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lipi
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#46 Post by lipi » Thu Dec 04, 2008 12:55 pm

more things to buy next year:

The Complete Louis Armstrong Decca Sessions (1935-1945)- 7 CDs
(Release Date: March 2009)
This will be Mosaic's second boxed set devoted to arguably the most important musician of the 20th Century. Back in 1993 we issued the All Stars studio sessions for Decca, but this brand new package will include earlier Armstrong with a collection of recordings that for the most part will be with Louis and his big band. This is Satch in his prime!

i have this on definitive, so maybe i'll pass. i think i'd prefer to get the ellington small groups or the goodman set. any opinions on which one has more danceable tracks, the goodman or the ellington?

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Eyeball
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BG Mosaic liner notes

#47 Post by Eyeball » Thu Dec 04, 2008 6:01 pm

"Earlier that evening, NBC in New York had broadcast a recorded Let's Dance show, and thanks to the three-hour time difference, the show aired in L.A. hours before Goodman took the stage. "

The previously posted 'blog-formation' turned out to be near completely wrong and based upon a mis-reading of the actual facts.

There was no broadcast and no 'recording'.
Last edited by Eyeball on Fri Dec 05, 2008 2:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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trev
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#48 Post by trev » Thu Dec 04, 2008 10:54 pm

lipi wrote:more things to buy next year: i think i'd prefer to get the ellington small groups or the goodman set. any opinions on which one has more danceable tracks, the goodman or the ellington?
I am really happy with the Ellington set, but I'm hesitating to get the Goodman because it is 30% alternate takes. (that and the exchange rate makes it $$$ at the moment)

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anton
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#49 Post by anton » Fri Dec 05, 2008 2:11 pm

lipi wrote: i think i'd prefer to get the ellington small groups or the goodman set. any opinions on which one has more danceable tracks, the goodman or the ellington?
The last two years have been very good to us:

235 Duke Ellington 1936-1940 Small Group Sessions
236 Classic Chu Berry Columbia And Victor Sessions
238 The Complete Lionel Hampton Victor Sessions 1937-1941
239 Classic Columbia, Okeh And Vocalion Lester Young With Count Basie (1936-1940)
240 Classic Columbia & Okeh Benny Goodman Orchestra Sessions (1939-1958)

It is a new era of Mosaic Records.

My fave is the Ellington small groups - it has more variation. Chu Berry is my least favourite, not because of the music but the dark and muffled sound. They had the EQs set wrong on that set. Did you consider the Hampton set? It's great. BG is too fresh for me to judge yet, but there are many many danceable tracks on it.

lipi
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#50 Post by lipi » Fri Dec 05, 2008 3:15 pm

anton wrote:
lipi wrote: i think i'd prefer to get the ellington small groups or the goodman set. any opinions on which one has more danceable tracks, the goodman or the ellington?
The last two years have been very good to us:

235 Duke Ellington 1936-1940 Small Group Sessions
236 Classic Chu Berry Columbia And Victor Sessions
238 The Complete Lionel Hampton Victor Sessions 1937-1941
239 Classic Columbia, Okeh And Vocalion Lester Young With Count Basie (1936-1940)
240 Classic Columbia & Okeh Benny Goodman Orchestra Sessions (1939-1958)

It is a new era of Mosaic Records.

My fave is the Ellington small groups - it has more variation. Chu Berry is my least favourite, not because of the music but the dark and muffled sound. They had the EQs set wrong on that set. Did you consider the Hampton set? It's great. BG is too fresh for me to judge yet, but there are many many danceable tracks on it.
i have the hampton set, actually. it's great. i have the chu berry and lester young ones, too.

it sounds like the ellington is next. thanks for the advice, guys!

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CountBasi
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#51 Post by CountBasi » Sun Dec 07, 2008 8:27 pm

anton wrote:
...It is a new era of Mosaic Records.

