John L

I picked this up a few days ago and really enjoyed reading it. There are quite a number of highlights, including Soinny Rollins and Dave Brubeck reacting today to the critical reactions that they received at various times from Down Beat over the years. There are some rather amusing first crtitical reactions to soon-to-be-famous artists. How about this quote from none other than Louis Armstrong on the subject of a clarinet being a half tone off on his big band recording of Struttin' With Some Barbecue: "Them cats know that a guy got to blow the way he feels and sometimes he hits them wrong. That's better than them young guys who won't blow for fear they'll be off." A lot of wisdom there (IMO)

Sorry, my bad. I don't know why I thought that you had written Yazoo. Yes, JSP used to be a label something like Yazoo. They invested in top quality remastering for a while. But several years ago, they threw in the towel and, in many ways, have become the worst bootleg label in terms of blatant rip-offs. I hold them partly responsible for destroying the market for investment in quality remastering and presentation of older music. Some examples have already been cited above. The worst two might be (1) the Benny Berigan box: (they shamelessly ripped off Mosaic immediately after the latter released their ambitious box that includes relatively obscure sideman material that was hunted down on 78s and given top quality remastering. JSP didn't even bother to change the track ordering. They just threw out the alternate takes and issued the whole Mosaic set under their own label for $25 a couple months after the Mosaic release. (2) the Charley Patton box: Reverent had just made a huge investment in vastly improving the sound of Patton's recordings for their box set. JSP took these remasters and grabbed the market right away with a $20 set. Reverent didn't have a chance. They are now trying to get rid of their Patton boxes at a price that no longer covers costs. I no longer buy anything from JSP.

What makes you think that? I thought that Yazoo was one of the labels that often invested in finding the best sounding 78s for their reissues.

I was limiting my attention to the Delta, given that this was the request. Certainly, country blues is much broader than the Delta, and a more general list would include people like Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Barbecue Bob, Memphis Minnie, Blind Willie McTell, Frank Stokes, Blind Blake, etc., etc.

That indeed appears to be the problem. If emusic would have answered my letter with what you wrote in your post, I would have kept my membership. I even spelled it out for them in the letter. I told them that I would keep my membership if they would only confirm to me in writing that they are doing this out of financial necessity, and will remain committed the smaller labels that are valued by customers like myself. They sent me back the stupid form letter that states quite plainly that they are doing this in order to afford Sony and other major labels. So I quit emusic.

For pre-war (country) Delta blues, I would list the most essential recordings as: Charley Patton (the Reverent set discussed above or the Yahoo "Best of" discs) Tommy Johnson (His complete recordings fit on one disc) Son House and the Delta Blues Singers (His 1930s recordings are packaged nicely by Document with other great Delta recordings by more obscure artists) Bukka White (All his 30s and 40s recordings that almost fit on one disc) Skip James (the classic early recordings (one disc)) Muddy Waters: The Complete Plantation Recordings Tommy McClennan: Any collection will do. William Harris (He recorded 9 songs that are well worth finding and not included on Son House and the Delta Blues Singers) Robert Johnson (You already have it)

I really love Furtwangler's slow and tortured approach to Tristan (EMI version). For Parsifal, the live version with Knappertsbusch on Phillips is also a killer. If you haven't yet, you might also try some classic Maria Callas operas on EMI, for example Tosca (Sabata 1953), Lucia di Lammmermoor (Von Karajan 1955), Norma (1955 Serafin), Ana Bolena (1957 Gavazzzeni), La Sonnambula (1955 Bernstein), La Traviata (Giulini 1955), La Gioconda (Votto, 1959).

I canceled yesterday. When I pressed the button to cancel the first time, they offered me a generous bonus package if I would stay. Maybe they are starting to get worried about all the cancellations? I wrote them a letter a couple of weeks ago requesting a clarification of their situation. Are they raising prices because they couldn't make ends meet otherwise, and are planning to stick to the general model of favoring smaller labels to keep prices down, or are they raising prices just to finance the acquisition of Sony and other major labels? I told them that, in the former case, I would keep my membership. I got back the same stupid form letter that was mentioned above. Why did I waste my time on emusic?

