Teasing the Korean

Here is one of my most memorable gigs, at the Mai Kai:

Playing the Mai-Kai, not once, but twice. That was as close to being Martin Denny as I am likely to get in this lifetime.

Thanks, not familiar with that one. Are you familiar with the 2-CD Crime and Dissonance compilation?

We played it during dinner! Linguine with faux white clam sauce, with trumpet mushrooms in the role of the clams! So I guess Morricone also wrote Linguine Westerns. I love Morricone's giallo an crime scores from his classic period, which have some stylistic overlap with this album. Do you know about the 10-album library set that Morricone and Nicolai did? All of the music is generally in this vein.

I have more by Morricone than any other composer/artist.

I'm all for mono!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZlrrwUIwcE

Funny this should pop up now. I have been listening to the entire Black Jazz catalog, except for the two by the label owner.

Have they ever re-released one of their previous releases? If they could negotiate a deal the first time, can they do it a second time? The work has already been put into the mastering and packaging.

I dunno, I'm a sucker for records by jazz and easy listening artists turning on and tuning in to the moods and vibrations of today. And when they integrate sitars and Moogs into the mix, all the better! So, within that sub-genre - of which I have many albums - I will call this a masterpiece.

I have been picking up on about five years' worth of posts around here stating that Mosaic is going through hard times. I haven't looked at their books. If they're thriving, more power to them. You expect to get more when buying in bulk, but you also need to come up with the capital. It's easier to part with $20 than it is to part with $120. And not everyone likes box sets. Mosaic could learn from some of the film score specialty labels. Film score listeners are an even smaller share of the audience than jazz fans. These labels do a combination of box sets and single discs. They also cover all periods and styles of film music. All film music listeners whom I know routinely buy from these labels. But all jazz fans do not buy from Mosaic.

I would argue that there has been a diverse and diffuse audience for jazz since at least the 1990s. I can go into this if anyone cares, but most of you know what I'm talking about. Still, the total audience for jazz makes it a niche genre. Mosaic has catered to a niche within a niche. Companies can get into trouble if they try to be too many things to too many people, but they can also get into trouble if they have a tiny customer base and do nothing to grow it. In addition to their box set approach, Mosaic could have diversified their strategy by producing compelling, standalone releases like so many other boutique labels have. And they really could have used some marketing help, in terms of where they sold, how they packaged their releases, and how they wrote about them. Their existing copy does not convey one shred of excitement, adventure, or - dare I say - fun. All I can say is, I have a number of friends and family members who love jazz and who have extensive LP and CD collections. And none of them have a single Mosaic release. But, for 20 years or so, they have kept in business a number of other boutique labels who sell CDs at $20 a throw, who can write compelling copy, and know how to package and market their reissues. Mosaic's approach may have worked for a brief period, but it is clearly not working now, as all the "How can we help Mosaic" posts attest.

Their target audience was obviously far too narrow, based on the fact that they are on life support, and everyone here is trying to think of things to help them out. And they've done nothing to expand the audience for jazz by primarily selling precious, overpriced box sets to an aging demographic of white men.

I don't have to start my own goddamn company. There are numerous boutique labels who are doin' it right. I have supported those other labels for decades. Mosaic may have gotten some of my money, but they did not. C'est la vie.

Or they let them go straight to the Goodwill.

Juju - A Message from Mozambique (Strata-East)

+1 It also happens when "interested folks" make their voices heard through their buying power.

A great example of the old adage: Never trust the opinions of artists when assessing their own records.

Yes, this is the point I was addressing, plus the fact that I could never get the inner sleeves in the top and bottom flap correctly. It was like a cover was about 1mm larger than the inner sleeve.

That couldn't have been an easy job to write arrangements around an existing recorded performance. You're having to listen for all kinds of harmonic details, plus determining where there is space for orchestral lines.

As my Dionne Warwick Scepter LPs demonstrate.

Thanks for this detail. I think I have a few European LPs like that. It seems like the Unipak's European cousin was a little sturdier and less problematic than the dreaded Unipak.

Morricone/Il Gruppo - The Private Sea of Dreams (RCA Victor, Stereo)

Morricone - Escalation (Dagored)

Don Sebesky - The Distant Galaxy (Verve, stereo)