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Longevity of the Hank Mobley Mosaic.


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Like many others I had most of the LPs and was a bit put off from buying the Mosaic set as a result, also because of the uncharacteristic sound of Milt's vibes on the All Stars session.   (Perhaps I should explain; I am a vibes player - heavily influenced by Milt - and his fast vibrato on this session is truly awful.   I couldn't understand why he didn't slow it down and get his normal soulful sound but this became clear when I got the Mosaic and the notes explained he was using a borrowed set of vibes!   Presumably these vibes only had a one speed motor but I'm surprised that he didn't turn it off completely as the sound would have been far better - mind you, I remember Milt turned down playing with Shearing's quintet because George wanted him to play without any vibrato!).   Anyway, it's a great set overall and I too am surprised it didn't sell out long ago.

Ken.

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6 hours ago, grooveyard said:

 I couldn't understand why he didn't slow it down and get his normal soulful sound but this became clear when I got the Mosaic and the notes explained he was using a borrowed set of vibes!  

This info was in the liner notes of this two-fer, which is how I first heard the session:

210365.jpg

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I love this set but if everything else was equal it would be in my opinion the early 1960s dates Roll Call, Workout etc that merited the Rolls royce treatment of a box set. I was delighted when this set appeared as the Japanese reissues Kevin referred to were not widely available in my neck of the woods.

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13 hours ago, Clunky said:

I love this set but if everything else was equal it would be in my opinion the early 1960s dates Roll Call, Workout etc that merited the Rolls royce treatment of a box set.

IIRC there was the idea of a Mosaic box with all of Mobley's Blue Notes with Wynton Kelly, but these were all reissued on single CDs and we got the 1950's box - fair enough, as all other Mobley Blue Notes were reissued, too. IMHO they are all worth hearing.

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2 hours ago, sidewinder said:

Wasn’t there talk at one time of a big box with all of Mobley’s 60s sessions in it ?

Probably just a wild rumour !

If I remember correctly Michael Cuscuna said a 1960s Mobley set wasn't viable because all the sessions were available individually at the time, which wasn't the case with the 1950s set when that one came out (1998), at least not outside Japan.

Edited by J.A.W.
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52 minutes ago, J.A.W. said:

If I remember correctly Michael Cuscuna said a 1960s Mobley set wasn't viable because all the sessions were available individually at the time, which wasn't the case with the 1950s set when that one came out (1998), at least not outside Japan.

that's what i recall too. We can be thankful that MC managed to get every Hank session reissued and at a price/availability that meant it could be widely enjoyed.

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If only Mosaic had let it slip that they were working on this box, they would have saved me some money and earned themselves another sale. I'm a huge fan of Mobley's music so when the Japanese started reissuing these dates, I paid big bucks to import them all. Big bucks that I would have gladly sent Mosaic's way if I only knew.

This was one time when Mosaic's secrecy backfired on them - with me at least.

Oh, and I have to add that I did buy the Mosaic later anyway, just so I could read the booklet and to see if the sound was better than what i had. After I compared the sound, I preferred the Japanese CDs so I eventually sold the Mosaic. What I should have done was ordered the LP set. Then I'd still have this box & booklet. :)

Edited by Kevin Bresnahan
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What were typical sales for something like a Blue Note Mobley LP back in the 50's/60's?  I remember reading that Tina Brooks' "True Blue" sold under 1000 copies when it came out back then, but can't verify that.

Edited by felser
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