Norman Granz - The Complete Norman Granz Jam Sessions (2004)

The historic Norman Granz Jam Sessions, recorded between 1952-1954 for Clef and Mercury, are among the most treasured jam sets of all time. The nine separate albums featured the crème de la crème of New York's jazz community from Charlie Parker to Roy Eldridge, Ben Webster, Johnny Hodges, Oscar Peterson, Lionel Hampton and Max Roach and dozens of others. This box set simply collects all nine LPs on five remastered CDs, containing original artwork in a slipcase that fits inside a handsome metal display box. The individual volumes are of consistently very high quality and are utterly indispensable to jazz aficionados. For those who already have the discs, this is merely superfluous. For those who don't, this is a pricey buy but a hell of a way to begin a jazz education.