clandy44

LK graduated from Dartmouth and Yale Law, but never practiced law. He worked in Hollywood for director William Wyler (Best Years of Our Lives, Roman Holiday, etc.) for 8 years and hung with the West Coast intellectuals like Brecht, etc. All of that earned him a hot seat in front of the HUAC, where he took five and got himself Hollywood-blackballed. That led to Contemporary and Good Time Jazz. I'm still reading, but only a premature death seems to have kept him from even more achievements.

Just bought this. Have listened to only one disc but can tell this is a real keeper. While I have a number of the cuts, the whole presentation is first class and the booklet is excellent. Great sound, too.

Must be shipping because Mosaic advised it has charged my credit card. Really looking forward to this one.

From today's WSJ: Why a Grand Plan To Cut CD Prices Went Off the Track Music Stores Put Up a Fight, Saying Universal's Gambit Favored Big Retail Rivals Strategy Led to 'Hurt Feelings' By ETHAN SMITH Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL June 4, 2004; Page A1 The world's biggest music company, Universal Music Group, tried a bold gambit to revive the music business: slash the wholesale and suggested retail prices of its compact discs. Universal, a unit of Vivendi Universal SA, was confident that price cuts of up to 30% would boost business for retailers and please consumers who thought CDs were too expensive. After all, that's how marketers juice up sales of cars, hamburgers and lots of other merchandise. But today the nine-month-old initiative, dubbed JumpStart, has been scaled back -- for reasons that spotlight the industry's deep dysfunctions and its uncertain future. With illegal Internet downloading still rampant, consumers didn't view an album with its price cut to $12.98 as much of a bargain. Moreover, many music buyers never even saw the lower prices. A wide swath of music retailers, from Virgin Entertainment Group Inc.'s Virgin Megastores to Trans World Entertainment Corp.'s FYE, either never adopted the cuts or were slow to implement them -- and pocketed the extra cash. Retail prices on Universal CDs declined just 5% between the first quarter of 2003 and the first quarter of 2004, according to research firm NPD Group Inc. -- instead of the planned 30%. Indeed, Universal misread how music retailers -- many of them financially weakened by online piracy -- would respond to the cuts. The retailers felt the music giant's public pronouncements about the strategy were designed to force them into making cuts they couldn't afford. And they thought that the low-price plan favored their new archrivals -- megachains like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. that can afford to offer CDs at deep discounts and make up the losses with other, higher-priced products. Music stores, which usually don't carry other product lines, can't afford to discount CDs as steeply. "They were trying to force a new pricing strategy upon us," says Martin Herrmann, a consultant with FTI Consulting Inc., which was working with the ailing Tower Records chain on a balance-sheet restructuring. Record retailers felt they were the victim of "strong-arm tactics" designed to force them to accept untenably low retail prices that squeezed their profit margins, says Don VanCleave, president of the Coalition of Independent Music Stores, which represents 70 retailers in 24 states. Adding to the mess: Universal also stopped giving music retailers so-called co-op advertising payments. The money is supposed to be used by retailers to buy local advertising highlighting the label's current titles -- but in practice, co-op money is viewed by many in the industry as a subsidy to keep struggling retailers out of the red. Often, it pays for little more than better placement in a store, which costs the retailer nothing. Jim Urie, president of Universal Music & Video Distribution, argues that JumpStart levels the playing field; no retailer, big or small, receives any special deals or perks. And Universal points out that the recently rejiggered version of the program, JumpStart 2.0, has been performing better than the original. Still, he concedes, Universal's various moves "came off arrogant.... We didn't mean it that way, but hurt feelings are hurt feelings." JumpStart hasn't dramatically improved the finances