Mosaic Hard Bop/Modern Jazz?

[Brad]

It seems like it's been quite awhile, the Dizzy set being the last, since Mosaic did a full box set of anything since the 50s, i.e. hard bop or Modern Jazz, as they classify it (although that includes more than hard bop). Don't get me wrong, I look forward to picking up the Hampton and the Young boxes but just wondering and hoping there would be something coming along in the genre.

[ghost of miles]

I'd say the Jamal is the next thing coming along those lines, if you're talking black-box, non-big band. Seems like they're using the Selects more for hardbop/modern jazz.

[Chuck Nessa]

Pretty hard to come up with a "big box" of hard bop stuff not recently available now.

[Bill Nelson]

But when we do, we get hectored about "commercial viability", meaning the lack thereof.

[king ubu]

Pretty hard to come up with a "big box" of hard bop stuff not recently available now.

What I thought seing the thread title... too much hardbop around anyway

[Brad]

Chuck is probably right but, hey, you can never have too much!

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

They could do 'The Complete Muse Red Rodney Sessions'.........there's at least 9 or 10 lps for a big box.

[king ubu]

They could do 'The Complete Muse Red Rodney Sessions'.........there's at least 9 or 10 lps for a big box.

Very cool idea!

There'd still be a lot of good 70s mainstream jazz to rescue, no? Muse, Xanadu etc, filling the gaps that 32 Jazz left, or rather also bringing back all the long gone albums taken care of by 32 Jazz (a Woody Shaw box would be marvellous, though I do own all the 32 Jazz reissues, and it seems the CBS Shaw set was one of the slowest selling sets ever).

[Face of the Bass]

They need to pull themselves out of the mainstream and start making some free jazz boxes. This has always been my biggest criticism of Mosaic. Their vision of the parts of jazz history that are worthy of the Mosaic "treatment" has always been far too limited and conservative for my tastes.

[jazzbo]

I've heard that a Braxton Arista box IS going to happen. . . .

[Kalo]

I've heard that a Braxton Arista box IS going to happen. . . .

[Uncle Skid]

I've heard that a Braxton Arista box IS going to happen. . . .

[B. Clugston]

I've heard that a Braxton Arista box IS going to happen. . . .

[papsrus]

I've heard that a Braxton Arista box IS going to happen. . . .

:excited: :excited:

[Dave James]

OK, Lon, I'll bite. Where is your information coming from that indicates the Braxton has been green lighted? I think this would be very interesting from Mosaic's standpoint. The question about free jazz has always been, what kind of market is out there? If this sold reasonably well, it could open the doors for more of the same. If not, then you couldn't say they hadn't given it the old college try. Seems to me with so many other avenues drying up, it would be worth it for them to test the waters.

King Ubu mentioned Xanadu. Boy they could make some major big box hay if they could snag the rights to that stuff. There's mountain of great material just sitting out there waiting to be mined.

Up over and out.

[jazzbo]

The info comes from Michael Cuscuna via an email to a jazz pen pal. This has been an idea of his since the company started. Remember, there was the Taylor Candid in the past so it's not as if they've never dealt with more adventurous music.

[king ubu]

Cuscuna himself did produce some fairly adventurous sessions in the 70s for Freedom/Arista whatever... of course more than just Braxton! There's the Andrew Hill "Spiral" for instance, with Ted Curson and Lee Konitz - I'm sure there'd be more music beyond post-bop/modern mainstream from the 70s that would be great to have in Mosaic sets (or maybe just Selects, as I assume costs and exposure/risk are smaller with Selects? How about a Sam Noto Muse/Xanadu Select? One of the major bad blogs has upped several of these albums - maybe even all of them - as vinyl rips, I'd definitely buy a CD reissue of those! All hail 32 Jazz no matter how bad the late Joel Dorn was as a business man...)

[king ubu]

I've heard that a Braxton Arista box IS going to happen. . . .

:excited: :excited:

:excited: :excited:

(just because even numbers never look good - you don't buy two or four roses for your misses, do you? )

[Dave James]

The info comes from Michael Cuscuna via an email to a jazz pen pal. This has been an idea of his since the company started. Remember, there was the Taylor Candid in the past so it's not as if they've never dealt with more adventurous music.

[/quote/]

Agreed, although compared to Braxton, the Taylor Candids are reasonably tame. I don't know, I still see a Braxton set as groundbreaking for Mosaic. BTW, I'm all for it.

Up over and out.

[ghost of miles]

:excited: :excited: :excited: ( )

I think the Sony-BMG merger opened the door for this a bit... before that Mosaic didn't seem to be having any luck licensing material under the auspices of BMG. Great news if it proves to be true.

[Chuck Nessa]

Just want to mention, while I was in the middle of putting my Art Ensemble box together, Charlie Lourie called me to see if I would give the material to them for one. This shows from the early days they looked beyond the mid 60s.

[clifford_thornton]

I would buy the Braxton set in a second.

[martini]

I've heard rumors about a Braxton Arista Mosaic for some time--I received an email from Mosaic a few years ago when I inquired about it (after first hearing the rumors--it may have been from the AB Yahoo! list, I'm not sure...), and they said it was on their radar, though with no immediate plans in the works. But that was a long time ago.

I have all of it on LPs, but it would be great to see it reissued. Damn, I would buy the set just for the cardboard box and booklet. New York, Fall 1974; Five Pieces 1975 and Montreux/Berlin Concerts represent some of my favorite music that he has ever made--monster lineups too (Holland, Lewis, Wheeler et al.). I think an Arista set would be a mixed bag for most people, though, with albums such as For Four Orchestras (Comp 82) and For Two Pianos (Comp 95) also being from that label (though I dig those too, albeit infrequently). Yet those are important recordings if you want to get a better scope of his creative interests and therefore need to be included, IMO. The set might be too massive (i.e. expensive) if they inculde it all. There is also the lovely duo album with Abrams and the double album of solo material. And who knows what outtakes might be sitting in the can. Yeah, it would be spendy.

I think there would be 2000 cats in the world that would drop coins for that set, but maybe not more. A Ring/Moers set would be even better, IMO. I would love to see Mosaic get more into mid-60s/post-60s material (I'd like to see a Shepp box at some point too, come to think of it). Until then, I'm just going to groove to my C. Berry and J. Hodges sets that arrived this month!

martini

P.S. Dave James from SIC? Matt Martini here--hope all is well, man. Music is the best. Sincere thanks for the education.

Edited March 31, 2008 by martini

[Brad]

I like the idea of some Muse being given the Mosaic treatment. Who owns the rights to them?

But speaking of Xanadu, what about a Mosaic Select for the bop lps they did. I think that would be a tremendous idea. I believe there were 6 LPs. Don't know, however, if it would be enough for a Select although maybe you could do it in a couple of Singles, if not.

I'm not a big fan of free jazz but I think that would be a good idea to pull free jazz fans in.

[king ubu]

But speaking of Xanadu, what about a Mosaic Select for the bop lps they did. I think that would be a tremendous idea. I believe there were 6 LPs. Don't know, however, if it would be enough for a Select although maybe you could do it in a couple of Singles, if not.

http://jazzlabels.klacto.net/xanadu.html

plenty of good looking stuff there!