and much as Al is a legend, I think Bill fit them better.

Plenty of more traditional jazz follows leading into the Elektric and Akoustic Band eras. Both feature collaborations with John Patitucci on bass and Dave Weckl on drums, and is probably one of my favorite ensembles of his, but more so when they are in "Akoustic" mode. The Elektric band isn't quite RTF mark 2, but there's also something about that 80's sound in itself that just doesn't hit the mark for me. Which is a shame because Frank Gambale is on guitar there, who is a very non-boring fusion player in my opinion! I like other Frank material a bit better though.

And then so many other great collaborations, some highlights to me are with Miles Davis, Gary Burton, Herbie Hancock, and even Bobby McFerrin which is surprisingly very cool!

Again, a great set in my opinion to get a broader look at Chick's career and a nice jumping off point for further exploration.