at Universal Music, where revenue decreased by 11% during the first quarter. For JumpStart to work, Universal Music needed to see a 21% lift in sales volume to offset the lower wholesale prices. A Universal executive says the company saw increases of just 8% to 13% most weeks. JumpStart's original incarnation now looms as a large misfire in the music industry's effort to resuscitate itself. World-wide music sales continue to tumble, and even an incipient recovery in the U.S. has been far too modest to make up for the years of declines that preceded it. Internet users download millions of songs illegally every week. Legitimate downloading services such as Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes, where albums usually run about $9.99, are promising but still in their infancy. Double Whammy Moreover, traditional music retailers -- which the industry relies on to stock older titles that Wal-Mart and its ilk often don't carry -- are failing at an alarming rate, thanks to the double whammy of the Internet and the discounters. Big chains such as Wherehouse Entertainment Inc. and MTS Inc.'s Tower Records have recently gone through bankruptcies, while others, such as HMV Group PLC, are planning to close their remaining U.S. stores. Universal executives recently partially retreated from many of the price cuts and gave ground in other important areas. At the new prices, Universal executives say the company will now need about a 17% boost in volume to offset the effects of the price cuts. In the six weeks since the changes, Universal has seen a volume increase of 16.2%. "We believe in the program," Mr. Urie says. "Parts have been successful; other parts have been less so." He acknowledges being "disappointed" with the level of cooperation from retailers. With the Oct. 1 kickoff of JumpStart, Universal tried to do away with the industry's legacy of incentives and discounts, and instead focus on a vastly simplified pricing structure. The wholesale price of most CDs was lowered to $9.09 from $12.12, with the idea that stores would drop their retail price on new releases to a suggested $12.98. Universal Music Chairman Doug Morris said at the time that the new plan would enable most music stores to compete with the $9.99 retail price that Best Buy and other mass merchants often charge for hot new releases. Universal was betting that other music companies would follow their lead and lower their prices as well, boosting the industry's volume and reversing a nearly four-year trend of flagging sales. Right away there was a problem: The pricing gulf that has developed over the past decade between music-only stores and mass merchants. On average, traditional music stores charge over $1 more for any given CD than mass merchants, according to NPD Group. For new, hot titles that gap is often bigger. For example, the recent Universal CD by rapper Jay-Z, "The Black Album," sells for $14.98 on average at music stores, compared with $12.76 at mass merchants, according to NPD Group. When JumpStart came along, with its emphasis on low, Wal-Mart-type prices, music stores quickly concluded that Universal had sided with the mass-merchant enemy. In fact, Best Buy and Wal-Mart were among the first to adopt the program. Many music chains were hostile in part because of the abrupt way Universal announced the program. Some stores got the word when Universal e-mailed them a PowerPoint presentation. When Universal took the unusual step of trumpeting details of the new pricing policy to the press, some retailers viewed the move as an attempt to force them into going along with the new "suggested" prices, or risk a consumer backlash. Universal was forced to scrap a plan to mark CDs with stickers touting the new $12.98 list price after meeting stiff resistance from retailers, who threatened to cover the stickers with bigger -- and higher -- price tags. Mr. Herrmann, the consultant to Tower Records, says the Universal sticker plan was viewed as a "nonstarter," adding, "The [universal] sticker was, what, half an inch? There would have been a lot of one-inch stickers" pasted over them. Even worse for Universal, many retailers dragged their feet on passing along lower prices to consumers. Some of these delays occurred because music stores -- which have inventories far deeper than the average Target or Best Buy -- were