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Jazz Lover’s Gift Guide 2022

Gift Guide 2022
WBGO
Jazz Lover's Gift Guide 2022

If you’re a jazz fan or have one as a close friend or family member, I offer this curated gift guide with a decidedly jazzy bent. I handpicked several products that I feel comfortable recommending, and I did my best to choose affordable options.

But, please remember that you can Give the Gift of Jazz by becoming a member of WBGO — or by signing up friends and family. We at the station are always grateful for your support. (FULL DISCLOSURE: As an Amazon Associate, WBGO earns a little revenue from a few of the purchases of the recommended gifts below, not that it influenced us in any way.)

Here we go.
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Box Sets

With individual CD sales lagging, record companies and artist representatives have learned that the only way to sell hard copies in a music landscape dominated by streaming is to offer special (and even limited edition) packages, embellished with bonus cuts, in-depth liner notes, special remastering, and all sorts of other bells and whistles. The idea is to turn that version of the recordings into a collector’s item, even if you already had most of the material in one format or another. Eight-track anyone? Here are two of my favorites from this year’s box sets in CD format.

Freddie Hubbard Box Set

Freddie HubbardThe Complete Freddie Hubbard Blue Note & Impulse Studio Sessions(Mosaic)
In my case, I already had most of the recordings by Freddie Hubbard on both Blue Note and Impulse. But some of the records are scratched, some of the CDs are earlier versions with tinny sound and I don’t even know how to play my cassettes any more. Mosaic has always set the standard for classy box sets with state of the art photography, as well as thorough and insightful liner notes, in this case by Bob Blumenthal. Although some jazz people prefer the funkier Freddie heard on CTI recordings like Straight Life and Red Clay, these sessions of every date he led from 1960 to 1966 show the trumpeter at his chops-crazy best, usually with equally outstanding sidemen, most of whom were leaders on their own. Among the albums contained in this 7-CD set are Hub-Tones, Ready for Freddie and The Artistry of Freddie Hubbard.

Miles Davis box set

Miles DavisThe Bootleg Sessions, Vol. 7: That’s What Happened 1982-1985(Columbia)
If the Hubbard set is a bit too pricey for you or your benefactor, you could consider this 3-CD set featuring another legendary trumpeter and a contemporary of Hubbard. This ‘80s era Miles box features nearly four hours of previously unreleased music including two CDs of studio recordings, plus one CD of a live performance at the 1983 Montreal Jazz Festival. The electric Miles loved his guitarists and this set includes three of his greatest: John McLaughlin, John Scofield and Mike Stern. The equally renowned bassists Marcus Miller and Darryl Jones anchored those bands and established the powerful groove that Miles fed off during his last 10 years. There are plenty of other greats on these tracks, including Al Foster and J.J. Johnson. But ultimately, it was Miles’ party.


Vinyl

The vinyl revival is in full force, and I, for one, am a believer. There is just something special about pulling an LP out of the sleeve and carefully placing it on the turntable, maybe even giving it a quick clean with a special cloth to get rid of dust, old and new. You’ve got the album cover in your hands and you take in the graphics and perhaps the liner notes. You can even enjoy the LP sleeves, which, if from an album released years ago, will display the other recordings available on the label at that time—a history lesson in brief. The sound is often warmer than our digital versions, though audiophiles will debate that point ad nauseum. I believe that warmth also stems from our own sense of nostalgia for either our individual or collective past. Enough waxing on about wax. Go to a record store and rediscover (or even discover) music that moves you.

Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday

Billie HolidayThe Complete Decca Recordings(Verve)
You’d have to be comatose not to be moved by Billie Holiday. That’s why this set is an easy choice to recommend. Although the CD-set has been available for years, this 4-LP box was shipped as a special edition this year on Nov. 23. The 50 tracks on these records include master takes of all 36 songs she recorded for Decca, plus the usual alternate takes. There’s also a 20-page booklet with rare photographs and an interview with Milt Gabler, her producer for the label. (Fun fact: Gabler was Billy Crystal’s uncle.) And, of course there are extensive liner notes about her music during those years from 1944 to 1950, a period that some people believe represented Billie at the peak of her talents.

Vinyl Care

There are lots of ways to clean your old albums that seem to attract all the dust in your house. Vinyl is surprisingly resilient when it comes to dousing it with water or moisture, as long as you wipe it off with the right material.

Spin-Clean Record Washer Kit
Spin-Clean Record Washer Kit

Spin-Clean Record Washer Kit
This kit enables you to clean both sides of your vinyl records (33, 45 or 78) at the same time, using a special cleaning solution, brushes, rollers and lint-free drying cloths.


Turntable

If you are going down the rabbit hole of collecting and listening to vinyl, then you’re going to need a turntable that actually works and that isn’t sitting in the basement or attic under a dusty pile of boxes. A few years ago, I moved away from the traditional stereo set-up of an amp/receiver, turntable, pre-amp and speakers to a reliance on Bluetooth technology. Free up the space and free your mind. (Truth be told, I still have my stacked and cluttered stereo set-up in my home office, away from the aesthetic judgement of my spouse.)

Audio Technica LP60XBT Turntable
Audio Technica LP60XBT Turntable

AudioTechnica LP60XBT Turntable
One of the reasons that I like to recommend this fully automatic belt-drive stereo turntable is its simplicity. It has only a few buttons and is very light, such that I will take it with me if I’m going on an extended stay somewhere.

Bluetooth Listening Technology

If you join me and much of the modern world in accepting Bluetooth as your go-to listening medium, then you must have a good speaker, whether for your turntable or whatever streaming you may want to do. Same with headphones or earbuds.

