Eddie Condon & Bud Freeman: Complete Commodore & Decca Session

[bluesoul]

Due out in late April

Thanks to Mosaic's ability to bundle collections from numerous labels and archives, we can finally present, for the first time anywhere, The Complete Commodore & Decca Eddie Condon & Bud Freeman Sessions. It's a substantial set - eight CDs containing 199 tracks in all. The set spans the years 1938, when Chicago-style jazz first took root in New York, through 1950.

Chronologically, these recordings sit alongside the Columbia Condon Mob Sessions on Mosaic, beginning a little sooner and ending a little earlier. They pre-date Mosaic's Condon Columbia All-Stars set. And the Commodore material previously appeared on our Complete Commodore three-volume set. All of those collections are long out of print and hard to find. The currently-available Mosaic Bud Freeman single, Chicago/ Austin High School, is from a late-1950s reunion, well after the era of these sessions.

Edited March 15, 2015 by bluesoul

[thirdtry]

Even though I believe I have all (or nearly all) of this material, there's no way I can resist this set!

[romualdo]

just got the Mosaic email advertising this upcoming set - nice!! Commodore & more

[Bol]

I take it that this new set overlaps substantially with the 3 LP sets of Commodore released before? Does anyone know how many of those LPs are covered by this new set? Thanks.

[jazztrain]

According to Scott Wenzel, the Commodore material has been remastered. The earlier Mosaic Commodore boxes were apparently mastered from tapes that Milt Gabler had made. The original 78s in my collection sound far superior, so I'm hoping that the new set will be an improvement on the material that's included on the earlier boxes.

[colinmce]

Sounds lovely. Can anyone recommend earlier, single/double-disc issues of this material? I'd certainly like to pick some of it up.

[gmonahan]

Sounds lovely. Can anyone recommend earlier, single/double-disc issues of this material? I'd certainly like to pick some of it up.

GRP issued some of the music. A good selection of the best of the Commodore material was issued on the 2-cd "The Commodore Story" (with a really fine essay on the label by Dan Morganstern, who has apparently also done the notes for this set). More of the Eddie Condon Commodores could be found, also on GRP, on Pee Wee Russell, "Jazz Original." A selection of the Condon Decca material is on GRP Decca Jazz, "Dixieland All-Stars," and I have a chunk of the Bud Freeman Deccas on Classics, "Bud Freeman, 1939-1940." I imagine there are other Classics releases with more. All of these are out of print, but you can often find them used for not too much money.

All that said, having all of this great music in one set will be wonderful, and I've already preordered it. You can see the complete discography on the mosaic records site, but here it is, anyway: http://www.mosaicrecords.com/discography.asp?number=259-MD-CD&price=$136.00&copies=8%20CDs

gregmo

[king ubu]

I'm very much interested in this, provided sound should be okay - but then I guess either way, it should be an upgrade over the Chrono discs. Some terrific music there, for sure!

[jazzbo]

I have a feeling sound is going to be GREAT. I pre-ordered.

[king ubu]

I feel similar ... and might do the same

[miles65]

For me the next set would be Ella Fitzgerald/Chick Webb and after that the Dial set. But this skips the line. There is one thing I don't underdstand. The box is called 'The complete..' But in the disco starting with the June 14, 1945 session I see still a number of unissued takes. For the Breakdowns I understand that. But not for complete performances. We'll have to wait and see (and hear)

[jazzbo]

Stompy,

Did you notice this in the discographic info?

Any sides that have been shown in discographies but are missing from the vaults or possibly in private collections are listed as unissued, master no longer exists. If a title is shown as unissued this means that the performance does exist but it is not included in this package because of damage to the original disc or because of space limitations has forced us to include only the most exceptional alternate take. If a second title is shown in brackets, this designates an alternate or more commonly known title yet is not printed on the original label.

[miles65]

Stompy,

Did you notice this in the discographic info?

Any sides that have been shown in discographies but are missing from the vaults or possibly in private collections are listed as unissued, master no longer exists. If a title is shown as unissued this means that the performance does exist but it is not included in this package because of damage to the original disc or because of space limitations has forced us to include only the most exceptional alternate take. If a second title is shown in brackets, this designates an alternate or more commonly known title yet is not printed on the original label.

Thanks for pointing this out, I scrolled over that.

