ArtSalt

Indeed, if the Chinese get into jazz on the scale of Japan we're back in business baby!

Exactly, by the specifications and standards of the early to mid even late 80s, the humble cassette was delivering on a number of perceived critical and desirable criteria were vinyl wasn't. I don't remember anyone complaining on how awful cassettes sounded.

Exactly, it can be negotiated and a complete Mosaic back catalogue digital/streaming delight would be the ultimate....

I am personally looking forward to the day the Nat King Cole set reduces in value and becomes affordable!

Indeed they did. Cassette's for many were the choice before vinyl for album listening. They were not considered an inferior product and there were a lot of technical advances on tape decks in the 80s that made them attractive. All the revisionist history that audiophiles were only listening to albums and that they never heard a good pre-recorded cassette tape is utter nonsense. And I know, because I was there!

I sincerely hope that Mosaic can continue their superlative mission as it would be a great loss if the label has to end. Who could replace them in terms of breadth of scope, sound quality and historic accuracy of session notes? I've been buying Mosaic sets since the mid-2000's directly, through the jazz centre here in The Hague and also through ebay for earlier sets. In saying that, I still only own 39 box sets and essentials have slipped through. My biggest issue is the seemingly arbitrary expensive import duties imposed by the authorities here. I fell out with J.A.W. over this a couple years back on this forum and his position was that one needs to just grin and bear it, don't challenge and he was off! But it really is a deal breaker when you're hit with import duties on the cost of the courier along with the product. It's mean and a barrier to purchasing. I've stopped buying stuff directly from North America because of this. The last thing I purchased was a J.Press blazer and I was hit with nearly €300 in import duties! The one exception is Brooks Brothers who you can now purchase online with these hidden costs now included. I like this. As already discussed and also not wanted to be discussed, the dreaded download/digital format is crucial to any debate on music labels. So we ignore it at our peril. The record labels royally or royalty wise screwed up on the downloading and streaming services. They got the worse deal possible and have made the selling of music by an artist a profession that is no longer viable in most cases. You need to be playing live to make a living now. Of course, jazz music was always like that! I still believe that the record industry can be saved and made viable again through fair paying digital means. I really do and don't see Mosaic is an exception to this. Limited edition downloads and electronic booklets could work, no problem. Now, a canny idea would be the whole of the back catalogue renegotiated and made available digitally.

I got hold of the Luaka Bop William Onyeabor box set with all his 9 albums on which I am thoroughly enjoying. Some of it sounds like a more accessible Talking Heads Remain In Light and the Moog analogue synthesizer and disco stuff is a delight. Very accessible pop-disco-funk from a one off individual.

I don't know: television, film? If rock and pop was so culturally powerful, how has it fizzled to where it is no longer the zeigeist of our time? Perhaps, we only believe it was that central to everything.

Streaming has proven a disaster for musicians IMCO. They don't get shit. In saying that, I've now almost downloaded from Christmas 1988 to now my entire CD collection to FLAC and it's on several back-ups and I could easily give that away to someone for free..... Rock music relied very much on mystic and needed to be rare. The record companies knew this and now you can get it all for almost free like water, its lost the hold and magic. But then again rock and pop music in the 60s, 70's and 80s sense is effectively dead. Like the swing bands. I use to think that rock/pop music was the most dominant cultural force in the last four or five decades of the 20th century, I actually now believe we only thought that. We digged the marketing spin.

I didn't know anyone who had a CD player when they first came out in '83. A mucca had one in 1986 that was the earliest I knew of anyone personally owning one.

Closing in fast on completing my entire Mosaic box sets. It's great! With CD box sets you tend to miss certain CD's, get lost on what you've actually listened too, whilst other good stuff is missed. Now with computer playlists you can ensure you're always exploring and moving on and not missing anything.

