vibes

I've been listening to this set quite a bit lately, particularly the POLY-CURRENTS and THE ULTIMATE ELVIN JONES sessions. This is probably the most "out" set currently available from Mosaic, so if that's your thing, go for it! Since you're enjoying Donald Byrd's in the Chambers' set, I also highly recommend the Donald Byrd/Pepper Adams set. This is one of the sets I play the most. I was mostly unfamiliar with Byrd before buying the set and just wanted to get some more Blue Note in my collection, but it's turned out to be a favorite. If you've heard BIRD IN FLIGHT and enjoyed it, then you'll enjoy this box. Also, since it's only 4 discs, the cost won't be as prohibitive as the other sets you might be considering.

Oh, good - someone else noticed...I thought I might have been imagining that.

Since I generally have very little to do on Sundays, it's my favorite day for pulling out things I've recently purchased and listening to them. I also will make mp3's of new purchases so I can take them with me wherever I go. I've been sitting on decent-sized backlog, so today I'm planning on listening to a lot of new stuff: Jack Teagarden - Mis'ry and the Blues (my first experience with Jack Teagarden, have it on right now) Duke Ellington Reprise Mosaic (never heard any of Duke's big band work before, so I'm pretty excited to hear this) Illinois Jacquet Mosaic (also never heard any of this before, other than the sound samples at the Mosaic website) Johnny Hodges Mosaic (my wife got this for me for my birthday, and it needs a lot more attention than it's gotten) I think I might go buy the recently-released Charlie Christian box today. I didn't realize until last night that there's a lot of Hamp in this box, and after listening to some samples, I decided I MUST have this box.

The Jimmy Cleveland is still available at towerrecords.com (at least, it was when I ordered it a few days ago - just got it in the mail today ). It's now listed as "special order," but if you can't order it, at least you can hear a few song samples and decide if you want to track it down.

LOVE this album! The Rare Groove is the first time I've heard this album, and I've loved it since the first listen. This is one of the few albums I've heard that truly lived up to the high rating it received in the AMG. First and last tracks are my favorite. The last track is one of those tunes that takes me to "another place." The whole album strikes me as one where everyone sounds like they're having a great time, and that's one of the qualities that brought me to jazz in the first place. Highly recommended!

Damn you! I had no idea that one went for so much. When I first started posting on the BNBB, I wanted this one for my collection. Someone offered to sell me theirs for $75, and after looking around on eBay, half.com and a few other places, I decided I didn't need it that bad - $75 was the low end for this CD. Someone was nice enough to burn me a copy, and while it's good, it ain't $75-good.

Nope.

I saw one of these things at my office one morning. Have to say I was pretty impressed with it. This whole problem does seem pretty funny though, considering the price tag.

Some new stuff I picked up last night: John Klemmer - Involvement Al Grey - Snap Your Fingers Phil Woods and his European Rhythm Machine - Live at Montreux Buddy Rich and Sweets Edison - Buddy and Sweets Love the Verve LPR series! Great sound and a good way to learn about different musicians. All of the above CD's are the first I've heard of any of these musicians.

Tony, I got your PM and replied to it. Let me know if you don't get it - I got that weird error message too.

I have a sealed one, if you're interested...at least, I think it's sealed.

I have an MP3-CD player in the car, so I do lots of different mixes, or entire CD's of just one artist. Here are some of my current mixes (all on one CD) Complete Herbie Hancock BN sessions/Complete Miles Davis Live at the Plugged Nickel Sessions Stanley Turrentine - All of the Mosaic sessions, a few of his CTI sessions, the Blue Hour sessions, a few later BN sessions Bobby Hutcherson - All of his 60's BN albums that I have, plus several of the sessions where he's a sideman, from "One Step Beyond" to "Firebirds." Heavier rock - an assortment of Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots and 311 albums Bill Evans - Complete Riverside sessions Verve LPR - all of the CD's I've purchased from the last few waves of LPR releases. Lots of variety! I can't recommend the in-dash MP3-CD player enough, especially if you spend a lot of time in the car. I love having that much variety available with me.

