Brad

Well, it's just like me to come along after the horses left the barn but since the early postings I hadn't bothered to look at this tread until Tod alerted it to me yesterday. What an incredible bunch of postings. Hats off to B-3er and Use3d and their father and to all those who stood up. While reading the whole thread, I was actually getting a little nervous about this site being affected. Great responses by Neon. And thank god for this site. Someone at some point wondered if Musicidiot was Tom. That thought passed through my mind also, albeit quickly. Musicboy made Berigan look positively saintly. Brad

Don't hold your breath!

I'm not the seller and this 4 CD set on Keynote from Hawk is hard to find. Plus the opening bid doesn't look bad either. I think I paid $60 for my copy.

I don't have a lot of Hodges but there's a new Proper box set out which I plan on picking up. So you may want to take a flier on that one. Also, Side by Side under Duke Ellington's name although it's really a Johnny Hodges cd is stupendous. It's actually 2 sessions. Duke anchors the piano chair on one 1 session and Billy Strayhorn the other. I think it's fabulous.

With those five selections, to me it comes down to two: Sonny Stitt or J.J. I'd never listened to Sonny that much before I picked up this box. I enjoyed every second of it and was never bored. The quality and the breadth is incredible. I became a devoted fan. You have to listen to this box to appreciate how incredible a musician he was. My favorite Mosaic, hands down. As a result of this Mosaic, I picked up almost any Sonny in cd I could find. Thank you, Mosaic. JJ? I discovered Bobby Jaspar as a result and you'll love flute after this. This is an amazing Mosaic. Trombone is an instrument that I find fascinating, all thanks to this Mosaic. It's a tough choice but I'd say go for the J.J. It's likely to go oop before Sonny. I don't have the Jones so I can't comment. Of the other two, Turrentine is the next best choice. Good stuff but not in the class of the other 2. I've listened to some of the Hodges lately and while I like it, I'd still choose between the Stitt and the J.J.

I bought that Open Door material awhile ago and found it very hard to listen to. It seemed even worse to me than the Benedetti Mosaic, which I found listenable and pretty enjoyable. I have the Philology series in toto and there is some great stuff on there. I didn't find the sound that bad. Probably my favorite live session that comes to mind is the material from the Finale Club in LA which is on Volume 18 (848). Of the Jay McShann period, there's that Early Bird although I think Spotlite put that out and has the McShann Orchestra from 1940 in Wichita, Kansas and in 1943 from NY plus 1 cut (but it's Cherokee!) from Clark Monroe's in 1941. There's also another cd from Decca (Grp) called Blues from Kansas City. That one shouldn't be too hard to get. A lot of this features an altoist, now largely unknown named John Jackson, who sounded a lot like Bird. In fact some of the credits from this period sometimes say Charlie Parker or John Jackson, that's how close they sounded.

I'm not the seller but for those who don't have this Sonny Stitt CD, it's a great cd. I believe this is Volume 1. Sonny plays alto, tenor and bari on this one.

It should be great. I'd pay $70 for sure. How often do you get to see one of the legends?

I voted for Roy but there are many worthwhile candidates there. Buck is tremendous. And, unfortunately, I don't know everybody on the list and I probably should have voted for Bix, he was so influential, but there it is.

When it comes to Bird, sonic purity shouldn't be the criteria. You're going to find stuff with good sound but not like you'd hear from Rudy. The Verve recordings should be good however and since Verve sometime will be releasing the master takes of what's on the Bird box, I'm sure the sound will probably be somewhat better. Somebody once said that when it comes to sound or the lack of great sound, the best filter for removing the bad sound is your ears. Getting back to the original question, no one has mentioned his JATP work. There's some great Bird in that set. I'd recommend the whole set but if you just want Bird material, it's on the Verve box. Other material I'd recommend is Charlie Parker and the Stars of Modern Jazz at Carnegie Hall, Christmas 1949 (Jass Records 16), Charlie Parker - An Evening at Home with the Bird - Savoy MG 12152 (SV-0154) and Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie - Diz ‘n Bird at Carnegie Hall - Roost (CDP 7243 8 57061 2 7).

Made the obvious choice and voted for Green. Guys I really like though are Herb Ellis and Tal Farlow. One guy I could just never get into and doesn't do anything for me is Wes Montgomery. Just doesn't have Grant's soul, IMHO. But that's just me.

A person you could have included but is often overlooked is Bill Harris. Way underrated. His work with Flip is very good and the first cd High Note put out with him and Charlie Ventura is also good (the second, not as good).

Understanding that you can't pick everybody, I still would have included Wyton Kelly, definitely a contemporary of all those people. Horace is the man for me. He is the trail blazer after Bud. Everyone else is second in my book. Can't believe he got so few votes.

I tried to vote for Shirley (messed it up somehow, though). She really cooked. But so did a lot of the others. Very hard list to choose from. You could vote for Jimmy Smith, the groundbreaker and not lose any sleep over it. John Patton, Larry Young come next for me. The albums Baby Face made for BN are tops. His Argo albums not as good.

As long as he's got a few unused $5,000 or so lying around, shouldn't be a problem

Well, I didn't read the comments but there are a lot of people out there who maybe don't have the individual cds or the box so this 2 cd set can't be a bad idea. Plus, I think it's a good way, as Ed said, to celebrate Dexter's contributions. It's also a nice way to keep his name in the jazz buying public's mind, especially with the release of the Steeplechase box. Alsol, there's also a nice essay there from his wife. I'm glad Blue Note did this.

I guess I fell for that one, hook, line and sinker

That the 4 Sophmores even received one vote is sad. Ed, with all due respect, what mold is breaking, what boundaries is it expanding and what limits is it pushing. You can't mean the musical molds, boundaries or limits. It's possible it's expanding the customer base. If that's what we want to do, let's put out a Kenny G set. Do I have this set? No, but I have listened to some clips and as the saying goes, "a little goes a long way."

Eric, That's real bad but why did you let them use it that way. You're ruining the box as it is. My Mosaics are way up high where my son can't touch 'me. But he also knows better than to do that either.

I saw Kelly-Mobley on Ebay from Fresh Sounds. I'm not the seller but I do have it and the playing from everybody is excellent.

Sal, I believe Kevin Bresnahan had talked to Michael about this and had indicated that this might come out in the future. Perhaps Kevin has some more details.

Having taken a look at the list, and since they're all blue, Midnight Blue fits right in with this series

In those ebay auction, they're kind of a dark blue, odd looking.

If y'all take a look at the Miscellaneous Music Forum section, and scroll down, there's a thread about the now defunct Planet Music and the jazz messengers group. Apparently, some people got burned by them going out of business so abruptly. I just looked and there's a couple of these on Ebay from a spanish seller named spanichi.

I'm not the seller but check out this offering of Red Garland cds from Japan on ebay. Looks like a great deal.