DrJ

Interested parties will kindly direct their attention here: Summertime: Sidney Bechet & the Port of Harlem Jazzmen TOCJ-66007 Part of the mega hard to find "Blue Note Classics" series of CDs, issued by Toshiba in the late 90s and covering Blue Note's early days. I have finally now acquired all of this music on various Mosaic LPs so no longer need the CD. It's a killer, great and mostly obscure early (1939-40) Blue Note recordings in good sound - the likes of Frankie Newton, Josh White, and JC Higginbotham in addition to Bechet. $5.99 initial bid, no reserve, happy bidding!

Well, I can see both of your points...but now that Concord has bought the catalogs in question, and it seems as though a lot of material stands to go out of print, now would be a GREAT time for Mosaic to revisit this idea. And while I enjoyed Fantasy's boxed sets, there were way too few of them IMHO.

I'm almost certain this has been discussed before and that the consensus was that regular Mosaics are NOT sold in sequential order. Probably could do a search to see. I do think they are numbered in pressing batches but I don't think you can rely on when you get a particular number to determine how many sets overall have sold.

Fantastic music. You're in for a treat!

One of my favorite musicians. Long live Grant Green!

Count me in as a Baker fan, particularly his early 50's work, although there are some really awesome records after that too (the stuff recorded in Italy in the early 60s for example) - it's just that the great to good or not so good ratio was less favorable. Hell, I even like the umpteen times reissued LAST RECORDINGS for what they are - most of the life was gone but even then there was still a fragile beauty in his expression of the melody, somehow retaining a glimmer of what he once had been. But that partnership with Freeman early on, man oh man...less heralded than the work with Mulligan but personally I find it far more favorable in terms of Baker's contribution. Baker's reliance on ear playing resulted in an edge-of-chair unpredictability that was really fresh and exciting. The down side for me is that on many recordings, in his solos you can hear him repeatedly paint himself into musical corners that he really can't figure out how to get out of without very audible difficulty - and that can be cringe-inducing. That's another reason I prefer the Freeman to the Mulligan work - with the pianoless configuration his harmonic frailties were brutally exposed and at times he sounded truly down and out, lugubrious even. With Freeman buoying him up, he soared. Blistering, happy music.

...Defense Fund...Defense Fund...Defense Fund...

Sidewinder - I bought mine back when I didn't even own a turntable...so mine is the CD version. Man, if those are going for $400 I don't even want to KNOW what your LP set is worth (not that you'd ever sell it I'm sure)!!! Someday I hope to pick up that Q-LP version...

Look here! Blues, Boogie, and Bop - available and at a fair price! Well worth $60 or so, I love this box. The rare Mary Lou Williams and Professor Longhair stuff alone are worth it to me.

If a tape speed correction has resulted in the track length being extended by around 40 seconds, then the earlier version must have sounded like "THE CHIP-MONKS!!!"

I will be picking this one up for SURE...but I agree with Big Al: The time is NOW...

I can't really comment on whether the set is "worth" what it sells for, money wise, but musically it is one of my top 3-5 favorite Mosaics. It just really strikes a chord with me. It's true the first half is strongest but with a standard that high that is hardly a slight of the rest of the material. To me, it's all essential music. To address someone's earlier question about reverb: by my recollection, there is a note somewhere in the booklet about reverb having been largely removed for the Mosaic remastering but I can't say 100% for sure until checking when I get home.

Sigh...you are really good at making me spend more money Wolff...

Yeah, COMES A TIME is a great Neil Young album. Maybe not his "best" from a purely artistic standpoint - lacking the edginess of his best work - but one of his most consistently enjoyable/playable records for me over the years. There's a nice vibe therein. Wolff - so you are a fan of those Classic Records BN mono editions, eh? I've been curious...will have to pick one or two up and give them a try. The prices for original pressings on those on eBay are cray-zee IN-sane...

I really, really dig Rowles. The stuff with Billie - desert island material. Love THE PEACOCKS, just picked up a near minty vinyl copy a couple months ago and have been thoroughly enjoying it (wonderful vocals!). And another endorsement for the Ray Brown duets - 2 CD reissue of all those on Concord a couple years ago is in really good sound. SOMETIMES I'M HAPPY, SOMETIMES I'M BLUE is very fine too. Great accompaniment on MULLIGAN MEETS WEBSTER and SAX A LA CARTER as well. I want MORE...

Yeah, I won't be holding my breath until the Burton set does/doesn't happen, but it's nice to know there's hope!