I agree, and of course it depends on the intent of the gig, the musicians and intimacy of the venue. The last time I requested songs was at a Tom Russell gig and he asked did the audience have requests, and me being a fan, did! And actually they went down very well and he played them all. The respect two ways: to the musicians and to the audience who have paid to come and see you and expect to be entertained. A little bit of give and take, yes go somewhere new and be creative, but also music works very much on repeated listening and being digested again and again over time. A musician who disdains their audience is very precious indeed.

Equally the flash and the hand in the dark room.

Yes, the 1946 designation was totally wrong, I didn't explore any further once I saw they had got this detail wrong. When Miles was in Paris in 1949 his suits were more structured and his hair slightly longer and slicked back as Big Beat Steve pointed out. Miles does look young in that photo, but the sartorial style gives the circa period away as being mid-1950s, no later and not much earlier.

The suit jacket is mid 1950s and although button-downs were being sported by Fred Astaire in 1949 and before, I am not sure Miles had moved to the Ivy style in '49. It is definitely Jean-Pierre Leloir though. A quick Google search and I see on someone else's blog they have that photo dated as 1946!

Exactly! If you are using samples on a website, listened to through a Mac or laptop speakers and not a hifi system with the finished article of the CD then your sample size is somewhat limited, if not flawed and your testing technique hardly up to scrutiny by a peer review. With the conclusion that what Mosaic is doing through Jonathan Horwich and his ilk is "desecration of great art" and their remastering is full of digital artifacts and "crap" is somewhat premature and I would suggest before delivering a definitive thumbs down verdict this requires access to the complete box set and discerning listening that cannot be delivered from a couple of samples on a website which may be MP3 or some other inferior format. I can see though how the sound of the Dial set may throw some listeners who have grown accustomed to the remastering and imperfections of other versions of the material. I must admit to finding the Paker material somewhat strange at first, but strange in a good way and revealing the details as never before. One man's desecration of great art, may be another man's favourite remastering.

Ha! Ha! The weak pound will boost exports no ends. The custom charges here from the States have gone barmy again. You get a double whammy of an arbitary amount on the goods and then you get additional charges on the courier costs. How unfair is that, import duties on the cost of the courier? I ordered a J.Press blazer in their sales then got hammered with €243 worth of import charges! I can't risk running the gauntlet anymore as I must be flagged in the system as a habitual purchaser from the States. Let's harvest him before he gives it up as a lost cause!

I was surprised this set had been around for so long, I thought it had only been out for about 2 years or so. Gutted I missed it, but it is not always clear to me on the Mosaic website whether "last chance" is the end of the limited edition, or just the batch and they are getting more in later in the year. Now it's run the gauntlet of ebay auctions and such like.

Love a bit of Miss O'Day, Anita Sings The Most is my favourite Verve outing. The earlier stuff is great too, she sounded wonderful in her youth as well as in her mature prime.

I keep on listening for the alleged artifacts on the Mosaic Dial set and what I hear is clearly from the original source. The Dial set is without doubt the most impressive sounding digital versions of the material. Period. I defy anyone to come up with better sounding legitimate CD versions. I imagine the Savoy set will be equally as excellent. Essential me thinks. Whether it is proprietary software, dastardly EQ on the Mosaic website samples or some nefarious skill of Jonathan Horwich & crew, it evidently works. Or perhaps my ears are too addled to hear?

Miles memory was failing him there, he states he did not play The Lighthouse, well he did with Howard Rumsey's All Stars and a young Chet Baker. My missus would go along with Human Nature as a standard, she loves the versions at Montreaux, probably the only music of Miles she will listen to by choice. Miles became the 80s: hiding behind brash video culture and shiny fashion to hide his frailty. His playing of the archetypal pimp in Miami Vice puts his criticism of Marsalis into perspective IMCO.

Interesting that they kept his death under wraps, likely some complex, or potential litigation issues.

I'm digging it now: unadulterated Miles Prestige FLAC bop bliss! This is the real thing.

He was at times falling into some stock phallic piano licks, but even so, the version of Ode To Life on the album with the African-Brazilian Connection is sublime and I want that played at my funeral. Which I plan on being in at least 50 years time plus one or two decades.

Big Pullen fan, I will seek this out.