T.D.

Agreed. I can't keep up either. I'm a few years behind the times, try to add selectively. I prefer the large ensembles such as LJCO, and I see your "mentally" point because those recordings are so intense that they take a while to absorb.

I strongly suspect studio music "from the era," as felser suggested above. I originally hoped for live recordings from Middle Earth, but consider that highly unlikely. With 21, 20 and 23 tracks on CDs 1-3 respectively I'm starting to have doubts that the cuts are complete tracks (which would seriously piss me off, having preordered 😟). The recording of Amalgam's "Prayer for Peace" is 7:33, for instance.

It's a recent Soul Jazz (UK) reissue on gold colo(u)red vinyl/CD.

And it's an ACL. Good luck selling those marked-up season tickets. 🤣

I actually preordered this out of nostalgia. Only a handful of the tunes (including, surprisingly, Amalgam's Prayer for Peace) are on recordings I currently own. It does promise to be a nice package.

Looks like (could it be? ) I got The Bastards' last (CD) copy of both.

Middle Earth 1967-1969, Various Artists 3CD Box Set This has potential, but I can't tell whether the tracks are live from the club (vs. existing recordings). A lot of the usual suspects, which could be boring, but some more off-beat and potentially interesting selections, e.g. Chris McGregor Septet (!).

Thanks for clearing up the Tolliver, John. I just looked up the Mack Avenue bandcamp page and compared it to discogs. The Mosaic Select appeared to have all the titles, but the bandcamp page didn't give track timings so I couldn't be absolutely certain the "bonus cuts" were identical. Agree that the situation is confusing.

DG now shows Tolliver, Sanders, Rouse and Cowell CD/vinyl available for preorder, ETA 25 April. Sanders vinyl 12 April, part of RSD.

Just time for brief scans right now, but liking this BFT a lot! The brass passages and rhythmic pulse of #7 suggest Lester Bowie involvement, but that's my only vague thought so far. Hope to be back later.

Thanks. I have the Tolliver via Mosaic Select. No interest in Rouse. I have a Charly CD of Cowell's Musa, and sound quality is not good. I almost never do sonic upgrades (the Black Lion abomination of Cowell's Brilliant Circles is the only case that comes to mind right now), but this is another candidate.

The Andrew Hill East Wind albums: Nefertiti, Hommage and Blue Black.

Thanks. That explains a lot.

Likewise here for the Nate Morgan. Guess I have to hope for bandcamp some day.

Werner has a history of dropping tracks to make 2 original albums fit on a single ezz-thetics PD reissue. But at 64:41 playing time it looks like there was sufficient space to include the alternates here. Perhaps ezz-thetics didn't have access to the alternates?

Readily googleable (is that a word? 😁) material seems too scanty. Best hope IMO is for a Japan-based poster (mhatta?) to have some info.

Junko's name came up on a cdjapan search once. I had the same question, and tried to research it but got nowhere.

Have you searched Presto in the UK? www.prestomusic.com I've ordered from them. Price can be OK. Unfortunately, my credit card # was hacked immediately after an order, so I've refrained in recent years. I made a cursory search at cdjapan (which has English text), but didn't find any recent Sony Classical. I also looked at jpc, www.jpc.de but weirdly couldn't find new Sony Classical. Strange indeed.

+1

I have a P-Vine Japanese CD of Descendants of Mike & Phoebe (PCD-23846, 2006) that sounds OK, never suspected a needle drop (granted, my sound quality expectations of Strata-East are not high). I'll spin it again soon (one of my favorite S-E releases) with more critical ears. Listening now. I wouldn't rule out a needle drop, but if so it's a quality one. No joke, I've heard some pretty good sounding needle drops.