John L

Yes. I just listened through my box for the first time. Fantastic! The sound quality is indeed excellent. The remastering might sound a bit bright to some, but there is more presence here to O.V.'s vocals than I have ever heard on these sides. The discs are facsimilies of the original LPs. A couple alternate takes are tacked on to one of them. But it really makes you wonder about what might be sitting in the Duke-Peacock vaults. Has anybody even had the opportunity to look around in those vaults? There could be an incredible goldmine of American music there.

I'm no lawyer, but I'd guess it's stated in the same place where you can find the permission to even make that "copy for personal use", no? They don't put that on the CDs either. I think that the legal requirement would not be destruction. In a transaction, you are transferring rights to the music to somebody else. Therefore, legally, you must give up those rights. In other words, you would have to transfer all copies that you made along with the original. Destroying the copies would be another way out. But you should not be able to access the music anymore.

People solve that problem by backing up their files. A couple backups actually probably gives you more security than physical CDs or LPs, which can become scratched or warped or deteriorate in other ways. Keeping backups in different locations also insures your collection against theft. It is no mystery to me why people do what they do. People are greedy. They want their music and money too. And not everyone is an audiophile. I love music as much as anybody, but usually have no problem with the sound quality of good MP3s, even the 128bit iTunes MP3s. Personally, I am not selling my ripped CDs, but don't have any questions in my mind about why so many other people do it. Think of this as well: I conjecture that if the copyright law in question could be enforced, most good used CD stores (like Ameoba in California) would go out of business right away. My son worked in Ameoba, and knows that the majority of their profits now come from a 50% buy back policy.

I've had that on a CBS LP for a good many years (after having taped one or two of the tracks from that session from radio in c.1981/82) Not much new under the sun ... /Off-topic rant mode on ;)/ I realize Lester Young is the uniting factor on this Mosaic combination but in a way this still makes me feel ill at ease as this seems to be a more and more frequent policy on today's reissue market. You throw together packages where the common link is some sideman but the resulting compilations are made without any regard to the actual leader credits of the original release so you end up with more and more duplicates if you want to have the complete works of the actual leader and the music is in total disorder. This is particularly evident in a case like this where the release of the Basie catalog as a unit of course would make perfect sense. But somebody who comes into this as a relative newcomer but yet would like to dig deeper would end up having lots and lots of duplicates if he wanted both all of Basie AND all of Lester Young's solo features (or are the Teddy Wilson/Billie Holiday tracks, to name just one highlight, in the same package?). I can understand this policy of combining sidemen's works in the case of artists with relatively limited recorded legacies or really obscure nominal leaders but otherwise ...? To make matters worse, the credits on the actual reissues are often particularly muddled (cf. certain Proper boxes and others frequently mentioned here) so as to throw many collectors off course and hide the fact you are not getting that much that is really new. In short, packages aimed at superficial collectors but for those who want to dig deeper things will soon get extremely annoying once they realize how many duplicates they are bound to accumulate. /Off-topic rant mode off :D/ Steve: I understand your "rant," and, as I already posted, to a degree share your disappointment that this is not a complete Basie set. On the other hand, Mosaic is not Proper or JSP. They take their task much more seriously in the pusuit of legal copyrights, discographical and other information, and their own quality remastering. You won't find Proper or JSP uncovering 13 alternate takes in the vaults. Those companies don't even have access to any vaults, and their cheap repackaging of Mosaic and other companies' primary work creates a strong disincentive to invest anything in vault research anymore. This is not an introductory set aimed at a newcomer. For that purpose, various Decca reissues and the Columbia America's #1 Band already fit the bill very well. This set gathers together all of the tracks recorded by Columbia through 1940 other than the Billie Holiday dates that have Lester Young solos. That includes lots of alternate takes, including those newly discovered in the vaults for this set. This set is clearly aimed at the hard core like you and me. In addition to the new alternate takes, the sound quality here will most likely blow away what we now have on Classics or Masters of Jazz. Sets based on a particular soloist can also be very successful. Look at the Mosaic Bunny Berigan set (which was immediately ripped off track-for-track by JSP) or the new Chu Berry set.

