Where will be Mosaic be in 20 years?

[RDK]

What I would like to see is Mosaic reissue (relicense) some of their earlier LP-only sets on CD, such as the first Johnny Hodges.

[BruceH]

since we're on the 22nd year of the company...

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Boy, that makes me feel old. The first Mosaic I bought was Mosiac 101 -- The Complete Blue Note Thelonious Monk, back in the "early days."

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Yeah, TELL me about it...

Maybe in 20 years music will be beamed right into our heads.

[Ron S]

Maybe in 20 years music will be beamed right into our heads.

You mean in addition to all those voices from outer space?

[sidewinder]

So maybe in 20 years time Mosaic will have relocated from Stanford into a single unmanned droid pod in Earth orbit, multi-tasking researching rare Xanadu/Deram/Turtle Records issues whilst 'servicing' customer requests for downloads..

[Tjazz]

I hope they reissue many of their sold out boxes.  That might PO a lot of people, but most of them would be e-bayers.  How better to promote jazz than to re-release those classic collections?

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Doesn't DEFINITIVE or some other "import" label already do that?

[jazzbo]

Twenty years from now the Complete Keynote Sessions will be released, and they'll announce the Complete Columbia Studio Recordings of the Count Basie Orchestra.

[Ron S]

Twenty years from now the Complete Keynote Sessions will be released, and they'll announce the Complete Columbia Studio Recordings of the Count Basie Orchestra.

Gee, I think I'll preorder these on Monday.

[montg]

I hope that they'll be releasing boxsets by some of the young and under-recognized jazz artists who are stuggling on the scene today. Might be too late to help them, but at least the music would come out

I agree with this sentiment, but realistically, if the artists aren't selling today--when they're still active and out there promoting-- what's the liklihood Mosaic will take a chance that they'll sell 20 yrs. later. Obscure Blue Note artists like Sonny Clark and Tina Brooks at least had the prestige and mystique of the Blue Note label as a selling point. Most artists today won't have that down the road.

Howeer, if Mosaic does begin to release sets of work from the 80s and 90s, I wonder where they'd start. Is the material from the major labels of that period (Verve; Columbia; Blue Note) going to hold up?

Edited November 18, 2005 by montg

[Tom 1960]

I hope they reissue many of their sold out boxes.  That might PO a lot of people, but most of them would be e-bayers.  How better to promote jazz than to re-release those classic collections?

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Well I for one, would be interested in purchasing those earlier sets I missed the boat on. I came along late in the game and envy you guys who were fortunate enough to grab those amazing sets when they were available. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would be interested, but the likelyhood of that happening at this point is probably nill.

[J.A.W.]

I hope they reissue many of their sold out boxes.  That might PO a lot of people, but most of them would be e-bayers.  How better to promote jazz than to re-release those classic collections?

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Well I for one, would be interested in purchasing those earlier sets I missed the boat on. I came along late in the game and envy you guys who were fortunate enough to grab those amazing sets when they were available. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would be interested, but the likelyhood of that happening at this point is probably nill.

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Mosaic has always stated that they will not reissue any of their OOP limited-edition sets.

[felser]

If Mosaic does begin to release sets of work from the 80s and 90s, I wonder where they'd start. Is the material from the major labels of that period (Verve; Columbia; Blue Note) going to hold up?

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Some of it, like the Blue Note Tony Williams, the Antilles Randy Weston, and the Verve Betty Carter will, but I totally agree with your sentiment - there are very few consistent bodies of work on major labels at this point. I wonder if they would consider doing labels like Muse and High Note and Black Saint eventually. Some nice sets could come out of that, but the market is questionable. I'd buy a Carlos Garnett or Billy Harper box set, but are there 2500 other people who would? On the other hand, there is surely a contingent who would buy anything released on Mosaic. I tend to buy more of their sets than I would because in 10 years I can probably double my investment by selling it on ebay if I don't choose to keep it. All that being said, there are still some compelling things they could do - Complete Blue Note/Mainstream/Chess Bobby Hutcherson/Harold Land, Complete Columbia Charles Lloyd/Chico Hamilton, etc. And my dream is Complete Asha/Baobab Lloyd McNeill.

[Stefan Wood]

I'm sure they could keep raiding the Argo/Cadet vaults for a few more years (Complete Ahmad Jamal, anyone?), and perhaps try to target more Strata East titles. I would wish they could do Mainstream titles as well -- there is a wealth of material that should be reissued. But it would be harder to do more 80's and 90's stuff, if for the reason that the big name labels that supported jazz from the 20's up to the 70's, began dumping artists left and right. So you have labels like Steeplechase, Timeless, Red, Black Saint/Soul Note, Muse, Landmark, etc., who filled the void, but most of them still exist and probably have a desire to keep investing in their back catalogs. I'm wondering if Mosaic's future could lie in material like the Beirah/Leibmann Mosaic Select set -- unissued or live material.

