Stompin at the Savoy

I went through the same process last year and ended up buying one from Discogs for a total of $155 incl shipping. (The original price was $112 plus whatever shipping cost then.) I also considered digital download and I guess decided on the hard copy in order to get the book. You can get cd quality files from Qobuz and Presto. Presto has flac files for $75.25.

Most of these albums had an initial cd release in the late 80's followed by remasters by RVG, McMaster, or others. This set seems to be a complete remaster of all the included albums.

It's been many years since I listened to Dialogue. I had forgotten how out there this record is! Sound is very lively and fresh compared to the single cd (1987) I had.

Listening to the first disk. Sound is excellent.

book: https://musicbrainz.org/release/54b77fd0-118f-4337-a776-e56bc81edc67/cover-art text discography: http://web.archive.org/web/20061114052212/http://www.mosaicrecords.com/discography.asp?number=227-MD-CD

Having a great many cds does not seem like being screwed to me. The plastic disks and their packaging - mere things. The music - spiritual, priceless.

I got a tracking number too!

This has some: https://www.jazzdisco.org/pacific-jazz-records/catalog-jazz-west-coast-series/album-index/

I'd be interested in a Melba Liston set if it were possible to come up with an organizing principle that made sense and fit the parameters of a Mosaic set. Interesting figure. The Randy Weston Mosaic is very nearly a Melba set.

This one is good too: https://imgbb.com/

Well, anybody can create an account on Internet Archive and upload music files. However, owning a cd does not give one distribution rights for the files on that cd, whether free or for fee. A few users have uploaded good quality music files that they don't have distribution rights for and some of those get removed after complaints from the copyright owners. Generally speaking your suggestion is not a viable option.

Absurdly expensive bookmarks.

They appear to have pushed out the shipping date and pre-order discount until June 24.

I got the big early Basie/Prez set a few years back when it came out and somehow or other that particular set was so enjoyable that I started buying Mosaic sets in earnest. I had been buying them for decades but somehow with that Prez set the addiction kicked up a notch. I did a lot of shopping and bought scads of used sets. My Mosaic boom is just now cresting because most of the ones I don't have are either prohibitively expensive or I'm probably not that interested in the music; I'm getting to the end of my want list. I'm in my early seventies and acutely aware of the issue which occasioned the thread but I guess I want to glory for a little while in the physical possession of all these grail items. It's one of those "Lord make me chaste but not yet" types of situations. I'm getting on so I suppose in a year or two (or five) I will start doing the Swedish death cleaning I noticed the rents doing around this time of their life and get all systematic and at least sell off the box sets.

Some of that Ferguson stuff is a little over-powering: every possible box checked and soloists taking it up to 11. No negative, open space.

Check it out https://archive.org/details/CompleteRouletteRecordingsoftheMaynardFergusonOrchestra_201904

The lower prices in the last few years have enabled me to go on a big spree of buying many of the Mosaics I missed along the way. The prices have varied and a few were quite dear but on average I've been paying approximately the same as the original prices of the sets.

Yeah I suppose I have got it straightened out now. That WAV format and the way they handled the metadata are sort of a pain. Apparently these are roughly 200 megabyte disks. Now that I have listened to the first disk and compared with the 2003 RCA release, I like this one and find it listenable but it is not head and shoulders above the 2003 release. Some tunes sound better, some are just different. I think they have done an excellent job with a rather old technology approach.

I ordered the download just now and the choices were WAV and mp3. WAV is a 1.9 gigabyte zip file. I ended up converting the wav files with foobar2000 to m4a. Bit easier to get it into iTunes. The sound really is pretty good. Have not yet compared to the 2003 release. edit: well, scratch the conversion with foobar2000. For some reason it cut down the file size enormously. Will figure out another approach! further edit: I guess wav files are just really large and when converted to other formats turn out smaller. Question for somebody who has the disks: when you look at the files, are they small, like 9 or 10 megs for Koko? booklet for the set: https://www.fremeaux.com/img/cms/Livret 32P Duke at his very Best FA5869.pdf --As of now I would not recommend getting the download. They appear to have gotten the formats all messed up and some are wav, some are flac ....wtf!

Maynard Ferguson definitely expensive. Mildred Bailey is also generally priced quite high. The whole thing is skewed by people who put absurd, astronomical prices on some sets. The big Ellington Orchestra set used to be very expensive and then one day I found one on ebay for $130.

I kind of agree that some of the concept albums were dumb and wish there had been more sessions like Solid.

Lovely cat there! I had cats about 50 years ago in college but this is the first after a long succession of dogs. This one is interesting and different because he has lived on the property, probably under a shed, for at least a couple years and hunted mice, birds, lizards and what not. When he smacks something with his front paw the force is way beyond any house cats I've had. Quite a tough cat. He can be wonderfully tender and cuddly but I have to take care when he starts to play because he scratches the heck out of me without even trying. Will try that!