The unifying principle here would appear to be Lester Young, which is why they include the Glenn Hardman session without Basie. As I posted earlier, however, I agree that a complete Basie from this period would have been more satisfying. (But have you heard what Pres plays with Hardman? Unforgetable.)

At a matter of principle, I don't think that Mosaic includes "samplings" in their box sets. They are usually the whole ball of wax under some unifying principle. The Count Basie French Masters of Jazz series was the motherload for live Basie. Virtually all of the known live recordings up until around the Lester Leaps In session are included in the 12 volumes of this series. That includes about 50 live tracks of vintage Basie with Pres solos. Too bad Masters of Jazz went under before they could finish the series.

Opal still sings sometimes when he is working in the Berkeley Down Home Music store. I should be united with my box next week, and will report on the sound quality.

I think that it is interesting the degree to which Ornette still shocks new listeners. On the other hand, for those of us who have been listening to Ornette for a long time, it has even become hard to imagine what is so shocking about it.

Oh, I didn't think there was a conspiracy. The word when I was getting interested in jazz was that Basie's rep rested on about a third of the recordings the band had made. In the absence of someone actually writing out a list of what they were (and no one did that) I made the assumption that this would generally include the material that featured Prez quite prominently. So, what you're saying is there's going to be a wide cross section of the band's work, good, bad and indifferent, in this box. Now that makes me a lot more interested in buying it. MG One third? It is true that Basie, like other big bands of the time, recorded a share of obligatory shallow pop numbers. Indeed, a few of them will be on the box. But I would say that the reputation of the 1930s Basie band has much more to do with the overall sound that they achieved, as opposed to some limited subset of their recordings. No big band could swing as hard and effortlessly as Basie's. The rhythm section of Jo Jones, Walter Page, Basie, and Freddie Green just can't be beat. No big band could dig as deeply in the blues as Basie's. Then you had that lineup of soloists: Lester Young, Herschal Evans, Buck Clayton. Dickie Wells, Basie himself et al, and the best singers in Jimmy Rushing and Helen Humes. The brilliance of this band is usually clearly audible even on the lesser tracks. It just don't get no better.

This thread is great. I checked out Ba Cissoko and Tinariwen for the first time based on recommendations here. Beautiful stuff! Thanks! Among older African pop, one of my favorites has always been Doctor Nico from Nigeria. I find the pure melodic beauty of his guitar to always be extraordinary.

Well, Peas An' Rice An' Coconut Oil" won't be, but Ham and Eggs, Pound Cake, and Apple Jump will be, as Pres takes solos on the latter three. There is no conspiracy here to leave out "crap." Everything with Lester Young solos will be included without exception (as I understand).

Third, except that I'd hesitate to list the Otis Rush Cobra recordings as highly. Iirc, he kept rehashing the same music with different lyrics, and I believe there are a few alternates as well. I mean, I love his music but its not a little repetitive after a while. To each their own. This is all a matter of taste. To me the Otis Rush Cobra recordings are seminal electric blues recordings. He revived and rehashed those songs many times in later years, not always with inspired results. I selected the two Otis Rush albums I put on the list with some care, for that reason. Agreed, but I wasn't referring to rehashing the tunes later on, but to the fact that he rehashed the same music multiple times for that label, in search of another hit, and it grows wearying to hear them one after the other. Its unbelievably great music but for me, it has to be heard in smaller doses than one sitting. Dan: Maybe you are confusing Otis Rush and Magic Sam's Cobra recordings? Your comments make sense for the latter. As fine as they are, Magic Sam's Cobra recordings are a bit repetitive - "Easy Baby" is essentially recorded various times with different lyrics. But I would not say that about Otis' Cobra recordings. They are quite a varied bunch, and thick with masterpieces: I Can't Quit You, Double Trouble, Checking on My Baby, All Your Love, etc. It's true that there are also a few lighter weight pop tracks thrown in the mix. But the strong tracks are REALLY strong. As good as a number of his later records were, I would say that the Cobra recordings are Otis Rush's greatest legacy, and some of the greatest blues ever recorded. There are a lot of alternative takes of the Cobra tracks, and some collections present them all in a row. That could also give the impression of monotony. But it would be a false impression. Alternative takes are alternative takes.

