DrJ

Yeah, I'd agree about the Wilson - my thinking has evolved, I used to find it a little samey sounding but over time you pick out little subtleties, as is so often the case with Wilson. Don't miss it, unlikely that much of this material will see individual session reissue by Universal.

Man, are you on target on BOTH accounts. That 2CD JRVG is one of my prized posessions, and the Hoffman SACD is fantastic, probably the greatest upgrade in sound from a prior CD remastering I've ever come across in jazz. I am and have always been a huge Sonny Clark fan, as far as I'm concerned he seldom played at less than an other-wordly level. Not a great innovator, not a showy guy, but a consummate musician and as soulful and communicative as a jazz pianist ever has been. The clincher for me is his time feel - there's a sense of bounce and forward movement that is totally unique.

I go in streaks, with stops and starts from week to week while keeping to an overall annual budget that is well within our means. Having a young child makes keeping current a bit more challenging for sure - more on-line buying, less lengthy browsing trips to brick and mortar stores. I seldom get so far behind on listening to new purchases that I feel uncomfortable about it - and when I do, I slow down for a month. By the end of that I feel ready to explore more new stuff. I can sense I'm getting to a point where in the near future the buying probably will slow just because I am running lower on stuff that I'm truly interested in and don't already have. But I still feel that just about every Mosaic set is worth owning, and don't see that part changing anytime soon!

Fascinating, if not quite up to the level of the master, are the three alternate takes of "Upstairs Blues Downstairs" from the Sam Rivers Mosaic box. Very revealing in terms of the development of a piece to the point where the tempo and feel become as close to perfect as you can get, after starting off lacking in both categories somewhat.

Dredging this one up from the past: Because I just came across it. Hell, about a year ago I found this in a used store and paid all of about $60!!! Lucky find. Holy cow, $356!!!

I'm a bit confused - I have a U.S. CD remastering of VOLUNTEERS from just a few years ago at most that sounds really good. I suppose anything could be improved, and wouldn't pass on a state of the art new version - it's always been my favorite Airplane album - but the one I have sounds great, especially compared to my old whipped vinyl.

Posting about the two Vee Jay Mosaics, each of which feature a bunch of alternate takes that I find interesting in terms of solo differences, it got me thinking. What are some of your favorite alternate takes? One that's fresh in my mind right now is the alt of "Arietis" from READY FOR FREDDIE, since I've been revisiting that one since the RVG hit the streets. While I can see why Lion went for the master he did because it's a little more technically polished, the alternate is actually a ton of fun to listen to and I find myself preferring it. The solos are just a little more "out on the edge," with some particularly jaw-dropping acrobatics from Freddie, and just LISTEN - I mean really LISTEN (David Sedaris fans will appreciate that little homage) - to what Elvin Jones is doing behind the first couple soloists, fan-friggin'-tastic and far more adventurous than what he does on the master (I almost wonder if Alfred thought it was too much and somehow disrupted the groove - which IT DON'T).

Any other words of wisdom regarding my set-up, folks?

A key difference from what you're talking about with "corrected" versions of books is that stuff isn't generally being added to these CDs based on some person's biases regarding translations etc, but rather restored versions as they went down, without editing, and extra takes are simply appearing ALONGSIDE the original edited versions. That way you get the best of both worlds, and with the ability to use a programming function to skip stuff you're not interested in, well heck, I don't see much to be bothered by. In some cases I find myself agreeing with the original editing, but in plenty others it was solely a function of the time limitations of vinyl and it's damned nice to have the artist's original vision, just exactly as you're calling for.

