David Ayers

And has been for half a year now. It's incredible that it hasn't already sold out, let alone moved into the "Last Chance" category. Well at least no one can complain it disappeared too quickly! This death by a thousand cuts is much better for collectors on a budget planning what and when to spend than the sudden vanishing act of the Morgan/Shorter, Kelly/Chambers and Stuff Smith sets.

You can link to this tribute to Derek Bailey from here. The list of recordings used is here. There are several interview snippets with the likes of Parker, Oxley et al., and the opportunity to hear Derek himself speak. These programs usually only stay up for a week.

I suppose that I'm less keen on Selects for these sort of reasons - the high proportion of content already on CD and often recently or still available. So first-timers are suited, and completists/collectors will go for the few (if any) extra tracks they don't have, but a musical pragmatist like me (with a lot of interests to fund!) finds it hard to pay so much for a few extra tracks. I'm glad this series is a success for the company though, and I can quite see that the big box set market is a tough one - except for the keenest purchasers I wonder how many big boxes most folks actually buy? If you also like classical, the economy classical boxes are bit of a lure these days and also tend to take your mind off the premium product. I think I bought 6 jazz box sets in 2005 and I still haven't got through them all. Most years I don't think I buy so many.

This is the 'album art'. I have one of the disks. Depends how you feel about Sun Ra. To me, one or two solos are impressive, the collective blow-outs are too bombastic and unstructured.

Hey! I missed this! Tod, good to see you!

Nice one! Thanks for posting this.

None of this has stopped an enthusiastic review appearing on amazon.co.uk: ta da!

The Universal Mosaics are real Mosaics in all but serial number. Plainly the deal is to deliver a number of these sets to Verve in lieu of other fees that would otherwise be payable. Mosaic will surely look at the bottom line. Maybe they will sell fewer sets themselves, but they will have lower costs, and if overall sales of the set are greater than might have been expected of a Mosaic-only set then it is all gain. Mosaic can't control the price at which Universal sell, and we should bear in mind that Universal are the copyright holders and that each side in this deal (owners and reissue producers) will be looking at the economics of this arrangement.

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=22334 Thaks for the link. I might have known there was already a 400 post thread on the topic...

Eldridge went for a little over 50 Euros from amazon.de but has recently reverted to full price. I haven't checked jpc who a few weeks ago had it for under 60 euros.

Thanks Guys - good tips. I'll start with the WD 40. I've never seen Goo Gone though I can see that might do the trick!

(1) these are the Universal, US made Mosaics (2) so far there have been five: Mulligan, Farlow, Jazztet, Eldridge, Basie

So often that strip leaves gum on the CD case and turns it into a mess. I've tried white spirit which cleans it off but also fogs the CD case. Anyone got any better ideas? Talk about customer unfriendly! They don''t use these strips in Europe.

I note that amazon.de have also increased prices on the other Mosaic bargains to around the 100 euro mark.

Some early Bleys are in poor sound and short measure, though interesting (e.g. the ESPs, the Haarlem). Some, to my mind, lack bite, even (for ME anyway) such praised disks as 12+6 (right title? on Hat) and the reunions with Giuffre. The early stuff with Giuffre is some of the best; the ECM with Parker is good (maybe there is more than one?); the Hillcrest club recordings with Ornette are invaluable but hard to find and in rough sound. Just my opinions, and there's more Bley I haven't heard than I have. Quite a few of his LPs have been and gone in my collection without impressing me too much, though I like Bley and I like the idea of Bley.

Looks like I'm going to be talked out of this one... why is nothing ever easy?

Well done guys! Let's just hope Crazy Jazz can actually locate the stock...

Thanks for posting that. Hmm. I do have some of the material - I'm just trying to work out whether the History box is an in any way tolerable method of filling (big) gaps and then working up from that to better versions of things I actually really want...

Who said life isn't tough? Well, over here we are used to these prices! These really are great records.

Tough one. Let's hope the copyright is with EP and he can do it as part of the Psi series, at some point. I'm pretty sure the Chronoscope won't reappear, though I bet there are copies floating around somewhere. That said, I see that Crazy Jazz still lists this and Monoceros as available in 'limited stocks': 17539 : EVAN PARKER SOLO SOPRANO SAXOPHONE : MONOCEROS - (1978 - LIMITED STOCKS) : CHRONOSCOPE : £12.95 : 07672 : EVAN PARKER SOLO SOPRANO SAXOPHONE : SAXOPHONE SOLOS - (1975 - LIMITED STOCKS) : CHRONOSCOPE : £12.95 :

Thanks guys. This goes for around 40 EUR currently, which sounds about right in terms of your descriptions of it. I'll see if I can slot it into my merciless box set regime!

My first Parker LP. Just wonderful.

Can anyone comment on sound/content/presentation of this bargainous box?

Basie disks 1-1,000,000. This box has NO RIGHT to be so good!

That's right, keep at it. Didn't bother with the Mosaic set as I had a few of the sessions on vinyl Actually the LPs do still turn up from time to time. Maybe I'll go that route. I still wish I'd bought it though, seeing as how I saved so much on the German Mosaic deal.