J.A.W.

Just heard the terrible news that Michael Cuscuna has died - Joe Harley posted this: Michael Cuscuna RIP

Sorry to hear this sad news.

You may be in for an unpleasant surprise: if the set was shipped by FedEx they will send you a VAT invoice separately, usually within one or two weeks of delivery. Note that only VAT (21% in the Netherlands) and a handling fee wiil be due, no import duties, CDs are exempt from import duties in the EU. TYQMusic's prices for Mosaic sets are usually lower than Jazz Messengers'.

TYQMusic do not have it in stock. The owner, Mark Steyaert, told me yesterday Mosaic had informed him that something had gone wrong with TYQMusic's order, and it won't be filled until mid- or late January at the earliest.

If you ordered directly from Mosaic there is no VAT included, they do not use the EU IOSS ("Import One Stop Shop") scheme as far as I know. Within the EU you pay VAT on arrival of an order from outside the EU, unless the non-EU seller uses IOSS, in that case VAT is charged at check-out if the total value does not exceed 150 euros, and no VAT is due on arrival. By the way - and this might be of interest to EU residents - Belgian store TYQMusic is currently offering the Byas Mosaic for 189 euros (pre-order) plus shipping. They told me they're expecting the set mid- or late December: TYQMusic

...and their prices are reasonable. TYQMusic Mosaics

Exactly. Their projected Lucky Thompson set was also killed by licensing issues many years ago.

Again, LPs turned out not to be economically viable for them; after all, they're only a 3-man operation these days without the resources to handle post-sales care in case of defective LPs - one of the problems with that format according to the many complaints about bad pressings etc.

Sometimes they are, as was the case with the projected Lucky Thompson set years ago. As I understand it a Mary Lou Williams set was also considered at one time, but that was dropped just because of licensing issues.

Mosaic's release policy has been discussed here many times, and people tend to forget that they can't afford releases anymore that are not expected to sell well. Their Select series was terminated because it was not economically viable; same with LP sets. There's also the problem of licensing issues, especially when artists recorded for many different labels with different owners, who are often reluctant to license those recordings to be collected in one set - case in point: a Mary Lou Williams set; that will probably never happen, just because her recordings are all over the place. People have also often wondered why downloads are not offered by Mosaic - simple, rights owners refuse to license downloads to Mosaic.

As far as I know they didn't, the licenses expired.

Mosaic won't be releasing LPs again because of the many problems with pressings and things like that, and the financial consequences of having to replace faulty copies etc. Having seen the horror stories on another forum I can fully understand that.

I'm 76 and don't exactly remember when I got my first Mosaic, but it was soon after they started.

Seconded. I suggested something like that to Scott some time ago, and I wouldn't be suprised if we'd see an Ellington set with those recordings someday. Scott told me years ago they were planning to release a Lucky Thompson Select, and then thought of releasing a "regular" set. Nothing came of it, if I remember correctly the licensing problems couldn't be solved.

Licensing original artwork would drive up the cost of a set, and they chose not to include it. A wise decision, given the problems they had to stay afloat.

Before he left the board the late Chris Albertson deleted quite a few of his threads when he got upset by a few members. I did the same with one of my threads years ago and was told it could not be restored. Once deleted = gone forever.

😄

Got an e-mail from Mosaic yesterday that the first run of their JATP set has sold out. They ordered a second run and expect new stock in 2-3 weeks, and have extended the date for the pre-order sale. Mailing Mosaic through their website isn't the best way in my experience. I always contact Scott directly: scott@mosaicrecords.com

Had to sell my LPs back in 1995 and never looked back, and reading about all the problems with very expensive LP reissues over the last few years I'm glad I didn't.

I had this set but sold it a long time ago because at the time I thought it was a mixed bag - some great and some not so great pianists, or pianists who were past their prime. As I said that was a long time ago (I think it was not long after it came out) and I'm not sure I made the right decision back then. I've been searching for audio samples of the music to see/hear if my feelings were right or not, but I couldn't find any. Any suggestions?

Just noticed that I'm a newbie now, despite having been a member since it started... Good to feel young again...

I ordered the B&W set directly from Mosaic and it turned out to be far more expensive with shipping, VAT and all that than when I had ordered it from Jazz Messengers. I also calculated what direct import of the Hubbard set would cost compared to Jazz Messengers' price, and that also turned out to be much more expensive.

I'll be ordering Mosaics from JazzMessengers again from now on. I was tempted by the pre-order price Mosaic was offering, that's why I ordered the B&W set directly from them, but seeing that JM's price was roughly the same pre-VAT I wish I had ordered it from them and saved me the hassle - and extra cost. Oh well.

Mine has just arrived, 5 days after I paid VAT. In my experience it usually takes that long for Dutch Post to receive the item from Customs after VAT and the handling fee have been paid.

That's exactly the amount (21% VAT + 4 euros handling fee) I paid on Monday. Dutch Post told me on Monday it would be delivered the next morning: nothing; the next few days the same thing happened. This morning they notified me the set would be delivered tomorrow morning. I'll believe it when I see it...