Complete Clef/Verve Count Basie and more!

[ghost of miles]

The Mosaic site now says about this set: "This set is expected to be released Friday, April 29th." Unusually specific.

As of yesterday afternoon the office was saying, "Hopefully in the next 1-2 weeks." Think I'm going to throw COLUMBIA SWING and PIANO MOODS into the mix... that & the Basie should tide me over till the next round of Selects.

[Ron S]

Just got an email from Mosaic. True to their word, my Count Basie box is shipping today.

[Ed S]

Got the same email. Looking forward to hearing it.

[J.A.W.]

Got the same email. Looking forward to hearing it.

Off topic:

Welcome back Ed, you were missed!

[Ed S]

Thanks!

[Ron S]

Got the same email.  Looking forward to hearing it.   

You got the same email saying they're shipping my set??? Oh well, I guess with 8 discs, we can share it.

[Ed S]

Of course we'll share it.

[Guest Chaney]

Ed! Good to see you here!

[ghost of miles]

To paraphrase that great American poet Black Francis, "Ed AIN'T dead!"

Trigger pulled on the Basie and a couple of others.

[Ron S]

Trigger pulled on the Basie and a couple of others.

So? WHICH others???

[ghost of miles]

Trigger pulled on the Basie and a couple of others.

So? WHICH others???

The Columbia Swing box and Piano Moods--the latter of which I've fence-sat on for years.

[Brad]

Got the same email.  Looking forward to hearing it.    

You got the same email saying they're shipping my set??? Oh well, I guess with 8 discs, we can share it.

Ron,

They told me they're sending me two of your discs. The rest are going to Ed

[Ron S]

Got the same email.  Looking forward to hearing it.    

You got the same email saying they're shipping my set??? Oh well, I guess with 8 discs, we can share it.

Ron,

They told me they're sending me two of your discs. The rest are going to Ed

As long as I get the booklet and, most important of all, the box.

[Ed S]

I'll make sure I send you a photocopy...... OF THE ONE THEY'RE SEND ME!

[Ron S]

I'll make sure I send you a photocopy...... OF THE ONE THEY'RE SEND ME! 

That's OK--I'll just get Chris to send me an original autographed manuscript of his essay, and some of the priceless Basie memorabilia he must have buried in one of his famous closets.

[Ed S]

Show-off

[Brad]

I'll make sure I send you a photocopy...... OF THE ONE THEY'RE SEND ME! 

That's OK--I'll just get Chris to send me an original autographed manuscript of his essay, and some of the priceless Basie memorabilia he must have buried in one of his famous closets.

Too late. I heard he gave it to Phil Schaap

[Fran]

Just got an email from Mosaic. True to their word, my Count Basie box is shipping today.

YA - and I am going out of town for two weeks next week. I hope it doesn't get lost. The damnedest things happen to my mail and important packages everytime I leave town for a while.

[Ron S]

Just got an email from Mosaic.  True to their word, my Count Basie box is shipping today.  

YA - and I am going out of town for two weeks next week. I hope it doesn't get lost. The damnedest things happen to my mail and important packages everytime I leave town for a while.

What's your address again, and where do they normally leave packages?

[Ed S]

FWIW, here's a review of the Basie set that appeared in the Buffalo News last week. Written by their jazz critic Jeff Simon He rated it 4 out of 4 stars.

Count Basie

The Complete Clef/Verve Fifties Studio Recordings

[Mosaic]

Without doubt, it's one of the great box sets of 2005 - eight legendary discs of 16 men swinging into the very heart of American music.

By the 1950s, the big bands were largely dead. TV and rock were busy being born and almost all the large swing aggregates that once fueled American popular music were fast on their way into irrelevance and obsolescence. Only two great ones remained - Ellington's and Basie's. Or, as the Voice of America's Willis Conover simplistically and patronizingly used to tell their audiences, the mind and heart of jazz (Ellington) and the music's "dancing feet" (Basie). And what magnificent leviathans they had to be to uphold an entire musical tradition by themselves.

The "New Testament" band some jokingly called this bunch. They had Top 40 radio hits ("April in Paris," with its famous "one more time!"), smash hit LPs ("Count Basie Plays, Joe Williams Sings") and no one gave a fig that they were listening to the sound of anachronism. Nor should they care now that it has become one of the Sounds of America. Very little music made yesterday is as blazingly alive as this.

Mind-boggling talent poured into this miracle conclave: composer/arrangers Neil Hefti; Ernie Wilkins; and Frank Foster; and musicians Paul Quinichette, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Thad Jones, Joe Newman, Frank Wess and Joe Wilder. Guest stars from Norman Granz's stable practically lined up to record with them - Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson, Al Hibbler, Buddy Rich. The leader's minimalist piano blues was always in the center. It was, in jazz, the equivalent of getting your picture taken with the pope.

The resultant music seldom sags over eight discs. Where the old Basie bunch was sometimes thought to be a sloppy, hard-drinking bunch of riffing slackers, this miracle band in a recording studio gave eternal illustration of precision and tightness - not to mention swing, soul and a few hundred other things. This is eight discs of pure joy. Available my mail only from Mosaic Records, 35 Melrose Place, Stamford, Conn., 06902 and www.mosaicrecords.com.

- Jeff Simon

[Free For All]

Where the old Basie bunch was sometimes thought to be a sloppy, hard-drinking bunch of riffing slackers

That was a bit of a harsh generalization IMHO.

Drunk? At times, maybe.

Sloppy? At times, maybe.

Riffing? That's not even an insult.

But slackers? NEVER!

[brownie]

Informatively:

for non-US fans, Universal has a June 20 release date for the Mosaic Clef/Verve box.

[neveronfriday]

for non-US fans

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Count me in.

[ASNL77]

Informatively:

for non-US fans, Universal has a June 20 release date for the Mosaic Clef/Verve box.

←

Any idea of the price Brownie?

[neveronfriday]

I saw it for around 100 - 115 Euro. List price is slightly higher, I think.