Face of the Bass

I have an excellent condition Hutcherson Mosaic Select available for sale or for trade. $30 postpaid to the U.S. or make me an offer. Will do a swap of Mosaic Selects if there's something you have available. Paypal only if you decide to buy.

I posted about my most recent Mosaic listening experience on my blog: foucaultslunchbox.blogspot.com

Up. This is still available if anyone is interested.

Just sent a response.

Up. I will take the best offer, and will also consider parting with it for cash.

All materials (discs, inserts, box, booklet, etc.) in like new condition. Looking for other Mosaic sets in return, or other stuff of interest. I will automatically do a trade with the first person who can offer me an excellent-condition copy of the Stanley Turrentine box AND a good copy and translation of Martin Heidegger's Being and Time.

Beiderbecke, Trumbauer, and Teagarden, Disc 1. The vocals are annoying.

Today I made a Mosaic purchase that I believe will forever change my life. I bought the Django Reinhardt set, and by early next week I will be sitting back, pretending I am listening to it in a smoky Paris cafe while reading Sartre.

I always liked The P.C. Blues.

I'm thinking about getting the Stanley Turrentine.

Exceeded expectations: Alice Coltrane - Journey in Sachidinanda Lee Morgan - Lee Way Jimmy Smith - Groovin' at Smalls Paradise Grant Green - Idle Moments (I heard it was special, but now I'd say it was one of the greatest jazz albums ever made) Ike Quebec - Blue and Sentimental Evan Parker - Topography of the Lungs Max Roach Mosaic

I have this set and would say it's definitely not essential music, and if someone isn't a real huge Coltrane fan they have no reason to need it. I would return it if I were in your position. As for me, I have my Coltrane phases. December tends to be my Coltrane month, when that's all I want to listen to (and I prefer the later Coltrane.) During the summer I never listen to Coltrane.

People in a position to know are confirming this. Chris Albertson says it is true over at All About Jazz, and Lois Gilbert says it is true over at JazzCorner. Haven't heard any details, though.

Jimmy Smith - At the Organ, Volume 3

I really like his trumpet work on Disc 5 of the Roach box, which I was listening to last night.

Max Roach Plus Four, Disc 4

Cool, thanks for the tip. I'm planning on ordering the John Patton Select in a few days, and I may supplement it with one of the singles. I am attracted to the Ellington if only for the Sun Ra-ish title (which I know is not what the music sounds like, but still, it's a nice title).

I like the J.J. and Kai disc. That will probably be my first Singles purchase from them.

Cool. I've been thinking about getting this one after hearing Patton for the first time on The Natural Soul. Any other opinions on this box? Most of the discussion in this thread seems to be about what was and was not included in the set, which really isn't an issue for me since I have nothing by Patton. Thanks.

My copy arrived on the 14th. Now if I can only finish grading these exams and writing this paper, I can relax for a few days and listen to some music.

I understand all that, I just think that album for album, the Impulse catalog beats the Blue Note catalog in terms of diversity of sound and quality of product. I love Blue Note. I like the Blue Note sound, but I can't deny that it gets extremely repetitive. When you think about Impulse, with all the New Thing guys, Mingus, Tyner, Oliver Nelson, J.J. Johnson, Freddie Hubbard, and others, I just think the overall quality is higher and that the product has less of a sameness to it that sometimes plagues the Blue Notes from the same period.

Also, I would agree that Andrew Hill is currently overrated. My reasons for this belief are that his music gets touted on every jazz message board, his albums from the 1960s have been getting reissued at an almost insane pace, and yet I'm almost always disappointed by the results. And it's not because I'm too "conservative." If anything, I read people talking about Hill as this incredible musical innovator and then I get excited until I listen to the product and find that it doesn't measure up to the hype. If anything, Hill wasn't radical enough. To equate him to Monk or Mingus is insane. Also, FWIW, I always get the feeling that Hill's compositions were more akin to some incredibly dry science experiment than any genuine artistic statement. You read the liner notes to his albums and it's all about how he wanted to write a tune with x number of bars in different scales or whatever. Yawn. My opinion is that the guy just didn't have that much to say. His best albums are good because of the playing of the other people, not because of his allegedly "out" playing, which actually sounds quite tame when put next to the best innovators on the piano from the time period. I listen to Monk and I hear humor and sadness. I listen to Cecil Taylor and I hear incredible energy and propulsive drive. I listen to Hill and I hear a guy searching for an identity and never quite getting there.

i understand what you're saying, but can't the same be said of riverside, prestige, et al? most labels during the time frame being discussed had a stable of players that comprised their dates which resulted in certain consistencies... the sides from some labels are simply more diverse than others due to variety in material and groupings. i don't see it as a blue note thing, although they certainly had their sound. ?, -e- Well, yes, but compare Blue Note to Impulse. Which had the more diverse sound? For me it's Impulse, hand's down.

My main problem with the deification of the Blue Note catalog during this time period is that the label was basically churning out a lot of albums, admittedly, of high quality, that sounded just like each other. Similar lineups, similar tunes, similar musical approaches. They broke out of this mold somewhat in the mid-60s with some of the albums by McLean, Shorter, Hancock, Dolphy, and Hill, but the great weakness of BN for me is that, at the end of the day, most of their stuff sounds the same, or at least, very similar.

Overrated: It doesn't necessarily mean I don't like these, but I don't think they are as essential/mind-blowing as people often make them out to be: Art Blakey - Mosaic Dexter Gordon - Gettin' Around Grant Green - Complete Quartets with Sonny Clark Herbie Hancock - Empyrean Isles Andrew Hill - Black Fire Andrew Hill - Point of Departure Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder Sam Rivers - Fuchsia Swing Song Wayne Shorter - Speak No Evil Jimmy Smith - Groovin' at Smalls Paradise Larry Young - Unity