T.D.

Agreed. And the e-mail/website info I've read is really sloppy. For instance, the recent preorder e-mail said it's a 7-CD set, but everything else says 8 CDs.

I read a review of The Man Without Qualities that piqued my interest, flipped through a used copy of Vol. 1 at a bookshop, but the novel's length scared me off.

This had been on the wish list for a while, price has fallen and there was a $5 eBay coupon. I like weird microtonal string music. Had this in cart @ Berkshire but it went out of stock. Broke down and bought from Amazon. I know there's a more recent set (played by Haba Quartet), but that's considerably more expensive.

!!! I have the (relatively) recent 3-cd "Complete Varese" cond. by Chailly (plus a few recordings of scattered individual pieces).

I only have about 3 of the individual CDs, but that's because I listen to the earlier work more often. Still likely to preorder - I just have to consider how often I'll listen to albums like A Caddy for Daddy, and also do an "arbitrage calculation" of how much it'd cost to amass the constituent CDs I lack. The "remastering" hype doesn't grab me.

Seeing these posts compelled me to spin discs 4-6 (the later quartets).

Tape loop / electroacoustic / sampling. Don't know what to call it, but it all works well.

I received the e-mail "Mosaic Jazz Gazette" today for the first time in some weeks, and the upcoming Mobley wasn't mentioned. Strange. Looks like Mosaic's confident enough to press 2,500, no preorder survey required. I'll most likely go for this although, objectively, a lot should depend on the (as yet unknown) quality of remastering.

Oddly, this disc concludes with Monk's Ruby My Dear.

Ingrid Haebler was one of the pianists whose recordings were fraudulently issued as the work of Joyce Hatto. A highly bizarre story about which much can be found on the Internet.

On a Different Level was the first Brignola recording I bought, only a few years ago. Fantastic, completely blew me away and I've since bought most of the Reservoirs. OaDL remains my favorite. The lineup is stellar as noted above. I seriously considered the Beehive Mosaic mainly because it had two Brignola sessions, but wound up having too many reservations to go for that mega-set. I was in school in the Albany area in the late '70s-early '80s, had many opportunities to see Brignola (and separately JR Monterose, iirc) live. I knew next to nothing about jazz at that time and regrettably never went.

The Complete 10-Inch Series from Cold Blue Not sure this fairly obscure box is "Classical" (late '70s-early '80s California "New Music"), but will call it that.

I discovered and was fascinated by "Alice in Wonderland" as a child, so have known that odd word almost my entire life. Even remember the line: O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

I think it's fascinating. Only covers up to about 1959, lots of attention devoted to Ra's very early music/influences/experiments including doo-wop, R&B, relatively little material from well-known albums. Narrative and production by Michael Anderson quite good. Not so much of an Arkestra chronicle but a major documentation of where Ra (musically) came from. Hard to say if it's worth the money, depends on one's fanaticism. I got it through this forum (when Stefan W. was selling off his collection) at a reasonable price. The "Singles" collection (which I haven't heard) might give a bit of the box's flavor for a lot less $...I see that the Singles set includes some Jochanan material alluded to but pointedly not included in the Transparency box, so it may be of independent interest.

Possibly a sign of my insanity... ...discs 12-14 now, maybe more later.

Excellent recordings, agreed. Wow - I bought these at super-budget price, but the box seems to have gone OOP and is now offered at extortionary levels.

Wow, thanks for the warning. I think I've bought a couple of single CDs from momox with no problems, but I've been considering a used box set. Will shelve the plan. I doubt overgrading is rare among Euro Amazon sellers - I avoid used items from Zoverstocks due to unfortunate experience in that regard.

Bump

Not wholly off-topic: An interesting story came out about a week ago. Because of a dispute concerning the KC Chiefs' income tax, reporters were able to examine tax returns from 2008 through 2010. Some not-so-surprising conclusions re. revenue sharing, lack of incentives to win. The article also says that MLB has much less broadcast revenue sharing than the NFL.

! Interesting observation.