Another Mosaic Armstrong to come out this August.

[Hardbopjazz]

The director of the Louis Armstrong house mentioned today that Mosaic is working on a new 7 CD box Louis Armstrong RCA material. He played one track and I will differently make this one set I can't bypass. 

[jfire]

So it would be an upgrade, expansion of the 4-CD Complete RCA Victor set - 30s and early 40s stuff?

[Hardbopjazz]

I heard some of the music today. There are some unissued takes, false starts, and studio talk. The sound was amazing on what I got a chance to hear.  

[ghost of miles]

23 hours ago, Hardbopjazz said:

The director of the Louis Armstrong house mentioned today that Mosaic is working on a new 7 CD box Louis Armstrong RCA material. He played one track and I will differently make this one set I can't bypass. 

Were you at Jazz Congress too? So sorry we didn’t cross paths. I also loved that 1938 big band broadcast, though doesn’t sound as if that material will be coming out any time soon. 

Ricky also mentioned that his book Heart Full Of Rhythm (focusing on Armstrong’s 1929-47 years) will be out in September.

Edited January 15, 2020 by ghost of miles

[Hardbopjazz]

I was there. We probably walked past on another.  

[medjuck]

Ricky Riccardi just posted the following on Instagram:

Pops started recording “Louis Armstrong Plays W. Handy” on this date in 1954! Back in September, I posted a slew of videos of the transfer sessions for the Mosaic Records set I’m working on that will feature about 100 minutes of “Handy” bonus material. We had hoped that the set would have been out been out by now but alas, a pandemic hit in case you haven’t been watching the news. But BREAKING NEWS: our go-to, Grammy-winning engineer Andreas Meyer wrote to Mosaic’s Scott Wenzel last night to say that the final mastering sessions will begins this week! We’ve already finished the booklet and selected the photos so if the mastering goes smoothly, we could have a set sometime in the fall, and hopefully definitely by the holidays.

This is not RCA material but Columbia material produced by George Avakian.  (Is it possible this is what was being referred to?)

[gmonahan]

The Handy album was Columbia, but Sony owns both labels. As I remember, the new Mosaic set was going to include all of the RCA and Columbia studio stuff.

 

 

 

gregmo

[ghost of miles]

10 hours ago, medjuck said:

Ricky Riccardi just posted the following on Instagram:

Pops started recording “Louis Armstrong Plays W. Handy” on this date in 1954! Back in September, I posted a slew of videos of the transfer sessions for the Mosaic Records set I’m working on that will feature about 100 minutes of “Handy” bonus material. We had hoped that the set would have been out been out by now but alas, a pandemic hit in case you haven’t been watching the news. But BREAKING NEWS: our go-to, Grammy-winning engineer Andreas Meyer wrote to Mosaic’s Scott Wenzel last night to say that the final mastering sessions will begins this week! We’ve already finished the booklet and selected the photos so if the mastering goes smoothly, we could have a set sometime in the fall, and hopefully definitely by the holidays.

This is not RCA material but Columbia material produced by George Avakian.  (Is it possible this is what was being referred to?)

Thanks much for the update.  Looks like Ricky's new book is slated for a Sept 1 release:

Heart Full Of Rhythm: The Big Band Years Of Louis Armstrong

[miles65]

Good to hear it is coming. Even if we have to wait a few more months. Realy looking forward to this set.

[John L]

Yes!

[jazzbo]

From Ricky Riccardi, August 29:

 

Okay, time for another little Mosaic teaser (no video accompaniment this time; maybe this weekend). For the last several weeks, a highlight of my day has been when I check my email and there's a message from Nancy Conforti of Meyer Media containing reference files for one of the discs of our upcoming 7-CD Louis Armstrong boxed set. My first order of business is always to share the files with co-producers Scott Wenzel, David Ostwald and Rich Noorigian. Usually, the next 24 hours is spent trading emails with suggestions and comments, all of which I relate back to Nancy, who makes the requested edits and sends back more files.

 

This process has repeated and repeated itself until this Monday when we were realized we were DONE! Every disc is set, every edit is in place, all changes are made, it's a set. Now, future posts will contain items like the cover design, the track listing, pre-order info, etc., but I thought for today's teaser, I'd stick to timings.

 

Leaving the singles aside, the main events on the album are the LPs "Louis Armstrong Plays W. C. Handy," "Satch Plays Fats" and "The Real Ambassadors." In each case, we are including the original LP sequence, with all the edits and splices and postproduction work, the master takes we've enjoyed for decades. But then comes the bonus materials--oh, the bonus material!

