Which Mosaic Are You Enjoying Right Now?

[sidewinder]

CD1. More classic stuff.

[Ed S]

Listening to the Hines set that I recently picked up from Mosaic.  Disc 6 on right now, but I've been listening when time allow to the entire set starting Friday evening.

I am impressed.  Great set.

[mikeweil]

Same here, So far discs 1 and 7, right now I'm spinnging disc 2.

[mikeweil]

A great reminder for all those who didn't already know that Shearing was a great musician. But being aware that he was being recorded, he played it a bit safer than the exuberant Newport performance recorded a few months before the earliest session in this box set.

[king ubu]

Not enjoying it yet ... but I'll be picking up my JPJ (used/mint or near mint, around the same as official price, but no custom fees/taxes ) on the way home tonight ... and looking forward to that immensely!

Very happy to hear the news it's likely going to be re-pressed, but when I heard the bad news a few weeks ago, I just had to go for that one offer I could find that was sanely priced.

[AllenLowe]

5 hours ago, mikeweil said:

A great reminder for all those who didn't already know that Shearing was a great musician. But being aware that he was being recorded, he played it a bit safer than the exuberant Newport performance recorded a few months before the earliest session in this box set.

that does remind me that the best Shearing I ever heard was at Newport, around 1975 or so.  Nothing I have heard of him on record - or even live - since then comes close to his use of harmony on that gig (I remember a particularly amazing version of Django). Just in this sense I consider him one of the greats, and wished he'd opened up that  palette on more public occasions. It's a real loss to jazz that there is so little documentation of this side of him.

....though interestingly enough, I do remember that my mother, a pianist, had a book of Shearing's arrangements of standards, and Over the Rainbow was quite amazing - somewhat related to Bud's re-harmonization but still quite unique.

and holy moly, just in time for Mother's Day, here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs4y4pi6xzQ

 

[AllenLowe]

....and if you listen through this concert, there are some amazing points - part Tristano, part Nat Cole, but very personal (even though his bebop is strange):

 

 

 

[mikeweil]

That's great - his beat is as strong as that of the old stride pianists, in his own, very personal way. Shearing had an enormous palette, knew much more classical music than every other jazz pianist, I think. 

Your friend Dick Katz has a lot of good things to say about Shearing in his notes to the Mosaic box.

Oh, and I love his humour, the announcements and the musical side.

 

[mikeweil]

Bebop? He plays a Parker tune, but not boppishly - when I listen to the early quintet sides, there are tunes that are stylistically bebop, but he never plays typical bop piano - he listened to all the cats but was wise to never imitate them. He never swung his phrases like Bud or Hampton Hawes, his rhythm was different, a bit wilder.

7 hours ago, AllenLowe said:

(even though his bebop is strange)

 

 

 

 

[AllenLowe]

I think a lot of it has to do with his time sense, which is more pre-bop.

[mikeweil]

[gmonahan]

Disc II. Didn't like the first disc, but the second one is kind of a hoot.

 

[BFrank]

Disk #7. The last 2 disks (from the 80s) are much weaker than the rest of the box. I suppose they had to include them because it's "The Complete Muse Sessions," but I would have been happy with a 5-disk set of only the 60s-70s dates.

 

[mikeweil]

Such magnificent music, warmth and power. I'm really glad I have this set.

[Scott Dolan]

I had the pleasure of seeing Gerald Wilson at the Chicago Jazz Festival in 2007(IIRC). 

Cat was 90-something at the time, but he bounced around that stage like he was a teenager! 

[BFrank]

2 hours ago, Scott Dolan said:

I had the pleasure of seeing Gerald Wilson at the Chicago Jazz Festival in 2007(IIRC). 

Cat was 90-something at the time, but he bounced around that stage like he was a teenager! 

I saw him around then, too. Same deal!

I wish I was smart enough to have seen him more times over the years.

[sidewinder]

He was sat literally right behind me at the Horace Tapscott tribute concert about 20 years go - with what looked to be his family. 

Fortunate enough to see him at the London Jazz Fest some years later (around 2007 in fact) conducting a mainly UK big band. Incredible energy and enthusiasm ! Also saw him at the Playboy Fest with his LA orchestra and that was phenomenal, one of the greatest big bands I have ever seen/heard.

Edited May 19, 2017 by sidewinder

[paul secor]

Pres-Basie: Columbia/Okeh/Vocalion - Disc 1

[Sandman]

Lou Donaldson, Disc 4 (Gravy Train session).

[Sandman]

Art Hodes, Disc 3.

[B. Goren.]

CD # 3.

[sidewinder]

Denny Zeitlin Select, CD3 

[Berthold]

Bud Shank CD1, so good!

 

[Clunky]

2 hours ago, Berthold said:

Bud Shank CD1, so good!

 

Welcome to the board and what a great set you chose for your first post. I recall that I picked this up at the end of its run and so glad I did . It's cracking and in great sound. 

[ElginThompson]

Disc 1 with Joe Farrell & Jimmy Garrison. Ridiculous.