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Mosaics you’re still on the hunt for


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  • 4 months later...
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The Mosaic was 4 discs, but would have fit on three.  That was my first-ever complaint about Mosaic apart from their LP-only issues in the early days.  You can get the entire Mosaic set contents except for 3 cuts by buying the 2CD Blue Note "Complete Quartets with Sonny Clark" set and the "Born to Be Blue" CD.  The three missing cuts are easy to cover, .  "Count Every Star" is on Ike Quebec's "Blue and Sentimental" album, and the latinish "Grenada" and "Hey There" are bonus cuts on Green's "The Latin Bit" CD.  And those two cuts are total musical outliers on the Mosaic set.   So you can save a good bit of $ and get the same music in what I consider a more pleasing form by skipping the Mosaic and buying the other three titles, but I do understand collecting :).  I know this info well because I went through the exercise of replacing my Green-Clark Mosaic when the 2CD Blue Note set came out in the late 90's.  That being said, the music on that Mosaic was a revelation when I bought it upon release in 1990.

Edited by felser
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I bought the Mosaic in '92 or so. I did compare the Blue Note set to the Mosaic and I've kept the Mosaic because I thought it sounded better. Took the 75th Anniversary releases from Japan on SHM-CD and the releases after that of this material to better the Mosaic sound for me.

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6 hours ago, felser said:

The Mosaic was 4 discs, but would have fit on three.  That was my first-ever complaint about Mosaic apart from their LP-only issues in the early days.  You can get the entire Mosaic set contents except for 3 cuts by buying the 2CD Blue Note "Complete Quartets with Sonny Clark" set and the "Born to Be Blue" CD.  The three missing cuts are easy to cover, .  "Count Every Star" is on Ike Quebec's "Blue and Sentimental" album, and the latinish "Grenada" and "Hey There" are bonus cuts on Green's "The Latin Bit" CD.  And those two cuts are total musical outliers on the Mosaic set.   So you can save a good bit of $ and get the same music in what I consider a more pleasing form by skipping the Mosaic and buying the other three titles, but I do understand collecting :).  I know this info well because I went through the exercise of replacing my Green-Clark Mosaic when the 2CD Blue Note set came out in the late 90's.  That being said, the music on that Mosaic was a revelation when I bought it upon release in 1990.

That's exactly what I did but was unable to make comparisons with the Mosaic set (didn't have it) then upgraded to the Japanese SHM-CD's - all the titles from the Mosaic set have been SHM'd.

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While my attention was concentrated elsewhere I missed the Braxton, Threadgill and Clifford Jordan boxes - all artists I have had professional relationships. When Mosaic was selling "partials" I asked Cuscuna for items from these sets. He responded "THOSE ARE THE TITLES YOU MISSED!" and told me notthing remained. This week I was able to purchase the Braxton here from a member.

One down, two to go.

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  • 2 months later...

The above list of Grant Green with Sonny Clark misses out the two takes of Woody 'N' You from October 27, 1961. These were included on the CD "First Session". For some reason, the session didn't produce anything else that could be issued.

Like Lon, I have the Japanese CDs, issued in the last 7 years, of the other sessions those two recorded. The sound is great on those. This is some of the finest jazz ever recorded. Wonderful stuff.

A few years ago, I found a vinyl set of the Mosaic set of Ed Hall, James Johnson etc. for a very low price. Ed Hall is a favorite of mine on the clarinet, and the Johnson (solo piano) tracks go down well with this Fats Waller fan. Ed played one of those horrible Öhler system clarinets, but sounds fantastic. That system's main difference from the standard Boehm system clarinet in that ooo/oxx produces an F# instead of an F in the middle register (B instead of Bb in the low register). Ugghh. Jimmy Dorsey played one of those, too.

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13 hours ago, Misterioso said:

Gave up hunting and bought a new set from ebay. Hopefully I can forget the price I paid once I listen to the music...

Easily enough done once you get to the magnificent 'Live at the Berliner Jazztage' album.

11 hours ago, danasgoodstuff said:

I had thought in times past that I didn't need the Horace Parlan or Ed Hal/James P./etc. sets, now I think I do...I have my fav parts but still want the rest.  May as well just go for everything on BN up til '71 or so since I's so close.

You go completist in the Liberty and especially UA eras at your own risk...

Image result for lou donaldson cosmos"

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5 hours ago, felser said:

You go completist in the Liberty and especially UA eras at your own risk...

Image result for lou donaldson cosmos"

True, but it's a risk that is sometimes recorded to a certain extent, especially if "serious jazz" is not a deal-breaker.

etc.

Face it - it's Lou Donaldson. At some point long before these records, he had learned to to get the gig, play the gig, and keep the gig. That's what most of his records are, and I'm fine with that. The guy is all about professionalism, and god bless him for that.

He'd have been better off making these type of records with Kudu, but they already had Hank Crawford. AND Grover.

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1 hour ago, JSngry said:

He'd have been better off making these type of records with Kudu, but they already had Hank Crawford. AND Grover.

I'm with you.  And I own and enjoy those Kudu's.  And some of the Esther Phillips titles also.  But to enjoy that style, I need it done really well, and that's not something BN did well.  Those early Grover's OTOH work fine for me, especially Soul Box with all those Motown covers.

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I think they made the music just fine (usually). But George Butler did not know how to produce a record down to a really good mix like Creed Taylor (or for that matter, the Mizells) did. So the records did not really add anything to the music, which is kinda like...don't do that, ok? Just don't do that, if only becuase people will listen to damn near anything once, more than once if it's a hit. But if you want them to listen to it later and later and later, no. You gotta have some combination of good (or better) music and a good (or better) record

But as far as playing...this is just fine, as far as "that type of thing" goes. But here it is all these years later, and what the record does is show that Wade Marcus was not David Van DePitte (but few were), George Butler was for damn sure no Creed Taylor, Lou Donaldson had long ago figured out that no matter what, he could make a record for somebody and get paid well enough to keep on keeping on, and that c'mon people, nobody's asking for greatness all the time, but at least get it right, ok? At least get the motherfucker mixed right enough that you don't have to notice anything else if you don't want to.

George Butler - BOO!

I mean, a good mix, and this would be ok every once in a while or so.

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  • 6 months later...

I missed out on almost all of the Mosaic vinyl box sets :(

At the time, I was just buying the CD box sets.  Now, I'm trying to complete the vinyl box set collection, but they're getting hard to find!  Anybody have any ideas about where I can find mint/near mint condition Mosaic vinyl box sets besides ebay/discogs where the prices can be astronomical!  I don't mind paying more than what they originally cost, but over $300 for some of these box sets is just too much.

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  • 1 year later...

A near-mint copy of the DeFranco-Clark set that I found online last week for less than three figures arrived today... and a friend gifted me his Commodore V. 3 last year, so I think I’m done seeking OOP sets? 🤔😄  Though the Edmond Hall/James Johnson etc tempts me, as does the Green-Clark box—even though I have all or nearly all of the music in those two compilations. 

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14 hours ago, ghost of miles said:

A near-mint copy of the DeFranco-Clark set that I found online last week for less than three figures arrived today... and a friend gifted me his Commodore V. 3 last year, so I think I’m done seeking OOP sets? 🤔😄  Though the Edmond Hall/James Johnson etc tempts me, as does the Green-Clark box—even though I have all or nearly all of the music in those two compilations. 

De Franco-Clark is at the top of my grail list as we speak. Getting it under three figures is a great accomplishment, ghost, well done.

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