I'm in a recommending mood today, so here's one more before getting to work... This is quite a gem that took some time to work its magic - on first few listens last year when I picked it up, it didn't grab me and I put it aside until about a week ago. I may even have posted on being a little disappointed back then. Time to set the record straight! Fabulously well recorded, with engineering by Jim Anderson, Walton is captured with a sextet playing some compositions that gradually work their way into your head and won't let go once they're there. "Martha's Prize" ought to become a jazz standard for sure, if anyone ever got a chance to hear it that is. Vincent Herring, Ralph Moore, and Roy Hargrove all take some fine solos - some of the most thoughtful playing on record by Hargrove in a long time. Christian McBride is his usually rock solid self, and Walton plays those patented solos that on first few listens sound like nothing special but then start to hit you heavy in their perfection. But second prize on this date goes to drummer Victor Lewis...I don't think I ever realized what a powerful, guiding influence Lewis was on the recordings with Bobby Watson and Horizon until hearing him here, but the parallels in how his contributions shape the overall group sound are pretty remarkable. He brings a quality to the music that can only be described as "dancing" - it's a combination of his time feel and the way he utilizes the traps, with a really distinctive way of accenting certain beats and incorporating cymbals. Whatever the techical issues, it's a real joy to listen to and gives the groove a completely different feel - much lighter, almost like tap dancing - than it would have had with anyone else on the drummer's throne. So worth more than a few listens. Does anyone have his other Astor Place recording, ROOTS? Has a very different configuration, but if the sound and musical quality are anything close to THE COMPOSER, it's one I'll track down immediately.

I know you're probably just kiddin', but just in case - I think you have plenty of time, this was just posted a couple days ago and I'm sure there's no shortage yet. Just wanted to make sure people knew about this piece of info from Scott, as it was kind of buried in another more general thread about Mosaics that may not have sold too well. I do also want to make clear, before anyone else jumps in and says it - for Shorter, I would certainly not put these sessions up with his Blue Notes in overall quality. Rather, what's fascinating is that you see major flashes of brilliance and uniqueness in his writing and playing mixed in with more "merely excellent" hard bop writing and more "in the shadow of Coltrane" playing. It's one of those small periods in time where you can literally hear, almost from track to track, a genius truly coming into his own. "Pug Nose" in particular is startling given its surrounding company, all of a sudden you say, "whoah, that's Shorter's composing!" But you also hear some flashes on the other less fully formed cuts - "Blues A La Carte," for example, is not so very far at all from the roughly contemporaneous "Lester Left Town" in its overall feel (but not structure) and incorporation of some unique twists on the hard bop form, yet far less heralded. The fact that the supporting casts are so good throughout is just gravy. For Morgan - I find his playing on the dates I've listened to so far is a bit more subdued than on the early Blue Notes, and that's not a bad thing to me, as I've said many times I like his playing a little less over the top and heated than it often was (which seems to be a minority opinion around here). The closest parallel would be with is playing on LEEWAY - which makes sense since it was roughly contemporary. If you dig him there, you'll dig him here for sure. Really nice muted work, nobody played quite like Mogie with a mute - it sounds like fire tempered by ice, not quite as mellow or moody the way most trumpeters sound muted.

Thanks for the post, Chuck. I'll probably go for it eventually as this is one of my favorites of Mingus, too, but sounds like I can put it on the back burner for a while.

Mosaic's customer service reigns supreme yet again...I ordered the Chambers/Kelly and Morgan/Shorter Vee Jay boxes on Tuesday and they were on my doorstep (in California) yesterday! Unbelievable. I've been digging random tracks throughout. I had only two CDs of material from these two boxes prior - INTRODUCING WAYNE SHORTER and FANTASTIC FRANK STROZIER, both in 24 bit Blue Moon reissues. Despite some prior comments here, nothing really prepared me for the incredible improvement in sound...I had thought the Blue Moon stuff pretty good, but A/B'd it sounds like you're hearing the music on a whipped cassette deck and through speakers covered with cheesecloth. Un-freakin'-believable what Addey did (or perhaps its simply that the masters are in great shape and the copies they've used for years to make reissues are whipped, or both). Given the nuances in the playing of people like Shorter and Morgan and Kelly and Cobb, this sonic upgrade makes a HUGE difference in enjoyment of the music itself. It's not just about the sound quality per se, it's about being able to hear little things they're doing and all the detail in the playing, the brushwork on "Blues A La Carte," Mogie's inflections while playing muted, etc. Fantastic. I have to say these sessions have immediately jumped a big notch up the scale in my estimation in terms of musical quality, now that I can actually hear what was going on! Instead of sounding like a second rate tenor player imitating Shorter, for example, Shorter now sounds like Shorter - it's actually quite remarkable how much he now sounds just as he did a few years later on Blue Note, if not quite as adventurous. I've always felt his tone is a tough one to really capture well on recordings - even Rudy Van G didn't quite get it some times - but it's beautifully registered here. In this remastering, "Pug Nose" now sounds like it would have slotted just perfectly into the album NIGHT DREAMER. A note about the alternates: so far I have to disagree about them being mostly unremarkable. While it's true that the rhythm section's approach and the arrangements are pretty much cookie cutter from take to take, the solos are dramatically different and almost always just as interesting as on the masters. When you're talking about people like Shorter and Kelly and Morgan, how can anyone NOT like having more of their solos to savor and wonder over? I don't get it. Nobody who is interested in the development of any of the artists featured on these boxes should miss these Mosaics - you'll kick yourself, trust me, and know that I ordered with many reservations that perhaps I shouldn't have. In fact, anyone who loves the jazz of the early 60's would be well-advised to pick these up pronto, before the licensing issue mentioned first on another thread by bluerein makes them Ebay fodder earlier than expected, a la the Stuff Smith box:

