T.D.

Damn. I enjoyed spending lots of time and money in the 2 big NYC Towers (Village and Lincoln Center). The Village location had an annex that sold books and cutout CDs, as I remember; Lincoln Center had incredible classical/opera inventory, and also a bookstore. (My memories of the bookstores are foggy because there were many preferable booksellers in Manhattan). I even blew a lot of money at the (Yonkers? southern part of NYS 100 shopping strip) Westchester branch. It was clear that the chain overexpanded, and the sea changes in music preferences/distribution ensured there'd be no recovery.

It's glib and negative to be a doomsayer, but everything I've heard of / from Mosaic over the past few months clearly spells "liquidation" (I worked in the financial business and have been perusing financial news for decades). Would love to be proven wrong...

Damn...I'm out of touch with popular culture and didn't recognize the name (Google says ex-Howard Stern jokester). Item I purchased was mailed from PA, so I doubt it's the real guy (who seems to be a Long Islander), just an eBay handle.

I bought a Mosaic (Tristano, Konitz, Marsh) from jackie_martling last week. Will receive soon. Advanced search on eBay can find members or sellers. Ebay says (to search for a buyer, follow instructions below but click "Find a member" or "Find contact information" instead of "By seller"): To search for items by seller: Click the Advanced link at the top of the eBay home page. Under the Items heading on the left side of the page, click By seller. Enter the seller's user ID. If you're not sure of the seller's user ID, select the Show close and exact user ID matches option. Click the Search button.

Do you think they own the building? I expect they rent space; buying a building would require serious capital. Stanford office space has boomed over the past 25 years, so if Mosaic does own the Stamford building (which I seriously doubt), they probably have a sizable mark-to-market real estate profit. [Added] No possible way they own the building. 425 Fairfield Ave. in Stamford is 80,000 square feet on 5 acres, zoned industrial. There are a whole bunch of tenants beside Mosaic (which is in Suite 421).

Depends on how broad your interests are (e.g. "rareties and collectibles".) I expect the recordings would be seriously picked through by then. It's conceivable that Mosaic might stagger the offerings and put new inventory out on the weekend, but I seriously doubt it given the FCFS language.

Looks to me like Mosaic are setting up to close the Stamford office. I would guess (pure speculation) that if Mosaic stays in business to some degree, they'll maintain a smaller office.

Another sign of liquidation in today's "Sunday Jazz Gazette" e-mail: For the first time in our 35-year history, we are having an open house on March 22 to 25 at our Stamford, Connecticut headquarters. We are in the process of sorting out and assembling a number of Mosaic collectibles (no lists are yet compiled or available). Items will include. OUT OF PRINT CD SETS PARTIAL SETS TEST PRESSINGS OUT OF PRINT MOSAIC BOOKLETS MOSAIC SLICKS SUITABLE FOR FRAMING FRAMED PHOTOS & JAZZ ART AND OTHER RARETIES & COLLECTIBLES ALL AT SPECIAL PRICES. FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE. CASH, CHECKS, CREDIT CARDS AND PAYPAL ARE ACCEPTABLE. DATES & HOURS: Thursday March 22 & Friday March 23 from 11 am to 6 pm Saturday March 24 & Sunday March 25 from 11 am to 5 pm LOCATION: Mosaic Records 425 Fairfield Avenue Stamford CT 06902 (off I-95 exit 6) Directions available upon request

And an excellent one it is! Did the same not long ago.

Yes, the new set looks very interesting, but I will almost certainly stick with the old 2-disc set.

Sun Ra, Live in Rome (Transparency)

Not conclusive, but Krin Gabbard's biography Better Git It In Your Soul says (p.64) "Mingus's tenure with Columbia ended shortly after [Mingus Dynasty] possibly because of conflicts with Teo Macero. Others suspect that John Hammond, Columbia's legendary producer...decided it was time for Mingus to go. Charles would later refer to Hammond as 'John Ham-Head' and accuse him of lying about the sales of Mingus's records." In the same source, I could not find any theories about the two later Columbia albums.

I once bought a CD (from an obscure label) that was blank! The back of the disc had artwork, but the playing side was clearly empty; a weird misfire. I got a free replacement.

Surprising but pleasant experience today. Last night I was looking at Lennie Tristano CDs (thanks to a video posted on the pianist left hand thread), and noticed a "NM" Tristano/Konitz/Marsh Mosaic on eBay with a seemingly low current bid. I lobbed in a lowish (IMO) bid expecting to get soundly topped, but won it for $118.50 shipped. Looking forward to listening. [Added: This was the first time in years that I made a non-"Buy it Now" bid on eBay. Can't even recall the last time I did so.]

+1

Charles Tolliver (20), Denny Zeitlin, Andrew Hill (16), Randy Weston, Carmell Jones all get a lot of plays. I loved the series and was sorry to see it go.

Apparently it's included on a European CD. According to discogs site, Mingus, Art Blakey, Hank Mobley, Art Farmer (!)

No, "illustrations, graphics" credited to Karin Weinhandl.

Have been exploring Sun Ra's music, and this is the first '80s live material I tried. Was somewhat apprehensive, but it turned out to be terrific, very enjoyable.

Haven't shopped at Berkshire for a while, but I noticed that Daedalus Books & Music (remainder outlet; www.salebooks.com / salemusic.com ; site currently down) has been carrying lots of MDG titles for quite a while (at least a couple of years). I never pulled the trigger on any, though many discs seemed interesting.

This is the first book by Szwed I've read (yeah, I know he's written a few), and I'm impressed by his work.

I just saw this and enjoyed it. +1 on "The King's Speech". Have some misgivings about the Underground scene, but it did work dramatically (if rather manipulatively). But now I have to read up on Churchill's early career (early on in the film the King made negative comments about his many debacles including Gallipoli) and on the Dunkirk situation/evacuation (of which I have only rudimentary knowledge) in order to make a full appraisal. Out of curiosity, I also need to research why the Tories lost in 1945, ousting WC in favor of Attlee.