And this loving revisitation from the jazz archivalists at Mosaic spares no enthusiasm: The scholar Ricky Riccardi’s liner notes clock in at roughly 30,000 words, illustrated by 40 photographs, most of them never before seen. The period covered by this boxed set mostly fits within what’s considered to be Armstrong’s long midcareer lull, but when it comes to the creator of the modern jazz solo, even the mellow years can support a certain level of fascination. Louis Armstrong, ‘The Complete Louis Armstrong Columbia and RCA Victor Studio Sessions 1946-1966’
This year’s slate of releases has been impressive, among them Gank Move’s dreamy, tough-talking “Come Into My World” Coop MC’s slinky “Home of the Killers” Ant Banks’s essential debut album “Sittin’ on Somethin’ Phat” and the rowdy “Straight From tha Ramp!!!” by Tec-9 (of U.N.L.V.), an early release on Cash Money Records. One of a handful of obscurantist rap reissue labels that have emerged in recent years, Armabillion is based in Italy but specializes in limited-run vinyl pressings of undersung gangster rap classics from around the United States, especially the South and the Bay Area. “It was juvenile, it was something wild,” the band shouts in “You Had to Be There.” JON PARELES Armabillion Recordz (A Stillwater EP, minus the demos, is also available separately.) Stillwater’s vintage style was meticulously reconstructed - booming drums, screaming lead guitar (from Mike McCready of Pearl Jam) - with hints of meta self-consciousness in the lyrics. They also include a disc of mostly folksy soundtrack instrumentals by Nancy Wilson, from Heart, and the complete recordings of the film’s invented band, Stillwater - a Led Zeppelin/Bad Company knockoff stomping through songs written by Crowe, Wilson and Peter Frampton - along with, in boxed-set style, the demo versions. The expanded anniversary editions are overstuffed with familiar songs alongside a few live rarities.
(UMe multiple configurations with deluxe editions starting at $169.98)Ĭameron Crowe’s 2000 film, “Almost Famous,” was his fond reminiscence about writing for Rolling Stone during the hard-partying, all-access 1970s. As Taylor Swift proved this year, there’s no reason the old can’t be experienced as new, too. But this year’s resurrections and recontextualizations in boxed sets and reissues gathered up what’s been forgotten or overlooked - or in some cases, what’s been dissected ad nauseam but still commands attention - and put it back at center stage. In an era of abundance when every day brings a deluge of new music to consume, it may seem particularly futile to turn to the past.
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