Kevin Bresnahan

Fred Putsey used to run the True Blue side of things there. Maybe he's still around?

Um... what? Mosaic owns the Charlie Parker Benedetti set. Why would that be going out of print?

I just got in a fairly rare CD - one that I had never heard or seen before I tripped on it during an "Eric Alexander" search on eBay - Dave O'Higgins & Eric Alexander "The Devil's Interval" on the JVG Sessions label. It seems to be only available from the UK and not all of the sellers will ship to the US. They made another recording called "Sketchbook" that seems more readily available. I will have to find that one. This is an excellent disc if you're into tenors going head to head. I am enjoying it a lot. It's my kind of Jazz. BTW, if You Tube audio floats your boat, it's all there. I listened to a lot of this on You Tube before I decided to hunt down the CD although I doubt that this is what most You Tube listeners do.

I wish he would keep his website up to date. I have no idea if he's touring anywhere near my area. Sonny Fortune is the same way.

I watched this on Netflix. It's a very depressing movie. I once read that there were reports that Morgan had died right before he cut "Lee Way" in 1960. Now I know why those reports were circulating. It lays out Lee's career trajectory in a way that really forces you to acknowledge that if it wasn't for Helen, Lee would have been dead by then. I mean, really, the guy was pawning his overcoat and shoes to buy drugs. It looks like she saved him from an almost certain death. And then she killed him, as reported by witnesses, pretty much by accident. The saddest part was that if it wasn't for a blizzard that night, Lee might have lived. It took an hour for the ambulance to get there and he bled out. A sad combination of circumstances. One thing that surprised me most was that by the end of the movie, my opinion of Helen had changed dramatically. She was almost as tragic a figure as Lee. It's because of her that we have all that great Lee Morgan music recorded after 1960 and why we have none after 1972. I used to wonder why she got off so lightly for murdering Morgan and now I almost wonder why she was arrested at all. As I said, very depressing.

Wow! I didn't see that one. That seems almost too cheap.

Several on eBay right now for less $200... Here's one for $189 with free shipping: http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-SEALED-J-J-JOHNSON-MOSAIC-COMPLETE-COLUMBIA-SMALL-GROUP-SESSIONS-CD-BOX-/332289587275?hash=item4d5e00b84b:g:-~UAAOSw4A5Yud32

I still can't believe that this set is now only going for $99 on eBay. I remember when it consistently got >$300. I almost sold mine back then... I wish I had! I could re-buy now for only $99. BTW, that Clayton set is one of my favorite Mosaic sets. Great jams with incredible musicians going on extended solos. The Hawk 's solos are pretty damn good.

Did they hire Jazzmeia Horn, toss her into a room with 5 or 6 strangers who happen to play Jazz, give her a stack of standards and 3 hours to make a record? If that's how it went down, then Prestige is back. If that's not how it went down, then this new label is Prestige in name only.

Ted - I would've loved a chance to have supported your work. I love supporting Jazz and cancer charities and I'm a sucker for Jazz photography. If you end up with any cancellations, I would love to buy a copy. Thanks, Kevin

Louis Hayes did bring in the band, minus trumpeter Josh Evans, that recently recorded "Serenade For Horace" for Blue Note and it was great. As expected, Abraham Burton and Steve Nelson were stellar. Louis played incredibly for a guy who just turned 80 in May. My only reservation was the pianist, but a lot of that might have been because the piano was mic'ed terribly and sounded rinky-dink for most of his solos. No matter how it was mic'ed, if you doing a Horace Silver tribute and you bring in a pianist with a light left hand, it's not going to sound right. They played for almost 2 hours straight. Definitely recommended if they come through your area.

Steve - not many do any more. It's very frustrating when you find out that a favorite player was in town in the backing band of a show that you decided to skip for one reason or another. It's happened to me several times. I've been lucky in that I have a friend in the box office at Scullers and she lets me know when someone special is hidden in a band. And to give this club credit, there have been some "special guests" listed under headliners for some shows, but not all of them. I remember one time a few years ago when this backfired on a club. The headliner was a young up & comer in NY who was planning to bring in a star-studded backing band for his first trip to Boston. No one knew him and no one knew who he was bringing with him so no one bought tickets. They ended up cancelling the show. It would have been a killer band to see. I had tickets because of my connection but there just wasn't enough word out to get asses in the seats. To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, Scullers has Charnett Moffett playing there Saturday night. No idea who is playing with him. His latest CD has Pharaoh Sanders, Stanley Jordan, Cyrus Chestnut, Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts, Victor Lewis, and Mike Clark on it. Are any of them touring with him? One of his previous CDs was solo bass. Is this a solo bass show?

Jim, if my memory serves me still, you are a bit more forgiving than I when it comes down to the sound quality on some dates, so this might not matter much... I bought this Mosaic box even though I had most (all?) of the LPs because I wasn't that happy with the sound on these LPs. I think Malcolm Addey did a great job with the master tapes here. Mosaic even mentioned his work on their sales pages: _____________________________________________________ SOUND QUALITY For this project, we flew to Chicago to uncover all of the original analog tapes for these albums as well as session reels that yielded a number of alternate takes of interest. The tapes were shipped back to Malcom Addey’s studio in New York where he transferred them at 24 bit into the digital domain. Addey’s mastering seamlessly wove Bee Hive’s 16 albums, recorded in various studios in New York and Chicago over eight years, into a coherent audio tapestry. ______________________________________________________ As an added bonus, I now can play this music anywhere I have a disc player, which is important since my turntables are still packed up from my move - last November! On top of that, I finally have "Starfingers" without a huge pop in the first track.