RIVA Turbo X Bluetooth Speaker
RIVA Turbo X Bluetooth Speaker

RIVA Turbo X Bluetooth Speaker
I’ve used this model for several years now and love its sound, compact size and portability. Priced at around $200, it’s certainly affordable and also features a battery with about a 26-hour life, though I’ve never tested that. There are lots of more expensive models if you need to fill a larger room with louder volume.

HiFiMan HE400se Headphones
HiFiMan HE400se Headphones

HiFiMan HE400se Headphones
Priced at around $150, these headphones are more affordable than those offered by Bose, with only a little less quality in sound. Brent Butterworth, JazzTimes’ audio guru, wrote that “the HE400se sounds better than any headphone you could buy 10 years ago, with a near-perfect balance of bass to mids to treble and a delicate, spacious sound that beats all but the best headphones on the market.” Quite a recommendation.

1MORE PistonBuds Pro Hybrid Active Noise Cancelling Wireless Earbuds
1MORE PistonBuds Pro Hybrid Active Noise Cancelling Wireless Earbuds

1MORE PistonBuds Pro Hybrid Active Noise Cancelling Wireless Earbuds
Long product name aside, these very reasonably priced earbuds offer both noise-cancelling and relatively high fidelity with studio grade EQ.

Books

Cover of Saxophone Colossus by Aidan Levey
Cover of Saxophone Colossus by Aidan Levey

Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins by Aidan Levy (Hachette Books)
This comprehensive and compelling biography of perhaps the greatest living jazz musician is both well-written and thoroughly researched. Written with the cooperation but not interference of the subject, this book promises to be the most important jazz biography since Robin DG Kelley’s biography of Thelonious Monk. One caveat: The book is 784 pages. But a tenor titan deserves a titan book.

Jazz Artwork and Photos

Roy Hargrove print
Andres Chaparro
Roy Hargrove print

Prints by Andres Chapparo
The local New Jersey visual artist Andres Chapparo works in both oil and multi-media collage formats and he counts Romare Bearden, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Benny Andrews as influences, though he also cites jazz musicians for truly inspiring his work. He has two limited edition prints for sale – one on Roy Hargrove and the other on Ralph Peterson, Jr.

Dexter Gordon
Herman Leonard
/
hermanleonard.com
Dexter Gordon

Herman Leonard Classic Jazz Photos
If you’d like to own a print of a noted jazz image, you can’t do any better than to look at the archive of Herman Leonard who photographed just about every jazz legend of the 50s and 60s. Many of his images are truly iconic, including a bathed-in-smoke Dexter Gordon and a pensive Art Tatum, and can be found at his website.

Carnegie Hall Concert Poster
Carnegie Hall Concert Poster

Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert Poster
You can find all sorts of cool retro posters from jazz festivals and events of the past. I like this poster for a 1952 Carnegie Hall concert featuring Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Ahmad Jamal and Dizzy Gillespie. The highest priced ticket for that concert? $4.

Monterey Jazz Festival poster
Monterey Jazz Festival poster

Monterey Jazz Festival Posters
Merch from the latest edition of this historic long-running festival is available across a wide swath of product categories – hats, t-shirts, sweatshirts, flight bags, woven throws, etc. But we’re recommending their annual poster, which this year has a retro style in keeping with it being their 65th anniversary.

Music Lessons

Piano In a Flash
Piano In a Flash

Piano in a Flash System
Did you have piano lessons when you were younger but gave it up for any number of reasons? Or have you always wanted to play the piano? In either case, there’s a wonderful teaching system that was created by Scott Houston, seen on PBS as The Piano Guy, that uses the Real Book approach of playing chords with the left hand and melodies with the right. He calls it “Piano in a Flash.” You can either buy his book or get online lessons at his website.

Apparel

Herbie Glasses
Herbie Glasses

Herbie Sunglasses
These high-end shades are a bit out of my price range, but I won’t deny their coolness. They’re the result of a partnership between Blue Note Records, Herbie Hancock and Jacques Marie Mage, the latter being a Los Angeles-based eyeglass designer and retailer.

Newport Jazz Hat
Newport Jazz Hat

Newport Jazz Festival Hats & Shirts
This granddaddy of all jazz festivals has some nice looking baseball caps and shirts branded simply as “Newport Jazz.”

Odds and Ends

Oscar Peterson coin
Oscar Peterson coin

The Oscar Peterson Canadian Dollar Coin
Back in August, the Royal Canadian Mint announced the creation of a new $1 coin honoring pianist and longtime Canadian resident Oscar Peterson. The coin began circulating on August 15, the pianist’s birthday (he was born in 1925). The design features Peterson at the piano, with his hands in full motion, from which emerges a flowing musical scale showing two closing bars of his famous composition “Hymn to Freedom.” There are all sorts of commemorative collector edition versions available from the Mint.

There are some gifts that are beyond category, which I suppose is why The Sharper Image or Hammeker Schlemmer catalogs found a niche. The Miles Davis Estate’s website has all sorts of merch including seemingly every style of t-shirt and beverage container, but I found these two products to be the most unique.

Miles Davis Cookbook Easel
Miles Davis Cookbook Easel

The Miles Davis Laser-Etched Silhouette Cookbook Easel
I’m not sure why I’m recommending this product other than I’d never seen an item branded like this before. It does seem quite practical, and a nice complement to whatever new and trendy cookbook you may have received.

Miles Davis Wrapping Paper
Miles Davis Wrapping Paper

Miles Davis Art Collage Wrapping Paper
Given all the gift choices, you’re going to need wrapping paper, so why not cover your gifts with Miles Davis’ art?

Blue Note Mini Record Ornament
Blue Note Mini Record Ornament

Blue Note Records Mini Record Tree Ornament
Nothing says jazz vinyl freak quite like this tree ornament, featuring a mini-album from our friends at Blue Note Records.