T.D.

This somewhat earlier one is also a favorite:

I really enjoy Al Haig's "later" vintage recordings.

In a surprise move, Johnny Manziel released by CFL's Montreal Alouettes, CFL doesn't want him on any team.

Thanks for posting that link, John. I played a lot of rec league hockey in Westchester County in the '90s. Had to wonder if I ever encountered IG's team, but no. I never played in Manhattan (where his team's leagues were located), and I surely would have remembered those jerseys and team name.

!!! I'm almost completely out of touch with popular culture, but today heard a tune on the radio while driving around that really impressed me. St. Paul and the Broken Bones, Got it Bad Soul band of nerdy-looking mostly white guys from Birmingham. Pretty funky IMO. Apparently they're fairly big and have even been on network TV a few times...but I never heard of them before (don't have TV).

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.