Popkin

I was mostly wondering about the variation in sound quality. For example, for those of you who own the relevant Mosaic sets, would you say that the Here's Lee Morgan and Introducing Wayne Shorter sessions sound significantly better than the Second Genesis and Kelly great sessions?

Since this discussion a couple of years ago, I've since picked up most of the albums included on the Shorter/Morgan and Chambers/Kelly Mosaic sets. I went with the Blue Moon Reissues and I find the sound really hit and miss. For instance, Here's Lee Morgan, Expoobident, and Introducing Wayne Shorter all sound pretty great. But Second Genesis sounds pretty bad, and Kelly Great sounds terrible. Does anyone know if there are serious variations with respect to the sound of the original recordings? Is this variability of sound quality present on the Mosaic boxes?

Well, I guess all this means I can't expect too much from any remasters of Coltrane's Atlantic albums. I plan to follow J.A.W.'s advice and avoid the digipak reissues on Rhino. Does anyone have anything negative to say about the "Atlantic Masters" series?

I've been thinking about upgrading my Coltrane Atlantic albums--I've got what I believe are the original cd reissues, from the late 80s I assume (given the blurb on the back of the booklet explaining what compact discs are and how to handle, store and clean them), with no bonus tracks for the most part. There seem to have been a number of different reissues since, and I'm wondering if anyone thinks there's any appreciable difference between them. In particular I was leaning towards the "deluxe" editions from the late 90s in the grey sleeves or the more recent "Atlantic Masters" with the red and black spine. (Generally speaking, I get the impression that the recording quality of Coltrane's albums suffered quite a bit when he signed with Atlantic and stopped recording at the Van Gelder studio. Compared to the earlier Prestige albums and the later Impulse albums, they seem to sound pretty bad. I've always found that puzzling--didn't Atlantic have quite a bit of money?)

There appears to be a new OJC Remasters series. Some info from the Concord site: An extension of the popular Original Jazz Classics series (est. 1982), the new OJC Remasters releases reveal the sonic benefits of 24-bit remastering-a technology that didn't exist when these titles were originally issued on compact disc. The addition of newly-written liner notes further enhances the illuminating quality of the OJC Remasters reissues. "Each of the recordings in this series is an all-time jazz classic," says Nick Phillips, Vice President of Jazz and Catalog A&R at Concord Music Group and producer of the series. "With these reissues, we get a fresh look and a new perspective on these artists and some of their most important work-not only from the meticulous 24-bit remastering by Joe Tarantino, but also from the insights we glean from the new liner notes that have been written for each title in the series." Here's a page listing the upcoming titles: http://www.concordmusicgroup.com/genres/releases_all/jazz/upcoming/ What's the deal with this? Why introduce another reissue series in addition to RVG and Keepnews?

It's not as good as Workout but there's some great stuff on there. One minor problem I have listening to it though is that Mobley recorded different versions of Gettin' and Jettin' and Hank's Other Soul on his '63 session with Herbie Hancock. That happens to be my all-time favourite Mobley session and I listen to it all the time, so when I recently heard Another Workout those old versions of the songs sounded a bit 'off' or 'wrong.'

I would have thought John Gilmore never really composed much.

Didn't Art Farmer write a bit? For example: Farmer’s Market Stupendous-Lee Pre Amp Mox Nix Rue Prevail Punsu Kayin’ Homecoming Ditty Maybe that's not much relative to the number of recordings he's made. . . . and don't most of Red Garland's Prestige albums feature a Garland composition?

I think the choir just takes some getting used to; once you get used to it, it's a great album. There's some really fantastic writing: Two Lullabies is, without question, one of my all-time favourite Hill songs. I agree with Joe that the second (unreleased at the time) session is much better that the first. Blue Spark, A Tender Tale are both great. Plus Natural Spirit has to be one of the purely catchiest things Hill ever wrote . . . if there's any problem with these sessions, it's not the choir, but the rest of the band. Specifically, I remember a fair bit of sloppiness out of the drummers.

Assuming that "standard" just means performed and recorded a lot, are you really suggesting that jazz musicians shouldn't be playing and recording Mobley's songs (or Monk's or Davis's or any others written after 1950)?

I certainly wasn't suggesting that the songs in question required "validation" by being played by others.

From looking at Allmusic.com and searching on Youtube I've come to the conclusion that the Mobley tunes that jazz musicians most like to play and record nowadays are: This I Dig of You Dig Dis Funk in Deep Freeze However, by far my favourite Mobley tunes are: Ultramarine East of the Village High Modes (which Mobley never recorded personally, as far as I know) I'm wondering what makes the first three songs such popular choices for musicians and why hardly anyone's playing my favourites. Also, are there other more egregious examples of Mobley tunes being ignored?

Thanks for checking. Looks like my copy is indeed extraordinarily valuable. Would anyone like to give me outrageous amounts of money for it?

The recent Criterion Collection edition of the film also has some really interesting special features concerning the recording.

I picked up the Mosaic on Ebay right after it went out of print, and I enjoyed it a lot. The albums with Stanley Turrentine are particularly great. Speakin' My Piece is an absolute classic.