Face of the Bass

Up...price reduction on the Lee/Christy Mosaic and the Cardew biography, and also implementing a sale: buy three CDs, get a fourth free. (Fourth CD of equal or lesser value)... Thanks for looking.

I agree with this. I found the italicization of so many words so irritating that it actually caused me to put down the book. Really unnecessary intervention on the part of the author.

Do you have Ornette Coleman's Beauty is a Rare Thing? To me that would be one place to start.

There are many wonderful albums on ECM, but the problem is that, when it comes to jazz, the label now seems to have an almost factory mentality whereby every release is in the same general area, with the same brooding dark covers, with the same smoothed out sound. The music strikes my ears as being far too deep into the tepid waters of Baby Boomer New Age narcissism. And I can't help but notice that some artists who record for the label (Marilyn Crispell comes immediately to mind) did their best, edgiest work before falling into the ECM stable and disappearing into the musical equivalent of a scented candle shop.

Yes! I had forgotten about this one, but it is excellent stuff.

Didn't even know about this one. (This was actually my entire (selfish) motive for starting this thread, hoping that someone would reference something I'd never heard of.) I just got into Soviet jazz through the Leo Records sale, and have been really turned onto the music.

I've got most of the Cecil FMPs on individual disc, but unfortunately didn't come to the music until the box set had long been out of print. Just scanning around for it today, I see that the lowest price at the moment appears to be $600. Insane.

Two things I love are avant garde jazz and the box set. Avant garde jazz is the closest thing I've ever found in this world to the kind of beauty I can understand and connect to, while the format of the box set feeds my desire for a sense of narrative in the music I listen to. While this is not an exhaustive list, here are some of my favorite box sets covering avant garde jazz....I'd be curious to hear what others like most. For my list I'm focusing mostly on post-Coltrane/Ornette/Ayler free jazz... 1. Jimmy Lyons - The Box Set (Ayler Records) --Love the first couple discs especially on this one. 2. Anthony Braxton - Complete Arista Recordings (Mosaic) -- This set seemed to be an urban legend for several years and when it finally appeared it more than lived up to all the hype. 3. Bill Dixon - Odyssey (Self Released) -- This might be a more idiosyncratic choice...but I love solo trumpet music and no one was better at making it than Dixon. 4. 1967/68: The Art Ensemble (Nessa)-- It has been too long since I last listened to this one, but it is a wonderful document of a critical time period in the development of the Chicago school of free jazz... 5. Cecil Taylor -- Two Ts For A Lovely T (Condanza) --been too long since I heard this one too... What say you?

Somebody once said that the Beatles were dying in their order of coolness, but if that were the case Harrison would have been shot instead of Lennon, and Paul McCartney could expect to live to be 112 years old.

Update, with many new listings, including some box sets and a book as well.

But this seems entirely generational. The majority of Millennials do not care about physical artifacts and actually prefer not to have those bulky CDs laying around, so I do think the end is in sight, even if it doesn't come in 2012. But you know -- 2012 It's starting to make sense... I don't know if it's entirely generational. I'm 34 and pretty much hate MP3s, except when I'm traveling and want my music with me. But when I'm at home, the physical object matters. The fact that I have yet to see a convincing model of the MP3 whereby you can hear the music and have all the liner notes, personnel listing, etc. with the music has been the biggest disappointment. Everybody keeps acting like music is better than it's ever been from the perspective of a listener, and I think that's only the case if you don't care about sound quality and don't care about having basic information of the recording when you listen to music. If you do care about those things, then MP3s are a tremendous loss when compared to the CD era.

I think these predictions are premature. Yes, the major labels are clearly moving away from CDs, but I suspect small labels will be releasing CDs well past 2012. We are human beings, and the physical artifact will always retain some importance. At least I hope so.

I placed my order the previous week, on November 6 or thereabouts, and still nothing. I know he shipped it but I'm just worried that it is tied up in customs or something like that, and will never see the light of day again.

Just a bump to see if anyone who ordered these discs from the U.S. has received their orders yet. The first order that I placed was over two weeks ago and I haven't received anything yet.

Just wanted to check to see if anyone ordering from the States has got their order. I placed my first order two weeks ago, and then another order one day later. The order shipped one day later arrived this past Monday, while the older order has not yet arrived. Is this sort of thing common with international shipping from the UK to US? i.e. should I be worried about that first order? This has been my first exposure to Soviet jazz, and so far I'm really digging it.

First shipment arrived yesterday from England. (I made two separate orders.) So psyched for my first real exposure to Soviet jazz.

Hopefully my massive 30 disc order will arrive in the States soon. I am ready to mainline this music right into my veins as soon as it arrives...

Went in for 20, but I think I'm going to go in for 10 more. This sale is going to consume my listening time for the next several months, as there are lots and lots of Leos that I've always been interested in but never gotten around to.

Thanks for the heads up. I dropped a nice order...the shame is that he has to do this at all. Shows how bad the market for CDs has become...

Gave the Mitchell a closer listening today...it's really a remarkable record, so glad that I picked it up.

Yeah, this set is a huge deal IMO. First new Mosaic big box I've been excited about since probably the Threadgill, which is of course on a very different end of the spectrum.

Disc 1, finally, after a long search. This music makes me indescribably happy.

Quite a few. I'm still working through three different box sets: Riverside Wes Montgomery, the FMP retrospective box, and the Ictus box. And according to the postal service I have a fourth box arriving tomorrow. Plus a stack of Sun Ra Transparency stuff I haven't listened to yet. I really need to slow down, not so much from a money perspective as from a time perspective. But I can't seem to help that I have very broad tastes and like a lot of variety in the things I listen to. I used to worry a lot about not listening enough to each CD that I bought...now I don't keep track anymore and just allow myself to enjoy my collection when and how I am able to do so.

I've been looking for the Anita O'Day Mosaic for some time, but every time I look the only thing I can find are jacked up copies on Amazon going for $500-600. So I thought I'd post here and see if there might be anyone with a copy willing to unload at a more reasonable price. Please pm me if you have any leads. Thanks!

Just sent money for the two CDs. Looking forward to hearing them! David