Ed S

I do have that one and you are right, it kicks ass. I remember reading somewhere that Curtis Amy might be a candidate for a future Mosaic Select. That would be nice.l

Welcome back

The Django Reinhardt Mosaic. Had no Django in my house and wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I found out. The Ventura/Phillips Mosaic and the Blue Note 10" Conn series. My first forays into jazz of the 50s. Was very happy to find out that there was great jazz coming out before the 60s. Sometimes you just have to listen, I guess. The West Coast Classics. Same reason as above. I'd heard all the lukewarm to negative comments about the music. Then I listened. Now I'm a big fan, The Blue Note Swingtets and The Blue Note Jazzmen. My first taste of earlier jazz styles. Sam Rivers Mosaic My first turn down the path of the avante garde. Still moving slowly, but I've picked up some Ornette and Cecil Taylor among others Greg Osby - Seasons of Renewal I picked this up when it first came out and really dug the M-Base style. Followed his career ever since. Stan Getz - The Bossa Nova Years Some of my earliest musical memories include the Bossa Nova craze that swept the US in the early 60s. But for every Girl from Ipanema, there were 10 Blame it on the Bossa Nova's, or so it seemed. It wasn't until years later, when I was firmely into jazz that I was able to listen with an open mind. I discovered beautiful rhythms and sounds that incorporated jazz and Brazillian music. Gorgeous.

$60???? Wow - That's a great price. Given the quality of the set and the fact that you've got very little Armstrong, you can lose. By the way, an Armstrong set recently sonld on ebay for $187.50

The next Peter Cincotti perhaps??? I still remember the post by that spammer on BN about Peter Cincotti. I jokingly referred to his claim that Cincotti was the best 19 year piano phenom by remarking "You mean there's more than one? I need to get out more " It seems that once again the joke is on me.

FrancoisD did a nice review of this set. I enjoy it very much as well. I'm particularly fond of the Krupa material. As I had no James prior to acquiring this set, I find his material to be very enjoyable as well. Excellent sound throughout, and definitely worth picking up. It would be nice to see Mosaic issue some more big band sets. I think this is one of the sets that was released to retail outlets. You might be able to pick it up on sale at some point.

Just to expand on Bebop's comments regarding Dexter, most people think of the 3 discs recorded at the Montmartre Jazzhuis in July 1967 when they think of Dex's Black Lions. They are, IMO, among the best live Dexter you'll find anywhere. Thre's another Dexter Gordon/Wardell Gray disc called Citizens Bop. Very nice disc indeed. I also picked up a Hampton Hawes live at the Montmartre Jazzhuis because Dex appears on one track. Also a nice disc.

Even better in that they didn't charge me for shipping the set separately. The skeptic in me had me figuring they would rap me for a second shipping fee.

Well good news for me. My Dexter set shipped today I was starting to get a little antsy and was figuring that they had only picked up a few of these and I'd be outta luck.

Well, today's the 22nd and I just checked my order status at CD Universe. All of my Rare Grooves and the new Dexter 2CD comp shipped. The Steeplechase set is listed as not shipped, usually ships in 1-2 days. I hope the fears I expressed about CD Universe's import track record are not coming to fruition. I'm still waiting for my Django Jazz in Paris releases. The Aptil 1st available date for those has been pushed back again and is now listed as 4/29 The Dexter Steeplechase set still lists a street date of 4/22, so I'm hoping that it might be shipped separately or from another location.

Well the "reopening on or about May 1st with new forums, usage policies " etc is gone. It actually looks pretty bad for the BNBB. That's probably for the best, actually. Organissimo and AAJ (and to some extent JC) have more than filled the void for me. I'm pretty ambivalent over the possible reopening of BN. For close to 5 years it was my primary source of jazz information and pretty much my home base. But the arrogance and abysmal customer relations that was displayed in the final days sticks in my craw. I'm still getting the information and having the same types of discussions - without the frustrations that had begun to creep into the Blue Note Board. Guess I don't care much one way or the other. Like many, I suppose, I'll trudge back there to check it out if it ever does reopen. But I suspect that rather than expose themselves to several months of abuse, they'll just keep the shop closed. That's fine by me.

I just did a quick check of the Blue Moon stuff. I have the Complete 1941-1954 Small Group Session which kicks of with the Hollywood, July 3, 1941 session. That means that the entire first disc and most of the second of the Proper set doesn't overlap with the Blue Moon material that I have.

Brad I have asked Michael Cuscuna via email about this twice since the Selects were offically announced last year. The most recent time was about a month ago. He said both times that this material was on his short list of sets that he was considering for 2004. I'm sure hoping that this material does make it out as a Select. Some Dexter would be a nice addition to the Mosaic family.