waiting to sell off large backlogs of CDs they had bought from Universal at the old, higher prices. Other stores simply kept charging the old retail prices for discs they bought at the new, low wholesale prices, pocketing the difference. Tower Records found the notion of committing fully to the program too risky. Mr. Herrmann says that after days of constructing economic models of the price cuts' impact, the store's executives cut prices on some titles and kept others at the old, high price. The prospect of uncertainty over CD sales in an already shaky business environment was too much to take -- particularly when the chain was planning a bankruptcy filing. From the beginning, JumpStart's results were not nearly as dramatic as the company needed them to be. The company saw a 5.8% improvement in sales, on average, for new releases, compared with the performance of CDs released before JumpStart. Universal did best with so-called carryover CDs -- those that have been out for more than eight weeks but less than two years -- boosting sales by around 27%. Universal fared poorly with older titles, seeing only a 3% lift. Universal executives argue that these titles have the slowest turnover rate in most stores, and so it took longer to clear out old, higher-priced stock. But that's only part of the picture. When it lowered wholesale prices, Universal also eliminated the intermittent discounts and promotions that music companies use to push their products, so stores were given no incentive to create separate displays highlighting older Universal titles. That was frustrating for Universal because some retailers reported that price cuts actually did drive sales volume on older titles. Joe Nardone Jr., who owns the 11-store Gallery of Sound chain in Pennsylvania, says that discounted greatest-hits albums -- such as Universal's series of "Millennium Collection" titles -- have seen sales growth since the debut of JumpStart. For instance, Mr. Nardone dropped the price on The Who's Millennium Collection by $2, to $9.99, after Universal dropped the title's wholesale price to $6.06. He sold 120 copies of the album in the first three months of this year -- compared with 120 in all of 2003. Retreat By April, Universal had retreated from key features of the initiative. In JumpStart 2.0, the company raised wholesale prices on most titles back to $9.49, albeit still below their pre-JumpStart levels. Some "superstar" releases now wholesale for $10.35, up from $10.10, and their suggested retail prices have been raised by a dollar, to $13.98. In the most telling sign of a retreat, the company's biggest release of the spring -- an album by D12, a rap group featuring Eminem -- was issued under old pricing guidelines, including an $18.98 list price for consumers. Universal executives say the album was technically released by a small label in which Universal is a partner, and thus the price was ultimately up to an outside partner. Universal's other big problem is that none of the other major music companies has followed suit with across-the-board everyday low prices. "I wish there were more people on the bandwagon," says Universal's Mr. Urie. "Where we made a decision to take action, they have decided to dip their toe in the water." Many executives at rival companies have agreed privately that prices need to come down, and some have instituted targeted cuts. In early May, Warner Music Group cut prices on over 1,700 older catalog titles, lowering the suggested cost on 1,200 of them to $9.98, and the rest to $13.98. But Warner didn't attempt to reduce incentive programs, as Universal had. In fact, Universal's move toward standardized pricing encouraged its rivals to step up their use of co-op advertising -- which curried favor with retailers just as Universal was alienating them. After the introduction of JumpStart, one high-level executive at a rival company recalls thinking, "We can take advantage of this, by giving the proper level of support" in the form of increased co-op payments. Steve Hicks, vice president of product at Hastings Entertainment Inc., which operates 150 stores in the West and Southwest, says that since the introduction of JumpStart, Universal competitors have roughly doubled the size of their discounting programs, including co-op and product-placement payments. Write to Ethan Smith at ethan.smith@wsj.com