 

For "The Real Ambassadors," there will be about 76 minutes of material not heard on the original LP (and only 3 songs from the 1994 expanded CD; over an hour has never been issued in any form).

 

For "Satch Plays Fats," there will be 67 minutes of material not heard on the original LP (again, only 3 selections appearing on the 1986 reissue, with nearly an hour seeing the light of day for the first time).

 

And finally, for "Louis Armstrong Plays W. C. Handy," there will be a whopping 1 hour, 41 minutes and 42 seconds of bonus materials including rehearsals, alternate takes, breakdowns, discussions and more almost all of which is fresh (if you have the 1986 and 1997 reissues, there's some different stuff there but almost all of it is edited in some form; I'll write a blog or separate post for the discographical nerds to try to straighten it out because the bonuses on this set will be entirely unedited and presented for the first time as they went down in the studio!).

 

(Okay, one more teaser, the September 28, 1955 session that produced "Mack the Knife" and "Back O'Town Blues" gets 45 minutes of Disc 2!)

 

I'll quit while I'm ahead but there will be many posts in the coming weeks about this set, which does look primed for I think (hope) a November release. And for a photo to break up all this text, here's the four producers back in the pre-Covid days during the transfer sessions. This has been a dream project from the start and thanks to the efforts of all in this photo, the dream will soon be a reality!

[ejp626]

I have to say, this update makes it much more likely that I am going to take a pass.  I'm just not all that interested in alternate takes (only in very rare circumstances will I listen to them more than once) and definitely not in studio breakdowns -- and this sounds like 4+ discs worth.  And if I am being honest, I've never cared for The Real Ambassadors in the first place.  But clearly there are folks who are really excited about the set.

[mikeweil]

I love The Real Ambassadors. I could live without alternates to his other Columbias, but that stuff makes it tempting for me!

Edited September 2, 2020 by mikeweil

[JSngry]

Do the alternate stuff include a lot of Louis talking? The might get me in if there's a lot of that. We still don't have enough of Louis talking, for real.

[medjuck]

43 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Do the alternate stuff include a lot of Louis talking? The might get me in if there's a lot of that. We still don't have enough of Louis talking, for real.

Sounds like it contains Louis trying to teach Lotte Lenya syncopate on Mack the Knife.  

[Chuck Nessa]

3 minutes ago, medjuck said:

Sounds like it contains Louis trying to teach Lotte Lenya syncopate on Mack the Knife.  

That's a great bit of tape.

[Larry Kart]

 

[medjuck]

38 minutes ago, Larry Kart said:

 

There's about 5 minutes of dialogue between the 2 as Louis tries to teach Lenya about syncopation. It's on a Lenya/
Weil cd that Avakian produced. 

[Larry Kart]

I'd love to hear it. Which CD is it?

[medjuck]

51 minutes ago, Larry Kart said:

I'd love to hear it. Which CD is it? 

"Lenya Sings Weill: The American Theater Songs."  MHK60647.  Despite the title it also contains songs from Cabaret and Mother Courage. 

[Larry Kart]

Hey, I may have that one. If so, happy happy joy joy.

[medjuck]

24 minutes ago, Larry Kart said:

Hey, I may have that one. If so, happy happy joy joy.

The cd combines the single Lp of the same title plus adds the "bonus" material.  IIRC there was once a reissue  double Lp combing the American and European songs Lps but not this extra material so no Pops there.  

Edited September 3, 2020 by medjuck

[JSngry]

Seriously, I am long-ago imprinted on Louis' playing and his singing. But when I heard him speaking, speaking his natural way, just him and people, no show, on that alligator story, hey, THAT pulled it all together and put all the pieces together.

So, more of Louis just talking, please.

[Stonewall15]

How much Brubeck is on the additional tracks in "The Real Ambassadors"?

[Shrdlu]

I would like to hear the unissued alternate takes and chatter, but I already have the CDs of the Handy and Waller sessions and they have quite a lot of (then) new material. I won't be needing the new Mosaic set, because, realistically, I would probably only listen to the new stuff once and then it would gather dust.

It sounds like they are making sure that the Columbia material is backed up, which is a good idea. This is exactly what some of us have wanted to be done with the Blue Note reels. However, there is a large amount of stuff and it would cost a lot of time and money to do it, so it probably won't happen.