Ron S

Caiman comes through for me again. I received my Tal Farlow Mosaic set today. FWIW, I've purchased almost 40 items from them, and I've never failed to receive an item they'd said had shipped.

Sounds like you have it under control.

Hey Ron... Do you remember where you got the "Exclusively for My Friends" box and for how much? I remember looking at it when it came out but it was running for $60 or so in stores.... Can you provide a little more info about those recordings? Band? You said it was live - Where and when? How would you rate it compared to the 1990 Telarc set??? thanks MAN, you ask a lot of questions. The 4 CD's in the box actually cover several sessions recorded from 1963 to 1968. They were recorded for a German record producer in his private studio in his villa, in front of a few invited guests. So, while they're live recordings, there is a very intimate feel to them (as if you had Oscar and friends come play for a few friends in your house). The first 3 discs are all trio performances with, depending on the session, Ray Brown or Sam Jones on bass and Ed Thigpen or Bobby Durham on drums. The fourth disc is just Oscar perfoming solo. I haven't done an A-B comparison of "Exclusively for My Friends" and "Live at the Blue Note," but in general I'd say that "Friends" is a bit more mellow than "Blue Note" and, as I said, it has a more intimate feel. The recording of "Friends" probably doesn't have the immediacy and presence that "Blue Note" has, as you'd expect given the different times in which they were recorded, but it sounds great. I got my copy of "Friends" from . . .[drum roll] . . . CAIMAN! They have it now for $43.43, as does jazzclassicaloperashop (from whom I've also made several purchases and who is EXCELLENT--IMMEDIATE first class shipping with tracking). BTW, speaking of Caiman, the Farlow set was delivered today.

I didn't see anything on the Telarc site about the box being remastered, but the Chicago Tribune review excerpt quoted on the site refers to extra tracks in the box. I haven't compared the tracks in the box to the original single CD's, so I have no idea if there are any extra in the box. And I can't compare the sound since I don't have the original CD's. I, too, have other Oscar Peterson CD's not previously mentioned in this thread, but I guess you have to draw the line somewhere--Oscar's been quite prolific, and apparently is still going strong.

Hey, Man, you didn't have to KICK me down those stairs: I could've walked.

[just kidding ]

So will I.

I have that CD (and recommended it above). It's terrific--the interplay between OP, Ray Brown, and Herb Ellis is phenomenal, and MAN, they really swing. As I said above, I also highly recommend "At the Concertgebouw" and "Live at Zardis" from the same period.

What's the label on that Olympia set, and do you know if it's still in print? (I want to buy it for Allen Lowe for Valentine's Day )

I ordered that box the day it was released from--guess who--CAIMAN. It IS great (and what Allen Lowe neglected to say is that he's never sober anyway and, hence, is quite the OP fan). I enjoyed this box so much I ordered another one--again from CAIMAN--for my father. I'm not ashamed to say I'm a big OP fan. If you don't have it, you should also try his 4-CD box, "Exclusively for My Friends." Those recordings are from the mid-60's, and were made in Germany in front of an intimate gathering--VERY nice. I also love the 50's drummerless trio with Brown and Ellis, including "Live at Zardis," "At the Concertgebouw" and "At the Stratford Shakespearean Festival." Then of course there's "Night Train," . . . . But you didn't ask about all these others, did you?

I think credit cards are charged (regardless of actual availablity at caiman) because Half.com or Amazon.com initiates transcations. I only bought CDs from them once, but when I got a wrong item, they quickly send me a refund. That is correct. Earlier in this thread, I posted a link to Caiman's page explaining how Amazon Marketplace sales work, but I'll post it again here. As I said before, I think a lot of complaints I've seen about Caiman and other Amazon Marketplace sellers (such as about charging credit cards at the time an order is placed) are mistakenly directed at the individual seller, when it's Amazon's system that is the culprit.

You know what it's like to be in each other's shoes?

It has its ups and downs.

Well, I figured I could live without it for an extra 2 or 3 days. Besides, I just got an order of 11 CD's from AllDirect.com to keep me busy for a couple of days. Their free shipping (for orders of $99 or more) is FedEx Ground, which usually gets to me in 2 business days from Nashville.

All Amazon Marketplace orders are normally shipped Media Mail unless you spend extra for a shipping upgrade. My Caiman orders usually take anywhere from 2 to 7 business days to get from Miami to Philly via Media Mail. It's amazing how variable it is. But for $50.58 for a brand-new Tal Farlow set delivered, it's worth the wait.

Shut yo' mouth!

So you can take the train down to Philly to hear it?

Any word on your Tal Farlow set? no Ron.... For some strange reason even though I'm in a major city - the mail kinda gets slow.... Did you get yours??? Same here. Hopefully it will arrive on Monday. They said it shipped last Monday (2/7), but they use USPS Media Mail and that can take forever. Did they say yours shipped?

It's just that, speaking photographically, the weird perspective of the mikes relative to the musicians makes the musicians look like they're Hobbits from "Lord of the Rings." (Not that there's anything WRONG with Hobbits, to quote a famous sitcom about NOTHING).

Any word on your Tal Farlow set?

O/T. Reminds me, I watched The Terminal last night. Hmmmm. Agreed. I watched it on DVD a few weeks ago. Frankly, I was surprised that Spielberg, Hanks, et al would make a film that was so mediocre and contrived. Benny's appearance was definitely the highlight of the film.

A rare event for me.

Sorry, it was a joke. Some of us had a discussion a few days ago about alternate Art Pepper takes.

But sort of weird mike placement, don't you think?

Yeah, Brad, but maybe that's just YOUR copy. They told me your copy would take a little bit longer because they have to put in all those alternate takes. I bet you didn't know that Mosaic has a custom line, where you can specify which alternates you want them to include (e.g., my Pepper Select will have 7 discs). VERY pricey.