by A Noted Journalist Who Has Requested Anonymity
After years of experience you would think that the jazz industry could get
things right when it came to packaging their products, but all too often,
we get garbage. Speaking as one consumer, I'd like to know all of the
following before I buy a CD:
A complete list of musicians, the instruments they play within the
release, including their 2nd or 3rd axes if featured. Any additional
synthesizers, programming, or orchestras should also be mentioned, if
present.
The correct date (dates) of recording. Even producers who are
discographers have strangely overlooked this detail.
The correct song titles and their composers.
Make sure that if photographs of the musicians are included, use those
compatible with the date of recordings and the sidemen/sidewomen present.
My biggest beef is with the strange disappearance of the full sized boxed
sets, only Mosaic, the cream of reissue labels, seems to have enough brains
to spend the extra money and get it right. Only in the full sized sets can
you actually read the liner notes without additional magnification, plus
there's room for more text and photographs. The
long boxes don't fit in with either one's LPs or CDs, while the cursed
small boxes usually have microscopic type and little room for photographs,
other than for numerous shots of the leader alone
all too often!
Nothing has been as frustrating as the idiotic metal box packaging for the
recent Complete Bill Evans On Verve. The Outside container and inside
container holding the CDs came pre-rusted to give it that "long lost in the
vault" look. Unless you take it apart and treat them with chemicals and
clear lacquer, the rust spreads, coating your hands, shelves and the
adjacent CDs or boxed sets on your shelf. It is hard to believe that this
package was nominated for (and I believe, received) a Grammy. The person
responsible for this design, who I won't name here, needs to take
remedial chemistry.
I prefer to remain anonymous, because I am a reviewer.
"Amen to this nationally known reviewer. For yours truly, a case in point
is the "Miles Live at the Plugged Nickel" box. Ever try and read those
liner notes?"