It is hella funky, I agree. This is to me not just a good but GREAT Grant Green album - interesting combination of the very laid back mood of sessions like IDLE MOMENTS and AM I BLUE?, but much down home funkier than either of those, probably closest in that category to FEELIN' THE SPIRIT. Absolutely fantastic takes on some hoary old tunes - no question he was the king of covers, no matter what type of tune or era. His playing was in peak form, too - check out his remarkable solo on "Red River Valley," an unassuming little masterpiece. Sometimes on this type of material Green would go on autopilot and recycle the same licks over and over, but throughout this album he comes up with fresh stuff...sounds to me like he really dug playing with Herbie Hancock, and relished the harmonic challenges he tended to throw out even on simple material like this. I had predicted when the RVG of this session got issued that it would really turn some heads, based on my having had a CD burn of the LP and enjoying the hell out of it for the past year or so - and I'm kind of surprised it hasn't happened yet, Aric excepted of course! Maybe people just haven't had time to listen yet, or maybe it takes some time to work its magic. Anyway, it's become one of my two or three favorite of Green's Blue Note sessions.

Yeah, I'm lookin' forward to this one. I have TRADITIONALISM REVISITED from the West Coast Classics series and it's a real gem - and from what I understand, there are some additional tracks in the Mosaic Select from that session that for some reason weren't on the single CD reissue (hadn't located the tapes?).

A technical question - is it worth trading in my French RCA 2 CD edition of this session from a few years ago for the USA Bluebird 2-fer? There appear to be quite a few additional tracks on the U.S. version but they also are all false starts and incomplete takes...anything illuminating? Sound quality comparison? The French version sounds fantastic as is, and my inclination has been to hold off on "upgrading."

I'm diggin' it!

I would never have picked Lester Young as a major influence on Desmond, whether via his clarinet or tenor playing. Sure, there's a vague kind of connection there, just as there is between Lester and almost every single jazz reed player who followed him, but nothing more than that. They both played long flowing lines with a beautiful and at times almost fragile tone, which I guess may make for some understandable comparisons based on surface similarity, but beyond that their approach to playing, especially harmonically and in developing ideas during solos, couldn't be any more different as far as I can hear. Likewise, I agree with danasgoodstuff that Konitz and Desmond are only VERY superficially similar, and highly doubt either was influenced much by the other. I think unless you're a musician, you have to become more familiar with each man's styles to begin to appreciate the differences but when you do you'll be surprised you ever considered them to be that close together (or at least that's the way it worked for ME!). There's a lot of parallel development in jazz (or in aspects of various players' styles) that I think sometimes gets misattributed to influence of one player on another. I tend to listen carefully to the players' account of who they were influenced by -even if you can't "hear" it initially in the obvious ways, once you live with their music for a while, you may start to pick up some of the ways they've worked the other person's stuff into their own concept. So Pete Brown, I'm intrigued, thanks for the bios Lon!

