Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology

When an institution as iconic as the Smithsonian brings out a selection of what their experts consider to be the most important jazz recordings in the history of recorded music one must pay heed and listen. The original collection filled five CD's and has now been augmented to total six. The choices have been made by an expert panel and there are annotations about each track, some made by musicians who were actually involved in recording that very number. Of course, no one will agree with every choice, just like any subjective artistic endeavour, but I would agree with the bulk of the 127 tracks. This is a wonderful set for established lovers of jazz or it will make a great gift for someone starting their jazz collection. It is packaged in a protective plastic sleeve, and is in the format of a book with the CD's as inserts.

I really appreciated the work that has gone into this compilation. I like the integrated book and found it very informative. It seem it was well thought out. The physical production kind of let the project down, though. While all the music is there on the CDs, the track information on CD #2 is missing, and CD #6 contains the track information for CD #5. This made it difficult to manage the music using Windows Media Player, and I would imagine the same difficulty will arise with other computer based media players. As expensive as this set is, I expect the physical production to be perfect.

I'm late bloomer to playing the Saxophone and generally learning about Jazz. I have tried to read a number of books about Jazz but they were too confusing for me. Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology is very different! Having the CD's to listen to and then each song explained in the book is the best Jazz Education for a beginner like me.I absolutely love it and highly recommend it

These recordings are priceless. Limited to only six CDs, they cover the history of jazz and its types - but not thoroughly. This is the best 'sampling kit' I've ever found. This is a must for every jazz lover and/or student, and the written description told me why I love jazz. I could not have said it better.

This is a fantastic set of jazz. I've enjoyed listening to the music while reading the book for many hours. Each track has a significance which is detailed in the notes. I thought I 'knew' jazz but this anthology has taught me a lot about jazz and music in general. Thanks Smithsonian!

This is a terrific anthology with great recordings and a superb accompanying text. You can always get picky and find something or someone missing, but this anthology is broad and deep and extremely well researched. It would be something a pretty sophisticated jazz fan would really enjoy, as well as a jazz novice. A great Holiday gift. 5 Stars from me.

This was purchased as a gift for a friend who is a jazz enthusiast. The reaction to the contents was excited by the quality of the product which was described as a "treasure". This person would not have used this term lightly just to please. I can assure you it was genuine.!

Quality of the reproductions was remarkably good. Music choices were very good. A little more history to go with the muscial anthology would have been appreciated.