Ed S

I was able to find some time to listen to this over the bast couple of days. Really nice. I'm enjoying as well. Great songs, some nice grooves, a little grease, and a very good band with nice solos. A really good listen, IMO. Congratulations to Jim.

I just turned 66, but I've been buying Mosaic sets since I was 40, which is the age at which I found out about Mosaic

PM sent regarding the Art Ensemble of Chicago set

My set arrived unexpectedly this morning and I just started listening. I ordered my set by credit card on January 11th. FWIW, I have received set number 0056.

Guess I missed this thread 15 years ago, but boy did it bring a smile to my face. Back in 1975 or 76, I saw Brian Auger and the Oblivion Express in a place called the Outside Inn in the Sunset Beach area on Lake Erie south of Buffalo. Back then and still today, there were lots of summer cottages and party bars and this was one of them. Given the year, I would have been 18 or 19 year old at the time. Several friends and I made the trek down there to check them out. It was a hot summer weekend night and one of those shows that started at 10 PM or so - so it was a vibe to which I had never been exposed. I'd seen a jazz concert about 6 months earlier - at Fredonia State College, about 45 minutes from Buffalo, in a concert hall. I didn't have my drivers license, so my parents drove me and my younger brother to the show. THIS was totally different - it was a bar, it was me - on my own - with friends, and an experience I have never forgotten. It was simply an electrifying and exciting performance. I'd never heard anything like this live and remember just being blown away. This was the Oblivion Express with Alex Ligertwood on vocals - who I thought was excellent - and Jack Mills on guitar. Long jams, total groove, the Fender Rhodes, the organ, long improvisation.....call it whatever you want to call it, but for this 18 or 19 year old kid - it was jazz and jazz is where I leaning with my listening. This show was a major push in that direction and in that sense was life altering - at least to me and my musical tastes at age 18. The live music and feel of this event was captured on the two volumes of Live Oblivion. I picked up the LP shortly after the show. Some time later, volume 2 was released. I still have the LPs and now also the CDs - which I am playing as I write this. The current song playing is "Maiden Voyage". Outstanding.

Happy to have received this set from my wife Kelly for Christmas. We celebrated Christmas today (12/26) as driving bans subsequent to the massive blizzard that hit the Buffalo area prevented one of my sons - who lives near me - from being at my house yesterday. Ironically, it was my son who lives in the Hudson Valley area who was able to be with us. But he just arrived on Thursday before the blizzard hit the area and has been snowed in ever since. Anyways, things are getting back to normal and today's the day I received this set. I'm listening to it now and it sounds terrific. I have much of the stuff on the set, but have not listened to it for a while. As such, I'm really digging the music AND the sound. Can't wait to play it at full volume as right now, I'm in my basement and it's to late to play it at an optimal volume. My set number is 1491, if than means anything to anyone. Back to listening...

It is, and I like it! I'm going to pre-order as well.

I've got a bunch of stuff by Jonas Kullhammar that I really enjoy. If I'm not mistaken, he used to post either on this board or the Blue Note board

I'm going to have to give Mosaic some props for my second consecutive excellent ordering experience. My last one was the Armstrong set back in August. I saw that the Tristano set is back in stock at Mosaic. So around 11 PM on Tuesday, October 4th, I ordered it. So for all intents and purposes, it was a Wednesday the 5th order. I got acknowledgement of the order on Wednesday the 5th. On Friday, the 7th, I got the "note added to my order" that included the shipping notice and tracking number. I had chosen US Mail. The projected delivery was Tuesday the 11th before 9 PM. I checked the tracking today and to my surprise, the changed the delivery to today, the 9th, by 6 PM I walked outside around 11 AM and voila! there it sat in my garage. Of course this was a domestic order and I realize that unfortunately, international orders don't do so well in comparison. Looking forward to diving into the set later this evening after the completion of the Buffalo Bills game. Go Bills!