I'll second Debra's list. That's some sparkling blues, right there. Throw in a bit of classic 1950s Lightnin' Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, Sonny Boy Williamson, Robert Nighthawk, BB King, T-Bone Walker, and you are on your way.

No, it's Ham And Eggs. Or Pound Cake. Ah, but would it be too one-sided in concentrating on gret recordings at the expense of lesser material and even crap? I'd not buy it if that were the case. I want the crap too - actually, in particular, I think. MG Crap? Even the Apple (Jump) is rather tasty.

I bought the box, but really only listen to two discs from it: Miles Ahead and Porgy and Bess.

I seem to recall other related disparaging statements by Cosby about the blues, although they were more from the social than musical point of view: "we need to leave the blues behind us once and for all."

Since I posted this four years ago, I met somebody who knows Pee Wee Marquette. Apparently he (she) is still alive in a retirement home in Florida. Maybe a GREAT opportunity for an autobiography ghost editor still exits.

It is probably worth upgrading, if for no other reason than to get O.K.'s new insightful comments about the instrumental role that he played in making each and every one of these sessions a success.

Thanks, Clem! It looks like Dusty Groove is going to ship me one of their last boxes after all.

Damn. It looks like this baby is already gone at Dusty Groove. I tried to get an order in when it was still there, but have still received no confirmation that they will ship it to me. They have it at Amazon for $310 dollars. That is over $60 a disc! This is deja vu for me. A set like this came out in Japan around 1990 for about $100. I hestitated due to the price and the fact that I had no idea that the music would not be released again on CD for another 18 years. After a few months of hestiation, it was over. The set was Gone for Good.

Yes! That working band with Richard Wiliams, Richard Wyands, and Mickey Roker was really beatiful. I agree that Gigi Gryce seems to be under-appreciated. He had it all: composing, arranging, band leading, and a very distinctive approach to the alto sax.

Oh, man! There was a box set like this issued about 15 years ago in Japan. But it quickly disappeared. I may have to take the expensive plunge for this one. I have most of this, but it is transferred from LPs very poorly. What else is there? There are the Hi recordings, all of which can be obtained on a 2-disc set of the studio recordings and 1 live disc. There are the Peacock recordings with the Sunset Travelers. There exist about 12 great tracks with O.V. on lead. Most of them actually came out on CD very briefly in the early 90s when MCA experimented with a Peacock reissue series. Now you can get them and more from Opal. There is also his first single made for Goldwax (That's How Strong My Love Is). It sounds like that is on the box.

You may be misreading some of the earlier posts. MG and I were comparing Nat to those artists from the point of view of doing a lot with the beauty of tone from their instruments. That is not to say that he is at the same level as they are.

Thanks guys But I am confused. Did you mean someone vintage to suck pig? Get porked? Or are you calling me vintage? Please clarify. Be careful what you write, for the PEN is mightier than the sword!!!! I'm heading up to the mountains on this cold but sunny day to listen once again to the Good Lovin--Caution from Copenhagen and maybe a nice slice of 1969. Sorry, Bill. I see that the use of "Pig" and "suck" in the same sentence is already enough to send you through the roof.

Happy birthday, Good Orchid Doctor. Thanks for all of your great insights on this thread. I wish you a delicious vintage suckling Pig for the day's festivities. John