crisp

Interesting post. Thanks. I listened to Nilsson Schmilsson on YouTube last night and thought it was OK, but not wonderful. I can see why Lennon and McCartney liked him. The best song was Without You, which of course he didn't write. I can't hear what is so great about his voice, which some rave about; was this after he ruined it? I suspect that my feelings about him might be the same as towards the Stones: that the backstory is much more interesting than the music. I'd like to see that documentary.

The RCA Albums Collection is released on July 29. 17 discs. £46.22 at Amazon UK. Edit: more details here. Edit #2: And I see from that Second Disc post that there's a biography coming up by jazz critic Alyn Shipton. What have I been missing? Has Nilsson got a lot to offer jazz fans? I only know Everybody's Talkin' and a few of his standards recordings.

This has now been reduced to £39.20 preorder at Amazon UK.

I thought we didn't make distinctions between "art" and "entertainment", Bev?

That's what I meant -- the Verve set under discussion plus the other Hip-O set is everything from Universal.

Yes, I've ordered that with the Bird. Really pleased to be able to get the Nineties boxes I missed first time round when I was an impoverished student (as opposed to an impoverished journalist). Now, will they reissue the Roland Kirk Mercury?

Hip-O did put out a Commodore/Decca masters set -- this one -- is that not everything from Universal? I have both Verve Holiday sets and listen to the master takes one far more. I don't think I've ever played the disc of rehearsals recorded in her living room on the Schaap one; such things just don't interest me. The original Schaap box has beautiful packaging and liner notes, however, and was my introduction to this music, so I have a sentimental attachment to it. I have the master takes Bird set but want the complete box because it has other finished takes. The ideal release would be a box of all Bird's completed takes, plus perhaps any lengthy breakdowns, newly remastered by a decent engineer, but it doesn't exist. I'll just put both on my hard drive and make a playlist excluding all the snippets.

I edited my post while you were replying. Polygram! That's going back a bit...

Ah, thanks. It's amazingly involved. I've always thought Mosaic should do a box of Decca-owned Brunswick/Vocalion material, without knowing what would be on it, simply because a few Mosaic sets of Sony material mention that such and such a session was left off because, although from the same label, it's now owned by Universal. Beidebecke, Berigan and Bailey (that well known legal firm) might be among them. Edit: looking at the preview of this discography I can see a few items of jazz interest: Rex Stewart, Red Nichols, Fletcher Henderson, Clarence Williams, just from 1927. I don't imagine Mosaic would touch the Ben Bernie sessions, though...

I've been collecting a series that Everyman is putting out: Stories for Every Occasion in the website. It started with Christmas Stories and has gone on to include Detective Stories, Golf Stories, etc. They are all hardbacks and have varying striped spines. Look lovely on the shelf. Some of the titles sound rather twee and feminine (eg, Cat Stories), but if they are compiled by Diana Secker Tesdell they are terrific. Love Stories is actually quite a brutal collection, while Bedtime Stories is dark and supernatural, not what you might expect. Other favourites of mine are New York Stories and Stories of the Sea. Lots of classic tales (Irving, Hawthorne) are mixed with more recent works and I've discovered a lot of great new writers.

Looks like the Schaap-produced 10-disc set is the latest to be reissued as a budget box. 32 euros at Amazon Italy. Schaap's 10-disc Bird box is in the same series for 28 euros. Handy if you didn't get these the first time round -- I've ordered the Bird.

Thanks, JAW. Just wanted to confirm that this complements rather than duplicates the RCA and Mosaic sets, neither of which I own yet. The split ownership of Brunswick/Vocalion is something I've never been able to get my head round.

Just spotted this: The Complete Brunswick and Vocalion Recordings, a "new" three-CD set from Verve. Is this a straight reissue of this set? Would I be right in thinking this material is on neither the Mosaic sets nor the big RCA box?

Have you seen this?

Some people need to pigeonhole things/people in order to understand them. TV networks depend on such people to make their jobs easy.

Makes you wonder whether some artforms become heritage purely because mainstream media decides they are.

So you are pro public domain, all things considered? Back to Mosaic, I've always wanted to see a set of all the Sony BMG-owned early jazz recordings that fell out of the scope of other sets (not just Mosaic). So, for example, all the Teddy Wilson sides without Billie; the Basie sides without Lester Young, etc. Also, aren't there sessions that couldn't be used in some sets because they were owned by Decca? ISTR Bix and Mildred Bailey were two of them. A set covering that sort of material would be good, if there's enough of it.

The PR for this is excrutiating. They seem to be trying to retro-package these artists as protofeminists/gay icons/nutcases to draw in the Later with Jools Holland crowd. It's a bit like how male jazz musicians always get profiled as tormented drug addicts. I suppose Nina Simone was a diva, but that's precisely why I can't stand her. Billie Holiday had a tough life but that doesn't make her a diva. The others always struck me as very professional, very talented and charming. Isn't that enough? Regarding BBC jazz, having these digital channels is a big step up from the nadir of the 1990s when the closest BBC TV got to screening jazz was to sneer at it on The Fast Show. I just wish they would show more new material instead of just archive (welcome though that is).

If it's PD I probably won't buy it, so to me it isn't available at all. I haven't bought vinyl for years. But I did suggest tax breaks as a way of getting the material licensed. Can't see it happening, though!

It's the same set as this one. As you see from the blurb, it's been remastered under the watch of Woody Shaw III and Michael Cuscuna and contains two hours of live material not in the Mosaic.

I'm neither familiar with Muse nor Woody Shaw, although I've preordered the new Columbia box based purely on his rep. Here's a list of Muse releases that I found. Anything here that would make a good Mosaic set?

Nothing. I just said there would be more of an incentive. I would suggest that there be additionally some form of tax break for majors if they license to third parties, just to get the stuff out there and propogate the culture. Much better than trashing great art in a public domain free-for-all.

The Paul Desmond is even cheaper now at £18.52. They've been on sale through Amazon for some time, but suddenly they are being listed as preorders, which implies Sony has repressed and is remarketing them. They are clearly the same sets, but at a lower price than either Popmarket or previously at Amazon. Hope they do the Dexter one next.

Woody Shaw's The Complete Columbia Albums Collection is being reissued on May 6. Amazon UK's preorder price is £27.99 -- about £4.70 a disc.

That's why I wish EU copyright law wasn't the way it was. If the rights were still in the exclusive hands of the majors there would be more of an incentive for them to release or license them. As it is pre-1963 sessions can't be legitimately released without the danger of being immediately and legally booted by dozens of fly-by-night companies -- and they are ALL ropey outfits IMO, no exceptions.