David Ayers

The Mosaic website states that the transfers were made from the metal parts or from 'vinyl test pressings'. Is this a slip of the pen, or were test pressings indeed made from vinyl (even though the trade issues would not be)? Anyone know?

Interesting to learn why so many sets come out at 7 CDs. For UK buyers, unless the exchange rate is freakishly favorable (as it was for some months last year) it is 6 CDs which come under the customs radar. The 7 CD sets trigger tax/duty and 'handling' charges. I was considering ordering, one at a time, each of the 7 CD sets I didn't have last year when the exchange rate was really working for us here in the UK. I missed the boat and I might now be waiting some time...

This board has let itself down badly. If you go back to the offending thread you'll see it hasn't stopped yet. How about four-week suspensions for the playground bullies?

This is a new board low, though sadly not out of character.

Jon Hassell converted me to free jazz - by accident. Back in the day I bought a copy of the Earthquake Island LP, since I knew Hassell from his work with Eno on Possible Musics and I knew Eno from his work with Fripp and Bowie (pay attention here). That LP was shaped like a bowl you could have kept your petunias in it with enough water for a week so I returned it (in any case I don't rate it) and picked up a copy of James Blood Ulmer's Freelancing which I had just seen slated in Black Echoes as over-intellectual. I thought I'd give it a chance. I was quite taken and worked my way back through the Ulmer catalog in reverse, until I got to Tales of Captain Black with Ornette. Some of the best-recorded Ornette, probably, and maybe some of his most carefully phrased playing? I dunno but from there on out it was free jazz for me. Oh the other Hassell LP I picked up at the same time (1981 being the year) was Dream Theory in Malaya (has there evere been a better album title?). My favorite I guess. It was some years before Hassell did another one and by then I'd moved on. I've caught up since but don't honestly find much aesthetically different in the more recent works to the early ones which of course had all the magic of originality and mystery in those days. Apologies to bev for any copyright infringement on nostalgic LP narratives!

Happy Birthday! I think we should have a treasure hunt for your birthday. You tell us the five CDs you would most like to own but have *never* been able to find and using our internet sleuthing skills we will track them down for you (uh, and agree not to snap them up first....). Hm. OK there may be a flaw...

Well, it was issued in the US on the Complete 50s Conn, there are two Japanese issues in print [TOCJ 1517 and TOCJ 9581], and there's a double 45 LP for the ultra fussy.

http://www.hmv.co.jp/en/product/detail/3641092

Well, CD caught on, but.... Of all formats the one bound to vanish soonest and leaving no trace is the download - try dropping your (worthless) stack of these in the charity store...

I suppose once you invest $100,000+ in hi-fi even those RVGs might come out sounding not all that bad...

In the UK we mostly use these to solve our vinyl storage problems:

Well yeah a serious point there, and not just regarding the technology which is only a matter of time, I should have thought, but more to the point - in these days of multi-channel multi-media multi-platform entertainment avalanche am I really alone in just wanting to SHUT EVERYTHING OUT? Why would I want MORE? What is MORE than EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME?

Um, not just to a new generation. I want to listen to music, not 'own' it. And as I keep saying, when the Lord of the Rings Trilogy retails in store for £10 ($15) there is something wrong with the price point for a CD of forty minutes of music recorded 20 or 40 years ago.

Thanks for the update. Thought these might be cheaper...

My two most recent acquisitions are both in a way accidental but turn out to be sets to live with, in different ways. One is the Jack Johnson set which I thought I wouldn't care for (based on Spotify listenings and based on never having liked the original LP). Actually I still don't care much for the LP, nor do I care for all the Hermeto Pascal material, but the other chunks please me greatly and to my great surprise I find myself coming back and back to them. My other is of course the now famously OOP Sony Ellington. Great music, great mastering, just 4 CDs of amazing invention. That lot cost me about $25 all-in. Now that's what I call music!

Cool, since that's where I'm gonna be!

I'll add that I scored this set on CD and it has gone straight to the top of the pile. This is one of the best box sets ever and an incredible bargain to boot. If it comes back, or is you see one around, don't think,jump.

Muchas gracias! Come diciamo noi italiani...

I'm going to be in Rome this week. Anyone recommend any gigs or record shops? Also, where and what are the best (Italian-language) bookshops? I used to live in Roma but I'm a bit out of touch...

Ha ha. Here's what I don't get. These so-called Andorran labels (and indeed others) issue material which is still in European copyright owned among others by EMI, Sony/BMG, Warner and Universal. This material is distributed throughout Europe and sold by respectable retailers. I'm not talking here about material out of European copyright, or about bootlegs or anything else. Is it really the case that these large companies can take no actions to defend their own copyrights? Can Universal do nothing about Lonehill's Illinois Jacquet and Johnny Hodges issues? Were Warner unable to act against Gambit's Paul Desmond issue? Do Sony/BMG have nothing to say about Lonehill's J.J. Johnson? Do none of these companies at least feel inclined to drop a line to amazon to ask them to quit stocking them? The boots and out-of-copyright issues are an unrelated matter. Here the question is in-copyright material where the owner is a large company which appears otherwise able to police its rights. The usual bluster aside, does anyone have any facts on this?

Evidence?

and denies Bertha some royalties. Denies the copyright owners revenue you mean? This stuff is mainly owned by Concord, I think. I guess if they thought their copyrights were being infringed they might say so or even do something about it. Large companies often license recordings to smaller outfits for a very small fee. Isn't that the case here?

That Gambit set pulls together a lot of material - it's quite intriguing.

Well I'll buy them if you don't want them...

FWIW I scored one of these for about $10 inc. shipping. Last one on sale just about worldwide as far as I could see! If this has, as I think, been pulled, for whatever reason, it is a great pity. At $10 this set could reach a lot of folks: if it comes back as a $200 10 CD purchase later on only the most committed will hear it. Uhh... that might be me though - the 4 CD digest of this period is pretty darn good...