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I bought the Mosaic and also picked up the later Atlantics, live and studio. Also the two Apple records, and the OJC(?) collection of the Prestige/Pablo records. I'm not an unqualified/uncritical fan, but when I like them, I like them a lot. For that price, hey...  But do not miss Space    

John Lewis,  P.O.V. (Columbia)  I think his small group records outside the MJQ are undervalued.  I can't think of anyone outside of Count Basie who could do so much with so little.  

Partial post since my attempts at long posts often disappear into hyperspace. #1. Like this a lot. Never heard the headliner on tenor before, initially noticed a few Hawkins similarities but drew a blank. After peeking, kicked myself because the tenor should have been an easy ID. #2. Don't listen to a lot of B-3 material but dig this. Guitarist sounds relatively "modern" ('70s or later) and impresses, organist either an old-timer or consciously playing in traditional style. No clue on ID. Well done performance. #3. Recognized this as being included in a Mosaic I own but couldn't name the tune without consulting the package. Maybe the strongest track on the Mosaic disc devoted to the leader, which admittedly is the one I listen to least often from the set. #4. "Well you needn't" played in a stride bag and at rapid tempo. I like this a lot. Pianist gives off some Jaki Byard polystylist vibes but it's surely not him. Don't have the energy to sleuth this early in the month. Sounds like vinyl sourced, so I've never heard it before. #9. The one fail of the BFT for me, couldn't make it through the whole thing. I still strongly feel the melody is lifted from a well-known lullaby or other traditional source, can hum it from memory but the source escapes me. Having fun so far, will post on others later.

This was fun.  It was an awful lot like seeing Bitches Brew played live, though not as elaborate on the percussion.  Anyway, Sarian is continuing to tour this new album.  He said he would be heading to Detroit and also Chicago (where he is playing Elastic).

I just noticed this MJQ box on Amazon, so cheap it might as well be free (less than $7, if you can imagine). Combined with other stuff, no shipping (we’re not on Prime, never will be). And it IS fulfilled by Amazon directly (it’s NOT from some dealer on the marketplace). Here it is… https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000002ISE I know, no brainer probably. But reading the Amazon reviews, oddly some of the reviews read like it’s for one specific album (cd) — so maybe this really isn’t the MJQ 40 box after all?? FWIW, I’ve only had 2 different MJQ LP’s over the years (somewhat beat up LP’s) — one was Pyramid (with “Django”) — and I forget the other one, which I must have traded 25 yrs ago.  And no CD’s, ever. Big oversight on my part, I know. So I’m looking online to try and get a sense of the proportion of years covered in this box — and I can’t seem to find anything discographical other than song titles, and and overall set of years covered. And I found an image on eBay that said disc 4 covers 1973-1988 (so if the whole thing is chronological, then that means it’s not at all bloated towards their later years). What do people think about how this set was curated? But I’ll admit I’m really peeved to discover one tune, Ornette’s “Lonely Woman” apparently ISN’T included  — which is one of a handful MJQ tracks I’ve always really loved. But other than that omission, is it a fairly good overview? Here’s the Discogs entry for it: https://www.discogs.com/release/7534618-The-Modern-Jazz-Quartet-MJQ-40