J.A.W.

You're taking away the pressure for me to feel I need to buy this set now. This is no fun. If you want some real good music, you need to buy this set now!

Mosaic's Scott just told me there are now 172 J.J. Johnson sets left; they will probably order another batch after that number dwindles down. It will last well into 2005.

Just get the Mosaic set before it's too late...

I never found the Beatles very infectious or inspiring. I like BFS just for the song selection, which, like I said, is a nice acknowledgement of their influences. Actually, I've never really been a B fan...

Beatles for Sale is one of my favorite B albums; it's a nice acknowledgement of their influences.

Yes it will! The booklet couldn't be changed (for contractual reasons), but the new boxes will include this special foldable reading device

There are lots of Beatles songs I don't like or that leave me cold, but I really hate "Yesterday", "Michelle", "Yellow Submarine", "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" (talking about stupid lyrics), and "Lady Madonna". Just my $0.02...

Yep, I know. I just posted this separately to point out the "running very low status" of the set to those who still didn't pick it up... Man, I figured as much. I don't recall seeing a recent stand-alone thread for the T/K/M box. I thought, if anybody is looking for information about the T/K/M box, whether to buy it or not... they can check THIS thread and THE OTHER thread. I've enjoyed my Tristano/Konitz box very much. Get it while you can. Excellent advice! The T/K/M and the J.J. Johnson sets are two of my favorite Mosaics.

Yep, I know. I just posted this separately to point out the "running very low status" of the set to those who still didn't pick it up...

I just heard from Mosaic's Scott that they have about 50 sets left.

I just posted this in the "Running low..." thread.

I asked Mosaic's Scott a few minutes ago how many Wynton Kelly / Paul Chambers Vee Jay, Lee Morgan / Wayne Shorter Vee Jay, Tristano / Konitz / Marsh Atlantic, and Teddy Wilson Verve sets are left. He told me they still have plenty of the Vee Jay sets; he confirmed that they were not able to reprint them after the New Year. They also have plenty of the Teddy Wilson till the end of the year when it will also go OOP. As for the Tristano they have about 50 copies left.

The Bix and Tram remastering seems to have been "borrowed" from Mosaic and the Louis Jordan remastering from Bear Family. Here's a quote from a post by "Montgomery Cleft" on a blues board (I posted the link above) regarding JSP: JSP is a strange label. They used to do original transfers of prewar blues and jazz (with a focus on the latter), and the remastering was done by the great John RT Davies. Their Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Django Reinhardt sets sound excellent and are extremely cheap. They dabbled in blues, and their Sleepy John Estes and Cannon Jug Stompers stuff is also great. But then they became more or a less a bootleg company. They steal other people's transfers (some lawsuits ensued) and release them in ugly boxes for great prices. Since the lawsuits, they generally do some EQ work on other people's transfers in order to make them somewhat different. Despite the legal issues, it's hard to pass up the Carter Family sets that can be bought for a fraction of the price of the Bear Family, or the Charley Patton set which is about a 125 dollars cheaper than the Revenant (but every Charley Patton fanatic must buy the Revenant--the sound is better without JSP's EQing, and the liner notes, lyrics, etc. are essential. The Revenant set is a dream come true for Patton fanatics). But their more recent box sets, of Lemon, McTell, etc. seem to come from various sources, basically from whatever they can get their hands on. The sound quality, then, differs from track to track, and the EQing they do often makes things worse. I've found their very recent reissues to sound muddy and extremely inconsistent. On the other hand, the price is right, and they almost always do complete works (though some of their "complete" sets have several notable omissions).

Sure, no doubt about it.

...and many happy returns!

This is one of the best sets Mosaic ever put out, with excellent sound. Highly recommended!

Ray Mizutani (Mundo) is probably right.

According to AMG: The Prophetic Herbie Nichols, Vol.1 1. Dance Line (Nichols) 2. Step Tempest (Nichols) 3. The Third World (Nichols) 4. Blue Chopsticks (Nichols) 5. Double Exposure (Nichols) 6. Cro-Magnon Nights (Nichols) The Prophetic Herbie Nichols, Vol.2 1. Brass Rings (Nichols) 2. Crisp Day (Nichols) 3. 2300 Skiddoo (Nichols) 4. Amoeba's Dance (Nichols) 5. It Didn't Happen (Nichols) 6. Shuffle Montgomery (Nichols)

Brad, I was told by a few U.K. sources that they did use remasterings that were done by other labels. Unfortunately I'm not in a position to verify these allegations, which is why I used the word "rumors", but what I was told was actually a bit stronger than that. Anyway, I choose not to buy CDs from labels that are vague at best about the origins of their remasterings. I prefer labels that do their own remastering jobs (Mosaic, Bear Family, Yazoo, County, and the like) and I'm happy to pay extra for that.

You're absolutely right, Céline was indeed a despicable character. As for "Journey to the End of the Night", I also plead guilty... I have the edition with the wonderful illustrations by Jacques Tardi. Not to be missed.

The latter. I don't want to support labels that "borrow" remasterings, and, like I said, it is rumored that Proper is doing just that.

I pointed out to the seller that his description was misleading, and he cancelled the auction.

I simply don't like the Proper set (I should have said so in my post instead of advising against it). Besides, it's one of those labels that are rumored to have "borrowed" remasterings by others, but I don't know if that's true.

My advice would be to get the Mosaic and forget about the Proper.

They would have sold one more (to me) if the Gilmore stuff was restored. Same here.