crisp

Out of interest, are you choosing the "US Air Mail" option or "UPS International"? I haven't happened to order from Mosaic since the company dropped DHL, but I always went for the courier option because it was quicker, Royal Mail wasn't involved and the package had to be signed for, plus it cost the same anyway.

From memory, I think it was the album 12 Songs of Christmas, a mid-Sixties Reprise project. The five tracks featuring Sinatra are on the Reprise travelling case box.

Yes, apparantly those are the two. Unfortunately, Tone Poems is oop.

Perhaps hold out for this edition, then. It has a DVD of the 1971 Royal Festival Hall gig thrown in, so at least you might be getting something extra for your money.

Good lord! You mean this? I completely missed it. Seems it was online only(?). Still, two albums are absent and you have to buy the Singles set to get the rest. Quite nice, though. I recall from Charles Granata's book that the Reprise sessions were not known for their quality control, so that might just be down to source limitations. Remastering technology is improving all the time, of course.

Quite nice, but not worth buying a whole CD of material you already have in order to get it! Apparently it is a new (and newly recorded) Torrie Zito arrangement married with a 1984 vocal track for which the original arrangement proved unsatisfactory (so I really got my wires crossed when I misplaced it as a Capitol recording). There's a short video about the project here.

Sorry, Greg, my error. It's actually a Reprise version. But it's on the CD Nothing But the Best if you are looking for it. A better example of a recently released stray Capitol track would be the alternate of Nice n Easy which is on Romance: Songs from the Heart. In any case, there are others. I'd say the Capitol sessions have been treated adequately, but this is Capitol Sinatra! Adequate isn't really good enough.

The Capitol albums badly need revisiting, I think. I'd like to see a boxed set along the lines of the upcoming Beatles ones: new mono and stereo remasters in mini LP sleeves. The RCA, Columbia and Reprise albums have all been handled perfectly in their respective boxed sets, but EMI's neglect of the Capitol albums stands out a mile. Well, they did do the Concepts and Singles boxes, which pretty well reissued everything. One can certainly argue with the quality of the sound (though it mostly sounds pretty good to me), and it would be way cool to have the mono pressings from the early stereo era, but those still strike me as pretty good boxes. Is your problem with the sound? greg mo Partly the sound, which is variable, but mainly the way the music is organised and annotated. With the other labels putting everything they have in one lavish box, in session order with excellent annotation and illustrations, it stands out that the Capitol material is sort of all over the place and carelessly presented. There are many odd tracks that are only available on "best of" compilations, such as Here Goes and Body and Soul, for example. Songs for Swingin' Lovers! still has that horrible band across the top of the cover explaining what a CD is ("Compact disc version of original full-length album"), Only the Lonely has a couple of bonus tracks that don't fit the concept, and so on. It's probably picky of me, but I think EMI's treatment of these famous sessions is kind of sloppy.

The Capitol albums badly need revisiting, I think. I'd like to see a boxed set along the lines of the upcoming Beatles ones: new mono and stereo remasters in mini LP sleeves. The RCA, Columbia and Reprise albums have all been handled perfectly in their respective boxed sets, but EMI's neglect of the Capitol albums stands out a mile.

Maybe to find there's nothing there. The Beatles' only appearances on Juke Box Jury and Top of the Pops are among the many tapes that the BBC wiped.

This was released on both LP and on CD. This was not an original score, but a collection of standards arranged/played by pianist Dick Hyman. Thanks, Jim, but yes, I was referring to the original score. Little did I didn't know it at the time, but most--if not all--the tunes were remakes of famous ones from days gone by. I got hooked on the remakes and haven't been able to find them on CD. As with most of Allen's films, the music was drawn from existing recordings (in this case by the likes of Harry James, Count Basie and Roy Eldridge), with some new solo piano recordings (by Dick Hyman and Derek Smith) for those scenes when Lloyd Nolan was miming playing the piano. There's also the odd "live" performance where the likes of Bobby Short or Carrie Fisher sing. You can piece together much of the "found" score on various CDs, such as the Harry James comp Trumpet Blues, and some of the new piano pieces were on the LP already mentioned, along with Basie et al. There's a rough list of what was used here. This film is a favourite of mine and one of the reasons I became a jazz fan (and a Woody Allen fan).

Thanks for that. Clearly more than one disc required, though. UK release dates.

"Ah, let's tear it up!" at the end of Something's Got to Give on Come Dance With Me

Found this forthcoming release on HMV. It's listed among the European issues of the next batch of Verve Originals, is on the Verve label and at the same price point, yet doesn't seem to have been part of the US batch. Any ideas what it is? It might fill the gaps on the Mosaic.

