T.D.

Thanks for posting this. I have a Mobley order in hyperspace. Was going to complain to Mosaic and post a rant on this forum, but will pass and give it some more time.

! A personal favorite

Thanks! Spun this yesterday: And now this: An extremely funny Rossini opera. Though much of the music is taken from Il viaggio a Reims, Ory has independent value. I saw a memorable live performance many years ago.

Listening on Youtube to The Rhine Gold from the Goodall (English language) Ring cycle. Really interesting...the English does not sound weird (as I feared), and Goodall's notoriously slow tempi seem to work. I'm not in the market for another Ring recording, but may buy one of the Goodall operas to listen in detail.

The outfit doing the shipping is IMO not competent. I recall ordering the Mingus and receiving an Eddie Condon. Scott put it right, but I suspect it was his effort rather than the shippers'. I ordered the Mobley just 1 week ago. Got an order confirm, but no shipping notice yet. But I paid via Paypal and specified media mail, which I suspect are 2 "kisses of death" ( my bad): for Paypal transactions Mosaic takes the money right away rather than when the order ships, and the confirm warned that media mail takes extra time.

RIP. Went through some big changes over the years. I became vaguely aware of Imus around the time of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, when he pulled some outrageous stunt (details of which I forget) at his Radio City (iirc) studio. He then came off as a wild substance-abusing madman. I became a fan for quite a while, starting in the mid '90s when Imus was on WFAN. He went serious to a degree and mixed legit discussions of books, current events, etc. with his patented outrageous shit (some of which was really funny). [However, even at that time I heard some detailed "insider accounts" of Mr. Imus's behavior that were far from flattering.] After I moved away from the NYC area in 2001 and lost that "NYC edgy attitude / energy" I quickly found his schtick less appealing. By the time of his assholic 2007 "nappy-headed ho" meltdown I hadn't paid attention in years.

I just found quite a bit of interesting classical and placed an order, breaking a long dry spell (at least 3 years, as best I can recall). The BRO website still sucks bad wind IMO, and required a considerable degree of patience to navigate.

Deathtrap? I saw the Broadway play (by Ira Levin) c. 1980 and enjoyed it, but didn't see the later film. Doubt I'll watch Knives Out, either.

I was a major customer in the late '90s through mid -00s. Have not shopped there for at least 2 years because the new website (esp. search engine) was absolute dogshit. BRO supposedly fixed the search engine a month or two ago, and it does look better. I'm still on their weekly e-mail list, and my last few searches didn't find anything compelling, but I only looked for classical. [Added] Even in recent years, until the website went to pot, I found Berkshire a great source for recordings of Renaissance polyphonic music; they always have a great inventory of Hyperion CDs (and some more exotic labels if the search engine is up to snuff). Also a few UA classical boxes, e.g. Budapest '51-52 Beethoven quartets (OK, that was before the cheaper/better Sony box came out ).

This Poulenc box is tempting. Best prices seem to be from Europe, e.g. Presto (of whom I'm leery due to past credit card hack ) and Amazon UK.

Sorry about image size, it's the only pic of this obscure release I could find.

A good one! I have it as part of the excellent Black Saint / Soul Note box, from which the solo recordings are my favorites.

I saw that (German) documentary a couple of years ago. Definitely worth viewing. Strongly agree with your last 2 sentences. The film made it very clear that FZ really wanted to be viewed as a "serious composer". I attended a few concerts that included FZ's "serious" compositions and was a bit underwhelmed by them.

This oddball release (I don't often go for multiple composer recordings) got some favorable mentions on a classical bulletin board I read. Will investigate further.

I own and enjoy that one, though it's not "essential" IMO. Ditto for the Stefan Wolpe piano disc (fan of the composer). Not high on Schleiermacher who's a frequent pianist on the label, but I agree w. the Soviet avant-garde piano suggestion above. I think the Galina Ustvolskaya piano sonatas are awesome, but have not heard the hat [now] Art recording. If the price is right... Pi-Hsien Chen (her Schoenberg recommended above) is excellent IMO; her Boulez disc is probably good if you like that sort of thing (I enjoy her Boulez/Barraque on another label), and there are a few others by her I haven't heard.

Not at home so can't take inventory, but I really like this one: And off the top of my head, all the hat [now] Art Morton Feldman discs I've heard are recommendable. Of course, many alternatives to the above are available.

Will see this shortly when it arrives in the area.

I actually saw him sing in an obscure 1982 German film Dear Mr. Wonderful ! Not sure just why I saw it...I think I had (1983) just moved to NYC, discovered the Film Forum cinema, and that was playing.

Track #6 with oboe fascinated me. Based purely on the Philly hint, the group must be Catalyst? Highly interesting personnel, but I've never heard them . Will take some more work to identify the tune. OK, East by Catalyst; originally on eponymous 1972 Cobblestone album, found a clip from the 32 Jazz 2-disc compilation. Odean Pope on oboe! Thanks for the enjoyable BFT, my first participation.