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Bunny Berigan Mosaic


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Are we talking vocals in general or the so-called "crappy" vocals? If it's the former, I took a brief look at the discography on the Mosaic site and there seem to be a looooot of vocals. Since I'm not alway that wild about vocals, I'm not sure this is something I want to plunk some serious change on.

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Guest Mnytime

Ok all this talk about crappy vocals has me reconsidering picking this one up. I can put up with a few tracks but if there is a lot of it that is another story.

Going to have to go and actually check the Mosaic notes on how many tracks have vocals. Unless someone already knows?

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Mny, in no way am I familiar with any of the material on this set (which makes it all the more appealing to me), but I'm pretty sure there are two sessions with Billie Holliday, which may or may not appeal to you. But really, I think the marvellous trumpet work will far outweigh any "crappy" vocals that may be included.

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Latest (and strangest) update from the Mosaic site: "The set is expected to ship on or about June 20th. We expected it for the 18th but that was before we found out it was shipped on the wrong truck. Well that takes care of taking off early on Friday. Who said the jazz business is easy? For those who have preordered and have been waiting, we thank you for your patience." -

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I was thinking of driving up to Mosaic tomorrow (I live in Jersey) to pick up a copy of the Berigan and the Bennie Green MS so I called and told them that I'd like to do that and I assumed they'd have enough copies around, etc. They checked and said I should call to see if it's come in before I do that.

So, I guess there's still some question about it arriving tomorrow.

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On the website today:

The set has arrived in our warehouse and will begin shipping Friday, June 20th.

Now we simply have to hope that a series of disasters does not befall our individual orders...

No doubt. This is good news, though. This set should be well worth the wait!

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Guest Mnytime

Waiting to here just how much crappy vocals there are involved.

Another thing I know there is some duplicating from the Mosaic Bailey set but is there any from the Holiday Columbia as well?

Tod

How many Mosaics are you up these days anyway, 150? ;)

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Ah, my little Bunny arrived tonight, just in time for the drive into work tomorrow. Am I the only one who likes vocals with his jazz? Sure is a lot of complaining about the Bunny set before anyone has said he actually listened to it. A few overlaps? I can deal with it.

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I've listened to the first couple of discs (following the discography order) and as Richard Sudhalter says there's a lot of chaff that needs to be separated from that wheat. Some of the vocals are generally harmless, the lyrics forgettable and this is probably their 15 minutes of fame, for singers like Dick Robertson. The Boswell Sisters are another matter however and I liked this material. In fact I found myself humming some of the tunes, such as You'll Never Get to Heaven That Way. Oh, his description of saxophonist Bennie Krueger is priceless, LOL funny. On some of these less than memorable tunes, Berigan and Jimmy Dorsey on clarinet stand out, in my opinion.

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Ah, my little Bunny arrived tonight, just in time for the drive into work tomorrow. Am I the only one who likes vocals with his jazz? Sure is a lot of complaining about the Bunny set before anyone has said he actually listened to it. A few overlaps? I can deal with it.

Just got my set....YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! :)

Clandy, I like vocals very much, I can take most vocals, but I know a lot of jazz fans really chafe at the chaff when they hear the vocals, and some are not going to like those early tracks...I want people to get this set, but they have to know that singing was so very different back then, and you really learn to love someone who could sing in a timeless way...have had to paint all day, so only got to hear the first disc...some poor vocals IMO, and Bunny doesn't get to do much till around track 8 , then it really picks up, and I have never been so glad to hear the Boswell sisters in all my life! :wub: Also, very glad that I am hearing records I don't have, I glanced at the song titles more than the actual groups, so tracks like the very first one,(When I take my Sugar to Tea) are not the Boswells, but some other anonymous group....

So, it sounds like others are ahead of me, what is the 411???

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It is unrealistic to expect every track to be a masterpiece. Some songs can have corny lyrics or forgettable melodies, but I like to listen carefully-not just for Bunny (or any other instrumentalist's part) but for the entire context. The historical development of jazz over time interests me, and I am not put off by the styles of the times. It is fun to hear Bunny in 1931 and listen to his development over the years, and I have no problem doing that even when he plays second fiddle to ordinary singers of the day. This is what he was doing then and I want to hear it that way. Extra bonuses appear when his solo is a stunner or you can hear the amazing Boswells or someone else that blows you away. I only heard about the first 7 or 8 tracks of disc 1 this morning, but I have no complaints-it is music of the early 1930s and representative of what white bands were doing. As PD once said, you are only disappointed in a new cd when you don't know what to expect from the artist and what you hear isn't what you expected.

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Now I know why Bunny started drinking so much...he had to comp behind some of the worst Depression era songs ever written. I thought I had heard most of the bad ones, but disc 1 digs up some new ones for me. The thud you hear is me falling off that high horse. Mnytime is, unfortunately, right-lot of crappy vocals.

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