75 Best Jazz Tracks Of The 1960s

A generous CD set with some surprises I've never hear before. Caught up with old familiar friends and introduced to some new ones. This six CD set contains a great mix of 60s bands and musicians. It is not simply another 'best of' with all the old favourites. No dud tracks from this amazing decade. For Jazz buffs this CD set is a must have..

Chrome Dreams label really cheaped-out on this compared to their 100 Best Jazz Tunes of the 1950's, which included a great booklet with each track info and date. This 60s set has no dates listed nor any artist song info - it was quite time consuming finding dates on the internet for those I wanted info on. And not all tracks are from the 60s - I found 3 (there probably are more) from the 50s, including The Modern Jazz Quartet's "Vendome" (1956), plus at least 1 track ("Moanin'" by Art Blakey,1958) that is also included on their 50s set. Now the positive: tracks sound great with headphones, and both box set releases (50s and 60s) are all at basically the same playback volume, so I was easily able to use my computer to make 7 CD playlists of just the songs I wanted to listen to repeatedly without having to worry about playback volume levels. And whereas the 50s set comes in paper sleeves, this set has a single swing-hinged jewel case (discs are secure) that is slid inside a thin cardboard box.

I found a lot of jazz in this 6 CD set that was familiar, and a lot that was unfamiliar mostly because I hadn't listened much to those artists, so it was a real treat to "discover" them. The paucity of information in the meager 8-page booklet has been mentioned by others (two of the pages devoted to a concert poster having nothing to do with the recordings -- of the 60 performers in the album, only three are among the 13 named on the poster). And then there's the cover photo of Astrud Gilberto; pretty girl but utterly irrelevant to the subject matter within -- not only is she not a performer in the CD set but there's not even a single Bossa Nova number among the selections to even justify a photo of a Bossa Nova artist. It's a great collection, an awful presentation.

First the music. The seventy-five selections are all without exception excellent, consisting of some standards that you probably already have in your collection if you're a jazz buff, along with some more obscure tunes that rarely if ever appear in other jazz anthologies. And the sound quality equally good, with sharp crisp high tones and bass that is full and solid. Now the bad part, the packaging. The six discs come in a single complicated jewel case that would do Rube Goldberg contraption. Mine comes apart every time I try to remove the first disc, and putting it back together is almost as frustrating as aligning the squares on a Rubik's Cube. I don't know why they didn't just put the discs in separate cardboard sleeves as they did with their 100 Best Jazz Tunes of the 1950s. But to be clear, the music is more than worth the price of the collection and more than compensates for the frustration of the packaging.

Usually collections like these are crap or have a lot of crap in them, but this one is a good collection with just a bit of junk. It’s a very good sample from the golden age of Jazz. The late 50’s are heavily represented too.

I’m a big fan of “real” jazz, having been turned onto and educated about it, them, by a dear friend, starting in 1969. As much as I’ve learned since then, there are many tunes in this set that I don’t know by heart. All are great! The 1950s set is just as good!

I really enjoy this collection. It has most of the popular jazz tunes from the 1960's.. Great to listen to in traffic jams. And this collection is very high quality recordings made in the UK.If you get it you will enjoy it. I recommend it.

While the music is excellent, I do have a gripe with the marketing:To start with, there are 73 tracks, NOT 75. The title of the compilation is wrong: two CDs inside , titled "Soul Jazz", and four CDs with tracks from 1960-1961 - hardly what one expects from "Best of the 1960s".If you think this compilation is as well put together as the "100 Best Jazz Tracks of the 1950s", you will be as disappointed as I. While the 1950s compilation has extended notes on every track, we have here just the usual waffle, without the detailed information that would have been nice to have.All in all: still worth the money, but falling way short of what can be expected from the title.

I was quite surprise to hear some jazz's jam périodes, but its good album in général, sound, also aint bad.

Just what was expected

très bonne qualité

Great value

Excellent!