The Complete Blue Note Recordings

Artist: Herbie Nichols
Label: Blue Note Records
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Box set
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 3

UPC: 724385935220
EAN: 0724385935220
ASIN: B000005HAC

Release Date: 1997-10-21

Related Categories:

Bebop General

| Bebop | Jazz | Styles | Music

General

| Jazz | Styles | Music

General

| Pop | Styles | Music

Blue Note Records

| Amazon.com Label Stores | Stores | Music

General

| Jazz | Box Sets | Stores | Music

General

| Jazz | Indie Music | Stores | Music

Hard Bop

| Bebop | Jazz | Styles | Music

Listmania:

A Musical Looking Glass
great piano recordings from all over the map
Other Jazz
Anti-Smooth Jazz: Some of the Pianists
Jazz of the 21st Century
Great keyboard albums
JAZZ: THE REAL DEAL
my favorite jazz box sets
Wynton and Ken Burns shamefully missed these guys
Jazz for the center of your brain

Tracks:

The Third World
The Third World (Alt. Tk.)
Step Tempest
Dance Line
Blue Chopsticks
Double Exposure (Alt. Tk.)
Double Exposure
Cro-Magnon Nights
Cro-Magnon Nights (Alt. Tk.)
It Didn't Happen (Alt. Tk.)
Amoeba's Dance
Brass Rings (Alt. Tk.)
Brass Rings
2300 Skiddoo (Alt. Tk.)
2300 Skiddoo

Tracks:

Shuffle Montgomery (Alt. Tk.)
It Didn't Happen
Crisp Day
Shuffle Montgomery
The Gig
Applejackin' (Alt. Vers.)
Hangover Triangle
Lady Sings The Blues
Chit Chatting
House Party Starting
The Gig (Alt. Tk.)
Furthermore (Alt. Tk. #1)
Furthermore
117th Street (Alt. Tk.)
117th Street
Sunday Stroll

Tracks:

Nick At T's
Furthermore (Alt. Tk. #2)
Terpsichore
'Orse At Safari
Applejackin' (Alt. Tk.)
Applejackin'
Wildflower
Mine (Alt. Tk.)
Mine
Trio
Trio (Alt. Tk.)
The Spinning Song (Alt. Tk.)
The Spinning Song
Riff Primitif
Riff Primitif (Alt. Tk.)
Query (Alt. Tk.)
Query

Similar Items:

Complete Studio Master Takes (Herbie Nichols Trio)
The Complete Blue Note Recordings
The Complete Quartets With Sonny Clark
Soul Station
Jazz Advance

Customer Reviews:

Piano Genius -- Essential!.......2006-12-08

The liner notes to this box draw an analogy between Herbie Nichols, Thelonious Monk, and Andrew Hill -- three brilliant, individualistic pianist/composers who were heavily recorded by Blue Note founder Alfred Lion despite a lack of "commercial potential". Like Hill and Monk's tunes, each of Herbie's compositions has a very distinct personality, and they encompass a wide range of emotions and moods. They explore harmonies, rhythms and forms that were unorthodox in 1955 and still sound a little strange today. They range from "The Gig" (a humorous tongue-twister!) to the sinister, pounding chords of "Cro-Magnon Nights" and the upbeat Latin groove of "Brass Rings".

If you like piano trio music and/or Monk and are willing to try something off the beaten track, this box set is HIGHLY recommended.