The Mizell Brothers stuff clearly is not for everyone. Over the years, I've come to peace with the Byrd/Mizell albums of that period by taking them as much for what they are - as I do for what they are not. They're not jazz, so my expectations are different. If I had to put a label on them I'd say they're jazzed up funky/soul/dance music. In my opinion - in that genre - they are very good. I listen to them differently and at different times and when I'm in different moods than when I listen to jazz. I've said it before in other threads, but this is great music for social gatherings. People dig it and tell me so. My wife enjoys this material too and it is nice to have some common ground when it comes to jazz and "jazzy" music of this type. I listen to this material in the car too - had Places and Spaces on yesterday as a matter of fact. I guess part of the reason I listen to this stuff and to other artists like Ronny Jordan, Rodney Jones, St Germain is I felt the need to "lighten up" a little in my listening. If nothing else, this stuff is funky, it grooves, it's danceable and I find it a fun listen. I'm looking forward to both the Bartz and Byrd's Caricatures.

Although they've been out of the Barney thing for about three years, it was until this past Christmas that we made it through without watching "Barney - Waiting For Santa" This last holdover from the Barney days was in the rotation 6 months of the year for about 4 straight years. The only way to get it out of the rotation was to buy them something new that would grab their attention, then hide the damn Barney video. It doesn't get much better though. Now, they're into Yu-Gi-Oh, Rugrats, and Sponge Bob. My older son is a big fan of the "Amanda Show"

David I think that the Rare Groove series is a US thing. It looks like you've got a list of some of the recent releases from the groove experience site at Blue Note France (except for the Stanley Jordan) Thus, I do not believe that the titles you have listed are "technically" part of the Rare Groove series. I just picked up all of those you listed except for Soul of the Bible (someone would really have to convince me to get that one) and the Stanley Jordan. I would definitely classify all those that I picked up as Rare Groove type material. I really like the Ronnie Foster and Eddie Gale. The Harris is growing on me, though there is a lot of synthesizer that can be pretty annoying at times. The Mouzon is extremely guitar heavy, but not bad if you're in the mood. I've commented on the Final Comedown in another thread. Overall I like it but you really have to pick it up with the fact that it is a movie soundtrack featuring Grant Green in mind. It's not a Grant Green record per se. Hope this helps. Anybody hear Soul of the Bible? The samples on the groove experience site are kind of short.

When in doubt, check Jazzmatazz: Jazzmatazz Hey, at least we all know when the new Madlib disc is coming out. I ordered the new Rare Grooves: Music Is My Sanctuary - Gary Bartz Caricatures - Donald Byrd Beautiful - Candido - Got A Good Thing Going - John Patton

McAdoo was an amazing shooter. He had that unorthodox looking jump shot and could fire accurately from 20-25 ft with great consistency. I don't know if there was ever a better outside shooting big man. What a pleasure to watch and what a disappointment when the owner of the Braves "traded" him to the Knicks for beaucoup amounts of cash and John Gianelli. That was the beginning of the end for the NBA in Buffalo unfortunately. Soon thereafter the ABA folded and John Y Brown became a partner. He dumped salary and used a lot of marginal ABA players that he had on "personal services contracts" from his days as owner of the Kentucky Colonels. Attendance suffered as the quality of the team dropped. The next thing you know, the Braves were gone.

When the Braves were in Buffalo, I was a huge NBA fan. Bob MacAdoo, Jack Marin, Randy Smith, Tom McMillen, Jim McMillian, Gar Heard, Ernie DiGregorio, Adrian Dantley - they had some great teams and players back in the day. From the time of their departure 'til the mid 90s I was more of a casual fan. Now I rarely watch. My favorite of all time is Wilt, followed by Kareem as a close second. I'd rank Bird and Magic as a tie for 3rd. After that, I have a number of favorites none of whom stands out from the others. That list includes West, Baylor, Oscar Robertson, Jordan, Bill Russell. I was a big fan of the Willis Reed/Walt Frazier/Bill Bradley/Dave DeBusher (sp)/Dick Barnett(with that crazy looking jump shot) Knicks, though none in and of themselves were great enough to make an individual top 10. I was a big fan of the Bulls back in the Jerry Sloan, Bob "Butterbean" Love, Chet "the Jet" Walker, Tom Boerwinkle, Bob Weiss days.

