BFrank

Thanks for the "heads-up", Aggie. I'll have to check those out. +++ Later: I just checked it out. There's a spread of prices from $1.99 - $3.99. I would warn everyone to stay away from the $3.99-ers, because after you're through paying S&H, it won't seem like such a bargain after all.

The only one of these that I have is the Gerald Wilson. Definitely a winner. You could pick up his new album if you want a taste before you commit to the box. It even has some of the same tunes.

JazzWest

Lumpy Gravy? Mothers of Prevention?

Dave - yes it DOES have "Ellis Island", not to mention "Light My Fire", "All Blues" and "Save the Country". A very interesting selection of tunes over all. And definitely ahead of its time (1969). I got into Blodwyn Pig because I was an early fan of Jethro Tull, so it was natural to pick up this spin-off group at the time. Props to Chris Olivarez for Fraternity of Man, Credibility Gap and the Pentangle. Although I don't actually remember the FoM that well, I know that I saw them at least once. The Credibility Gap = Harry Shearer. Now there's a NO-BRAINER! Pentangle - I'm a late convert, but they're definitely great. What can you say about "The Crazy World of Arthur Brown". A stone-cold classic, if there ever was one. Weird, hip, jazzy, cool, spacy, trippy........all rolled into one wild ROCK album.

KCSM - Jazz 91 streams. Check it out. "Real" jazz - 24/7.

I think they finally got it right with the new Airplane remasters. They sound very good and they all have extra tracks (of course). "Baxters" is one of my all-time favorite albums, period. I'm afraid I didn't even realize that 'Would You Like A Snack' was from "200 Motels". For some reason I never got that album.

Whoa! Excellent selections by Dave James: Blodwyn Pig Nick Drake The Who Live at Leeds Iron Butterfly Vanilla Fudge Dan Hicks & the Hot Licks Sons of Champlin the very first ZZ Top album pre-soft rock Fleetwood Mac Excellent selections by jacman: The Beatles-Sgt. Pepper Jimi Hendrix-Electric Ladyland (nekkid cover) The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown-The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown The Band-Rock Of Ages Let me add a few more: Animals - "Winds of Change" Julie Driscoll/Brian Auger - "Street Noise" Elvis Costello - "This Year's Model" (English release - different cover) The Doors - first album Jethro Tull - "This Was"

Someone at work was telling me about how her boyfriend has been getting into jazz over the past year. She is a lifelong rock fan, though. She said she liked some of the jazz he was playing, but a lot of it was not soothing to listen to. She couldn't understand that - this from someone who likes The Stranglers, Clash and a lot of the new wave/punk bands of the late 70's/early 80's. I tried to explain that jazz is the same as all other music in that way. There are some artists like James Taylor and others like Iggy Pop.

Just got the re-mastered version of Jefferson Airplane's "Crown of Creation" and was floored to see a tune that Grace did with FZ included in the bonus tracks. It's called "Would You Like a Snack" and includes Arthur Tripp III, Ian Underwood as well as Don Preston. It's very "whack" ..........but that's to be expected.

Impossible to pick a "favorite". I have pretty much the same sets that most people have (Hill, Larry Young, Morgan, McLean, Rivers, Gerald Wilson, Blakey and Fuller) but the one that I seem to keep coming back to is the Thad Jones 3CD set. It's just a great set of music!

FYI - they now have the 4CD set of Miles at the Blackhawk for $20! ... if I had only known.

I believe that "Sixth Sense" is coming out as an RVG next year.

He sure has a big head.............so to speak.

It's also included in the Mosaic set.

Whoa! No kidding! Outrageous. I just put in an order a couple of weeks ago for $5.99 each.

Dave Mason - "Alone Together", because it's fun to watch that marblized vinyl go round-n-round. Also, I have 2 promotional albums that Polygram issued in the 70's where the groove starts in the middle and ends on the outside. Pretty trippy! They're called "Counterrevolutionary music for in-store play" and "33 1/3" is printed in giant type.....backwards.

I don't have this box (but would like to someday), and I think "The Kicker" and "Tetragon" are great albums - "Tetragon" in particular. I would recommend "Relaxin' In Camarillo", too. Tony Williams is especially good here.

