John Zorn Naked City The Complete Studio Recordings (2005) [5cd Box Set] {tzadik}

The Virgin Years 1977-1983 is the follow-up to last year's The Virgin Years 1974-1978 (see review) by Tangerine Dream (TD). The latter album was a 3CD-box set comprising the five remastered albums TD recorded for Virgin Records between 1974 and 1978: Phaedra (1974), Rubycon (1975), Ricochet (1975), Stratosfear (1976) and Cyclone (1978) plus a selection of rare single releases, 7-inch edits as well as two rarely heard radio adverts. However, it didn't contain Encore, originally released in 1977. The follow-up to this previous release contains seven albums plus two singles all packed on a 5CD-album set.

Mstislav Rostropovich - The Complete Decca Recordings (2012) {5CD Set, Decca 478 3577 rec 1962-1969}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.40 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 812 Mb
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© 1962-69, 2012 Decca Music / Universal | 0289 478 3577 6
Classical / Contemporary / Impressionist / Modern / Romantic / Cello

In the early 1960s, when Rostropovich was just beginning his international career, he made a handful of recordings for Decca. This 2012 box – issued for what would have been his 85th birthday – brings those albums together. It includes all of the works Benjamin Britten specifically wrote for Rostropovich: the two suites, the sonata, and the Symphony for cello and orchestra, accompanied or conducted by the composer himself, making these definitive versions. There are also other sonatas they collaborated on, including Schubert's "Arpeggione" Sonata, which was apparently one of Rostropovich's favorites of all his recordings.

It was bound to happen sooner or later: pretty much everything known by Mahler put into one box (16 cd's).EMI and DG–which also drew on the catalogues of Decca and Philips–have each produced complete-edition boxed sets to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Mahler's birth. One set seems like an inexhaustible treasure trove; the other one is more like a mere assemblage of all of Mahler's music.

Mungo Jerry are one of rock's great one-hit successes. Outside of England, they're known for exactly one song, but that song, "In the Summertime," is a seasonal anthem known by listeners who weren't even born when it was released. Mungo Jerry was a solid blues outfit as well – in fact, one suspects they were the kind of blues band that purists Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies would have loved, had they ever intersected – and knew how to get the most out of their jug band sound, which helped them survive for decades.

Bud Shank - The Pacific Jazz Bud Shank Studio Sessions (1998) {5CD Box Set Mosaic MD5-180 rec 1956-1961}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.78 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 696 Mb
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© 1956-61, 1998 Pacific Jazz / Mosaic Records / Blue Note / EMI-Capitol | MD5-180 | 20-bit Super Bit Mapping
Jazz / Cool / West Coast Jazz / Hard Bop / Saxophone

When one thinks of altoist/flutist Bud Shank's recordings of the 1950s, it is normally of his work with Stan Kenton's orchestra or collaborations with Laurindo Almeida or Bob Cooper. However, Shank led a superior quartet from 1956-1958 that also included pianist Claude Williamson, bassist Don Prell, and either Chuck Flores or Jimmy Pratt on drums. This typically magnificent five-CD limited-edition box set from Mosaic has the quartet's four albums (including a set that was recorded in Johannesburg, South Africa), a selection by Shank with a sextet that includes vibraphonist Larry Bunker, and three slightly later sets.

Mungo Jerry are one of rock's great one-hit successes. Outside of England, they're known for exactly one song, but that song, "In the Summertime," is a seasonal anthem known by listeners who weren't even born when it was released. Mungo Jerry was a solid blues outfit as well – in fact, one suspects they were the kind of blues band that purists Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies would have loved, had they ever intersected – and knew how to get the most out of their jug band sound, which helped them survive for decades.

Between 1986 and 1987, Mercury launched its first effort to chronicle Hank Williams' complete recorded works, releasing a series of eight double albums/single CDs which were later collected as a box set. Both the individual compilations and the box set were pulled from the market in the '90s, clearing the way for The Complete Hank Williams, a ten-disc box set which purported to contain all of Williams' recordings…

Originally released in 1973 as a 9-LP set, it presents a comprehensive survey of Friedrich Gulda's accomplishments as a superb composer and performer of works crossing the lines between classical music and jazz. This 5-CD box set features extensive new and original liner notes, song lyrics and rare photos in a 48-page beautiful booklet! It's really a rich "midlife harvest" of work by the Austrian genius of the universal music - a key figure in the intersection between jazz and modern music on the European scene of the postwar years, represented here by a wealth of recordings done for Preiser, Decca and MPS during the 60s and 70s.

Box set includes 3 albums: Big '80s, Essential '80s, '80s Hits, originally released in 1998 on the label Time Life Music, as part of the series "Sounds Of The Eighties". Contains 36 songs (all original recordings by the original artists, and digitally remastered) on three Audio CDs, packaged in a beautiful storage box with a rich leather-like finish and a wood frame.

The Later Years 1987-2019 is an explicit sequel to The Early Years 1965-1972, the 2016 box set that rounded up nearly all the loose ends and detours from the first era of Pink Floyd, the fearless period when they were figuring out what the band could do. The Later Years covers a different time, when their most pressing challenge was demonstrating that they could thrive artistically and commercially without the presence of Roger Waters, the bassist/songwriter who charted Floyd's direction between 1973's Dark Side of the Moon and 1983's The Final Cut. In the parlance of these deluxe box sets, that decade amounts to "The Middle Years," a period far more prolific than 1987-2019, when the group released just two studio albums along with two live albums and a posthumous project that didn't arrive until 2014, by which time the group had largely been inactive for 20 years…