gmonahan

From the great period of Legacy reissues, an underrated album, I think:

Disc 2

Take the jewel cases out of the box and put them on the shelf with others, store the box, put the books on a separate shelf. To me, Mosaics are meant to be listened to, not stored away like jewels in a safety deposit box. gregmo

No idea how I ever missed this one, but this is a wonderful disc. 25 tracks from Louis' various appearances in film, and the sound is outstanding. But what I really adored was how much Teagarden there is, especially on the first 8 tracks from the (obscure!) movie "The Strip." As Will Friedwald writes in his very good notes, Teagarden virtually co-lead the All-Stars with Satch, and gets some very good solo/vocal time on the disc. There's also some good Hines and Bigard, aside from the Young/Hall group that appeared in "High Society." Only complaint: you have to read the notes to get personnels, but I recommend this one. gregmo

Thanks Chuck. I thought I remembered them being pretty early. gregmo

I think most, if not all, of the Columbia sides are spread across 4 Classics cds. Don't know about the Victors. Those were recorded early, weren't they? gregmo

Interesting reaction to "Rocketman." I thought it was better than "Bohemian Rhapsody." I liked how they took the music out of its original chronological order and used the themes to tell the story, and I thought Egerton did a fine job singing. But, to each his own!! gregmo

Disc V: The Great Basie Old Testament band in full flight!

Thanks for the heads-up, Lon. It appears that the Musicmasters cds only include four tracks with Django. Those four are also on JSP's "Django on the Radio," CD-A, so I'm wondering if that's it, or whether Savory got more. Of course, your post begs another question. IF the Estates agreed to these releases (they must have agreed to the Columbia box release), why on earth would they ok those--especially the small label releases--and not this one?? Arg!!! gregmo

Toward the end, he also mentioned that there are a number of Goodman recordings with Lester Young. I don't find any of those in the "On the Air" 2-cd set of Savory recordings issued by Columbia. Also an entire concert of Django Reinhardt with Duke Ellington. There are a few bits of their post-war tour together in the massive JSP Reinhardt collection, but not much. Sigh. gregmo

I was just listening and watching the presentation by Scott Wenzel on this set from the Mosaic Jazz Gazette, and he mentioned some of the Estates that wouldn't allow release: Benny Goodman first and foremost, but also Cab Calloway, Bunny Berigan, and Tommy Dorsey. Like many here, I continue to be flummoxed by these estates. Are they in abject poverty and think this would somehow put them on easy street? What kind of massive audience do they somehow imagine is out there? It's bizarre. gregmo

I was talking about the Columbia Newport stuff (but, of course, Granz probably didn't produce any of that, did he?!). Universal still owns the Verve material, so I guess that box could happen, though how much of it survived the big fire is an open question. gregmo

One of my very favorites!

While i agree that a set of all the Granz-produced Newport recordings from the late 50s would make a cool box, Sony's recent decision not to lease material probably puts the kibosh on that. I'm still wondering if Mosaic's planned Armstrong 50s Columbia studio set will appear. gregmo

I'm still working on that.... gregmo