Yes, for some strange reason hardly anyone seemed to have found the listing for that Davis/Evans Mosaic LP set that I won...as I recall the only way I could get it to come up in eBay's search engine was to put in "Evans Mosaic" which is probably why - some odd quirk of how it was listed I guess, but a lucky circumstance for me! I just got a Master Jazz Piano LP box this week for $79 which is also kind of a good deal I think! Congrats on winning the Davis/Evans CD boxed set Brad! Glad it went to someone on the board, and at a good price to boot!

Kenny Burrell - FREEDOM (BN Japan) Johnny Hodges - Verve Recordings 1951-55 (Mosaic), Side 3 Beatles - WHITE ALBUM (German Apple 1st pressing)

Hey cool Lon - great news about the Burton RCA set being in the running! I posted this thread a while back suggesting that very set and there was a nice discussion that ensued: Burton RCA Mosaic Idea I guess enough little birds from this board (and probably elsewhere!) must have also planted the idea in MC's ear!

No doubt the "crap to strong material" ratio increased rapidly after the first couple records, but even up through around VIII (I think that's the one with the sewn patch on the cover - I remember 'cause I bought it back in grade school and it came with a way-cool iron-on T-shirt transfer! ) there is worthy stuff on each album. They went from being a reasonably cool jazz-influenced LP oriented band to a tight pop singles band in those years - so I agree with Dan Gould's assessment. I still enjoy stuff like "Feeling Stronger Every Day," "Saturday In the Park," "Old Days," etc from those III-VIII years. After Terry Kath's unfortunate death shortly after finishing VIII, they lost a lot of their remaining balls and it all rapidly devolved. Kath was a pretty cool guitarist IMHO, by the way. "Oh Thank You Great Spirit" on VIII was something. He had an instantly identifiable, appealing sound with the combo of axe/amp/pedal effects he used.

I personally think that in this day and age that when one sells a vinyl record product, it ought to be pretty goddam quiet - period. It doesn't matter to me what the problem is - pressing plant, mastering, improper storage, whatever - if it's noisy, it's inexcusable to sell it. Vinyl for better or worse is now a largely audiophile niche market. Sure when I buy a cheap, somewhat worn copy of a 30+ year old record I'm not going to bitch about crackle and pop, and I still enjoy many such records (the bulk of my collection is made up of same, in fact). But when I shell out a premium amount of cash for something touted as brand new audiophile vinyl and it cracks and pops like crazy, then it's a major problem and the buyer has every right to be pissed that anyone tried to fob it off on them. And again, it's not the consumer's problem to figure out what went wrong or to be cowed into not complaining by touchy veteran industry insiders. FWIW - Hoffman is indeed not the only one who was involved with the DCC 180g audiophile vinyl series, but he was one of the major players (as the remastering engineer), and having a few of those titles I can tell you that I have yet to come across any vinyl that can match those titles for surface as well as overall sonic quality. Absolutely drop dead quiet, and a quality product in every single other way you can think of as well. The gold standard IMHO, a shining example that it can be done right and there's no excuse for that not happening.

I heartily agree Ed. I think Mosaic ought to strongly reconsider doing away with the Q LP versions of their sets. There is a vinyl resurgence underway and I think they're missing the boat - even smaller than prior runs would be welcome. Anyway I will say that the CD version of this set sounds quite good - I relistened yesterday while listing it and found that it has less of that harshness in the high end than many of the recent Columbia/Legacy CD reissues.

Davis/Evans Columbia CD box on the block - not sealed but in fantastic condition. I won the Mosaic LP set today, so this one has to go! Davis/Evans Complete Columbia Studio Sessions Once there, just click on the "View seller's other items" link to get to the 2 Hodges Verve CDs - CASTLE ROCK (Japanese 24 bit jewel case edition) and USED TO BE DUKE (US Verve). The latter is darn hard to find these days - on Amazon's used listings it was $19.95 at lowest listing. My initial bid is much lower!

I've been going crazy with vinyl since getting my new table - some favorites over the past 3-4 months: Sealed copy of Neil Young's COMES A TIME (Reprise) for $7.99! Sealed copy of XTC SKYLARKING (Geffen - this is the first pressing with "Mermaid Smiled" instead of "Dear God") for $12.99! Kenny Burrell - FREEDOM (Toshiba Japan) Beatles - MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR (Capitol - original mono pressing) Beach Boys - PET SOUNDS (DCC 180 gram vinyl - another sealed copy, $60 which is an amazing price for a sealed DCC record) Clash - LONDON CALLING (CBS UK original pressing) 4 of Bobby Hutcherson's Milestone LPs, $12.00 for the lot: COLOR SCHEMES, AMBOS MUNDOS, IN THE VANGUARD, and CRUISIN' THE BIRD Ike Quebec 45 Sessions and Johnny Hodges 51-56 Mosaic LP sets

This will be a good one - sign me up!