hopkins

Here's another that I particularly enjoy: Tina, from his Latin American Suite: However many times I listen to it, it still sounds fresh to my ears, as if Ellington was composing the piece for the first time. There is nothing flashy about his playing, nothing pretentious. It is simple, yet so subtle - creative, spontaneous, yet so obvious, and so captivating! His long improvisation on "Azure" at the Rainbow Grill (1967) gives me a similar impression, for example. I am sure there are many others. Ellington is often referred to as one of the great composers in jazz; he is certainly one of the greatest improvisers as well. I forget which jazz critic wrote that an Ellington chord was like a universe in itself, or something to that extent, and this piece also illustrates that aspect of his playing, which can be found in so many other tracks (I'm thinking for example of that chord that marks a transition half way through his "Mood Indigo" on "Masterpieces by Ellington"). Deep stuff! All this played over a nice latin beat. My only complaint would be that the track is too short, but I play it on repeat...

Here's one I really enjoyed listening to recently. It is "modest" in its ambition - just a solid "blues" with some groovy Hodges, and good accompaniment by Ellington and the band. It is "to the point", and I appreciate the simplicity. "Big Fat Alice's Blues": In a sense it is "quintessential" Ellington, or at least some aspects of Ellington... There are so many facets, this is just one. Now that I listen to it again, I think I'll be going on another Ellington binge in the coming days!

The digital version of this album has Sarah's voice on the left channel only - the mono LP is more relaxing to listen to. My cat chose to demonstrate her vocal range while I was recording this.

I have not checked all of the tracks, but I believe most of them have in fact probably been issued on CD before. The "Jo Jones Special" session, for example, was issued on CD by Fresh Sound Records (you can find other versions on streaming services issued by dodgy labels). I already have it on CD, and have the LP as well. I happen to like the sound quality of the latest Mosaic box sets - which were all handled by the same studio (Swan) - and this time they explain that everything was produced using the original master tapes. So between that, the booklet, and some of the sessions missing in my collection, I did not hesitate to pre-order it...

Same here!

Latest box set is now available for pre-order https://www.mosaicrecords.com/product/classic-vanguard-small-group-swing-sessions-limited-edition-box-set/

Some words by Ethan Iverson: https://open.substack.com/pub/iverson/p/tt-449-quincy-jones

Thanks for pointing it out.

Double LP that never made it to CD.

Gene Ammons - Just Jug (released on CD as "Live! In Chicago").

My "ripping" software did not find any data associated with the discs. I did not find an entry in Discogs (at the time - and did not have the courage to create one), so I copied the information from Mosaic's website into Excel, and cleaned it up. Here is the file (text, with columns separated by semi-colons) with the disc number, track number, and titles: https://storage.googleapis.com/cloudplayer/samples/mp3tag.txt I then imported the track titles into my "tags" using a tagging software (MP3Tag). Could be useful to others... Since then, someone created a Discogs entry: https://www.discogs.com/release/32107818-Various-Classic-V-Disc-Small-Group-Jazz-Sessions My tagging software can import Discogs entries to fill in the titles, but the "Medleys" screw everything up, as they are identified as separate sub-tracks on Discogs. I have designed my own "app" to add information, such as credits and comments, to my music collection, and it looks like this: It takes a few hours to enter all this, but I like to have the credits "on line" (and use them to search my collection).

Here's another new release, scheduled for December: https://resonancerecords.org/product/sun-ra-lights-on-a-satellite-live-at-the-left-bank-2-cd/ Preview:

I used paypal. Never had any issues ordering from Mosaic. Looking forward to the Vanguard set as well.

I could not resist ordering it (second hand of course).