mjzee

It will be released in Europe with a slightly different title:

Good news! Owing to the unexpected success of their Redd Foxx box (selling out in two weeks, now fetching $1,100 on eBay...although, admittedly, it was a limited edition of 100 copies), Mosaic has now announced their next big release: The Complete Moms Mabley Chess Recordings! Includes four unreleased sessions, including Moms engaged in a cutting contest with Pigmeat Markham, and the long-rumored doo-wop duets with Bob Newhart! Original masters supplied by the Library of Congress (they couldn't be bothered with Chick Webb and Ella Fitzgerald, but turned the place over to find the Mabley masters)! Worldwide release limited to 25,000 copies...order now!

Legendary folklorist Alan Lomax discovered the music in 1938 when he visited the Midwest on his famous 10-year cross-country trek to document American folk music for the Library of Congress. A trove of his Michigan recordings is now being publicly released for the first time by the library, coinciding with the 75th anniversary of Lomax's trip. The release is causing a stir among folk music fanciers and history buffs. "It was a fantastic field trip — hardly anything has been published from it," said Todd Harvey, the Lomax collection's curator at the library in Washington. The Michigan batch contains about 900 tracks and represents a dozen ethnicities. Full story here: Yahoo

I'd love to have the old Mosaics available again, in one form or other.

Pleasing?

Yes. You had to think about what you wanted to "say," the trajectory of the music within 47 minutes (the length of a side of a 90-minute tape). You had to gauge the gaps between the tracks, adjust the recording levels for each track...it's analogous (sorry) to writing a letter on paper vs. on a computer. It's difficult to erase, you can't really go back once you've started... And there was the plus side, where you really got caught up in the creative act of putting the tape together, making the music flow. For a non-musician, it was as close as we could come to actually making music.

crooksandliars.com has some Softs radio broadcasts available for streaming.

I really liked 3, 6 & 7. 4 & 5 were good, but in 6 & 7 they got into some vampish grooves that were a lot of fun. I guess Ratledge was phasing out around then; I found them much less interesting after he left. 1 & 2 were OK, but a much different band, and the rapid edits and such were wearying to listen to. Karl Jenkins has had quite the career since then. Anyone familiar with Adiemus? The first album also had Ratledge.

I think you have to accept that the proceedings are never going to get "hot." Things are more leisurely, "composer-ly" if you will, and without a horn there's not going to be a lot of dynamics. I'm not a big fan of John Lewis, and can certainly do without the finger cymbals. I think there's only so much jazz you can play in tuxes. For the piano chair, why not try substituting either Monty Alexander, Gene Harris, or Cedar Walton?

Mr. Seerman, 36 years old, is on an unusual quest: For years he has been scouring campuses across the country hoping to identify every defunct college band he can, digitizing and mastering their work and shopping it to companies looking to license snippets of cheap, original period music that has never been heard—except, maybe, at frat parties. Read the full article here: WSJ For those of you who can't open the article, Google the following headline: Old College Try: No-Hit Wonders Get Fresh Shot at Fame

Yay!

Where are you seeing them?

Listening now to DP 36 (9/21/72, Philadephia) - just amazing.

very much looking forward to finding it somewhere where the postage cost isn't such an issue. Problem is I'm not sure how much sdistribution Mr Rudolph gets to Europe Amazon's carrying it - release date November 19.

You know you're gonna...

This looks exciting. Although I know a little about McLaughlin in the '60's (Extrapolation, Things We Like, Where Fortune Smiles), I've always thought of him as more of a New York musician, hearing his playing really come alive through Miles, Devotion and Lifetime. It'll be interesting to read about all the musicians swirling through the London "scene" in the '60's.

The sound quality on the Live Trane box isn't very good. Sounds remote and not very distinct.

Jackie Lomax has passed: http://www.jackielomax.com A terrific soul singer. RIP.

So much for the transfer of the masters to LOC being benign-to-good. How many years has it been, and they still haven't even unpacked them?

Yes, the extra tracks are from the Live Trane box; nothing new here.

Speaking only for myself, I have no problem with the self-promotion, but since this is really an advertisement, please consider donating some money to help maintain this website. There's currently a fundraising drive going on. See:

Really? I went through the trouble of finding the plain-vanilla html link through Google. Sorry you couldn't read it. Maybe it's a foreign-country issue. Can any other non-subscriber to WSJ read it?

I did a search on US Amazon for Ganda Fadiga, and came up with many, including the two TMG recommended: 1992 Vol. 1 1992 Vol. 2 I listened to some of the samples, and cannot relate.