Artists Who Should Have Had a Mosaic...

[LAL]

Masters of Jazz published a volume 8 in their Lunceford series. It brought the Lunceford sides complete up to April 1941. Mastering on that one was done by John R.T. Davies.

Thanks for the info Brownie. Gonna place an order for it at CDZone UK, about the only online store that offers to procure it. Will probably be backordered for ages, but no harm trying.

Yikes! Just found my Lunceford vol.8 hiding under a stack of other long untouched discs. Time to rein in the unbridled buying. Gotta cancel that order too.

[medjuck]

How about the Lionel Hampton RCA all-star small groups? There was once a 6 Lp set but I don't know where to get them all on cd.

[montg]

Whoever currently has rights to Commodore isn't doing squat with it.

That would be universal music (Verve), so no surprise it is rotting in the vaults somewhere. Verve has shown no interest in any of the prewar material they own (including Decca and some years of Brunswick).

[P.D.]

How about the Lionel Hampton RCA all-star small groups? There was once a 6 Lp set but I don't know where to get them all on cd.

The first four Chronological Classics

37-38

38-39

39-40

40-41

would be an obvious starting point. You would get all the RCA's plus a few of the early Decca's on the last disc.

There are plenty of other European sets that are drawn from this period.. careful selection might get you them all

Check the Proper Box Hampton.. it probably draws quite heavily on this period

..possibly the RCA Jazz Tribune sets if you can find them..

or Avid 611 and Avid 612 two 2CD sets that should do it for you.

Edited July 8, 2004 by P.D.

[Dave James]

I think we've all done this before, but it never hurts to reiterate:

Georgie Auld

Al Cohn

I also second, or third, the earlier Earl Bostic suggestion. A Mosaic treatment of the jazz side of Mr. B would be the realization of a long standing dream.

Up over and out.

[medjuck]

I also second, or third, the earlier Earl Bostic suggestion. A Mosaic treatment of the jazz side of Mr. B would be the realization of a long standing dream.

Up over and out.

When I was growing up, Bostic's version of Harlem Nocturne was the closest thing to jazz they played on our one and only local radio station. Mainly they played country (even the show they called "Western Swing" didn't play Bob Willis). That was all I knew about Bostic so I was really surpised when years later I heard an interview with Benny Golson and he declared that Earl Bostic was the greatest sax player he'd ever heard. I think he qualified it by adding "technically".

[JSngry]

Coltrane made similar comments about Bostic, in whose band he toured for a while. I have a quote somewhere I'll try and dig up.

My question is - how much jazz (or jazz-ish) Bostic is there?

Bill Doggett - there's a similar contender. Maybe a combined set of similar foci - that would be a good thing.

But I don't know that Mosaic could/would be the company to do it.

[Jim Alfredson]

I'd like to see a marrissam Mosaic set but considering the price of her single albums it would cost between $10,000 and $20,000 per set.

[EKE BBB]

I'd like to see a marrissam Mosaic set but considering the price of her single albums it would cost between $10,000 and $20,000 per set.

[yul]

Everyone seems to have forgotten CANNONBALL ADDERLEY and DIZZY GILLESPIE!!!

I just don’t understand why these legends have NEVER got ANY decent boxed sets.

With Cannonball I would start with “The complete Capitol small band studio and/or live recordings with Joe Zawinul”. Another very nice one could be “The complete Capitol recordings with George Duke”.

And what comes to Dizzy, I would love to see “The complete Verve (including EmArcy, Phillips etc.) small band studio recordings”. “The complete Pablo sessions” would be irresistible as well, but that’s one for the Fantasy Inc.

How would you like to have your Dizzys and Cannonballs?

[alankin]

Masters of Jazz published a volume 8 in their Lunceford series. It brought the Lunceford sides complete up to April 1941. Mastering on that one was done by John R.T. Davies.

Thanks for the info Brownie. Gonna place an order for it at CDZone UK, about the only online store that offers to procure it. Will probably be backordered for ages, but no harm trying.

