Krupa/James Mosaic

[ghost of miles]

I'm sure there was discussion of this set on The Board Formerly Known As Blue Note... But there's no way that I'm aware of to search for threads there. I'll admit I'm thinking of picking this one up more for the Krupa sides than the James recreations, but I'm wondering what others who have it think. I haven't yet determined whether there's overlap with the Proper Krupa or not, but knowing me, I'll get 'em both eventually.

[FrancoisD]

A very valuable set, IMHO, that is, if you can stomach a few pop vocal items (mostly handled by Buddy Stewart, a very able singer, or Carolyn Grey on the Krupa discs), and some non-jazz material on the James sessions. But on the whole, this set features excellent big-band jazz. The Krupa material was recorded for the Capitol Transcription Service in 1946 and 1947 (74 tunes), and has never appeared in its entirety anywhere (though an almost complete set was released by Hep on three CDs a few years ago). It overlaps with most of Volume 4 of the Proper set, but the Mosaic has an incomparably superior sound. The rest of the Proper set is comprised of Brunswick/Okeh/ Columbia material (also two tracks from the 1936 Victor session with BG, Roy Eldridge and Chu Berry) from 1938-47, plus four tracks from various radio broadcasts. The Krupa portion of the Mosaic set features material that was not recorded for Columbia for the most part, such as the Mulligan arrangements of "Indiana", "Begin he Beguine" and "Birdhouse". There are also very fine charts by Eddie Finckel and George Williams.

As for the James tracks, the latter part of the recordings are by far the best, since the first Capitol sessions were mainly devoted to recreations of James hits from the 40s, mostly with strings. Later sessions such as were issued on LPs like "Wild About Harry", "The New James", "Harry's Choice" and "Mr Trumpet" present a far more interesting brand of hard-hitting big band jazz, with an emphasis on powerful originals like "Countin"", "Cotton Pickin'", "Blues For Harry's Sake", "Barn 12", "Ring For Porter", "Just Lucky" and many more. Great arrangements by Neal Hefti, Bill Holman, Jimmy Mundy, Jay Hill, Shorty Rogers, Ernie Wilkins and Johnny Thompson, among others.

In short, a really fine set of recordings that have not been reissued too often in the past.

[Ed S]

FrancoisD did a nice review of this set. I enjoy it very much as well. I'm particularly fond of the Krupa material. As I had no James prior to acquiring this set, I find his material to be very enjoyable as well.

Excellent sound throughout, and definitely worth picking up. It would be nice to see Mosaic issue some more big band sets.

I think this is one of the sets that was released to retail outlets. You might be able to pick it up on sale at some point.

Edited May 7, 2003 by Ed Swinnich

[ghost of miles]

It would be nice to see Mosaic issue some more big band sets.

Yes--whatever happened to the Capitol Big Band Sessions box? Maybe they're waiting for the Collectors set to sell out first... I'm hoping that some interesting things like "A Bird in Igor's Yard" (Defranco's big band?) will turn up if such a box ever sees the light of day.