crisp

Bev makes valid points, but whether I buy my music disc by disc or by the box, I listen to it disc by disc either way. So I've no problem stockpiling -- and right now it's the cheaper way.

Yes, Warner now owns Parlophone with the exception of the Beatles masters, which are owned by Universal. Warner also owns EMI Classics and Virgin Classics, which have been subsumed into Warner Classics and Erato, and Chrysalis with the exception of the Robbie Williams masters, also owned by Universal. UMG owns most of the rest.

It's what happens when a large company takes over just before the record industry collapses. EMI put out loads of great jazz albums before the digital revolution and EMI was a large company that took over lots of little ones. We had a taste of what Concord was planning with that intual flurry of excellent boxed sets. They can't be blamed for reigning it in when the axe fell -- all the others did too.

All the labels were bad at reissuing at the start of the CD era, but they got much better, while Fantasy stayed the same. It may have been resources, I don't know, but I regret that Fantasy didn't sell out to a bigger company sooner. Their refusal to licence to Mosaic is another irritation.

I don't mean the music was not high quality. Fantasy's treatment of it wasn't. I thought they were a bit cheapjack/shoestring, not like Sony, EMI or Verve. But, yes, at least they put the music out.

By far! Yep, Fantasy was doing some great sets when they sold out to Concord. The 3 Trane boxes, the Davis Quintet, the Stitt, the Evans VV, etc. Beautiful stuff. Concord gives us the "... Plays for Lovers" series. Those were all released after the Concord sale. Excellent sets far superior to anything Fantasy put out. Sadly Concord got cold feet ater an initial flurry of great releases. My summary of the situation would be: Fantasy = quantity but no quality Concord = quality but no quantity. Take your choice!

You are right that record companies like to reshuffle music, but the Evans Riverside was issued by Fantasy, the later issues by the new owner, Concord. So I think the missing alternates were more likely down to Fantasy's ineptitude or complacency in overlooking them and Concord's comparative diligence in using them. My theory about Flac availability is that once the general public has been sold all the mp3s they can handle, they will be induced to buy them all over again as "HD" downloads, ie, Flac. Much the same as we were suckered into buying loads of lossy low-def DVDs before being sold it all again on lossless, HD Blu-ray.

Yes, that was why Roulette Mosaics suddently went oop the other week.

For ages I thought Monster was the only Jimmy Smith Verve not on CD, but there are a few others: In a Plain Brown Wrapper, 24 Karat Hits, The Other Side of -- maybe more. I recently got the Ace comp Come Spy With Us which has a single track never previously released on CD. Seems odd to me that so much is in the vaults.

No problem, glad it's there in the box.

Is the usual tracklisting (as opposed to the discography) present in the booklet?

Would it, though? I doubt that these days Rosemary Clooney has much more of a following than Anthony Braxton. It's not like it's a Mosaic of Miley Cyrus or somebody. I imagine the motivation is the usual one: artistic.

That's funny. I was thinking about Hubbard's Columbia/CTI dates only yesterday. Glad the sound is good, although a box set would have been better.

Could be. If it's like the Crosby -- standards with a jazz group -- it will be a useful corrective to her commercial work of the Fifties, which was scuppered by Mitch Miller's song choices.

It will probably be very similar to the Crosby set. Didn't Clooney also record her radio sessions with Buddy Cole? Whatever, I'm in -- I think she's great.

The Atlantic Jazz Legends box is £26.30 (20 discs) at Amazon UK.

It's a French site that reports deals on classical music, quite handy even if you don't understand la langue de Perec http://bons-plans-classique.blogspot.ca/ Thanks

This seems to be a preorder, so is Sony reissuing the box as it did the Heifetz? And I'll probably look stupid here, but what's Bon Plans?

After rising to £38 this has dropped back down to £32.

Wheels clacking on cobblestones as they go? Of course, this is where I live: And this is how they used to deliver Mosaics before privatisation:

Ah, I always have mine sent by courier. Can't wait for the wheels of Royal Mail to creak along when a Mosaic's in the offing.

The SU Magic Voices box set was the best blind buy I ever made. I didn't much care for the Hi-Los or the Four Freshmen (having bought the Mosaic) but with this one I just had a feeling… And I was right.

I usually don't get charged immediately but a nasty little letter follows a couple of weeks later.

Purely coincidental, but I'll take the credit anyway. I've just bought Jochum's DG Symphonies set from Amazon UK: 16 discs for about £21. Bruckner, Beethoven and Brahms. I have the Icon set but this was so cheap and I like the idea of comparing the two Bruckner cycles.

What, a "prejudice" that it won't sell and they'll lose money on the deal? Cuscuna digs the Three Sounds, but he knows that they won't sell a lick... and I'd imagine the bigger the box the less likely folks will want to shell out the cash for it. I'd buy it for sure (even though I have all of their BN work that's been released here in the US and in the JRVG series), as would many/most on this board. So there's a good 50 sales, tops. Who else is going to buy the other 4950 sets? OK, if he thinks it won't sell, I don't blame him for being cautious. All I've heard is that he thinks the sessions lack variety.