My fave is the Ellington small groups - it has more variation. Chu Berry is my least favourite, not because of the music but the dark and muffled sound. They had the EQs set wrong on that set. Did you consider the Hampton set? It's great. BG is too fresh for me to judge yet, but there are many many danceable tracks on it.
Ah yes, I love the Chu Berry set for the music but there was something about the sound quality I couldn't put into words like you have. Thank you! I agree with you on that.
It don't matter if your clock is broke - it's the right time somewhere : Slim Gaillard

Haydn
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#52 Post by Haydn » Sun Dec 21, 2008 6:56 pm

anton wrote:
lipi wrote: i think i'd prefer to get the ellington small groups or the goodman set. any opinions on which one has more danceable tracks, the goodman or the ellington?
The last two years have been very good to us:

235 Duke Ellington 1936-1940 Small Group Sessions
236 Classic Chu Berry Columbia And Victor Sessions
238 The Complete Lionel Hampton Victor Sessions 1937-1941
239 Classic Columbia, Okeh And Vocalion Lester Young With Count Basie (1936-1940)
240 Classic Columbia & Okeh Benny Goodman Orchestra Sessions (1939-1958)

It is a new era of Mosaic Records.

My fave is the Ellington small groups - it has more variation. Chu Berry is my least favourite, not because of the music but the dark and muffled sound. They had the EQs set wrong on that set. Did you consider the Hampton set? It's great. BG is too fresh for me to judge yet, but there are many many danceable tracks on it.
My favourite set by far is the Hampton - great material, a fair number of songs I don't have elsewhere, and excellent sound. The Ellington set is good, but I have most of the material already, and in many cases I prefer the sound quality of the other releases. Just got the Goodman one, sound quality is excellent, I have most of the songs already in similar quality and some of the material is a little on the bland side, plenty of decent danceable stuff there though. Best track is a great-sounding "Stealin' Apples" from 1939; also a good "Zaggin' With Zig" from the same year.

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dogpossum
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#53 Post by dogpossum » Sun Dec 21, 2008 11:46 pm

I really like both the Hamp and the Chu Berry sets. I DJ from them a heap. I find I keep coming back to the Chu Berry one for its diversity.
But I also love love love the Ellington small groups one. It's so nice. Though it does overlap with some of my earlier purchases.
A friend of mine has an older June Christy/Peggy Lee one which I wouldn't DJ from very much (it's a bit mellow for me), but which makes wonderful listening. It's very silky and gorgeous.

I'm trying not to buy the new Goodman set. I want it, but I'm trying not to need it.

I wish I had the Ory one. I'm sorry I missed the Prima one.

I also have my eye on the HRH one. And I want the Bix one, but for the Teagarden bits.

..what are the other sets like - the ones that people wouldn't DJ from?


I have a couple of Mosaic singles I love. I overplay a few tracks from the Witherspoon/McShann one.

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Travis
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#54 Post by Travis » Mon Dec 22, 2008 3:20 pm

dogpossum wrote: I also have my eye on the HRH one.
I have the H.R.S. set - I don't remember hearing many tracks that I would DJ except for a few of the Bechet/Spanier ones. I'll have to give it another listen during my time off for the holidays.

imarx
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#55 Post by imarx » Tue Feb 10, 2009 10:53 am

Can anyone comment on the relative merits of the various Duke Ellington sets? So far I'm aware of three - Capitol, Reprise, and Small Group Sessions. I'm wondering if it's worth paying eBay prices for the first two.

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Jerry_Jelinek
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#56 Post by Jerry_Jelinek » Tue Feb 17, 2009 12:56 pm

[quote="imarx"]Can anyone comment on the relative merits of the various Duke Ellington sets? So far I'm aware of three - Capitol, Reprise, and Small Group Sessions. I'm wondering if it's worth paying eBay prices for the first two.[/quote]

Hi all,

Been WAY TOO long since I've posted. But this thread caught my eye for a very good reason.

First imarx - I own the Capitol Ellington and the Reprise Ellington. For dance related music, don't get them. There isn't enough dance related music.

