Ed S

Well, I joined up New Year's Eve on the $5.99 plan. In my opinion, a good deal, but hey a buck's a buck and they all add up. At any rate, first shipment arrived today 7 Steps to Heaven Live at the Blackhawk (4CD set) Complete Jack Johnson A Capitol comp entitled Torch Songs (2 CDs) all for around $115 tax incl. Also got Greg Osby's Public as my first queue pick - great record. Bon Byron's Ivey Divey up next. Couldn't be happier. Well, maybe I could if they were $4.99

I wonder what ever happened to the Willie "the Lion" Smith that was mentioned a couple of years ago on the old Verve board. I remember there was a lot of complaints about Verve's refusal to lease material to Mosaic at that time. Seemed like every one of the suggestions was met with a "we have plans for a box of our own" type of response from chief cook and bottle washer Mark@verve. Didn't he mention that Verve had agreed to lease some Willie "the Lion" Smith material to Mosaic - or am I hallucinating again? Thankfully, Verve (or UMG) has re-thought that stance and we've been seeing some great sets recently.

I saw Ernie in Buffalo some time in the early 90s. Excellent show. One of the area jazz radio hosts always referred to him as "the Iron Lung of CLeveland, Ohio" so when I read that he was coming, I had to check him out. Definitely worth checking out, though I suspect the nickname is unofficial.

I've got a copy as well and can probably get a burn to you faster than Barak, though you never know...... Let me know

No time to post. Gotta go.........

I just logged in with no problems. Full access to all features.

I see your point. I think I'll not order and save myself more money.

Plan B - for when I run out of sets that I wanted to buy in 2004 but weren't released yet: New Batch of RVGs coming out. I pass on all of them since I already have them. That's 6 x $10 or $60 bucks saved, right? Do that with the next batch of RVGs and that's $120 So now I've got $120 extra bucks to spend. Bingo - I bag a Mosaic and haven't spent anything.

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Got 'em all. Gonna save the $$$ for something else. The Hill Select perhaps.

I found them listed under each individual artist name as "rvg/title" (RVG/Heavy Soul)

Nice work Reinier. Good to see a board member pitching in and getting recognition.

Special Thanks from the discography page: Reinier - do tell!

The Mosaic hot streak continues

Well, as I did the same, the answer is 'No', they don't count. Same goes for a few Mosaics I ordered last year I'm not counting sets that I knew were coming out in 2005 like the Hill, the small group swing etc, etc. I decided to buy them in 2004 and would have if not for Mosaic's release schedule. Not my fault, so they're logged in 2004.

I decided to try the yourmusic.com experience on New Year's Eve I did pick up a few Miles Davis Boxes with that first order - but they don't count. And I'm not counting any of the monthly yourmusic.com shipments. So, I'm 3 days in and my hand is still steady.

I'd consider myself a fan of Cole. I first became aware of her back at the '91 or '92 Montréal Jazz Festival. She and a French singer named Liane Foly split the week at Club Soda and pretty much took the festival by storm. They were the talk of the festival. She has a good voice and combines pop, jazz, and cabaret styles with some interesting and sometimes quirky arrangements of standards. I saw her live a couple of times in the early 90's at a local jazz club in Buffalo, NY. She's huge in Canada and the cross border factor played heavily into the fact that both performances were jam packed. She's very good live. Really gives the music a personal touch and has a great rapport with the audience. I have a bunch of her discs and don't spin them as much as in the past. I'll have to dig some out. I liked here most recent release, the title of which escapes me.

McDuff and Donaldson Waters now moved back to Feb 8th

I'd like to see vinyl come back as well. I have heard that Mosaic is actually a pretty small outfit with very limited warehousing space. I think a lot of why vinyl might not work for them has to do with the price point of the sets (not the individual Q-LPs), the cost per LP of doing a pressing and the ability to warehouse a pressing. For a lot of purchasers of jazz, I think the one time cost of a set is prohibitive. At $18 per Q-LP, the price is actually attractive on a per LP basis, IMO, especially when you compare it to the what - $30 per LP (180gm) Classics price. But when you look at the set cost of say the Teddy Wilson at $144 for the LPs vs $80 for the CD, I'm guessing that the average guy who wants the music is going to go for the CD. For a lot of people, the sound difference doesn't matter - plus you get the convenience of CDs when you go that route. Then there's the cost of pressing the LPs in a quantity that makes sense economically. I'm guessing that the more LPs you make per pressing, the cost goes down per LP. So in order to make money on your product, you probably have to press more than you have space for. Factor in that CDs sales will outpace LP sales on a unit per unit basis and that means that the LPs will sit around a lot longer, sucking up shelf space. Also factor in the sales pattern for new sets - meaning high number of sales early on followed by a slow down until last chance and the same warehousing factors come in to play. I wonder what the profit margin on an LP set is vs a CD set, too. I guess what I'm saying it that I can see why vinyl was not working for them when looking at the big picture. All that said though, I'd be curious to see what the results would be if say, the Art Farmer/Benny Golson Jazztet was released with the number of LP sets specified right up front. I mean - put some urgency into those LP sales. Announce that only 250 LP sets will be pressed and throw it on Last Chance a month after it is released. I wonder if that might not get enough fence sitters/procrastinators who love vinyl to adjust their priorities and grab the Mosaic. Who knows?

The number of sets negotiated in the terms of the lease agreement refers to the total number of sets, irrespective of the format. Of this I am certain. So, of the 5,000 total sets, there might do 500 or so on vinyl (or whatever number they determine to be optimal/profitable) The remainder of the 5,000 are on CD. The reasons given in the past for eliminating vinyl is that it is not profitable enough to justify pressing and warehousing.

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This is terrible news. I never dealt with Ken on the board. But I've been around since the BNBB days and saw him around here and Blue Note enough to know that he added a lot to the community. He'll be missed.

The Exorcist in 30 seconds

That was kind of my point in starting the thread. I think originally, the idea was to get more exposure for Mosaic. I'm quite sure there a many folks who kind of discover them by accident or have never heard of them prior to seeing a set in a store. Personally, I knoew nothing of the company intil I started hanging out at the really old BNBB aroud '98 or '99. I was just kind of curious if the idea has paid off or if there are actually people out there buying them for close to $50.

Jeez, jumping to conclusions without knowing one's intent is shall we charitably say - even swifter. Here's my original post about the pricing posted May 26, 2004 (Bolding added to make my point) I don't particularly give a rat's ass what a retail establishment will sell a Mosaic set for. If Mosaic has authorized retail sale of a set, I'll buy it wherever I can at the best price that I can get. Speaking of best price, Here's the reason I emailed Mosaic in the first place. Mosaic had led us to believe that their $39 price would be the best we'd see. So when some retail outfit comes up with a $35 price, I want to know how and why and whether or not Mosaic was feeding us a line of crap about their anticipated $49 retail pricing. In the process I got a piece of info to share with the board.