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J.A.W.
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Posts posted by J.A.W.
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It's been said several times before, but here goes again: according to Michael Cuscuna Mosaic can't get permission from the rights holders to offer downloads.
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1 hour ago, ghost of miles said:
Well, geez, just don't pre-order it then, right?! I mean, if this set doesn't come to pass, I'm not going to be sitting around thinking, "Damn, if just a few more of the Big O guys had put in an order, it coulda been a contendah..." I'll make do with the fifty million other things I have to listen to. Would it have been preferable if they had announced this first, instead of the standard Mosaic roll-out that was followed only a couple of days later by this qualifying email? I can understand a sense of grievance about that, perhaps, but not so much that they're looking to gauge bottom-line interest in new sets before moving forward with them. I'm surprised they didn't start doing this sooner, actually. But maybe I'm an easy mark; I paid a year in advance for the Smithsonian's forthcoming hiphop anthology when they put it up on Kickstarter last year (and I gotta believe the Smithsonian has more resources than Mosaic, which, whatever its lingering ties to EMI or any other corporate entity, is pretty much a mom-and-pop biz run by three people these days). I have no problem with Mosaic doing this if it's necessary to sustain the production of new sets.
(Just noticed btw that I paid only $100 to get the Smithsonian box, and it's listing for $159 by street date, $139 pre-order... so I actually saved some money as well through contributing to the Kickstarter campaign. I passed on any of the various bells and whistles they offered for higher pledge levels; just give me the box set, dammit. But glad that they did it that way if that's what it took to make the set possible.)
Agreed. By the way, as I understand it Mosaic is now partly owned by Universal, who own the non-classical division of EMI.
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1 hour ago, Brad said:
I don’t understand how you can be pissed off when you know why they’re doing it this way. If there isn’t demand, it obviously wouldn’t make economic sense for them to make it. Moreover, your card won’t be charged at this time.
1 hour ago, mjzee said:Doesn't seem to me like a shakedown; it does seem a logical way to gauge whether the set will sell. Contrast this to what the Grateful Dead do: They announce a box set six months in advance, take orders and immediately charge the card. In effect, the advance orders pay the costs of producing the set. I wouldn't blame Mosaic for taking that approach, because it would be less money out of pocket for them.
1 hour ago, ghost of miles said:Yeah, it strikes me as more of a quasi-Kickstarter approach--understandable, given the way things have gone for the past few years. I'll definitely call in a pre-order today.
59 minutes ago, king ubu said:Kind of going the crowdfunding route ... fine with me if it helps them go on!
58 minutes ago, Rooster_Ties said:Exactly. This is Kickstarter, without Kickstarter taking a cut. Seem perfectly reasonable to me, and (genuinely) not at all like a 'shakedown'.
I'd pre-order that Bill Barron set later this afternoon, if given half a chance. (Or any of a dozen other sets I could imagine.) Still, of course, there will be other sets I'd be less inclined to jump on immediately (even if I might later decide to get them).
These last 10-15 years, my usual modus operandi was to wait until something I really wanted was about to go out of print (got to 'running low'), and then I'd buy every single Mosaic set that I could fathom wanting all in one big batch (to save on shipping) -- so like every 3-4 years, I'd put in these massive $350-$450 orders (I think once I did top $500 even). Then I wouldn't spend another dime until something else I wanted was about to go OOP, which usually took another 3-4 years.
Well, if I gotta change my habits -- and my pre-order will only (help) make or break the existence of a set even coming into fruition (even if it means I have to pay more shipping as a result) -- then I'm fine with that, and glad to vote with my $$$ when my interest is sufficiently piqued.
I agree with the quoted posts. However, while I fully understand the route chosen by Mosaic for this and maybe all their future projects I'm afraid the availability of new sets from Jazz Messengers in Barcelona, Spain, will be hit, since they (JM) do not pre-order sets - or so they told me. Importing Mosaics directly keeps getting more expensive by the day for customers in the EU, with import charges and all that - well, maybe that's a bit exaggerated, but cheap it isn't and getting the sets from JM is a lot easier and often cheaper.
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2 hours ago, paul secor said:
Any duplication with the Canadian Forte 2CD-set, Louis with Fletcher Henderson-The Complete Recordings Including All Alternate Takes 1924-1925?
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The classical divisions of the big labels (owned by Universal, Sony or Warner) seem to be concentrating on reissuing their back catalogues in mega CD boxes for a relatively low price per disc - low cost, reasonable returns; as I said above I've been told that these boxes are selling well. New classical releases are mostly made available on CD (and often also as downloads) by small, specialized and mostly independent labels that seem to do OK.
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I don't lurk here as often as I used to and just saw this topic. I guess you guys are talking about non-classical releases. Though Classical is and has always been a niche market with relatively low sales, there are still lots of CD releases and reissues; as I've been told big, relatively cheap limited-edition CD boxes are selling pretty well and some went OOP fairly soon, with ridiculously high asking prices on used markets like Amazon's. My point is that I don't think the CD format will disappear from the classical market anytime soon, even though audiophile stores like Elusive Disc, Music Direct and Acoustic Sounds are heavily promoting downloads and classical LP reissues, the latter mostly for insanely high prices.
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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.
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He should have been awarded the Nobel.
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54 minutes ago, David Ayers said:
Mosaic don’t own the music. They can’t reissue anything.
Well, unless a license would be renewed, but, as I said above, they pledged not to reissue any of their OOP sets.
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5 minutes ago, sidewinder said:
I think the chance of them doing re-pressings of those earlier sets are about the same as me setting foot on Mars. Not going to happen IMO..