Amazon has the next batch listed for August 11: Lonesome Boulevard by Gerry Mulligan Reed Seed by Grover Washington Jr Musical Tribute to JFK: The Kennedy Dream by Oliver Nelson Apasionado by Stan Getz Today and Tomorrow by McCoy Tyner A Tear to a Smile by Roy Ayers Ubiquity Smackwater Jack by Quincy Jones Porgy and Bess by Joe Henderson Tropico by Gato Barbieri 1975: The Duets by Dave Brubeck & Paul Desmond

The European RVGs are no longer stated as having copy control and the packaging has been crudely adjusted to reflect that. However, I have found you can copy them on to iTunes whether the packaging mentions CC or not. Don't know how CC affects the sound quality, but it certainly doesn't prevent copying.

Is it any good?

Do you think that should be "Mel Torme Verve"? Yes. If you get a chance to look at the film insert, that's what Friedwald is saying. He even holds up the album. Most of the print story is transcribed from the film. It's worth watching for the chance to drool over the sight of a load of old records gathered in one place. Does anyone know if Will Friedwald's father was also a critic or in the music business?

Print story and clip here. Spot the Tina Brooks Mosaic! A massive jazz music collection built by a local music writer and his late father will soon head to a new music museum. NY1's Arts reporter Stephanie Simon filed the following report. Jazz writer and critic Will Friedwald is a pack rat dedicated to the Rat Pack and much more 20th-century American recording artists. He has been chronicling jazz and cabaret for years and collecting the music even longer. Now, he's donating his collection of about 14,000 albums to two public archives. "This is a collection that my dad starting putting together around 50, 60 years ago when he was a kid and I just kept going with it," says Friedwald. "So it's just grown exponentially to the point where its just too big for one person to have. As far as I know, it is the largest collection of jazz and popular standards albums in New York City." Friedwald's collection fills his East Harlem apartment from floor to ceiling, with the all aspects of the Great American Songbook and jazz. The jazz albums are going to an archive in Washington, D.C., but Friedwald already has a curator's knowledge of his collection. "As my dad used to say, it's a 'heavy record,' A record that's both good and hard to find, he called a 'heavy record.' And this is about the heaviest record of them all - 'The Prestidigitator,'" says Friedwald. The popular music and show tunes are going to the Michael Feinstein Foundation for the Preservation of the Great American Songbook, founded by the city composer of the same name. "I decided to create a foundation to create a place for young people to learn about this music," says Feinstein. "We're creating educational programs, and concerts, and there will be a museum and an archive. And all of this is simply to preserve what I think is the greatest music that America ever produced." Feinstein's music museum, which opens in Carmel, Ind. next year, will be part of a brand new performing arts space. After spending countless hours and dollars growing his collection, Friedwald is glad it will be appreciated in its new homes. "This one I looked for years is going to the the Feinstein archive, it's the rarest Mel Tormé verb, it's a set of duets he made with Margaret Whiting," says Freidwald. The eclectic music collection also includes novelty albums like "Shorty Rogers meets Tarzan," which shows the famed 1950s composer and trumpet player in the arms of Tarzan of the Apes. By donating his music gems, Friedwald will also tame the musical jungle that's been growing in this apartment for years. For more information on the Michael Feinstein Foundation for the Preservation of the Great American Songbook, visit michaelfeinsteinfoundation.org.

I can only agree with the above. Well said, Tommy.

That's odd. This set is supposed to be the 1959 songbook sessions with drums instead of guitar. Or are these three tunes quartet dates? Kessel definitely played on the 1952 Ellington recordings.

Sounds like the packaging used for many classical boxed sets (Decca, EMI, DG, etc). I like it. Nothing wrong with cardboard and paper packaging; it's biodegradable and takes up less space. Amazon Canada has this for slightly more than grigorian.com, for those who don't want to register with another online store: link. Thanks to Ron S for clearing up the mystery; simple when you know how! I *think* only four of these albums have been released on CD: Porter, Gershwin, Ellington and Arlen (the last three with the relevant 1952 sessions as a bonus). Plus there was a two-disc set, The Song Is You: Best of the Verve Songbooks, released in 1996. So the 30-odd new-to-CD tracks will probably be all that were not covered by those releases.

UK members might like to know that the latest batch is now available for preorder at HMV for £5.99: search string here. Bear in mind these prices usually go up on release date. I'm holding off on the Oscar Peterson one until we know what the Songbooks box discussed here consists of. FYI the Max Roach is also on the Roach Mosaic.

...but not as crappy as releasing a boxed set of five Stan Getz bossa nova albums, two of which had been released as VMEs and one of which was only available as part of the box. That was annoying.

Sorry to be so late in replying, Sidewinder. Just the Impulse book is on sale, I'm afraid.