[Percy France - I SHOULD CARE (1980)]

thanks - will have to check my other machine in the morning -

["Bio-worthy" jazz musicians]

well, I tried to change the subject - did you hear the one about the rabbi, the priest, and the Al Quaida suspect?

["Bio-worthy" jazz musicians]

Hawkins was the man - always changing, always growing - another interesting quote from Barry Harris was that after working with Hawk he felt that he might have romanticized Bud Powell and Charlie Parker too much - because here was a musician who had gone on and listened and kept changing with the music and had produced brilliant work over 5 decades -

[a tiny rant/question on selling Mosaics for profit]

I should never have allowed open-enrollment -

[Nat Cole Mosaic Box]

I used to work for a moil and I collected the left over skins - I made them into a satchel - rub it and it turns into a suitcase -

[a tiny rant/question on selling Mosaics for profit]

so basically they are selling it only because the money is irresistable - not because they need the money, or because it's worth the money, or even because they want to sell it -

class dismissed (that's if anybody is still in attendance) - .

[Coda Magazine]

I do wonder sometimes if things like Coda have a death wish - good little magazine, but in my brief experience they never returned numerous emails or phone calls - I know there were only a few people doing a lot of work, but I've had this experience before with organizations that are so dependent upon the support of a dedicated few and yet who can't seem to get the basics together -

[Nat Cole Mosaic Box]

wait - I just found something under my bed - nah, it's just dust -

[Nat Cole Mosaic Box]

will you take my personal IOU? If I don't pay you in thirty days you can keep the IOU -

[Nat Cole Mosaic Box]

sour grapes? I have some of those too - $50 a pound -

[A stupid CD question about scuffs, scratches, etc.]

best spray for CD and CDR scratches: Optrix - I got it from North Country Audio -

[Nat Cole Mosaic Box]

Sorry - I don't actually have the box, but somewhere I have a Mosaic catalog that mentions it - or maybe it's a copy of a jazz magazine that mentions the Mosaic catalog - or maybe it's a copy of a jazz advertisment that mentions a magazine that once reviewed a Nat Cole record that might be in the box - well, whatever, send me $500 and I'll send something back that maybe has to do with someone who once listened to a Nat Cole record - or who at least KNOWS someone who has listened to a Nat Cole record - or maybe it's Natalie Cole - whatever -

[a tiny rant/question on selling Mosaics for profit]

and they're worth every penny - literally -

[a tiny rant/question on selling Mosaics for profit]

now wait a minute - I just thought of something - the SUPPLY of jazz is HUGE - I mean, everybody and his brother has got a CD out, there's musicians in every town, big bands, small bands, high schools, colleges, here there and everywhere, there's web sites, magazines, Amazon, jazz clubs, you name it, in the US, in Europe, in Eastern Europe - but the DEMAND is small - look at the industry numbers, the percentage of jazz releases sold - so the PRICES should be excessively low - and that guy should be GIVING that Nat Cole box away -

class dimissed -

[Coda Magazine]

I dunno - according to the guys on another thread this is all according to the law of supply and demand -

[Ray Charles]

the early stuff is on Swingtime, which did put out a boxed set some years ago that had a fair amount of Charles - there are also some Charley-issued CDs that are OK -

[a tiny rant/question on selling Mosaics for profit]

your mother sows socks that smell -

[a tiny rant/question on selling Mosaics for profit]

I understand, but I think that what the oil companies do does not conform with those laws - it subverts, inverts, and perverts them - we'll have to pull John Kenneth Galbreath in here -

[A stupid CD question about scuffs, scratches, etc.]

I have lots of old CDs with many scuffs - never had a problem playing them -

[a tiny rant/question on selling Mosaics for profit]

well, now my head is spinning, and that's not a pretty sight - when it comes to energy prices, I will say, if you think it has anything to do with the market and supply and demand than you haven't lived through the last 40 years of oil company lies and profiteering - basically what happens is that the companies (which control ALL ends of the market - it's called vertical integration) invent fake shortages, wait until the prices go up and stay stable, and than say, good, supplies are fine. We can argue this all night and day, but that's the reality. Now, saying that all of this price gouging is inevitable and that there's no solution except natural market selection is like saying, well, crime is inevitable, you just have to let it play out in nature's natural way - B.S., I say. Do we let people rob liquor stores just because shit happerns and it's hard to prevent? No, we pass laws and we regulate. Now, with Mosaic it would be impossible to regulate; it can't be done and it would entail the klind of repressive laws that you and I do not enjoy. So what's left? Buyer rationality; personal ethics. Live by your word. I do - I sell things and I charge a fair price for them and I don't gouge no matter how desparate people are for them (and I think this is confirmed by my recent dealings withpeople on this site). Sell things for whatever you want; get a fair profit; but don't delude yourself into thinking that, in the big world, things run by the rules of economics 101 -

[Japanese reissues, February - April 2005]

I havent heard the Walter Bishop, but I must admit I find much of his later stuff a bit disjointed - it's funny, I worked with him for a few weeks in Hartford in the early 1990s (I think it was) - and at times he could really nail the bebop thing in a beautiful and deep way, at other times he was just a bit out of synch - another older musician lost in trying to sound "contemporary" - wonderful guy, though, and talking to him was the closest I ever got to Bud Powell - -

[a tiny rant/question on selling Mosaics for profit]

all right, I'll leave the economics to the college boys - the somewhat ironic thing in all of this is that I don't own a single Mosiaic - nothing against the label, I just have a mild aversion to boxed sets, and have tended to own most of what they offer in other formats that I purchased earlier. Nothing against the label, as I said, and I knew Charlie Lourie, who was a sweetheart of a guy.

["Bio-worthy" jazz musicians]

this is unfortunate. I remember seeing Don Byas on PBS in the late 1960s - likely that's gone, too -

[a tiny rant/question on selling Mosaics for profit]

now wait a minute - I can't aggree with that -

[a tiny rant/question on selling Mosaics for profit]

From the web:

"The Law of Demand: quantity demanded in inversely proportional to price.

Simply put, the higher the price, the lower the demand and the lower the price, the higher the demand. "

so - look at oil - cold winter - plenty of oil - at a HIGH price - and, what do you know, there's plenty of demand - kind of makes you think there's something out of wack with the law of supply and demand - because there are certain things it does not take into account - like Nat's solo on Body and Soul, which is one of the most perfect things I've ever heard - and which many people may never hear because of the butcheries of late-dynasty capitalism -

very truly yours,

Allen Lowe