[ghost of miles]

I'm hoping that they mine the 1970s and 80s more--sets like the Pullen/Adams, say. My sense is that there's still a lot of great jazz from those decades that deserves more attention. The unissued live material is certainly a promising route, too; what about the Joe Henderson Trio material from the 1990s? Didn't Verve record that group live? I could see them licensing that to Mosaic... they didn't think it commercially worthwhile to release while Henderson was alive. (Dunno, maybe they'll think more of it now that he's gone. )

[Tony Pusey]

In 20 years we will see the Miles Complete Cellar Door sessions on vinyl cos the cd set will just have been released

[tranemonk]

LOL....

In 20 years we will see the Miles Complete Cellar Door sessions on vinyl cos the cd set will just have been released

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[Ken Dryden]

I don't know if any of you ever read a spoof CD review that first was posted by Bret Primack at Bird Lives, but it was of a non-existent Mosaic set that included all unreleased Duke Ellington, it was so big that a forklift was included. I forget the writer's name but it was a scream.

[couw]

I don't know if any of you ever read a spoof CD review that first was posted by Bret Primack at Bird Lives, but it was of a non-existent Mosaic set that included all unreleased Duke Ellington, it was so big that a forklift was included. I forget the writer's name but it was a scream.

DUKE ELLINGTON: EVERYTHING EVER RECORDED INCLUDING ALTERNATE TAKES, FALSE STARTS AND BREAKDOWNS. (Various venues, 1923-1974) Well, Mosaic almost pulled it off. This planned compilation (12,875 CD's, 19,434 audiophile Q-LP's) was abandoned when the mastering facility caved in under its own weight destroying the entire project. Too bad, too -- with each set you would have received a profusely illustrated booklet and your own fork lift.

Walt Kraemer

source

Edited December 16, 2005 by couw

[sidewinder]

I don't know if any of you ever read a spoof CD review that first was posted by Bret Primack at Bird Lives, but it was of a non-existent Mosaic set that included all unreleased Duke Ellington, it was so big that a forklift was included. I forget the writer's name but it was a scream.

DUKE ELLINGTON: EVERYTHING EVER RECORDED INCLUDING ALTERNATE TAKES, FALSE STARTS AND BREAKDOWNS. (Various venues, 1923-1974) Well, Mosaic almost pulled it off. This planned compilation (12,875 CD's, 19,434 audiophile Q-LP's) was abandoned when the mastering facility caved in under its own weight destroying the entire project. Too bad, too -- with each set you would have received a profusely illustrated booklet and your own fork lift.

Walt Kraemer

source

As well as fork-lift, did each of the Q-LP sets come complete with in-situ librarian?

[sidewinder]

4000 !

[sheldonm]

I can't imagine that they'll be doing anything different than they're doing now. Perhaps by that time, we'll see Errol Garner and the Keynote on disc, plus other Verve material. The Complete Beehive would be fantastic. I have some cdrs of that material and it's stupendous.

Brad,

I have the entire set of BeeHives and you're right; very good stuff. Believe it or not, I bug Jim Neumann about releasing on cd everytime I see him. I'll see him again in the next couple weeks for dinner and a show and I'll bug him again!!!

m~

[Daniel A]

There's a wealth of European stuff which has never seen CD release and is notoriously hard to track down (Martial Solal, Stan Tracey, Ronnie Scott etc), but I'm not sure Mosaic would really go for something which would probably not sell that well in the US (or even in Europe). And it would perhaps prove more difficult to license the material, too.

[sidewinder]

There's a wealth of European stuff which has never seen CD release and is notoriously hard to track down (Martial Solal, Stan Tracey, Ronnie Scott etc), but I'm not sure Mosaic would really go for something which would probably not sell that well in the US (or even in Europe). And it would perhaps prove more difficult to license the material, too.

With regard to Tracey, if you are referring to his Columbia Lansdowne material this would now possibly come under the control of Universal, although some of the material (e.g. 'With Love From Jazz') has been given recent issue by Stan and Clark Tracey on their own issue. 'The Complete Columbia Lansdowne Sessions (Various Artists)' would make one HELL of a Mosaic box though, I'd buy it in a jiff..

Edited December 17, 2005 by sidewinder

[tranemonk]

I'm still waiting for a box of unreleased Live... Michel Petrucciani (perhaps with and without Charles Lloyd)???

I would be all OVA that!!!