Yes, there is a good amount of duplication. Disc 1: 1-10 is on the Mosaic box, as is Disc 2: 11-21 and Disc 3: 1-2 The sound on the Columbia box is also excellent. I haven't compared them closely, but have no complaints about the sound on either of them. The boxes represent very different concepts, however. The Columbia box gives a general overview of the Basie era on Columbia (1936, 1938-1950) through selected recordings. The Mosaic box presents all of the known Columbia recordings of Basie and Lester Young (plus a session without Basie). If you have the Columbia box and are salivating for more Basie & Pres, then get the Mosaic. If not, then don't.

Yes, there is a good amount of duplication. Disc 1: 1-10 is on the Mosaic box, as is Disc 2: 11-21 and Disc 3: 1-2

Disc 1 appears to be primarily from well known sessions, although some might be newly discovered takes.

I don't put Moon in the same category as Gambit. Yes, they are both pure bootleg labels. But I can't recall Moon treading on the copyright of commercial labels, or playing the 50-year game for European public domain. Moon was an old fashioned bootleg label that concentrated on privately recorded live concerts and hopelessly out-of-print material. And yes, the Sonny Rollins in Denmark is something else. I saw that in a store a few years back and came on Organissimo to ask if it was worth buying. The prophet Jim S. told me that it would change my life, and I've never been the same since.

Yes, Michael Jackson was a tremendous talent. Those two records (Off the Wall and Thriller) sounded extremely dynamic and innovative when they were first released. They have had such a huge impact on subsequent pop music that it is easy to forget just how original they sounded at the time. RIP

She essentially had two primes - one as a stunning beauty queen and rather bad actress, and a subsequent one as a quite decent (and still very attractive) actress. She really did an admirable job of developing her acting skills as she went along. RIP

I find Tina's singing to be more multiorgasmic than histronic. It's all in the way that you feel it. When my father bought me a front row ticket to the Ike and Tina review in 1969 right underneath Tina and the Ikettes mini skirts, man did I FEEL it.

Yea, I guess if it wasn't for the Beatles, Dion and Fabian would have just kept performing black music... Elijah Wald's book on the blues is interesting and thoughtful, but still unfair and problematic. He somehow managed to attract attention by claiming that he was attacking writers from the "blues orthodoxy" with fresh perspectives and opinions. There was not a single footnote or reference in the entire book. No single member of the "blues orthodoxy" was mentioned by name. In the end, most the opinions expressed in the book seem quite consistent with what blues experts had been writing years before Wald came on the scene. Wald has good PR - he made his name the American way by repackaging something, crossing a few Ts, dotting a few Is, and calling it revolutionary.

Billy Harper already made these titles available serveral years ago on his website.

It could be your server rather than your computer. I spend most of my time these days in Kazakhstan. When I try to connect to Vintage Vangard from my server here, the same thing happens. It won't let me connect, and the connection times out. When I am in Washington, I connect just fine with the same computer.

That was the original mono mix of River Deep, Mountain High that was released as a 45. My hip father bought a copy of that 45 when it first came out and it blew my mind. The mix on the later LP, a primitive early stereo experiment that put Tiny much lower in the mix, always sucked compared to the 45. Unfortunately, most CD reissues have used the LP version.

Jonathan, Thank you very much for this information. Knowing that this music is being carefully preserved gives us and future generations something to look forward to. John

Yep. It's been crashing on me much more often lately.

You would think that competition would force prices down rather than up. Of course, if Sony is taking control of emusic, that would be less competition rather than more.

You don't see things differently than me. I feel exactly the same way. That is an interesting hypothesis about Sony buying into emusic. Maybe.

We choose the option to manage the music manually. You can just drag what you want from iTunes to your iPod. If you are too lazy to do that, iTunes can also be programmed to randomly fill your iPod for you.

I was waiting for years for a set like this that would contain the complete Federal/King recordings. But it finally came a few years back in the form of four strangely titled volumes, "The Very Best of Freddie King." All the Atlantic and Shelter material has been available for some time. I only know of one 45 from El-Bee. If I didn't already have the music, I would certainly buy this.