I've got 24 of these, and in general have loved what I've heard. Like Tony, I've found these to have excellent sound and interesting notes. It's a very good way to discover new music. I started off with "Orgasm" (not a bad way to start ), and went from there. I had never heard of the series when I bought the CD, but really liked what I saw and heard and wanted to have more. Some of my favorites from the series: Ed Thigpen - Out of the Storm (buy it if you can find it! Great cover art, too) Yusef Lateef - Before Dawn (a few very interesting compositions on this one, and I really like the use of the celeste in some places) Johnny Smith - (amazing guitarist, always a pleasure to listen to. Unfortunately, this is one of the more expensive ones to purchase these days, as it's hard to come by. I think I paid $40 for mine) Walt Dickerson - Impressions of a Patch of Blue (Sun Ra helps to make this date something really special) If anyone is looking to buy more of these or finish off their collection, I have a beat up copy (CD is perfect, packaging is beat up) of the Stitt and sealed copies of the Getz and Gillespie that I'd be willing to part with for the right price.

Weizen, I'd look into a DVD burner. I just backed up mp3's I made from Mosaics to a DVD-RW, and I got 4.7GB on one DVD. If you do decide to go this route, look for a drive that has DVD +-R/RW capabilities, so that you won't have to worry about DVD formats or the like (there's no one "accepted" standard yet). I use an external firewire hard drive and also find it a very helpful tool to have around. It's worth looking into as well. There are lots of Best Buy stores in Northern VA, and any of them would be able to help you with this.

RUN and get the Dickerson and Farlow VEE's - they're excellent and if they can be had at a decent price, then so much the better.

Only one: Tyrone Washington - Natural Essence I had been looking for this one on eBay for a long time, so when I saw it with a low buy it now, I jumped on it. I was pretty pissed when I discovered it was an LP. I've never had (and probably never will have) a turntable. It's a Japanese pressing, never opened. If someone wants it, I'll sell it for $17 postpaid to a US address.

Another thumbs up for the Verve Elites. I really wish they'd bring this series back. I bought most of them because I liked the packaging and the sound of the first one I bought (Alan Shorter). I had never heard of most of the artists, so it was a great way for me to discover new music. The RVG, Conn and LPR series serve the same purpose for me now. I like the LPR series a lot - tons of new music that I've never heard before, that I'd probably never have paid attention to otherwise.

I have 54 of these, not including the West Coast Classics or CD's in other formats. I guess I hadn't really thought about how many of these I'd purchased. I had the same reaction when I counted up all the RVG's I have in the other thread and found that I had 70 or so. Blue Note's got me by the left testicle.

Overlooking the monastery/surrounding area.

Pagodas built in memory of past great Shao Lin monks.

Kenny, I don't practice it so I can't speak from personal experience, but as Pfunkjazz mentioned, there is a very meditational aspect to Shao Lin martial arts that I think would interest you. I visited the Shao Lin monastery in China where these martial arts originated, and the "fighting monks" were simply amazing. If you're looking for a way to increase strength and agility, based on what I saw, Shao Lin kung fu might be for you...but then, the monks at this monastery also use the martial arts as a way to purify their minds and focus on Buddhism, so you'd get the meditational aspect of the arts as well. It's a very interesting combination I've not heard of elsewhere. It's worth reading more about. I've attached a picture from a demonstration at the monastery. These monks have such strong stomach muscles that they can put a bowl on their stomach, then suck their stomach in and NO ONE can get the thing off. I've never seen anything like it anywhere else.

jmjk, many of the discography pages on the Mosaic website list who did the transfers and at what bitrate they were transferred. Here's an example from the Randy Weston discography page: Rremixed from the original three-track masters (D & E) transferred in 24-bit and mastered by Malcolm Addey at the Malcolm Addey Studio, New York City. Session C is mono. All others are stereo. Randy Weston Mosaic Select Discography I hope this helps. By the way, I just checked a couple of older sets and it does say who did the transfers but not at what bitrate. What Chuck says is very true, however - the bitrate is not the most important thing. I, like many people here, really like the masterings done by Malcolm Addey. His non-24-bit work is fabulous. I also just noticed that if you pull up the HRS sessions discography page, at the bottom you also get the OOP Phil Woods 20th anniversary set discography. Weird!

What's Texas toast, by the way?

This seems kind of strange. I just got this set last week, and mine is #4931. Could that many of them have been sold at retail? Or perhaps Mosaic is shipping them out of sequence?

Free For All, you are correct. That album is in the Verve box and has never been on CD elsewhere. That was my initial exposure to McFarland - it's a GREAT album. Very, very interesting arrangements, very sublime. I'd like to hear more music along these lines, if McFarland ever recorded any.