Reply from Mosaic

[ghost of miles]

Sonnyhill recently posted a suggestion in the Mosaic Select wish-list thread regarding Woody Shaw and possible unissued material from the STEPPING STONES live sessions. Here's Mosaic's reply to an inquiry I sent them about this and other matters:

David,

There is not a wealth of material from Woody's live stuff but enough

for a

CD or a little more. Sony can't license it without paying a lot of

costs for

the unissued material so they are or were intending to issue it

themselves.

The Cap Big Band and Keynote are limping along, but the Lunceford is

probably out of the question because of European copyright laws and

bootleggers.

Michael

[dsgtrane]

Sony can't license it without paying a lot of

costs for

the unissued material so they are or were intending to issue it

themselves.

Thanks for posting that.

I think the key part of the quote was "... they are or were intending to issue it

themselves."

The "or were" part scares me in that the Shaw Mosaic was a extremely slow seller and thus may have scared them off. Too bad as "Stepping Stones" would have made a great Select when combined with the Elektras "Master Of the Art" and "Night Music", assuming Mosaic could have obtained the licensing for those sessions.

If anyone's interested the three LPs are fairly easy to obtain at relatively low prices. I got my set through half.com NEW at less than $20 apiece with shipping included.

Edited June 29, 2003 by dsgtrane

[Ed S]

Too bad about the Lunceford.

[Out2Lunch]

Well at least there is still some hope for the Keynote and the Capitol Big Band sets and they do have some really interesting items coming up in the next few months.

[montg]

Which Luncefords are we talking about? Decca or something else?

The explanation that European reissues preclude reissuing the Luncefords is somewhat perplexing. Mosaic has been issuing a lot of material lately that's out of copyright--sets of Django and Bix in particular have been reissued countless times.

The Keynotes would be the mother of all mosaics.

[montg]

Apparently, no one thinks it's commercially viable to get the Lunceford masters, clean them and remaster them. So, the masters will simply decay in the vivendi-verve vaults? try saying that fast three times.

Perhaps it's time for some sort of government act to restore/save historically significant American art? Maybe Smithsonian/Folkways could lease the masters from vivendi-verve, clean and release them? For the amount of money it cost to make one bomb and detonate it in the Iraqi sand, we could have the complete Decca Luncefords. Such enlightened policies fire the imagination!

Edited June 30, 2003 by montg

[ghost of miles]

Pick up those Masters of Jazz Luncefords while you still can... I'd love to hear a first rate transfer of "White Heat" for one... I guess I'll look for the 78 someday... At least John RT Davies did the transfers for volumes 4-7.

clem

Thanks for the tip, Clem, I'll seek those out, as I'm dubious about the Classics' sound... I was pretty bummed myself, as I had high hopes for a Lunceford Decca Mosaic. It was indeed a great band that still lingers in the historical shadow of the Ellington and Basie units.

[JSngry]

For the amount of money it cost to make one bomb and detonate it in the Iraqi sand, we could have the complete Decca Luncefords.

And a good Lunceford jam or two would be significantly more convincing as to the rightness of our cause!

[ghost of miles]

For the amount of money it cost to make one bomb and detonate it in the Iraqi sand, we could have the complete Decca Luncefords.

And a good Lunceford jam or two would be significantly more convincing as to the rightness of our cause!

Rhythm saved the world!

[Brad]

While it's nice to know that the Keynotes are "limping" along, that doesn't sound very encouraging and the likelihood of that ever coming out sounds as bad as before.