Bill Dixon's Complete Remastered Recordings on Black Saint and Soul Note is an enormous nine-disc affair. It showcases a very productive and important period for the trumpeter, composer, and bandleader, and offers a fine portrait of his highly individual contribution to avant-garde jazz between the years 1980 and 1998. While it's true that three offerings here, In Italy, Vol. 1, Vade Mecum, and Papyrus could be considered double albums (example: In Italy, Vol. 2 contains the same players and was recorded during the same sessions as volume one, and the same is true respectively for the other two titles mentioned) disregarding them for music that was left off the initial volumes as inferior or merely as outtakes is a mistake. What the companion volumes underscore is just how deep Dixon's well was; it fleshes out the ideas on the initial volumes. The single album titles here are November 1981, Thoughts, and Sons of Sisyphus. One need only gauge the level of the players on these sides to judge their importance: some include -- but are not limited to -- Alan Silva, Freddie Waits, Mario Pavone, Barry Guy, Tony Oxley, and William Parker. Particular favorites in the set are November 1981, with Pavone, Laurence Cook, and Silva; Vade Mecum, with Guy, Parker, and Oxley, and Papyrus, a duet session with Oxley, where the smallest details, nuances, and notions of space in Dixon's compositional and improvisational languages reveal themselves readily. For anyone who has any of the original LPs or CDs and is questioning whether the investment is worth it, the answer is a resounding "yes." The remastering quality is very high, making (nearly) crystalline the sonic details blurred by the original releases. In the case of compact discs, the thin, brittle sound that marred earlier CDs on Soul Note and Black Saint is much fuller, warmer, and rounder here. Price-wise, there is a very wide range: real bargains can be had by anyone willing to put in a little work on the internet. While many of the sets in this series are wonderful, Dixon's is truly special.
1. Bill Dixon in Italy - Volume 1
2. Bill Dixon in Italy - Volume 2
3. November 1981
4. Thoughts
5. Son of Sisyphus
6. Vade Mecum
7. Vade Mecum II
8. Papyrus Volume I
9. Papyrus Volume II
CD1 - Bill Dixon in Italy - Volume 1
01. Summer Song/One/Morning
02. Firenze
03. Summer Song/Two/Evening
04. For Cecil Taylor
CD2 - Bill Dixon in Italy - Volume 2
01. Sketch/Firenze
02. Summer Song/Two/Evening
03. Daybreak
04. Dusk
05. Dance Piece
CD3 - November 1981
01. Webern
02. Windswept Winterset
03. Velvet
04. Llaattiinnoo Suite
05. November 1981
06. Penthesilea
07. The Second Son
08. The Sirens
09. Another Quiet Feeling
CD4 - Thoughts
01. Thoughts
02. Windows
03. For Nelson And Winnie
04. A Song For Claudia'S Children
05. Brothers
06. Points
CD5 - Son of Sisyphus
01. Silences For Jack Moore
02. Vector
03. Son Of Sisyphus
04. Schema Vi-88
05. Fusama Codex
06. Mandala Per Mendela
07. Sumi-E
08. Negoro Codex
09. Molti Molti Anna Fa
CD6 - Vade Mecum
01. Moment
02. Anamorphosis
03. Viole Nino Bixio 20
04. Pellucity
05. Vade Mecum
06. Twice Upon A Time
07. Acanthus
CD7 - Vade Mecum II
01. Valentina Di Sera
02. Tableau
03. Ebonite
04. Reflections
05. Incunabula
06. Octette #1
CD8 - Papyrus Volume I
01. Essay Di Larry Neal
02. Papyrus
03. The Statesman
04. Indirizzo Via Cimarosa Sei
05. Scribbles
06. Ritratto Di Allen Polite
07. Cinnamon
08. Quadro De Henry Dumas
09. Palimpsest
10. Steps
11. Sine Qua Non
12. Quadro Di N.H. Pritchard
CD9 - Papyrus Volume II
01. Silver Point: Jeanne Phillips
02. Papyrus
03. Pyxis
04. Squares
05. Epigraphy
06. Sine Qua Non #2
07. Couplet
08. Four: Vi: 1998
09. Crawlspace
10. Suri-Mono: Louise Wade
