Your Top 3 Mosaics...

[John Tapscott]

Thought about it for a few days - of the black box sets - these 3

Jones/Lewis

Basie Roulette "Live"

Elvin Jones

Runners-up

Kenton - The Holman/Russo Charts

J.J. Johnson

Tristano/Konitz/Marsh

[J Larsen]

When you guys refer to the Mingus box, are you referring to the Columbia or the Candid?

There's a Columbia Mosaic box on Mosaic???

I was referring to the Candid one. What's the story with the Columbia set? I had no idea it existed.

[GA Russell]

JL, as I recall the Columbia was The Complete 1959 Recordings. Somebody may correct me on this.

I also recall that it was issued only on LP, not on CD.

[Larry Kart]

Herbie Nichols

Tristano-Konitz-Marsh

Mingus

[montg]

Farlow

Mobley

Armstrong 50s Decca (this was the second Mosaic I ever ordered, Tea Capitol set was the first...so this is the sentimental choice)

[sidewinder]

JL, as I recall the Columbia was The Complete 1959 Recordings. Somebody may correct me on this.

I also recall that it was issued only on LP, not on CD.

That's the one - it's on LP (4LPs I think). Will be digging it out a bit later.

[poetrylover3]

Mosaic Big Box: Thelonious Monk

Basie-Lester Young

Basie-Roulette Live

Mosaic Select:

Dexter Gordon

Woody Herman

Akiyoshi-Tabackin Big Band

[BeBop]

Two I couldn't live without:

Django

Pres

I'd concede that both of these artists are adequately represented on other labels, but I find the Mosaics compelling for their consistent, high-quality presentation, and fine choice of music.

Edited December 13, 2008 by BeBop

[BFrank]

I'm amazed at all the Anita O'Day mentions. I didn't realize it was that popular. I'm definitely going to have to spend more time with it.

Top 3 based on estimated playing time (I'm surprising myself here):

Gerald Wilson

Blue Mitchell

Thad Jones (3CD set)

Runners up:

Jackie McLean

Larry Young

Selects:

Tolliver

Patton

[tranemonk]

One VERY interesting omission to-date.... (I think).... is the Chu Berry...

Who purchased that??? Not that hot???

[jazzbo]

It's a great set. I haven't spent that much time on it, I have much of the material on other sources and I haven't quite been in a Berry mood the last year or so. . . .

[John L]

Hard to say. A lot of my favorite recordings on Mosaics I own in other formats. Of those Mosaics that I do own, I might choose

Lester Young

Andrew Hill

Max Roach

T-Bone and Turrentine also get a lot of play.

[Bluesnik]

i think it'd have to be

Morgan/Shorter Vee Jay

Bob Gordon etc. Kenton Presents

Tal Farlow

though I much love the other sets I have

[Brute]

One VERY interesting omission to-date.... (I think).... is the Chu Berry...

Who purchased that??? Not that hot???

Hey! I said Berry in post #47. I like it.

[tranemonk]

oops...my bad :wacko:

One VERY interesting omission to-date.... (I think).... is the Chu Berry...

Who purchased that??? Not that hot???

Hey! I said Berry in post #47. I like it.

[Quincy]

One VERY interesting omission to-date.... (I think).... is the Chu Berry...

Who purchased that??? Not that hot???

You're only allowing for 3. Tough choices have to be made. I love Chu's playing but there is a lot of Cab Calloway to deal with. Sometimes I'm not in the mood for that part of the set.

And answers also obviously depend on when someone found out about Mosaic. For me it wasn't until the Konitz/Tristano/Marsh set came out. Monk's Blue Note material is some of my alltime favorite music, but for me I know it as RVGs. Herbie Nichols is a Blue Note box that fits easily on the shelf, not a big box Mosaic. And so on. If I answered on music I have that was a Mosaic set but I have in another form, you'd get different answers.

[Edward]

1) The Complete Capitol Recordings of the Nat King Cole Trio (my first Mosaic set)

2) The Complete Verve Recordings of the Buddy DeFranco Quartet/Quintet with Sonny Clark

3) a toss-up between the Art Hodes, Amos Milburn, and Shorty Rogers sets

The Art Hodes set was the second Mosaic that I ever purchased (second-hand LP set). It is a terrible shame that his wonderful recordings for Blue Note are not more widely available.

[Face of the Bass]

1. Anthony Braxton

2. Elvin Jones

3. Tal Farlow

Honorable Mention: Kelly/Chambers (more because I'm addicted to Chambers than anything else), the Ellington 36-40 set, Tristano/Konitz/Marsh

[ejp626]

One VERY interesting omission to-date.... (I think).... is the Chu Berry...

Who purchased that??? Not that hot???

You're only allowing for 3. Tough choices have to be made. I love Chu's playing but there is a lot of Cab Calloway to deal with. Sometimes I'm not in the mood for that part of the set.

And answers also obviously depend on when someone found out about Mosaic. For me it wasn't until the Konitz/Tristano/Marsh set came out. Monk's Blue Note material is some of my alltime favorite music, but for me I know it as RVGs. Herbie Nichols is a Blue Note box that fits easily on the shelf, not a big box Mosaic. And so on. If I answered on music I have that was a Mosaic set but I have in another form, you'd get different answers.

Definitely. I came to Mosaic just a bit late for the Andrew Hill and Jackie McLean sets, but with patience it has all been reissued on CD. This is unlikely to happen for some of these other artists, particularly as we are in the "end of days" for CD distribution.

It really sounds like the Chu Berry stretches the Mosaic ethos, in the sense that it isn't complete and they sort of arbitrarily included or dropped some of his sidemen sessions. Then like Proper they say, oh for the Red Norvo cuts, go to the Berigan set. Well, the difference is the Proper Boxes almost never go out of print. While they were writing the Chu Berry press release, the Berigan set went out of print. I think it is a little disappointing that they didn't include these tracks (roughly 10 minutes' worth), particularly With All My Heart and Soul, which features Chu more than Berigan. I'll still get the set eventually, but there are definitely some aspects of it I don't care for.

Edited December 20, 2008 by ejp626