Yikes! Just found my Lunceford vol.8 hiding under a stack of other long untouched discs. Time to rein in the unbridled buying. Gotta cancel that order too.

I think I have an extra Lunceford Vol. 8. (As well as a few of the earlier volumes.)

[BERIGAN]

How about the Lionel Hampton RCA all-star small groups? There was once a 6 Lp set but I don't know where to get them all on cd.

The first four Chronological Classics

37-38

38-39

39-40

40-41

would be an obvious starting point. You would get all the RCA's plus a few of the early Decca's on the last disc.

There are plenty of other European sets that are drawn from this period.. careful selection might get you them all

Check the Proper Box Hampton.. it probably draws quite heavily on this period

..possibly the RCA Jazz Tribune sets if you can find them..

or Avid 611 and Avid 612 two 2CD sets that should do it for you.

RCA put out a 3 cd set as well, NOT complete, of course, but still quite good(Never have been about to find the first one in the series) I don't have Hot Mallets, but I have Jumpin' Jive (volume2) and Tempo and Swing (Volume 3) It has a few alternates, reasonably good sound and has Gin For Christmas, the greatest rockin' jazz song ever! You can pick 'em up pretty cheap on ebay, even though they are out of print....

[montg]

The world needs more Art Hodes, so I e-mailed Mosaic with the suggestion of a Classic Chicago jazz set (kind of like the Condon mob set) that draws on the Mercury/Emarcy and Dot catalogs (both held by Verve, I believe). There are three sessions by Art Hodes recorded in the 50s with various combos for Emarcy, Franz Jackson and Muggsy Spanier sessions also on Emarcy, and some rare stuff from Eddie Condon, Bud Freeman and Pee Wee Russell on the Dot catalog. I received a polite 'we'll look into it' reply which, since I imagine they get a fair number of these types of requests, was all I hoped for....

[JSngry]

Pops Poopadeaux.

Where's the love?

[AfricaBrass]

The world needs more Art Hodes, so I e-mailed Mosaic with the suggestion of a Classic Chicago jazz set (kind of like the Condon mob set) that draws on the Mercury/Emarcy and Dot catalogs (both held by Verve, I believe). There are three sessions by Art Hodes recorded in the 50s with various combos for Emarcy, Franz Jackson and Muggsy Spanier sessions also on Emarcy, and some rare stuff from Eddie Condon, Bud Freeman and Pee Wee Russell on the Dot catalog. I received a polite 'we'll look into it' reply which, since I imagine they get a fair number of these types of requests, was all I hoped for....

I'd love to see that set and more like it.

[Stefan Wood]

Dakota Staton.

Yeah yeah, I have been listening to her lps a lot recently, but it would fit into Mosaic's mission statement of bringing recognition to good yet forgotten artists. She's a great singer.

[DrJ]

Many, many great ideas in this thread - I've been bugging them about Yusef Lateef's Impulse! material for literally years. A Shirley Scott Impulse! leader dates Select might also be nice, eh?

And how about:

Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band - Complete RCA Recordings

The Ahmad Jamal Chess/Argo stuff - no brainer if they can work out licensing, although this may have enough sales potential that Universal would want to do it themselves

Gary Burton Complete RCA Recordings (see discussion on another thread I started in past - some great and truly historic stuff in there)

Horace Tapscott Complete Nimbus Recordings (probably never happen)

Lucky Thompson set of some kind - ideal would be a collection of various leader sessions for small labels that have never been properly reissued (good sound, documentation, etc) - as a Select probably

Slide Hampton Octet Atlantic Recordings (another probable Select?)

A set of rare one-offs on the Emarcy label - stuff by people who led 1 or 2 dates for the label at most.

Maynard Ferguson Mercury (or is it Emarcy) recordings - I've seen some very promising line-ups on these, not all that different than the Roulette years which made a very fine box IMHO.