I'm sorry to hear that. I was hoping that your set would have arrived by now and hope that it will arrive soon. Shipping should not be this challenging, especially international shipping. I have bought many items from Europe and Japan - CDs and bicycle parts in particularly - that arrive within a reasonable time. Those are sales from individuals, Amazon and places like Paris Jazz Corner. My one instance of a good experience noted above was my first since Mosaic outsourced their shipping. They really do need to clean up their act.

I know that throughout many of these individual Mosaic threads there are many comments about Mosaic's shipping operation. I'd guess the majority relate to international shipping situations, but I've seen plenty of domestic as well. I myself, while never having had a set I purchased never ship, take too long, or get routed around the county for weeks, have never gotten the full set in information that lets me know that my order was received, that a tracking number was created, the order was actually shipped and then through the tracking process, know when my set would arrive. Never. Until now. Seeing that the Armstrong was back in stock, I decided to place an order on August 24th. Within a few minutes, I received an acknowledgement that my order had been received and was being processed. I also received an order number and a complete order summary. The next day - August 25th - I received the USPS tracking number that was created via email as a "note added to my order". I checked on the 26th, and my set was on its way with a delivery date of August 29th by 8PM. I received it today, August 29th at 9:30 AM. BTW, the booklet is number 2,192 of 3,500 sets if that matters anymore relative to order of distribution. Looking forward to diving into it when I get home from work.

Very cool. Looks great - Enjoy!

PM sent.

Yes he is. He's produced the Art of Jazz Series at the Albright Knox Art Gallery for some time. Now with the AK closed for a major renovation, he's connected with Kleinhans Music Hall - Home of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra - and has moved the Art of Jazz Series there. The Art of Jazz at the Philharmonic The soon to become Albright Knox Gundlach Art Museum as a fabulous place with one of the world's great collections of Abstract Expressionism and other genres of modern art like cubism, surrealism and pop art. Also very nice collection of impressionism and post impressionism. Kleinhans Music Hall is just a great place to hear music. It was designed by the Finnish architects Eliel and Eero Saarinen. Beautiful building and acoustics

My first exposure to Mosaic appears to be a little unusual. It was back in the late 90s - probably '97 or '98. Our health system was installing a new healthcare information system (HIS) and I was on the pharmacy team - as I am a pharmacist by training. I was in my office working on some testing and had some jazz playing on my office system - had a 6 CD changer. I was working over the phone with an analyst from the HIS company and after a while he injects "I have to ask you - is that Dexter Gordon you're listening to?" After confirming that it was, we talked a little about our jazz interests and he asked me if I had ever heard of Mosaic Records. I told hm I had not. He started talking about the Jackie McLean set and told me I really had to get it. A couple of days later, I got a Mosaic catalog sent to me at the hospital with a note about the set - which I promptly ordered. That was my first Mosaic

I was a very happy recipient of the Joe Henderson Mosaic

CJ - I could not access the review by clicking on the link. It worked when I copied and pasted it. Nice review, btw. I like how you tie in the development of the organ trio and discuss Francies' bass line work. I'm really excited to get the CD. I saw Metheny's Side Eye group in March of 2019 in Buffalo with Nate Smith on drums. Looking forward to hear Gilmore on this one. I've got the US version on pre-order. I did check out a Japanese version, but it would run $36 including shipping. Perhaps "The Bat" will show up somewhere in the US eventually. I'm confused as to why they did not include it on the US version, but 0 whatever, I guess.

The Complete Vee Jay Lee Morgan-Wayne Shorter Sessions

I thought that when the new Mosaic site was started, and it was noticed that there was no link to Running Low/Last Chance page, it was mentioned that those statuses would be conveyed directly on the respective set's page. I'm not seeing a running low notice on the Desmond set page, so I have to wonder what's going on. Yes, the sent me an email - but I missed it among the dozens I get between my checking email. If not for this thread, I would have missed it. Full disclosure, this was more or less a drill as I already have the Desmond set. I'm more concerned about the Armstrong and Henderson sets. These are nice suggestions for gifts for Christmas or my March birthday from my sons or my wife, but if they hit the last chance list - I'm buying it for myself!