GA Russell

I have a Wes Montgomery cassette I bought cheap at Big Lots ten years ago called 'Round About Midnight. It is on the Golden Circle label. The tracks are: 'Round About Midnight Impressions Here's That Rainy Day The Girl Next Door Mr. Walker 4 On 6 Can anybody tell me anything about this album? Who is on it (the Wynton Kelly trio, maybe?) and when and where it was recorded? Some of the tracks are live in concert. The title track has a saxophone. I also have a the same copy of the title track on a sampler CD I purchased in the mid-90s called The Message, which is on the (British) Affinity label and at least some of whose songs are from the Bethlehem catalogue. I suspect that this album has been available on a CD on something other than the Golden Circle label, and hope one of you is familiar with it!

I vote for Stan Getz's Sweet Rain. That one got me started on Chick.

I got a couple of dozen ECM cassettes for a dollar each about '85. Is that when you are talking about Jim?

My favorite is 'Plugs In" on the DCC (formerly Skye) label. It has an electric piano, so that may not be to your liking. If you can wait till the end of the month, Concord is issuing a two-CD package called The Best of Cal Tjader. He recorded for them in the last part of his life. He received a Grammy for I think his first Concord album.

The friends I have with TiVo are very happy with it, but they watch a lot of TV. If I were you, I would get a cheap VCR. I recommend you get the Best Buy warranty. The cheap VCR will very likely not last five years. With the warranty they replace it free within the time period, so you are guaranteed five years no matter how many units it takes.

Thanks for your responses. I suppose it would be more enlightening then if Mosaic announced not how many sets the offer is limited to, but rather how many months.

There are a couple of threads about investing in Mosaics, and there have been a couple of comments expressing disapproval of the practice. I don't get it. My understanding is that Mosaics nowadays never sell out. They always time out. If that's right, then what's the harm in buying a few with the intention of selling? It's not like the investor is cornering the market, because the sets never sell out. On the other hand, if some sets do sell out, can you name any recently? I'm confident that the early ones like the Monk Blue Note sold out, but that was over a decade ago. I remember a note from Charlie or Michael saying that the Charles Brown set sold out quickly after his death. I'm assuming that they manufactured the full amount they had the right to. But isn't it true that now time runs out before the quota is sold? And if so, the investor is doing the world a favor, it seems to me.

Happy Birthday Noj! I was going to recommend the Gerald Wilson. It's next on my list.

Speaking of getting on their mailing list, I received the catalogue out of the blue one day. I had never heard of them. I don't know how they got my name, but I had previously ordered the Fantasy catalogue, so my guess was that they got the Fantasy list. Anyway, I called to place my order, and I spoke with Charlie Lourie. I asked him how they got my name, and he said, "The Jazz Police."

Thanks Al. I believe that Desmond was already ill when he made that recording, and that may have had something to do with it.

To get to the original question, when Mosaic started out, many of the sets were devoted to people you could hardly find anything of...Mulligan/Baker, Tina Brooks, Art Pepper PJ, Port of Harlem Jazzmen, Chet Baker Live, Ike Quebec's 45s, etc. So the quandary of buying the Mosaic when you already own half the material was not present. In regard to listening, I put each CD into its own jewel box when I hear it for the first time. That keeps each Mosaic CD on the shelf with all the other CDs, and thus in my regular rotation of listening. I too would listen to them less if they were packed away in the boxes somewhere, away from the rest of the CDs. There are a number of sets I have not heard entirely. I open a new CD from each set maybe once a year. So I am still reaping enjoyment for something paid for years ago. I recommend it!

Monk Blue Note and Mulligan/Baker in '86.

Bud Shank

Thanks Ghost! Has anybody heard the Paul Desmond Live album? I've considered getting it, but not if it is a mere shadow of the great stuff he did for RCA.

Cliff, I saw Herbie Mann at the Cellar Door three times, in '69 with Steve Marcus, Miroslav Vitous, Roy Ayers, Sonny Sharrock and Bruno Carr, in '70 with the same band minus Marcus, and in '71 with a very young rock band called Air. I remember that the warm up act to the last one was a solo guitarist named Sandy Nassan. Did you see the group with Ayers/Sharrock/Vitous?

One of my desert island discs is on Timeless - Mike Nock's In Out & Around, with Michael Brecker, George Mraz and Al Foster. I read all of the Lew Archer stories to it.

It's my recollection that the Feb '70 concert was a sextet including Keith Jarrett on keyboards as well as Chick Corea. That was the show I spoke briefly to Miles - just exchanged greetings, not a conversation, but still a thrill. I'm looking forward to the autumn (?) '69 performance double album which will be released later this year, if Sony keeps to its schedule (at least, according to jazzmatazz).

The Cellar Door was in the Georgetown section of DC, as I recall one long block west of Wisconsin Avenue on M Street. It was about three long blocks from the Georgetown University campus. I saw the lost quintet there twice, I think March of '69 and February of '70, about two weeks before the It's About Time concert in New York. I wish I had gone to the one which was recorded for Live-Evil!

I respect bandleaders who surround themselves with people who are as good as or better than they are. Up through the lost quintet, Miles certainly did that!

My favorite is/was Ira Gitler. #2 was Dan Morganstern. For today's writers, I would say Michael Cuscuna!

Moose, that's what I'm afraid of! When I go to Miami, I go to Little Havana and get a cup of that extra thick extra sweet concoction (a colada?) that you drink out of a thimble. Yum!

I'm curious about the new coffee maker being hyped this week. I'm concerned that it may only work if you purchase prepackaged coffee from the store. Anybody know?

I finally got around to seeing it in the early 80s, and really enjoyed it. Thanks for the heads up, Mule. Maybe the music track idea will become a standard on DVDs.

JC is OK for me now.

I recommend the Innovations Orchestra recordings from about 1952. In the mid-50s he recorded charts by Bill Russo and Bill Holman. These were made into a Mosaic box. Many of his late 40s stuff was by Pete Rugolo, but I like his 50s stuff better. I recommend that you stay away from anything after 1957, to pick a year. As the great players left his band and were replaced by people who did not go on to become famous, in my opinion the band became too dry and uninteresting.