DrJ

Well, I've been told worse by better'n you! Just kiddin' - I feel your pain, REALLY I do, but if I get any unexpected electric bills or mortgage payment coupon books, I will be returning them with an "addressee unknown" note! On the bright side - this is a KILLER set, just keeps growing in my estimation. Money well spent, and hey, it'll be waiting for you when you finally are paroled from debter's prison!

I've made it through only the first few cuts of STAR EYES - HAMBURG 1983 with Martial Solal since it arrived in the mail from Cadence last week, but so far, it's a real gem. Similar stuff - nothing overtly "hot" or showy but Lee is DEFINITELY "in the zone," great way to put it. Solal is amazing in a little more demonstrative way. For a slightly different kind of Lee - a bit more fettered, less played in, but still fascinating - the date with Giuffre and Ted Brown and Warne Marsh that was last reissued on the Verve Konitz/Giuffre 2-fer in the mid-90's has also been floatin' my boat lately.

Got mine on Saturday, Chuck. Haven't made it to the last track yet but will let you know. Only listening I've been able to get in has been in the car to and from work. But really enjoying ALL MUSIC so far, an all expenses paid trip to the wonderful off-kilter world of Warne. And Levy was having some good days too, wasn't he?

Thanks for the input wolff. Budget is flexible, fortunately money, while not "no object," is less of a constraint for me than for some. But again I'm more interested in quality and cost-for-features, not just paying top dollar for the sake of saying I did. I like rock as well as jazz and I have some very good sounding surround mixed rock recordings - in both SACD and DVD-A format - so I'm still interested in surround - can't see myself using it much or at all for jazz though I agree. Turntable is a Technics SL-1200MK2, which is more than fine for my purposes. I primarily use it to play vinyl once, long enough to transfer the LP to a CD-R.

That's an interesting one Rooster. I respect your viewpoint there, but can't say I wholly agree...while it's true that sometimes Lovano's own leader dates are overly contrived and postured, generally his playing is the real deal to me. And when you get him involved with someone else's looser, lower profile recording, watch out. Great examples: Tom Harrell - PASSAGES (Chesky) Yosuke Yamashita KURDISH DANCE (Antilles - fantastic!) Any of his work with Paul Motian For his own recordings, FROM THE SOUL (BN) is a truly remarkable album, perhaps one of the finest larger profile jazz recordings of the era. Ed Blackwell's contributions alone are worth it but Petrucciani is also in peak form. Penguin once gave this a coveted crown and it's worth every jewel in the setting. RUSH HOUR (BN) is also really strong, nearly as good. The live 2 CD QUARTETS Vanguard recording on BN is also a good one. I love all these because for me they harken back to an era when jazz artists with an instantly identifiable sound and a pretty good following who were working on well-regarded labels could also still take some chances, even if ultimately firmly within the mainstream. Kind of like the old "inside out" Lion produced BNs. Most overrated - LANDMARKS (BN), for some reason everyone loves this but it has to be my least favorite Lovano recording and the lineup, which should have been a smoking one, doesn't come through (Abercrombie's worst recording?).

Actually a Dizzy Philips Mosaic would be a nice one...so much of it has been out in reissue, but clearly some hasn't and it would make a nice tidy package.

Inspired by the recent thread on "hearing" Sonny Clark for the first time. Anyone who you once thought a lot of who now you really can't much abide? Easy one for me....Bill Frisell. Sad to say this, 'cause he obviously has talent and is earnest and seems like a hell of a nice guy. But as my musical ear has developed I listen now and just go, "what's all the fuss about?" OK, FX are neato at first and he does some fun stuff, but has anyone ever been a more banal improviser in terms of complete lack of rhythmic and harmonic interest? I no longer "get" it.

I would draw a much stronger parallel between Wynton Kelly and Sonny Clark than Garland and Clark. Both are, for lack of a better word, much more "modern" sounding in their conception to me, and there's a lot of commonality in that time feel and "bounce." Garland was superb no doubt and King Comper, but he still sounds more firmly in the more traditional 40's-50's bop mold than Kelly or Clark (even though Clark did much of his recording in the 50's he sounded like a 60's guy even then!).

Another big thumbs up for RELISH, a pretty audacious debut. Have been very nervous about picking up any albums since then because I don't want to be disappointed! "St. Theresa," "Ladder," "Pensacola," all amazing tunes. The "God" single was pretty good too actually, despite being written by a Hooter - just overplayed. Clever, funny, catchy, hell even Prince covered it live. Anyway, the new Osby sounds VERY promising, nice line up.

Well I'm hopin' this new Aerosmith comes even halfway close to their old form. Nothing since way back around NIGHT IN THE RUTS has been worth even a cursory listen, and the last great album was DRAW THE LINE from 1977...they certainly DID rock back then!

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?).