Not in a million years. People seem to forget that they pledged never to re-release sets once they're OOP.
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24 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:
What's the story with the Ahmad Jamal Trio LP on Epic? Did this predate the Argo period? How many albums were there on Epic?
His Epic recordings do indeed partially predate the Argo period. Sony released The Legendary OKeh and Epic Recordings on CD in 2005 with his 1951-1952 and 1955 recordings.
Forgot to mention that Epic released 2 albums with the same title, Ahmad Jamal Trio, LN-3212 (mono) in 1956 and LN-3631 (mono)/BN-634 (stereo) in 1959.
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Those overseas DHL rates are insanely high, about twice what USPS charges, and their handling fees are also very steep. Not that the Dutch Postal Service is cheap, though, their handling fee is 13 euros per parcel on top of the tax/duty that is payable. It's one of the reasons I usually order my Mosaics from Jazz Messengers these days, they may not be cheaper in the end, but at least there's no hassle at the door on delivery. Unfortunately, they didn't know if they would get the now deleted Bee Hive set again, so I had to order that one directly from Mosaic. We'll see how that goes.
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2 hours ago, Kevin Bresnahan said:
There was a big problem at a CD pressing plant. I believe that the pressing plant closed and they threw out the CD stampers, making it expensive for Mosaic to re-press certain titles as they would have to re-cut CD masters at another plant. I know that the Stuff Smith set got caught up in this but I don't about any other titles.
Several Select sets were hit by this and became instantly unavailable. However, it is my understanding that the Stuff Smith set was taken off the market because its license was revoked by Verve, not because of the stampers problem, that happened much later; the Smith set disappeared long before the sets whose stampers were thrown out.
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4 minutes ago, Brad said:
Not to be argumentative but the point I was trying to make was that what makes Mosaics special are the book and the box (not to mention the music) and you would lose that with downloads (if downloads were an option).
Totally agreed.
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14 minutes ago, Brad said:
So much part of the Mosaic mystique is the box and the book that I'm not sure they would issue sets as downloads only (if they could do so).
As far as I know they thought about it, but since no rights holders would allow it it's irrelevant.
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4 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:
(or else Mosaic would reasonably have opted to go the download route long ago
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Except that they can't get permission for downloads from the owners of the rights.
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This is a really good compilation if the 2 big and excellent Bear Family CD-sets are too much of a good thing - it does have the hits, though:
Heartaches and Harmonies 4CD-set (Rhino)
The BF box Paul Secor mentioned, Classic Everly Brothers, is an excellent overview of their Cadence material.
These are the 2 BF boxes I was referring to:
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23 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:
I am wondering about the significance of this. Is it just describing the new necessity of soliciting pre-orders before dumping liquid assets into a re-order, or is this an indication of a pending change - a significant one - in the business model.
Maybe Michael is stepping away or less involved because Mosaic is becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Universal? If Universal became majority shareholder it might at least indicate a respect for the legacy value of the name and that they might keep it alive?
If Mosaic is (going to be) wholly owned by Universal it might become difficult for them to get licensing agreements for recordings that are not owned by Universal. I don't think Sony or Warner will be eager to license stuff to the competition.
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55 minutes ago, mjzee said:
BTW, did anyone notice the email address it came from? Mosaic@capitol.umusic-mail.com
Which means they're now also part of the Universal empire, or at least partially.
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1 hour ago, medjuck said:
Just got an e-mail saying that it won't ship till mid-May. Gave sone reasons re: "approvals" that I really didn't understand. By then I should be able to have listened to the Teddy Wilson set for the 3 or four times which I think it deserves.
They always have to get approval from the owners of the rights on all sorts of things before they can release a set and apparently this time it was more difficult. This is the e-mail from Mosaic:
"We would like to thank you for the preorder for this important historical set. We also want to thank you for your patience.
The approval process for this set is not our usual process and it has taken longer than anticipated. We do have final approval on all the print components and they are being shipped to the CD manufacturer. This will take about two - three weeks to manufacture. After receipt in our warehouse, the sets will be collated and that adds another week. Therefore the process will take about 4 weeks and we expect to ship mid-May." -
3 minutes ago, Chuck Nessa said:
Hip-0 offered an mp3 download for the erroneous track. Why not a corrected disc?
I guess too much hassle and unprofitable. I already had the right track on another CD.
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29 minutes ago, Chuck Nessa said:
And include one wrong track, which Mosaic corrected IIRC.
Yes, a live version instead of the original studio recording, if memory serves.
2 minutes ago, Brad said:Thanks to you both. I will probably opt for the Hip-O one, which I never purchased.
Whatever you choose, the music is great. Getz in his prime in my opinion.
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46 minutes ago, Brad said:
Thanks Hans. Although I haven't done an exhaustive comparison, it seems that the Mosaic has a bit more albums.
Don't forget that the Mosaic 4LP-set only has the tracks that were recorded within the 1953-1954 time frame, while the (OOP) Hip-O 3CD-set has all the tracks from 1952-1955.
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2 hours ago, Brad said:
This is the one released on HipO on CD, right?
The Hip-O CD-set includes the albums:
– Stan Getz Plays
– The Artistry of Stan Getz
– Interpretations (partly reissued on More West Coast Jazz)
– Interpretations #2 (partly reissued on More West Coast Jazz)
– Interpretations #3
Aretha Franklin, RIP
in Artists
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Just heard that Aretha has died. She was one of my favourite soul singers in the late 1960s/early 1970s.