Thanks for the detailed reply, Kevin. I have been quite pleased with my DV45-A, nothing wrong with it at all and phenomenal value for cost ratio, but like you I am looking for a step up. I'll certainly give the higher end Pioneer player a very careful look. Thanks also for the surround speaker suggestions - that was my thought too, go with full range speakers throughout. Currently in our family room home theater I have some really nice Cambridge Soundworks Newton MultiPole S300's. These are three-way, have four-speaker cones, and three dispersion settings via an easy switch: direct, bipole and dipole. So you get lots of mileage out of these, with each setting sounding better for a specific application (e.g. some sound better with old Dolby ProLogic signals, some with 5.1, some with SACD/DVD-A). However, they are small speaker cones and they're still rather weak for SACD/DVD-A, obviously not going to reproduce the full spectrum like a full size speaker, so I will probably leave those where they are and go the type of route you recommend for the listening room. I can put all the speakers at proper placement the listening room too without worring about messing up the family room decor...my rear surrounds in the family room are also mounted about 6 feet up the wall and way too far behind the listening spot, just based on room layout and esthetics! It really saps the audio potential of the system, I have to sit in JUST the right spot to even HEAR the surrounds most of the time...

I got my Sonys for around $400, they list for much more but you can easily find them for about what I paid. I have not used a headphone amp. The Sonys are apparently easier to drive efficiently at low output than some of the other top end headphones...I bought them planning to use them only temporarily with just the headphone jack on my receiver, but have since decided to forget about a headphone amp all together since they sound so good without one. I'm sure there'd probably be an incremental improvement with a headphone amp, but it's not worth it to me right now, maybe sometime in the future.

Clem, you're dead on with the Rundgren influence on Prince. I hear it in many ways, particularly as far as both men in their earlier years: 1.The insularity (especially in the early years) - guys holed up with their studio gear making great pop 2. A certain similar worldview - jaundiced, perverse, funny, downright odd 3. De-emphasis of the bass line - this has always freaked me out about Prince especially, here's a funkateer, playing some incredibly intelligent and danceable music, yet on albums like DIRTY MIND the bass is tinny and almost non-existent, and then on 1999 and PURPLE RAIN and even up to SIGN O THE TIMES, whole songs have NO BASS LINE AT ALL and even on those that do it's often skeletal. Check it out if you don't believe me - "Raspberry Beret," "Little Red Corvette," "When Doves Cry," nearly all of the great singles from the heydey, NO BASS. Yet even though nobody's playing bass, his writing is so hip that the bass line is strongly implied, and the lack of an actual line allows a sophisticated musical ear to run wild filling one in that is probably far more interesting than what would have been there anyway. Really cool. Anyway, Rundgren's arrangements are often much the same in that regard, bass is there but way de-emphasized. 4. When they did assemble bands they did so very cannily, going for less than obvious but outstanding choices Gotta disagree with you about DIAMONDS AND PEARLS, love it, love it, love it. Not generally a compilation man and it's flawed in many ways - friggin' EDITS of all the singles - but that Prince 3 CD collection of hits and misses and obscurities/B sides is in constant rotation in our car player on road trips, just right for that. Someone at Warner (or Rhino) needs to make peace with Prince and do a comprehensive box.

All the phones being mentioned are compared with the Sony MDRCD3000's on the review links page I posted above, and the Sonys stacked up very favorably (in most cases they were preferred over the others). Not trying to hard sell anyone, not like I own stock or anything, but I would strongly recommend that people not be put off by the fact that this is a Sony product, it's top notch and quite high end. I did personally directly compare them with the Grado RS1 and the Sonys won, hands down, for sound and comfort...RS1 won out only in the "cool looks" category, but that was of secondary concern!

Well, 2 more Mosaics now sold! Thanks for the heads up on this, Reinier (didn't doubt you but just wanted to make sure before shelling out the dough!).

Thanks for the additional info, Jacknife! The speaker placement site is interesting.

I just read a couple reviews on this one and it's makin' my mouth water. There is mention about not all speakers being "tube friendly" - what is your speaker set up, jacknife, and do you have any words of wisdom in selecting speakers for tube amps?