Mark J

The remastering on this 2 CD set is superb and the music is amazing - young Pops!! Even though it's acoustic it almost sounds electric.

Since Elmo Hope was already out (actually twice) in the US, it seems an odd choice for a Connoisseur. My copy is good enough. Also have the McLean and Hill on Mosaic, so the BIG one is the Ike Quebec, something I've wanted to hear for many years. This will be the one for me!

B E C H E T ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Truly amazing!!! Just got this today, listened once and must listen a few more times. It's wild hearing Bird & Diz stretch out on these songs in their prime, so soon after the original recordings. The creativity and freshness is right there. Better than just about any live recording by Bird, even my favorite Birdland tracks, and the sound is better than I imagined, better than 1950's live recordings. It almost doesn't sound real it's so clear. This is the kind of stuff that got me into jazz in the first place, and it's the perfect thing to stir up anyone's jazz juice. Pure energy and excitement

What an amazing musician! Plectrist is one of my all time favorites - his playing is complex and beautiful and never boring or repetitive, and my favorite Tristano is when he recorded with Bauer - especially the Keynotes. Bauer was a man who could swing. The man leaves quite a legacy!

I own this book, read it first when I was getting into hard bop music, about 6 or 7 years ago, found it too short, but interesting to read about Andrew Hill and Tina Brooks since they aren't covered in other books, and the recommended album list at the end was a good primer although now out of date. Re-read it later, found the factual errors annoying - a description of the death of Lee Morgan which apparently is not accurate, the book doesn't have a great flow - seems like essays strung together, many people missing or neglected etc. I like Rosenthal's notes for the McLean Mosaic box better, but overall it was worthwhile reading it.

This is one of the all-time great Mosaics. Great sound, the material has never come out on CD in any other form, and many of the songs which were edited or spliced together on the original LPs have been restored here. I bought it new from Mosaic long ago, but 130 bucks sounds like a good deal. HUCKLEBUCK!!!

Great pictures! Hag Samech to all!

I watched some of this - their endless self analysis made me ill and I could watch no more. They were the best kick ass group until Cliff died. That was the end for me. Those early records are still great - lots of anger and energy. Ride the Lightnin!!!!!!! Now they are pampered old men with too much free time and money. Sad to watch. The best Metallica to see is the old video they put out in the 80s with all the official/unofficial bootlegs of the band from the Cliff era.

This is a really good set - not essential, but worthwhile. I bought this from Mosaic after it went OOP. They actually gave me a discount, I guess they wanted to get rid of it! A great variety of groups here, including some surprisingly good bop sides from the late 40's and vocals - some good, some not so good. Much of this is available separately (as mentioned above) but this is nice to have in one place and interesting to isolate the small group tracks here. I was just listening to and enjoying this last week.

Thanks Mike! There is 9 minutes of hidden music if you pause and rewind Billy Bauer!!! I've had the CD 5 years and never heard it until today! Now a perfect album is even better!

I don't remember this, I guess I wasn't buying a lot of blues at that point, I had almost everything I wanted - if it's from Universal from 1999 the sound should be good, so the main thing is to look at the track listing and see how much of this you already own and how much remains that you want, especially if there are some rarities. I bought that Chess Blues box in the mid 90s which I think has 4 CDs even though I had all the 'hit' material (plus) because there were a bunch of nice rarities on the box that I wanted to hear (much of which I wound up buying again on the 2 CD Aristocrat set later - that is a real treasure trove), so a purchase like this depends on what you have and what you like.

I have almost all the CDs in this series (the few I don't have - Lalo, Alan Shorter, Dinah Washington, that third stream Modern Jazz Society - I chose not to pick up when they were available and still have no interest). A very good series, much more interesting than was Verve has been re-releasing since this time. It exposed me to a lot of musicians I otherwise wouldn't have focused on or even been aware of, especially Billy Bauer - his Elite is my favorite. Some I don't particularly care for (Johnny Smith, Clarke Boland, a few others), but most are very good or excellent, and the packaging, sound and extras are great. Another of my favorites was the first I ever bought, the Jacquet Kid and the Brute with some great Ben Webster. Other favorites are the Jimmy Cleveland, Clark Terry, Walt Dickerson, Wynton Kelly, Jack Teagarden, Ray Brown, Louis Bellson, and Lawrence Brown.

I never heard of this. Who put this set out? Is it from the Chess masters, or like the old English Charley/French Chess albums in the 80s where there was a lot of music in really bad sound? I used to buy those because the real stuff was not available from Chess, which was in 'transition', but once MCA started releasing all the old albums on Chess CDs and LPs in the late 80s I dumped my old European versions and bought the new ones with good sound. Since the late 80s much of the Chess catalogue has been reissued legitimately by Chess in excellent sound, even the late 80s CDs, although a lot is now OOP, so I wouldn't jump at this box unless I knew exactly what was on it and what the sources were.