I just noticed that in addition to the $10/40 and $15/65 they have added another level: $20 for 90 downloads.

SS - It was a long piece about this year's box sets - all types of music, so I was pretty impressed that they got 4 Mosaics in there at all. Here's the link to the entire piece. Some other interesting reviews, actually. NY Times box set reviews

From today's NY Times: 'MOSAIC SELECT: PAUL CHAMBERS' (Mosaic, three CD's, $39) John Coltrane presented some early examples of his composing on a Paul Chambers album from 1956 called "Whims of Chambers," made when they were bandmates in Miles Davis's quintet and preserved here. There's promise in the writing, but even better is the sense of familiarity, since the drummer Philly Joe Jones, another member of the Davis quintet, was on the session, too. Chambers was a remarkable bassist; his strong pizzicato functioned both within a groove and as a surface detail. So it made sense for him to make music with the bass as a frontline instrument, as he did with "Bass on Top," another of the five albums included here, on which he also used the guitarist Kenny Burrell and the pianist Hank Jones. BEN RATLIFF 'MOSAIC SELECT: BENNIE GREEN' (Mosaic, three CD's, $39) A trombonist from Chicago, Green came up through the famous early-40's edition of the Earl Hines band, which included the primary architects of bebop, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. He went on to play with Charlie Ventura and Duke Ellington, but always as a trombonist in a big band, until he began making these charming records under his own name in the late 50's and early 60's. Green's style wasn't bebop, though: it suggested a throwback to the swing trombonists Trummy Young and J. C. Higginbotham — rhythmically clear and unhurried, with a slight New Orleans shout around the edges. Surrounding him were some of the great hard-bop players of the day (including Sonny Clark, Elvin Jones and Charlie Rouse), and the intersection of cool and hot styles makes these five records, little heard and long out of print, priceless. BEN RATLIFF 'THE COMPLETE VERVE GERRY MULLIGAN CONCERT BAND SESSIONS' (Mosaic, four CDs, $68) Here are all five albums by Gerry Mulligan's Concert Jazz Band, each a major accomplishment. This music — both studio and live (including the exciting "At the Village Vanguard") comes from the early 60's, when Mulligan decided he wanted a large ensemble for art's sake, not for dancing. What resulted had plenty of brains and subtlety. It's smart, intense music, and Mulligan was breathtaking back then. But this set should also strengthen the reputation of the trombonist Bob Brookmeyer, the band's principal arranger and practical boss, whose grainy solos, full of bright, slangy ideas and harmonic acuity, have stayed potent. BEN RATLIFF 'MOSAIC SELECT: JOHN PATTON' (Mosaic, three CD's, $39) The organist (Big) John Patton, who died last year, made a number of deep-soul, organ-and-tenor albums for Blue Note through the 1960's and resurfaced in the 80's through John Zorn's advocacy. Those five albums — excluding "Let 'Em Roll" and "Got a Good Thing Goin,' " both available as single CD's — hadlong been out of print, until now. Saxophonists (Harold Vick, Fred Jackson, Junior Cook, Harold Alexander) come and go through the records, and the guitarist Grant Green plays his signature licks on cue, but it's the connection between Patton and his drummer, Ben Dixon, that counts. Dixon plays light, dancing rhythms, as if his drum set were a giant tambourine; they complement Patton's bouncing figures perfectly. BEN RATLIFF

Thanks, Greg. Well, I feel a little better that it's not just me. I'll be interested to hear if anyone else has noticed this and has any ideas.

Has anybody had any problems with disk 3? I hear what sounds like a digital skipping sound on Track 3 at about :39. It's at a place where there's a lot of organ and electric piano, so it "almost" sounds like it's part of the tune. Could it be my CD player?

I forgot about that one, too. Definitely worth picking up.

For about $50 I got: Jefferson Airplane remixes of "Surrealistic Pillow", "Crown of Creation" and "After Bathing at Baxters" Wilco - "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" Last Waltz - 4CD "complete" set Hank Mobley - "Roll Call" RVG Not bad at all!