Slartibartfast
An album which probably needs no introduction for most older jazz fans.
This box set entered my collection around the time of the 30th anniversary of the recording sessions. I didn't get to know this album in it's original release format. By that time I had barely gotten to know the music of Miles but had been well acquainted with the work that many of the artists present in these sessions had gone on to make later- Corea, McLaughlin, DeJohnette, White, Shorter, and Zawinul, in particular.
The danger of getting a complete sessions set of Davis' music is that you will get tracks that show up on other albums in the same version. This one overlaps with Big Fun. But what fun sprawling four CD box set this one is. About a third of the material is "newly discovered".
If you can judge a book by its cover, this one's got a thick silk covered outer sleeve which contains a slide out hard back book with a metallic blue spine. The book is 148 thick pages on the album and the sessions and includes, remembering Miles by Carlos Santana,an introduction by Michael Cucuna, an overview essay by Quincey Troupe (the co-author of Miles' autobiography - a must read if you haven't), and session-by-session analysis by Bob Belden. A nice mixture of reminiscences and the original liner notes by Ralph J. Gleason. Of course the most important component: four sleeves containing four discs of music.
For those writing looking back, the album brings back the era. For me the music is untethered to that period and has a timeless quality to it.