On the documentary that accompanied Sony’s 50th anniversary reissue of Miles Davis’ enduring classic ‘Kind of Blue,’ the sublime rapper Q-Tip noted the ubiquity of the best-selling jazz album of all time. “It’s like the Bible,” he said. “You just have one in your house.”
At $749 (marked down from an initial asking price of $1,199), the colossal, limited-edition new boxed set ‘The Genius of Miles Davis’ — a 43-CD collection of eight previous boxed sets devoted to Miles, packaged in an exact reproduction of his trumpet case, with gewgaws including a rare lithograph and a replica of the musician’s mouthpiece — won’t make its way into many homes. Hell, they’re only producing a couple thousand.
But the newsworthiness of the set, coming hot on the heels of Sony’s last humongous Miles tribute, the 70-disc ‘Complete Columbia Album Collection’ — as well as the news that Don Cheadle will be playing the enigmatic artist in an upcoming biopic — marks a welcome opportunity to reconsider the oversized legacy of jazz’s most restless innovator.
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