I love to travel, though budget and family commitments limit choices at this point. I've travelled a lot in Canada - Montreal (every year for the jazz festival), Ottawa, Quebec City, Toronto, The Canadian Rockies. We took our young boys to a place in Alberta called Dinosaur Provincial Park last summer. One of the world's richest sources of Dinosaur bones. It's out in the badlands east of Calgary. What a fascinating place. I also like to camp and canoe. When I was a boy, we'd travel up to Algonquin Provincial Park about 4 hours north of Toronto. 3,000 square miles of interconnected lakes - bears, loons, wolves, moose and some beautiful scenery. I've travelled as far North as James Bay and someday would like to go to Alaska or the Canadian North. Before we had children, my wife and I travelled to France. Spent a week in Paris, a week in Cannes and about 2 weeks driving around France and surrounds. We stayed in Lyon, Geneva, Chamonix, and Florence. Geneva and Lake Geneva and the parts of Switzerland we saw were beautiful. We did the usual tourist things like boat rides, art museums. We travelled to Montreaux and a little beyond. Stopped at Chateau de Chillon which is pictured on one of the Bill Evans albums. Driving through the valleys was interesting. There were ruins of castles everywhere. In Chamonix we took the cable cars up the Aiguille du Midi (sp?) to 13,000 feet elevation. The air's a little thin up there to be sure. It's right in the shadows of Mont Blanc. Skiers, mountain climbers, hang gliders and tourists in cable cars made for quite an interesting scene. Standing on the platform above the clouds and seeing the peaks of various mountains as far as the eye could see was one of the more awe inspiring sights I've ever seen. Coming through the tunnel du Mont Blanc on the way down to Florence was a bit of a disappointment. Looks like a very poor area. By the time we hit Tuscany though, Italy had turned into the beautiful country I had seen in pictures. In Florence, we hoped to see the great museums. The night we arrived, we walked to Il Duomo, found a great courtyard restaurant which to this day is the single best setting I've ever eaten at. Everything you could imagine. Brick courtyard, anciant fountain, small gardens, lights strung around for atmosphere. Picture perfect. The next morning we awoke to the new that a mafia car bombing outside the Uffizzi killed 6 and did substantial damage to the building and several paintings. All the museums in the city were shut down. We spent the day touring various sites and had one of the more interesting lunches ever. Right on the Piazza della Signora - which is right in front of the Uffizzi - we found a great little restaurant where we ate pizza, drank wine and watched anti-mafia demonstrators, riot police and CNN reporters do their thing. It was pretty exciting to be on the scene of a major news event like that. My wife even got on Italian TV we found out later as she could be seen in the background of an interview on the news. We left Florence a day early, and on the way to Cannes, stopped at Pisa. That tower was leaning as far as it ever had and was quite impressive. Cannes was fabulous. We traveled quite a bit around Provence hitting Monaco, Nice, Antibes, Juan les Pins, Menton, Grasse, St Paul du Vence. The Fondation Maeght was very impressive for both the quality of the collection and the setting. The beaches were fabulous and it was quite a thrill swimming in the Mediterranean. And the light. I now know what Matisse and the fauves painters saw when they described the light in Provence. Another thrill was the TGV from Cannes to Paris. Excellent ride. Another great trip was a short trip to London a few years ago. What a gas. Now that we've got children, we're doing more family oriented stuff. In the future, we'd like to do one of those jungle eco-tourist things. I've never wanted to go to Hawaii, but I'd love to go to some place like Tahiti or Bora Bora. New Zealand and Australia are two other hopeful future destinations.

Better late than never!

I'm pretty sure this is the first time they actually posted about returning defective CDs, and apologized at that. They must have really f'd it up big time. Usually they'd just give us the shaft, hope no one notices and sweep it under the rug.

Thanks, BW. As far as samplers go, that one looks okay. So it'll cost me about $.75 in postage to get the sampler then. Unless of course I crack the Soulive disc in half and send 'em the pieces in by conventional mail.

I ordered this online as well. I think I still have time to cancel though as my order is not going to be shipped until the 22nd with the Rare Grooves. I wonder what free sampler they're giving away? The thing that gets me about looking at the website today was that it does look like they sold out. Looks like they cleaned out the notices of reissues just in time to get the Soulive crowd and not have them look at some of the reissues and wonder "Who the hell is that????" But they didn't even do a good job of "selling out" They've got the Rare Grooves coming out and these could appeal to the Soulive bunch. They've got an Erik Truffaz on the horizon. Paul Jackson Jr . too. I hate to think that I have to be a quality control guy when I get my CD shipment. There really is no excuse for the mistakes they repeatedly make. And yes, this Soulive snafu will cost them a bundle. Notice that the hardore jazz fans did not get an apology for the Hutcherson mistake (or any of the others). Then again, maybe those courses at the local comunity college are starting to pay off.

By the way, I was looking for some info on new and upcoming releases. No info on the upcoming Rare Groove releases, none on the new Dexter 2 CD set. Nothing about the upcoming SACD releases. Not a mention about the May or Junw releases of EMI jazz labels. On the new release page, Madlib featured again. Recent releases by Jane Bunnett, DJ Smash, Soulive, Marissa Monte and the Norah DVD featured. No recent reissues featured. I did find out though that the Madlib disc is scheduled for a June 24th release.