dougcrates

For anyone interested, on April 25th Warner Japan will reissue 50 Atlantic / Vortex / Embryo Catalog titles as part of the Jazz Best Collection and all will be remastered in 24 bit. Some of these titles were previously reissued by Collectables and they can now go in the garbage where they belong (IMO). There will be a second batch of 50 on May 23rd. The highlight for me is Nat Adderley's Autobiography (first CD issue). Here is the link: http://wmg.jp/jazz1000/

I noticed on Amazon that Concord is planning three more OJC Remasters for May 15: Bill Evans Moonbeams, Monk's Misterioso and Jazz at Massey Hall and a Stax remaster of Albert King's I'll Play The Blues For You. I am not sure why they wouldn't do Joe Alexander's Blue Jubilee or Ahmed Abdul-Malik's Spellbound or the John Wright's that Fantasy didn't get around to doing. It seems if you piggyback an unkown title with an Evans and Monk reissue people would take a chance. I would but maybe I am the exception.

Jonathan, thank you for taking the time to search out the Gene Shaw material. But I think the general discussion as been about Shaw's Carnival Sketches and to a lesser extent Debut In Blues. While I like Breakthrough, it is my least favorite of the three. But still essential for Shaw's trumpet playing.

JLH - I am not sure if I could tell the difference between peronal fave and stellar performance. I am not a jazz expert just a big fan and my favourites are what I listen to the most (obviously) so they become stellar through familarity (does that make any sense?) The more I listen to Carnival Skecthes or Bill Holman's Big Band the more I hear the little things that make a jazz record shine. I listen to these records and the others mentioned in my original post as much as I listen to Bill Evans Sunday At The Village Vanguard, Eric Dolphy's Out To Lunch or Mike Westbrook's Celebration. For me they are all great jazz records that I really enjoy and hopefully others think they are stellar so you can search them out, make a favorable decision and reissue them.

I have the Dusty Groove Breakthrough reissue which is why I excluded it although it is now out of print as well. I feel Debut in Blues and Carnival Sketches are beyond excellent and Shaw's playing on Sketches is fantastic. One of my favourite LPs and one I hope will get reissued someday.

Some personal faves that I would like to see get proper CD reissues include Denny Zeitlin's Live At The Trident, Gene Shaw's Argo albums especially Debut In Blues and Carnival Sketches, Bill Holman's Great Big Band on Capitol and Harold Vick's Strata East album Don't Look Back. And the Dave Bailey Epic's! I haven't been satisfied with any CD version of these albums. But I will buy whatever you put out based on the quality of the Dixon and Hemphill releases.

I spoke with MC a couple of years back about a Horace Silver Silver N' Select. He said they were interested but it would need to be four CD's due to The Music of the Spheres being 2LPs and I took that to mean "we would like to but the fourth CD is an issue from a pricing perspective". At one point he also hinted at wanting to do the Gene Shaw Argo's as well as some of the Muse / Savoy material (same owner) that I requested which included Woody Shaw. A Woody Shaw Muse box would be fantastic and totally essential.

It's a great album and it sounds like a great package so I am fine with $60.

In response to a query I recently received this from MC: "things are slow right now and except for two Selects coming in the two months, there won't be any Mosaic singles or selects for a while." MC I should add that the response took a month and a half.