Is a Complete Freedom/Arista Sessions Box conceivable? Seems it would be - especially given Michael Cuscuna's personal involvement with most if not all of the stuff released - and boy would that be worthwhile and prompt some serious and much-needed re-evaluation and revisiting of an era...

**********

For Blue Notes, I have all the stuff now so don't really urgently want to see these, but honestly can't fathom (given their other BN artists' sets) why there have never been full-fledged Mosaics for the following:

Sonny Clark (complete leader dates for the label, of course) - this seems like one that they would have done YEARS ago, back around the time they did the Redd and Tina Brooks boxes. A mystery.

Kenny Burrell (complete on BN) - ditto. Wha'happen?

Bobby Hutcherson (would have made most sense to do all his recordings through about 1970 some time ago, but now I'd say a later-period Select as has been discussed as possibly in the works). I would also LOVE personally to see a Hutcherson/Land complete leader sessions box - bringing in the Blue Notes, Argo and affiliated labels, Mainstream, and any other leader dates I'm missing

**********

For earlier jazz eras:

1) Complete Sidney Bechet RCA/Victor Recordings

2) Complete Coleman Hawkins RCA/Victor Recordings

3) Complete JUMP label output (some fine, fine and hard to find stuff)

4) I like the Lunceford idea

5) Love the Hodes idea

Edited January 14, 2005 by DrJ

[MartyJazz]

Lucky Thompson set of some kind - ideal would be a collection of various leader sessions for small labels that have never been properly reissued (good sound, documentation, etc) - as a Select probably

What I'd love to see is a chronological compilation of all the sides Lucky did with Milt Jackson for both Savoy and Atlantic. That was a beautiful collaboration.

[mmilovan]

No love here for a Jimmy Lunceford set?

ubu

Flurin,

here's love, a very special kind of love... listen to this:

"Ken Burns: Exactly. Duke Ellington and his band. They could be great and they could be terrible.

Artie Shaw: There a lot of people talk about Duke Ellington and his band. Of course, interestingly enough, very few people are talking about Jimmy Lunceford, who had the best black band of all. 'Cause Jimmy had something in his band that Duke didn't have. Duke's essential thing was total freedom. The men could do what they wanted to do, and as a result, when they were good they were good, when they were bad they were horrid. The little girl with the curl in her forehead. The band could be terrible. And other times it could be absolutely great. So there's a great price for freedom. Very difficult to take fourteen or eighteen men and let them all go their own way. On the other hand, there's that fine line where you go too disciplined and then you end up with Glenn Miller. Jimmy Lunceford was the perfect in-between. The reason I talk about him is you talk Duke, you gotta talk about Jimmy. Jimmy had the same number of men in his band, was highly disciplined, they did the same things and they played and they showed up. Duke's men were a bunch of prima donnas. So when they were together they were marvelous, and Duke made a lasting mark. Unfortunately, people don't seem to understand the mark that Jimmy did. Jimmy left a tremendous mark, Lunceford.

Ken Burns: You said Duke was a slicker. What was his attitude toward the whole enterprise?

Artie Shaw: Well, Duke was a very, very slick guy. The word is slick. He dressed extremely well, he was fascinated by clothes, fascinated by women. And he lived his life in the way he did. He was a big dessert man. I don't know whether you know anything about him, but when he went on the road, he would make desserts. Duke was a sense, sensible, sensual man. And that showed up in the music. When it was good, it was tremendous. But he was a victim of his own ego to a great degree. We all have egos, some of us are in charge of them, some of us aren't. If you're not in charge of your ego, it can do disastrous things for you. And Duke, fortunately the good moments were captured. The good thing about records is you can keep the best and throw out the junk. There was a lot of junk. With Jimmy there was very little junk. Jimmy Lunceford, I keep coming back to that. In order to understand Duke, you have to understand Jimmy Lunceford."

Now, I'll vote for Lunceford Mosaic, as well as Artie Shaw Mosaic!

For both of them.

Uunfortunatelly, Basie Columbia Mosaic probably never will happen!

Edited January 15, 2005 by mmilovan