[CDs and Box Set For Sale]

Another update...I have also reduced the cost on the Cecil Taylor set by $10.

[CDs and Box Set For Sale]

Bump...Price reduction on the Chu Berry and the Benedetti Parker boxes.

[LF: John Patton Mosaic Select]

Just thought I'd post this here. I traded this away a couple of years ago and shouldn't have. I've got a couple Mosaic box sets to offer (Chu Berry, Parker Benedetti) as well as the Cecil Taylor set on Codanza if anyone wants to make a trade, although it is somewhat difficult for me to imagine a Cecil Taylor for John Patton swap.

Anyway, I'm not in any rush, but if anyone has one they'd be willing to offer, please send me a PM. Thanks!

[The Great Box Set Sale of 2012]

Your descriptions are fine. I'd like to thank you for bringing these sets here before taking them to EBay, and at very reasonable prices. It's a sign of community building here at Organissimo.

[The Great Box Set Sale of 2012]

PMs sent on Turrentine Mosaic and Monk Riverside Horace Parlan.

[Black Saint/Soul Note Box Sets]

Placed an order at Downtown Music Gallery for the Cecil box. Don't own any of them now...going on a Cecil Taylor binge anyway.

I'm offering the box set 2 Ts For A Lovely T if you want to feed the monster some more.

[CDs and Box Set For Sale]

Hackett is gone. Ellington is still available. Remember that the prices listed include shipping to the U.S., so it's a substantial savings compared to Mosaic. And all the remaining sets are in like new condition. Thanks!

[CDs and Box Set For Sale]

UP: Added seven box sets, including six Mosaics.

[Black Saint/Soul Note Box Sets]

Yeah, I don't much care for the stripped-down presentation of this series. Of the ones I've gotten I do like the Steve Lacy very much, as I did not previously have that music. The other one I would have liked would have been the Bill Dixon, but I already have all but one of those discs so I'm not going to buy that set.

[Discs for sale]

For anybody interested in the more "experimental" side of things, some of the Erstwhiles he has available, particularly Lidingo and A View From The Window, are quite good and a steal at those prices.

[Elin Nordegren Demolishes $12 Million Mansion]

Hopefully the oppressed masses of the Earth will now invade her new castle and carry all its occupants off to the guillotine. Class warfare is good.

[Bassist on Jimmy Cleveland's Cleveland Style]

Thanks....looks like the online discography I linked to is probably wrong. After listening to the discs, I can't discern any difference in the bass between the different tracks, and there are certainly no Paul Chambers idiosyncracies (such as bowed solos, etc.) on display.

[Bassist on Jimmy Cleveland's Cleveland Style]

I've found a discographical discrepancy that I was hoping somebody could solve for me. The liner notes for Jimmy Cleveland's 1957 recording on Emarcy say that the bassist for all seven tunes on the album is Eddie Jones. However, the online discography here, at www.jazzdisco.org, indicates that there are two bassists on the album. For the December 12, 1957 session, which includes three tunes on the album, the bassist listed is Paul Chambers. For the Dec. 13th session, the listed bassist is Eddie Jones. Anybody know which is right?

Thanks in advance!

[New Year not looking good]

Ugh. We had our heater die on us at a very inopportune moment two years ago and it set us back a few thousand dollars. Took us a while to regain our footing after that. My sympathies.

[John Szwed on Alan Lomax]

I just finished Szwed's excellent biography of Miles Davis, which I would say is not quite as good as the Sun Ra biography but still one of the best I've ever read. I'm definitely going to check out the Lomax bio now, as I'm beginning to realize that Szwed is easily my favorite music historian/biographer working today.

[Mosaic Records Christmas/Holiday Wishlist]

Actually the box set I really want this Christmas is the Vandermark Resonance set, but I'm kind of doubting anyone gets me that.

[Mosaic Records Christmas/Holiday Wishlist]

I've already been informed that I'm getting the Coleman Hawkins set, which will be exciting when it comes out next month (hopefully). It's the first Mosaic I've really been excited about in a couple of years, at least.

[What jazz artists need to be written about?]

Well, it would be wonderful if it happened. A year ago I toyed with the idea of starting to do research on a Paul Chambers biography, but other projects got in the way and it never took off.

IMO, though, the European Free Improvisation scene of the last 40 years really needs an authoritative account in English. Heffley's Northern Sun, Southern Moon is interesting in parts, although I don't agree with much of his analysis and think the book is more an intellectual exercise than a proper history of the EFI movement.

Han Bennink

Misha Mengelberg

Peter Brotzmann

Evan Parker

Peter Kowald

Joe Maneri

John Stevens

all had or still have amazing musical lives

I agree with this. And of course writing a book on a deceased figure is a different kind of project than writing one on a musician who is still very much active and evolving.

[What jazz artists need to be written about?]

Evan Parker

Peter Brotzmann

Paul Chambers

[Music that puts you in a Christmas holiday mood that isn't Christ]

Oddly enough, Coltrane's Village Vanguard box. I got it for Christmas one year and played it nonstop. Ever since I've always associated the music with winter and the holidays.

[CDs and Box Set For Sale]

Up...price reduction on the Lee/Christy Mosaic and the Cardew biography, and also implementing a sale: buy three CDs, get a fourth free. (Fourth CD of equal or lesser value)...

Thanks for looking.

[New Artie Shaw bio]

Nolan's book is no bargain IMO. In particular, his overuse of emphasized words in quoted speech -- e.g. "So I said to Lou Fromm, take it down a little or you're fired" (not an actual quote but my recollection of how things go) -- is not only maddening in itself but also tends to make everyone sound the same. That is, if Shaw himself spoke that way, OK --though if he did, I'd appreciate a note to that effect from the author. But when everyone speaks that way, it feels like a damn carnival ride.

I agree with this. I found the italicization of so many words so irritating that it actually caused me to put down the book. Really unnecessary intervention on the part of the author.

[Favorite Free Jazz/Avant Garde Box Sets]

OK, so....here's a confession: I can really only think of one "Avant Garde" box set I own, and that's the Sam Rivers Mosaic set. Of all the eras and genres in jazz, Free Jazz and Avant Garde are so poorly represented in my collection compared to big band and small group jazz. I took a listen to the Braxton and Threadgill sets on the Mosaic website and wish they had longer sample tracks. I know this is a "Favorite Free Jazz" box sets thread, and I don't want to hijack the thread, but I need some consultation and advice to beginning a free jazz collection.

I find a big emotional connection to Ellington and Basie, I love 50s and 60s bop/hard bop, I have a pretty broad collection/appreciation of music OTHER than free and avant garde.....I think it's time for me to grow up and learn to appreciate the "freer" music.

So, lay it on me! What should I get/ask for Christmas this year?

Thanks Everybody!!!

Do you have Ornette Coleman's Beauty is a Rare Thing? To me that would be one place to start.

[Forthcoming ECM releases]

There are many wonderful albums on ECM, but the problem is that, when it comes to jazz, the label now seems to have an almost factory mentality whereby every release is in the same general area, with the same brooding dark covers, with the same smoothed out sound. The music strikes my ears as being far too deep into the tepid waters of Baby Boomer New Age narcissism. And I can't help but notice that some artists who record for the label (Marilyn Crispell comes immediately to mind) did their best, edgiest work before falling into the ECM stable and disappearing into the musical equivalent of a scented candle shop.

[Favorite Free Jazz/Avant Garde Box Sets]

Blue Notes 4CD Ogun

Yes! I had forgotten about this one, but it is excellent stuff.