jazzbo

There is always the RCA Desmond box which has most of the Mosaic and an additional session with Hall. . . and is cheaper. . . affordable for a station! (Can often be had at less than list price).

Not surprisingly, I'm in the same boat Jim.

I am sure you'll dig it. Portrait of a Silken Thread, the first one, always floors me. The third one has a lot of sung tunes on it, they're all a little different and all great.

I have this set, bought it as soon as it was released (had the first volume separately). . . and I love it. Excellent stuff if you are a Strayhorn fan. Lots of previously unrecorded arrangements, even a few compositions not heard before. Wonderful! Great sound and execution to. The Orchestra has its own identity which seems faithful to the Strayhorn composition and feel without sounding like the Ellington Orchestra. As far as I know there is no connection at all between this and the Metropole Orchestra. . . if I am remembering information from the liner notes correctly. Certainly this does not have the strings and other instruments that the Metropole does; this has classic big band (and small group) jazz instrumentation.

One of my favorite quotes is Milt Jackson on Round Midnight playing "Louise" . . . love it.

Yes Jim, I was referring to your Smooth query. . . . I just don't "feel" it as smooth in the phrasing. I feel it more as the sort of beautiful sound that Coltrane got on much of Crescent. Or the smoothness of the sound that Getz and others have polished from Pres. . . . And the phrasing, if indeed Smooth related (an if to me, but then I haven't heard a lot of Smooth, I make shure not to!) would I think be precursor. . . .

I have actually improved my backlog situation, have about twenty right now I haven't gotten to yet because I feel they demand "my full attention" and there is a lot to compete with that. I've been finding it harder to justify further expenditures with a backlog in front of me. . . . So I just get all "imperial capitalist" with myself and just conquer and spend anyway! One way I get around this is preordering. . . I mean there IS a chance (a slight chance, admittedly) I'll be caught up when the preordered item is actually released!

I have picked up the "Unity" (non XRCD) cd and I really am enjoying it. I can hear the "smooth" thing but must say it's more a beautiful tone with Ernie to me than really "smoothening out" the jazz. . . .

Yes, and that pesky electronic sensor strip was in there too!

Definitely! And this new version has extra material and improved sound. . . win win! I LOVE this tour!

It is a very good set, the packaging is possibly the best of the bunch.

I agree, I think the Jazz Views are vinyl dubbed. The Water sounds really better, from the source tapes I imagine.