I enjoy her work and think she is one of the many overlooked artists with genuine talent. Especially like Beautiful Love, a 1994 album with Fred Hersch.

On first listens, was not impressed. Luckily, I have come to my senses-peerless performances by a drummer unrivaled (except maybe by Max) in the last several decades. Another "not to be missed" offering from Stamford.

The title of this thread suggests you think you need to tread lightly lest you disturb the inmates here. Nah, don't worry. I'm a devoted Mosaic acquirer and marvel at the quality, breadth and relatively cheap price for their products. My ear does not recoil in horror at the mention of Ron McMaster so that's not a problem. That said, I have some sets I won't be listening to much-the Pearson is just awful to me, and I don't like the Sarah for all the pop garbage with strings that she did for obvious commercial reasons. There are parts of others too that won't get much play...but how about such sets as the HRS, Capitol, Donaldson, Prima, etc.? Where in the world would I realistically find that stuff if not for Mosaic? Like most things, Mosaic ain't for everybody but it sure suits me.

Tjazz-Thanks but I have it-see post above.

I skipped the Blakeys since I have enough of that group in the Mosaic set. The Quincy is superb and is in fact the the only Quincy I have. Don't miss the Mulligans-even tho I have the Mosaic, I can never get enough of him or the CJB. Agree that the Adderley is excellent too. Also, get the Jones-Lewis cd if you like big band.

Music recorded in the 70s probably represents 1% of my collection. I have never liked the electric-electronic stuff, and most of my 70s music is from the likes of Braff, Benny Carter, Chet, Marion Brown, etc. But, I was curious about this set and have now listened to disc 1. While some of it is not to my liking, Liebman's work does catch my ear and I know that I will need to work harder to get into the groove that I am hearing. An unusual offering from Mosaic-nothing like it from the in or out-of-print catalogue.

I'm a fan of the Swiss Radio series as well. This sale is very good because both the price is good and the cds are available. I had trouble finding the Terry and Webster cds, but Allegro has them. Also ordered the BG Worldwide. Ubu, I think the Hawkins is the best of the 8 I have while the Redman is probably at the bottom-poor sound and so-so performances.

Edward-I love the O'Day, where most often she is in great voice and frequently backed by terrific playing. As for the Ory, I'd rate it in the lower one-third of my Mosaics. That is, it doesn't rival my favorites, but it has more going it for than a bunch of sets. Mostly studio dates in the late 50s, Ory and his pals make very good N.O. music, which is in some short supply in my collection and was a reason I bought the set. Musianship and sound (Addey) are excellent. Negatives-8 cds is a lot and Ory can't rival my favorite bone players. Am I glad I bought it? Yes, no regrets.

I almost never look at the number in my Mosaic booklets (from prior threads, it seems the numbering is not in sequence?), but this thread got me to check my Ory, which I bought in the last 6 to 9 months-No. 552. As for slow sellers, I would nominate the Sarah, which is probably my most disappointing Mosaic. This set contains so much non-jazz pop stuff that much of it is unlistenable for me-and I sure do like her jazz work. Oh...and don't miss the Vee Jays, especially the Morgan/Shorter set.

One of my favorite Hawk's, which I was just listening to yesterday, is the Classics 1929-34 release. The music is great, but even better is to hear his progression to reigning tenor in a few years. Highly recommended. I too have more Hawk than Lester-but both are incomparable in their own way.

Amusing anecdote about Duke at the end. He sounds like he was quite devoted to his sister. Ruth Ellington Boatwright, 88, the Sister of Duke Ellington, Dies By DOUGLAS MARTIN Published: March 11, 2004 uth Ellington Boatwright, Duke Ellington's only sibling, who for many years took care of his business affairs, died on Saturday in Manhattan. She was 88. Her son Michael James said her death came after she had been sick for some time. Ruth Dorothea Ellington was born on July 2, 1915, in Washington, and her first memory of her brother, who was 16 years older, was hearing him perform on the radio. Advertisement In 1930 Ellington, by then highly successful, summoned his sister and parents from Washington to live with him in an apartment on Edgecombe Avenue in Harlem. "He was the only brother I had, and I was his only sister," Mrs. Boatwright said in an interview with Ebony in 1999. "He took care of me from the time I was 12, and he's still taking care of me." Ellington died in 1974; Mrs. Boatwright oversaw his copyrights, contracts and other business matters for many years afterward. In 1991 she sold a large number of his musical scores and manuscripts to the Smithsonian Institution, and in 1995 she sold 51 percent of Tempo Music, the company that owns most of Ellington's compositions, to a New York publisher. After high school in Manhattan, she graduated from Columbia University in 1939 with a degree in biology, planning to teach it. She then went to Europe to learn languages and write a thesis comparing the teaching of biology in Paris and New York. She stayed with Josephine Baker, the singer and her brother's friend. In 1941 Ellington formed Tempo Music to oversee his interests and named his sister president. He also bought her a four-story house on Riverside Drive, where she maintained his trophy room of medals and honors. In the 1950's she was host of a radio program on WLIB in New York on which she interviewed guests including the writer Ralph Ellison. She was also active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and was a founder of the jazz ministry of St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Manhattan, where Ellington was a friend of the first designated jazz pastor, the Rev. John Garcia Gensel. Her first marriage, to Daniel James, a journalist and political scientist, ended in divorce. Her second husband, McHenry Boatwright, an operatic baritone, died in 1994. Mrs. Boatwright is survived by her sons Michael and Stephen James, both of Manhattan. At some special occasions Ellington brought her as his official escort. Michael James said this was because Ellington thought it honored his sister; she once offered another explanation. "He took me to the White House because he didn't want his women to be upset," she said to Ebony. "If he picked one, all the rest of them would have screamed. Imagine a song like `Sophisticated Lady.' I imagine he told every woman that he knew that she was the inspiration for that song."