Lon - thanks for the info! Great photos - would love to be a fly on that wall!! I haven't seen many photos of those, but you are correct. It sure looks like a National.

Thanks for the cool pix Lon!!! I don't think I've ever seen those photos, nor a photo of Harry Lim! What is going on in those photos? Duke with the Condon gang? Max? Bud? That's a record I'd like to hear! The guitar sure has the National style, though it doesn't look like a steel guitar.

I played this CD recently - even better than I remember it. A great balance of groove and free, light on the free which is how I like it. I don't 'get' Larry Young after Unity, but this album is still a favorite.

Weizen - Goldie Hawn wasn't in Stripes - are you thinking of Private Benjamin?? That movie is total crap. Stripes is funny (at least the first half is!) - Murray, Harold Ramis, PJ Soles, John Candy. Both movies have similar plots however - city slickers join the army.

Kiss Meets the Phantom movie is truly awful. They were all high when they made it, they couldn't act and the plot and script were garbage. Either Ace or Peter Criss had their voices dubbed throughout the movie because they were so bad. Ace didn't even show up half the time, and you can see scenes where suddenly he is a large black man (a poorly chosen double). What a piece of garbage!!! I remember waiting for this to be on TV when I was a kid - what a disappointment.

It was available on CD for many years - it took a LONG time to sell out on CD (came out about 1994 and was around until about 2000 or 2001) and the LPs have been around even longer. Mosaic didn't create this as an LP only set, it just sold poorly on LP and they have been stuck with them.

How did I miss all this action??? This is giving me bad flashbacks - the Aric bannings at the old BNBB, his begging to reform, his eventual return, and all falling apart again into the usual insanity. For all those who weren't there, Aric will undoubtably beg to return and say he is reformed. I fell for this before and it's a temporary respite until he is back to pissing off everyone. I didn't realize that Maltz and DEEP have been banned here. DEEP is a good guy but he often goes insane, in an Aric kind of way, so it's probably best he's not here. Maltz has always been a nutjob and it's nice not having to deal with him. SS-1/Jeff - I'm shocked it took so long for you guys to fiinally have it out - this is an ancient fight!!!!!

Ghost of Miles and Lon above give good advice. The "Young Bird" 2 CD set on Masters of Jazz (unfortunately OOP since the label went bust) is great, excellent notes and the best sound I have ever heard this material. So many good things there, besides the fine studio and live recordings with McShann - many priceless jams including the Redcross jam recordings done in a hotel which are his first with Diz, Cherokee live from Monroe's in '42, interesting 'Trio' recordings from 1942 and fascinating sides where he plays along with 2 Benny Goodman 78s and a Hazel Scott 78 - this gives you a little insight into his creative process at this time. Really amazing to hear. Try to find this if you can.

I can understand why he would sell this. I have at least 20 Mosaics, most OOP (including the Morgan box mentioned here), but I only regularly listen to a few of them and I can't really see myself buying many more Mosaics in the future (except for some of their sets of early Jazz where they are salvaging material and not disturbing any original album sequences - the HRS set is something I treasure). It's trouble taking down the big box, sets taken from albums (especially the BN Mosaics) often break up the albums across CDs and put the songs in chronological order rather than original sequence, no cover art which I love (although the B&W photos are really nice), and it's just too much to digest in one or two sittings - I honestly can't concentrate anymore to listen to more than 45 minutes - 1 hour of one artist at a time. It's not worth my time to figure out the original album sequences and I wouldn't even want to try and figure out how to 'burn' a CD. As things become available more as individual CDs with better sound I will probably replace any of these Mosaics I care about with the individuals. I have the same problem with non-Mosaics - I stopped buying boxes from artists like Monk and Miles and instead concentrate on the original albums. If something isn't available now individually I know it will be someday.

Love Day was a gag holiday created on the Simpsons a few years ago. The greeting card guys have a meeting and need a holiday in-between other holidays where they can get people to buy more cards, and they create Love Day, selling all kinds of accessories. They say something like 'lets call it something like 'love day', but more creative' and wind up with Love Day as the holiday. Homer is angry because Marge doesn't buy him the Love Day bear he wanted, they throw away all the Love Day accessories, including this elaborate lawn display, and this leads into a plot about Homer fighting the sanitation department. Was your daughter watching the Simpsons recently?

Face to Face is the one to get (if you only want one). I remember I picked up this as a BN Connoisseur in the late 90s at Tower. I didn't know who Baby Face was, but I am a jazz organ fan and I thought the Reid Miles cover was great. That was a good buy for me! The whole album cooks - jazz, soul, funk, it has it all. And Fred Jackson too!