Louis Hayes comes back to Boston after a long absence Friday night at Sculler's. I hope he's bringing the band that recorded his recent Horace Silver tribute CD for Blue Note, "Serenade For Horace", as it's a fine CD. In particular, I hope he's able to bring Abraham Burton, who I haven't seen in a while. Burton was on the bandstand for one of my more memorable shows - Arthur Taylor's Wailers at the Regattabar. Of course, the band playing with Hayes isn't listed. I don't understand why most Jazz clubs do this. They should know that there are certain players that will draw their fans. I hate when I find out after a show that a certain player was in the band that night - a player I would have made sure to see. It's not like us Jazz fans don't care who's playing. We just want to know who's going to be doing the majority of the soloing that night.

Like Dan, I've cut up my calendar and had several of the pictures framed. I was lucky enough to get a few signed. I was able to get Stanley Turrentine, Bobby Hutcherson, Curtis Fuller, Elvin Jones & Horace Silver to sign them. I meant to get Joe Henderson's picture signed when he played in a trio at the Regattabar but I forgot it that night. I still regret that. For some reason, I don't recall Tony Williams being in this calendar.

BTW, in my line of work, we often use outside services for our test equipment. The cost of the service contract hinged on how long we would allow that company to fix the test equipment. 24 hour turn time was one price. 48 hour turn time was less. 72 hour turn time was a lot less. Something like this might be at work here.

Many of us here will give Mosaic way more leeway with regards to some of the stuff that has some people so upset. That's human nature. Most of us have had many excellent exchanges with them so we are willing to give them some slack. That should be easy to understand. I love their products and I have had many great buying experiences with them. I'm not going to bail on them because of a few shipping snafus. I do agree that their business decision to outsource their shipping service to an outside company has had a negative impact on their service but I am willing to accept that... let me re-state that - I have to accept that. I am not going to stop doing business with them and that's the only other option. I also agree that it appears it could turn off some of their customers and hasten their demise. That sucks. But here's the thing. We don't know why they outsourced shipping. We don't know who they outsourced their shipping to. We don't know if they have a contract with that shipping company. We don't know if that shipping company gave them a discount if they were able to take their time fulfilling orders. We don't know anything other than the fact that orders are taking longer to ship and they seem to screw up a lot more. Here's the thing that we really don't know: Is Mosaic trying to do something about this? We don't know! Can they do anything about this is even another matter. What if they signed a 5 year contract? One shouldn't jump to conclusions without the facts. So I am going to keep giving them my business, crappy shipping service and all. My money, my decision. Your money, your decision. I just hope I have the ability to use my money at this company in the future.

I just got a shipping notice on my Clifford Jordan set!

It's too bad that the reissue wasn't able to add the extra tracks that were mentioned above. I wonder who has the master tapes now that he's passed?

If you feel up to showing him your appreciation personally, John Abercrombie is currently in the hospital. He could use a few "Get Well" cards to lift his spirits. The mailing address is: John Abercrombie Room PCU 2027 Intensive Care Unit C/O Hudson Valley Hospital 1980 Crompound Road Cortland, New York 10567 From http://www.jazzguitar.be/forum/announcements-suggestions-forum-help/60775-john-abercrombie-hospitalized-sick-please-send-healing-thoughts-hopes.html

Wait until they get a record with an old label embedded in the vinyl and the store refuses to accept any vinyl returns because the labels won't give the store credit for open LPs. Ahhh... those were the days. I wonder if any of these new LPs listeners ever had to tape a quarter or two to the top of their stylus to get certain records to play without skipping? Ha ha ha.

I was somewhat surprised at how much better the audio is on Kelly's 1967 Left Bank 2 CD set than it is on the 1968 2 CD set. The '67 material with Mobley sounds like a professional recording... at least it would if Hank would've stayed on mic. The '68 recording with Coleman sounds like a bootleg.

E-mail Michael Cuscuna at Mosaic Records. He'll likely help you get in touch with the right people at Blue Note.

With the addition of, "Please allow them their privacy at this sensitive time", I was thinking the same thing as you. I hope we're wrong with our interpretations and she pulls through. I've seen Geri more times than I can remember and she was always wonderful at the keys. She is scheduled to perform at the Newport Jazz Festival August 5th in a trio with Terri Lynne Carrington & Esperanza Spalding.

Drummer Ralph Peterson just posted on Facebook that pianist Geri Allen is "gravely ill". For those of you with Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ralph.j.peterson?pnref=story For those of you without Facebook this is Ralph's post: Our thoughts hearts and prayers go out to my friend and Master pianist/composer/educator Geri Allen.....?????? Dear Friends, We are very sad to announce that one of our most beloved and respected artists, Geri Allen, is gravely ill. Her family and her long-time manager Ora Harris have asked us to post this message and request that you please hold all communications with Ora and the family members until further notice. Please allow them their privacy at this sensitive time. Our thoughts and prayers are with Geri and her family at this difficult time. Motema Music Edit: Sadly, Geri has died from cancer.