I too have each one. I use them as a sort of library, since reviews are deleted from edition to edition. My tastes have changed quite a bit since I bought the first one, but I appreciate the scholarly approach and I have a pretty good idea of the editors' biases. I'm always tempted to buy Lord, but I don't much care for him and I'm mindful of all the errors noted by others.

Jazz Review reports that the 7th ed. is on pace to be available Xmas 2004.

PD-Funny you title this "Not Quite "Jonah"....Was listening to one of Condon's Town Hall concerts today and Jonah performed. Was surprised at how "southern" he sounded since he was born in Louisville. Still think of KY as a border state-maybe not now.

Based on a conversation with Scott a couple of years ago, Mosaic has been eager to do another BG set-they think it will selll very well.

I'm an Artie fan too. Self Portrait is a terrific set and should be in every Shaw fan's collection. I enjoy his last recordings (both of them) but also love his mid to late 30s stuff. Too bad he found difficulty in dealing with fandom nad therefore did not record prolifically.

I'm hooked too. Listening to my first volume, no.3, and there is much to love. First, the range of musicians is terrific-Condon like Goodman was color blind. Fun to hear Condon speak to Willie the Lion as Bill in a warm, conversational tone. Second, the performances sound great, although my first listen is on my sub-par office Bose thingy. The playing is at once tight and loose, and Jazzology has done a nice job on the recording production. Condon is a good emcee, and keeps things loose while plugging where the guys are now appearing ("Benny Morton is down at the Cafe Society this week...."). Plus, for Lee Wiley fans, there is some nice stuff which I don't have elsewhere. Only complaint-the cd is comprised of two tracks, one for the first half hour show and the one for the second one. Unless you have a fast forward button, stopping the cd means you have to start all over at the beginning of the track-in other words, there is not a track for each song. Minor nit. Highly recommend if you like jazz music of the 1940s, combing Chicago and dixie elements with things like Willie playing the Polonaise!

Berigan, I was making fun of my impulsive Classics purchases when Tower had the 25% off sale-they dropped Classics to $11.99. Not exactly a "give-away."

I recently bought the Maxine and, er, a few other Classics in the Tower give-away. She has a great voice and I dig her jazz work, but be prepared for a lot of slow, folk-like songs on the cd you picked up. She sings a bit with Thornhill, whose post war work I like much better than from this period. As I recall, she really only swings on the last 2 cuts.

Columbia did some terrific box sets back then. There are 3 lps in the 2 boxes I have-Chicago is Vol 2 and Harlem is Vol 3. Makes sense that New Orleans would be Vol 1. Probably just these 3 sets. I also have The Thesaurus of Classic Jazz, another Columbia goodie. Those were the days...when Columbia cared.

As a teen jazz enthusiast some many years ago, I bought 2 Columbia lp box sets: The Sound of Harlem and The Sound of Chicago. Does anyone know if there were more of these kinds of lp boxes issued by Columbia?