gmonahan

Sorry I'm coming late to this one. This was an odd series. They seem to have spent all the money on remastering--which was unusual!--and mostly ripped the programming and liners from the old Arista Savoy SJL series, which was a very, very good LP series, so it was a good place to take that from. Denon dropped a lot of the alternate takes, though, in order to fit the music on single cds for budget pricing. I have the Norvo, the Bert, and a few others. I agree with everybody else--the sound is very fine.

Another EXCELLENT Pablo recording is "How Long Has This Been Going On" with Oscar Peterson, Joe Pass, Louie Bellson & Ray Brown. No one has mentioned the Ellington Songbooks on Pablo. I've always loved those. Great late-period Sassy. Mosaic has issued the Roulette stuff, and it is a bit uneven. We do need all the Mainstreams, but that seems to be a problematic label for reissues all 'round.

The list looks right to me except for this one, which was issued differently (not as "103"). There are three two-cd sets in the series paradoxically marked "Hors-série": 01: Sacha Distel, Jazz Guitarist 02: Bill Coleman, The Complete Philips Recordings 03: Jean-Claude Fohrenbach, Fohrenbach French Sound And for the truly hopeless completists (i.e., me. ): "Sampler" Catalog number 980-691-8. No official "Jazz in Paris" series number, but in the same type of packaging with the same formatting. This also came with a cool cd-sized catalog describing the series up to the Distel issue. Of course, I haven't been to France in a while, so I don't know if more "hors-série" cds have been issued. Perhaps some of our French friends could let us know?

Ah, the RUST box! Great music! World's *worst* packaging!

Oh yeah! LOVE Hank!!

In July 1963, on the "Ella and Basie" album for Verve, personnel was: Count Basie [b2102.3890-5] Ella and Basie: Ella Fitzgerald acc by Count Basie and his Orchestra: Don Rader, Joe Newman, Sonny Cohn, Al Aarons, Fip Ricard (tp) Henry Coker, Benny Powell, Grover Mitchell, Urbie Green (tb) Marshal Royal (as,cl) Frank Wess (ts,as,fl) Eric Dixon (ts,fl) Frank Foster (ts) Charlie Fowlkes (bar) Count Basie (p,org-1) Freddie Green (g) Buddy Catlett (b) Sonny Payne (d) That's the closest I can come to September.

Am I to understand, then, that they're selling the entire multi-cd/multi-lp Mosaic set (now out of print) on a single MP3 cd for 9.99 euros??

It's a good record, but I still think J.J.'s RCA records would have made a good Select. "The Total J. J. Johnson" is every bit as good as "J.J." IMHO, and it would be fun to have the more commercial stuff as well.

The two Cobblestone dates were reissued on Muse and 32 Jazz.

"Woody's Winners" is representative of Woody's mid-60s band. Herman was fairly famous for not looking back. While he would play songs associated with the classic period, like "Northwest Passage" and "Caldonia," he liked constantly to update them. Thus, the Fantasy recordings for the 70s are far different from the Columbia and Phillips recordings of the 60s, which are different from the Capitol stuff from the 50s, etc. Woody's own clarinet and vocals were constants, but he loved surrounding himself with younger musicians. Kept him young. At least that's what he told me when I was a kid and saw him live around 1970. I had an old 78 of "Blue Flame" for him to autograph. He got a kick out of it, but told me--gently--much of what I've written in this post, and a listen to any of his records pretty well bears him out.

Yep, and there's a thread somewhere around here about it too. Benny Goodman's 1938 Carnegie Hall concert thread Late again, huh? Well, at least some other people agreed that the sound on the Definitive was better! Thanks for the link, though. I didn't know all that about Schaap.

One of the oddest things I found in this range of labels was the "Definitive" issue of the Benny Goodman Carnegie Hall set that Legacy had reissued. I have them both, and I have to say that the sound on the Definitive seems a whale of a lot better to me. There is less surface noise, but it doesn't seem to these ears as if the music suffers. It's weird because I had assumed that this was a typical Andorran rip-off, but it seems to have been remastered, and frankly, remastered *better* than the far more expensive, more hyped (and better documented) Legacy release. Did anybody else find this to be so?

I'd generally agree with this. I have a few Proper boxes--the Fats Navarro, the Sarah Vaughan, and the recent Jack Teagarden (I *had* to have his Decca version of "Body and Soul"!). I'd be interested in the Tubby Hayes because I have only one ancient Columbia cd by him. Is the material on the Proper box available in a better package elsewhere?

Oh yeah, that one is absolutely essential, as is the Complete Columbia set put out a few years ago. "Goodbye Porkpie Hat" is to die for.

I'm interested to hear about this one. How much of it does *not* duplicate the giant Mingus Debut box? I hesitated to get it because I wasn't sure there was much that I didn't already have on that one. How is the Mingus Debut box, for that matter? I think that is the only major hole in my Mingus collection. I like it. Debut was Mingus's own label (he operated it with Max Roach), so he had complete control over what he recorded there. He did some very interesting things. I'm particularly fond of the records he made with trombone choir. Mingus had a life-long fondness for trombones, and as an old trombonist, I sorta like that. It's a big box, though--12 cds worth! It's also an older box, so the remastering probably isn't as good as a more recent effort would be, but it sounds good to me, and it has one of those marvelous, big-format Fantasy-Prestige booklets.

I'm interested to hear about this one. How much of it does *not* duplicate the giant Mingus Debut box? I hesitated to get it because I wasn't sure there was much that I didn't already have on that one.

The two Nat King Cole Bear Family boxes. I got 'em for myself for Christmas. What an *amazing* variety of music on those two monsters!

I revived this thread to wish the great Frank Wess a happy birthday--85 today. He's one of those artists who never disappoints. I love his tenor, of course, but that flute--man, I do love his flute playing. Happy birthday Mr. Wess!

Oh, I don't know--those sessions really should get remastered. Maybe we should make the Revolution!

Yeah, it's hard going without food, shelter, and clothing. 'Course, I DO it, but it's hard!

My first Mosaic and my first box! That's 'cause it was THE first Mosaic and THE first Mosaic box! A treasured possession, even if Blue Note did reissue the music on a fine cd set a few years ago. Can't ever have enough Monk!

Oh man, you should know by now that when it comes to jazz, resistance IS futile!!

Love those lincoln logs. I had those! (tinkertoys too!) Showing my age, I *think* it was the old 3-LP set that accompanied George T. Simon's book The Big Bands. Or maybe it was the old 3-LP Ellington Era boxes; memory fails. Or the original Goodman Carnegie Hall concert?? Still have all those. I'm a hopeless pack rat. The Big Band set was unusual in including individual LPs from Columbia, Victor, and Decca--rare case of "inter-label" cooperation back then.

How does it (and others) compare to the Lomax book included in the recently issued box? Apples and oranges?

Thanks! I'd asked this question some time back, but I continued to keep an eye out for a reply. I looked up the Lomax book on Amazon, and you can get a used copy pretty cheaply--a lot less than the price difference between the newer and older boxes--just in case you don't yet have it and want it! I'm definitely going to have to get the set.