Bill Nelson

Can anyone provide a 'last chance' status report on the T/K/M set? My guess is that Mosaic is counting down the last 100 copies. If so, then this would mean about 4,500 copies were sold of a 7,500 limited ceiling, or about 60%. If only the Coen brothers had used this music as a soundtrack source for 'Oh Lennie, Where Art Thou', the full run woulda sold out in 5 days. But don't get me started. At least Ralph Stanley's no longer stuck playing rural county fairs.

Agreed on all except '20th Century Drawing Room'. Too precious and effete -- make that lightweight and lame. Listen first before pulling trigger.

Just relax and try not to make a big deal out of it. The first album listen isn't the time for intense scrutiny, or applying it against all the intellectually analytical reviews you've stored in your head. Overly-hyped expectations are not in the Tao of jazz listening pleasure. Select the disc that matches your mood and 'cool it down'.

Yes, I'm with Brad on my one DW purchase, the 3-CD set of Vol. 3. It's got all of 'After Hours With Miss D' and 'Dinah Jams', both of which can be purchased as single CDs. If you want more, with Quincy Jones arrangements, then 1957's 'Swingin' Miss D' and 'DW Sings Fats Waller' will wrap it. But her 1954 sessions of June 15 ('After Hours') and August 14 ('Jams') are THE ones to focus on -- and the Mercury Vol. 3 does it nicely.

Just ordered my T/K/M set today. You'se guys are killing me. Last two weeks I've been asking myself,"Well, what ARE you waiting for?" In six months they won't be selling for $96 or be perfectly mint. Ain't no need to play 'Procrastinator' for me except to dig Lee Morgan!

"...but it really, really never ends." How stone-to-the-bone true! About 20 years ago, I began to realize my Economics 101 Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility -- that you get proportionally LESS benefit (and enjoyment) from, say, your 20th Lee Morgan album than the 19th. In consuming recorded music, the LODMU varies with each artist and collector. But at some point, the 'Law' kicks in -- and you can't deny it. Whether or not you're aware of getting slightly less pleasure, the 'jones' fix is in and the monkey is still riding on your back. In this new milennium, it might be the Ferengi Laws of Acquisition and/or the antics of Karl Rove, which will take most of us to the cleaners. But that's for another topic thread.

'Street Singer' may have discovered the 'beginning of the end'. However, a good many OJC titles can still be found in retail store record bins, often for a couple dollars less. If SS can scramble to a few such stores, it'll be even sweeter to hold 'em and score 'em. I've never found OJC pressings or playbacks to be dubious in any way. Of all the major labels in the last 20 years, Fantasy provided us with the best quality, low-cost vinyl reissues. I should've bought more. It looks like the party's over.

I use the same system described by Paul Secor: 1. ALL jazz artists are alphabetized, and 2. Each artist's ouput is arranged chronologically. Various Artists are at the end, arranged by record label. Not terribly difficult or anal. I've heard of one collector who files his LPs strictly in the order he acquired them. (I'd love to go thru his bag at a record show and then 'shuffle the deck' when he wasn't looking).

Got mine during the early (1985-87) wave of Polygram GEMA CDs which were briefly distributed stateside prior to establishing U.S. manufacturing plants. These initial jazz CD titles seemed to be plucked almost randomly from the MPS and Verve catalogs. They all say: "Made in W. Germany by Polygram" and the clear plastic of the jewel cases is extra sturdy. 'The Hub of Hubbard' teams Freddie and drummer Louis Hayes with three members of the Jones-Lewis big band (Eddie Daniels, Roland Hanna, Richard Davis) who were touring Europe in late '69 and had paused in Villingen, Germany to record small-group sessions at MPS. This one cooks the hardest, with 'Just One of Those Things' a ripper at breakneck speed. The dull front cover artwork seems to put some buyers off -- I've had to kick some of my jazz buddys to get them to buy the vinyl. I bought my CD in '87 and would've snagged extras because of the high level of musicianship and the MPS recording quality. This 1970 album finds Hubbard between his Atlantic and CTI contracts -- just over a month before his sessions for 'Red Clay'. He would not record a straightahead jazz LP again until 1980, when Columbia let him go. ("Free at last!")