Essential, hypnotic piano jazz.......2006-11-13

In a class by himself, Herbie Nichols will first remind you of Monk, but keep listening and you'll soon hear a seamless rythmic flow and subtle melodic approach that seperate him from the older master. Tunes are often based around deceptively simple motivic/rythmic kernels, which are expanded upon patiently but not exhaustively, a departure from the prevalent 50's bop approach, and an anticipation some free jazz a decade later.
These recordings are truly priceless, not only for the piano work but for the drumming. Art Blakey and, on the later sessions, Max Roach are clearly enjoying their prominent roles in Nichols' compositional format. Stop reading and buy the set!

great jazz composer. great jazz musician?.......2006-06-01

as has been said below, herbie nichols was a jazz composer of rare merit. his swinging, adventurous tunes are an alternative to thelonious monk's compositions which are typically described in much the same way. the differences, however, are more revelatory. nichols was very much an individual and unique to his approach were a dark undercurrent to the writing owing to a preference for dissonant lower-register chords and, also, a willingness to experiment with basic song structures by adding tags and a variety of other devices.

i highlight these two elements of nichols' compositions because i feel they also affect his approach to solos. nichols must be one of the greatest pianists in terms of comping. those dark chords combined with nichols' acute rhytmhic interest ensure that we are an invigorating world away from the contempoaneous on-the-beat approach of a red garland. for all the liner notes would have you believe though, nichols is never quite as percussive as thelonious monk and is usually content to let his unique harmonic sense do the considerable talking.

however, in light of his rather casual canonization i have to aver that nichols is not ultimately one of the great jazz soloists. it is here where the complexities of the composition often have an adverse effect. nichols often plays his solos in blocks rather than the abstracted linear and cumulative approach of a great bebop soloist (i.e. rollins). thus, in a typical AABA song structure, herbie might start with a restatement of the melody in the first A section and begin a boppish solo statement in the second. however, he will hesitantly return to the melody in the B section. the overall effect seems disconcertingly desultory.

resulting comparisons to monk on the basis of the continuing presence of the initial melody during the solo are inevitable but wide of the mark i feel. monk, in his solos, went through a thorough process of rhytmhically deconstructing his melody, upsetting it with favored pianistic devices and creating angular variations of that melody that ensure the solo is framed as something utterly new and yet strikingly familiar. like a truth. in comparison, nichols can't compare. the melody will be replayed with the additon of embellishments and fills but will rarely undergo the investigative subversion that was monk's raison d'etre.

thus, we have an abstracted, and i would argue unintentional, return to the swing aesthetic with nichols playing the slightly sinister (yet equally swinging) alternative to a pianist like errol garner. nothing wrong in that, nichols remains great to listen to, his compositions are essential but, for me, he lacked that final intensity of purpose indicative of monk or any great jazz soloist.

Great material, not so great packaging..........2005-08-19

Let's get this out of the way. This is the best piano trio music out there. Period. Herbie is up there with Art Tatum, Monk, Bud Powell, you name 'em. Add to that his fantastic compositional skill and this is must own music. On the other side of the coin, I used to own the Mosaic Records boxed set which had incredible packaging. This packaging is surprisingly shoddy for a label that usually delivers the best. Still, enjoy the music.

Shuffle Montgomery!.......2004-09-23

I myself never heard of Herbie Nichols before 1998, but once I did I was appropriately impressed. His music seemed "easy" to listen to, but it wasn't; Nichols' melodies were angular, jutting against each other sideways rather than in a linear fashion. One of the other reviewers here expressed surprise that Nichols' music isn't better known, but great art is never very popular. Alfred Lion of Blue Note Records, who recorded these sessions, was amazed that they didn't sell well because he loved the music and believed in it. But don't take my word for it - get this album, as well as Buell Niedlinger's "Blue Chopsticks" and the Herbie Nichols Project's "Strange City" to hear one of the most original voices in jazz.

Music CD:

Music CD

Music CD

Music CD

Ain't It Good to You ~ MC Shan

Welcome Home ~ 'Til Tuesday

Does Humor Belong in Music? ~ Frank Zappa

When the Bough Breaks ~ Bill Ward

Red Carpet Sindrome ~ Bolt Upright

Grackle Debacle-Live

New Directions, Vol. 2 ~ Various Artists

Works, Vol. 2 ~ Lake & Palmer Emerson

Full of Smoke ~ Christión

Hemp Museum ~ B-Legit