T.D.

Agreed with much of what you say. The party line (posted on the forum by people who communicate with Mosaic) is that the Selects did not work out financially for them. I infer that's likely true of the Mosaic singles as well. My Mosaic purchases have seriously tapered off. Much more likely to buy second-hand copies, but only if price is attractive. I agree with TTK's above post in that buying a pricey bulky box set, most of whose contents I already own, just to get one or two sessions or a handful of unreleased tracks, is of little interest. Bottom line: I've never seen Mosaic's financial books and never will. I assume that what Mosaic does reflects a time/labor commitment and financial return that works for the principals (Michael / Scott). Without seeing the books, my commentary on their business amounts to pointlessly talking out of my ass. 🤣

Yup. I responded, 61-70 but I only started "seriously" collecting jazz recordings when almost 50. Which is when I started with Selects and then larger boxes. Speaking of demographics, it's been a long-ass time since I noticed an Organissimo forum post authored by a woman...🤣

Good to see someone went for the John Cage number pieces by Apartment House...I seriously considered it when released, but already own a boatload of various number piece recordings. I listened to a bunch of samples and fully expect it's a great set if you like that sort of thing.😉

I'd buy the Strozier in a nanosecond, even though I already own a large majority of the material on single CDs.👍 Of course it'll never happen, and I may get flamed for this, but I truly don't believe Mosaic would be the right firm for the project. I fear their treatment would suck the life out of the material. Billy Harper was mentioned many times on the original thread. I'd certainly like to see such a release, though he doesn't really strike me as a "Mosaic kind of artist". Gotta believe there would be rights problems. Vaguely related (BH had some Soul Note releases), I really mourn the demise of the Black Saint / Soul Note box sets. They never got around to a number of worthy projects, e.g. Billy Bang, and I wish somebody could resume the series.

I think Yamashita's Rhapsody in Blue is a classical-type album, including some pieces by Western composers and one of Y's own compositions. But I can't find/recall the link where I read about it.

Don't know how reliable The Independent is (I regularly do their cryptic crosswords, but that's it): https://www.independent.co.uk/news/jazz-star-ronnie-scott-dropped-suicide-hints-1316088.html

Many thanks, gentlemen. I've upped purchases of Japanese CDs and will likely start going to the source. I've been down on Amazon for quite a while, but have never visited Amazon.jp, so will take a look there also.

Possibly dumb question, this seems like the best place to post it. I've never ordered from CDJapan before. I see a number of interesting items shown as "Backorder: usually ships in 2-4 weeks" Do those backorders have a significant chance of getting filled? I wouldn't order backorder items from most domestic US sites because I figure they'd go unfilled.

If one regularly reads comment fields on Internet posts (I prefer to ignore them), the idiots and WTF moments are (in effect) infinite... 🤮

I'm amazed by this. Honest. I admit being totally out of touch with popular culture, and never heard of that comic. But I'd have thought that Hank Mobley's name recognition was practically zero. Outside a certain narrow circle, of course. 🙄

PM on Albert Ayler: 1966: Berlin, Lorrach, Paris & Stockholm Revisited (Ezz-thetics) $12 Marion Brown: Capricorn Moon to Juba Lee Revisited (Ezz-thetics) $7 Marion Brown: Why Not? Porto Novo! Revisited (Ezz-thetics) $7

Enjoying this Aketagawa album (Erotical Piano Solo & Grotesque Piano Trio) on Youtube:

I've always assumed that was legit. The download offered on Bandcamp ought to be legit if the Issued under license from Sun Ra LLC language can be believed?

Thanks, Randy. This was a nice BFT. Early in the month, I was really busy and couldn't give more than a cursory listen. Then I peeked at the thread, so guessing was out. Turns out that 2, 3 and 7 are in my collection. 11 is a reminder of something I put on a wish list but never acquired. 15 is from one of the (relatively) few Ra albums I don't have and has been on the want list for a long time. Many good eye-openers among the others.

Couple of recent purchases from this forum and this, which I only recently found and really enjoy

I like Richie Kamuca, and his output as leader would fit into a Mosaic-size package, but there are too many questions I can't answer in the affirmative: 😢 A "Mosaic-type" artist? Was he a major enough figure? Would it be feasible rights-wise? Would enough people care?

While browsing Youtube I came across this...uh..., assertive Abe / Takayanagi collaboration (Disintegration of the Sympathetic). Fun to listen to, but I'm too timid to consider acquiring a recording. 😶 Less "out" than what we've been discussing, but Rooster_Ties (Tom?) recommended this (a couple of years ago?) on the forum. I dug it and it started me on the Japanese jazz path.

I just made an additional commitment to this area. The first two are pretty obvious choices, plus some ventures. 🙄 Shuko Mizuno, Jazz Orchestra 73 Yosuke Yamashita, Clay Shoji Aketagawa, Alone in Tokuyama (great Monkish playing, will have to get used to the vocals) Tsunoda Hiro, Summer Samba (love Aketagawa's playing here, with fewer vocalisations but wonkily tuned piano 😉) and one shot in the dark Johnny's Disk release, Yoshimi Ueno, Sea Sound (sounds vaguely ECM-ish, but some interesting and slightly more outside tenor and guitar solos) Either I'm going to get hosed, or I got the last copies of each (DG), because everything reverted to "temporarily out of stock" after I placed the order...

All I know about Noto is from the liner notes to Dexter Gordon's True Blue (Xanadu, 1977), which mention: Born Buffalo, NY 1930. Played with Kenton (1953-60) and Basie ("briefly" mid-60s) big bands, later moved to Las Vegas to play in show bands.

Imagine the devastation at Mosaic...😢...I'm sure they were raptly following every word of the discussion. 🤣

Indeed...in my limited Youtube explorations, his recordings seemed rather, uh, quirky. 🤔 His "Aketa's Disk" label in general, actually. Going to look elsewhere for now. Summer Samba was most immediately listenable, but I'm not so much into bossa nova, let alone deconstruction thereof.

To be honest, I'm a newbie as admitted above. Yamashita and Satoku Fujii are the only "modern" Japanese pianists I've heard to a significant degree. I like Fujii, but it's impossible to keep up with all her recordings and I somewhat prefer Yamashita. I'd like to branch out a bit and explore others before going completist on the Yamashita discography. Appreciate the Aketagawa mention. I'm going to root around Youtube and Bandcamp.

Thanks for the recommendations, I'd be in on the Sakata and Yamashitas. The Takagi sets look good, but solo and duo are not my favorite formats, so will hold off. Browsing Dusty's site recently, this Abe set got my attention, but I passed for the same reason (solo/duo): I'm kind of a pianophile and have really enjoyed the freeish Japanese piano jazz I've heard.

Many thanks, great info on both books. Blue Nippon is one of the university press books I alluded to earlier. Interesting question: should I go for that, or the Soejima? Can't say right now...I'm more interested in the freer music, but Blue Nippon might be the better read. Granted one can't expect stylish prose from a Ph.D. thesis. 😉