[Harold_Z]

I think this is going to have great sound also. At least I'm hoping so. I liked the sound of the GRP cds far better than the Mosaic Commodore vinyl box. I agree with Jazztrain about the 78s. To add to that - I have a lot of this material on both 10" and 12" Commodore vinyl from when it was still Commodore owned by Milt Gabler and manufactured in Yonkers. Those issues sound better than any subsequent issues and in the cases where I have the same material on both 10" and 12" the 10" edges out the 12" for the most part.

[Clunky]

I've some of this material on 78s which are very much clearer than LP issues. The later vary enormously but generally sound very dull. Commodore 78s are bright with quite a lot of surface noise., which probably why they've been scrubbed excessively on LP issues .

[Chuck Nessa]

Due out in late April

Thanks to Mosaic's ability to bundle collections from numerous labels and archives, we can finally present, for the first time anywhere, The Complete Commodore & Decca Eddie Condon & Bud Freeman Sessions. It's a substantial set - eight CDs containing 199 tracks in all. The set spans the years 1938, when Chicago-style jazz first took root in New York, through 1950.

Chronologically, these recordings sit alongside the Columbia Condon Mob Sessions on Mosaic, beginning a little sooner and ending a little earlier. They pre-date Mosaic's Condon Columbia All-Stars set. And the Commodore material previously appeared on our Complete Commodore three-volume set. All of those collections are long out of print and hard to find. The currently-available Mosaic Bud Freeman single, Chicago/ Austin High School, is from a late-1950s reunion, well after the era of these sessions.

Just want to point out a silly claim by Mosaic - "Thanks to Mosaic's ability to bundle collections from numerous labels and archives..." - Universal/MCA/Decca own Commodore. It is one company, one license.

[gmonahan]

Due out in late April

Thanks to Mosaic's ability to bundle collections from numerous labels and archives, we can finally present, for the first time anywhere, The Complete Commodore & Decca Eddie Condon & Bud Freeman Sessions. It's a substantial set - eight CDs containing 199 tracks in all. The set spans the years 1938, when Chicago-style jazz first took root in New York, through 1950.

Chronologically, these recordings sit alongside the Columbia Condon Mob Sessions on Mosaic, beginning a little sooner and ending a little earlier. They pre-date Mosaic's Condon Columbia All-Stars set. And the Commodore material previously appeared on our Complete Commodore three-volume set. All of those collections are long out of print and hard to find. The currently-available Mosaic Bud Freeman single, Chicago/ Austin High School, is from a late-1950s reunion, well after the era of these sessions.

Just want to point out a silly claim by Mosaic - "Thanks to Mosaic's ability to bundle collections from numerous labels and archives..." - Universal/MCA/Decca own Commodore. It is one company, one license.

Well, they were half right, Chuck. One company, but I think they did draw recordings from a variety of sources, i.e., archives.

gregmo

[king ubu]

Due out in late April

Thanks to Mosaic's ability to bundle collections from numerous labels and archives, we can finally present, for the first time anywhere, The Complete Commodore & Decca Eddie Condon & Bud Freeman Sessions. It's a substantial set - eight CDs containing 199 tracks in all. The set spans the years 1938, when Chicago-style jazz first took root in New York, through 1950.

Chronologically, these recordings sit alongside the Columbia Condon Mob Sessions on Mosaic, beginning a little sooner and ending a little earlier. They pre-date Mosaic's Condon Columbia All-Stars set. And the Commodore material previously appeared on our Complete Commodore three-volume set. All of those collections are long out of print and hard to find. The currently-available Mosaic Bud Freeman single, Chicago/ Austin High School, is from a late-1950s reunion, well after the era of these sessions.

Just want to point out a silly claim by Mosaic - "Thanks to Mosaic's ability to bundle collections from numerous labels and archives..." - Universal/MCA/Decca own Commodore. It is one company, one license.

the home of Barry Manilow

[thirdtry]

Release date just changed from Late April to May 5th.

Hopefully the boxes will start shipping out very soon!!

[jazzbo]

Good news! Looking forward to this one.

[Harold_Z]

Yeah. Me too!

[SwingItTrev]

Now shipping!

[jazzbo]

I got a shipping notice today.

[jazzbo]

Got my set this afternoon, but as I had to rush my Dad to the emergency room and admit him to the hospital (should be okay I hope), haven't heard much. But man, it sure sounds GREAT. Excellent booklet as well.

Edited May 9, 2015 by jazzbo

[B. Goren.]

I can imagine that at least part of the music, can be found on this JSP set.