If you are interested in 'collecting' the music, I usually place a value of about $20-$25 per CD on ebay for Mosaic sets. As a set becomes rarer and longer out of print, the price will get over $30-$50 per CD.

For example the Louis Armstrong original Mosaic - Set #146 I have seen twice sell for over $50 per CD recently on ebay.

For overall jazz quality of the Ellington sets of Capitol and Reprise recordings, I happen to enjoy both a lot. The Reprise is probably a bit better in variety. There are sessions covering Ellington/Strayhorn arrangements of big band standards. I happen to personally love 'Good Bye' with Johnny Hodges just melting the sax.

On the Reprise there is also a few more interesting things like music from Mary Poppins. That isn't some of my favorite Ellington/Strayhorn things.

The recording quality and notes are pure class in the truest sense of the word.

Ok, on to my question to all of the Mosaic Ellington fans. I own the Capitol set of Ellington on Mosaic. I bought this prior to archiving the discography from the Mosaic Web Sites.

I emailed Mosaic and they said the original 'Word' document had been lost. Does anyone have a copy of the discography from this set in electronic form? I use these for searches to help prepare radio shows and just realized I don't have this discography.

Any help you can provide would be MUCH appreciated.

Thanks

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#57 Post by penguin » Tue Mar 24, 2009 3:01 am

Well I got my catalogue in the mail today (and my pennies from Kevin won't be far behind) so I'm feeling stimulated to buy some music. I figure the US economy needs it more than ours so I'm eyeing off a couple of mosaic sets.

Definitley on my list is the new Louis Armstrong set.

But I'm also thinking about the Columbia and Okeh Benny Goodman set (1939-1958) the Lester Young/Count Basie Sessions (1936-1940) and the Django Reinhardt and Quintet of the Hot Club of France Set (1936-1948). I'd probably only get one of these though - any further thoughts from anyone of the merits/demerits of these sets?

lipi
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#58 Post by lipi » Tue Mar 24, 2009 11:47 am

penguin wrote: Definitley on my list is the new Louis Armstrong set.

But I'm also thinking about the Columbia and Okeh Benny Goodman set (1939-1958) the Lester Young/Count Basie Sessions (1936-1940) and the Django Reinhardt and Quintet of the Hot Club of France Set (1936-1948). I'd probably only get one of these though - any further thoughts from anyone of the merits/demerits of these sets?
i have the lester young/basie. i love it. some of the stuff is available on the "america's number 1 band" set and the complete columbia sets from definitive, but the mosaic sounds way better than the definitive and is more complete than the america set.

the django i'm not too excited about, because jsp has put out a very good django series with excellent sound. the only reason to get the mosaic is the booklet. i keep meaning to have a listen to it at my local library, but i can't imagine it sounding better than john r.t. davies's jsp restorations.

i'd like to hear from someone how much better the armstrong sides sound than on the definitive releases. if it's a big difference, i may go for it. otherwise, goodman is next on my wishlist.

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J-h:n
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#59 Post by J-h:n » Tue Mar 24, 2009 12:03 pm

lipi wrote:the django i'm not too excited about, because jsp has put out a very good django series with excellent sound. the only reason to get the mosaic is the booklet. i keep meaning to have a listen to it at my local library, but i can't imagine it sounding better than john r.t. davies's jsp restorations.
Amen to that. The JSP set is butt ugly and has rudimentary liner notes, but it sounds awesome.

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#60 Post by AlekseyKosygin » Fri Mar 27, 2009 8:40 am

J-h:n wrote:
lipi wrote:the django i'm not too excited about, because jsp has put out a very good django series with excellent sound. the only reason to get the mosaic is the booklet. i keep meaning to have a listen to it at my local library, but i can't imagine it sounding better than john r.t. davies's jsp restorations.
Amen to that. The JSP set is butt ugly and has rudimentary liner notes, but it sounds awesome.
You forgot affordable. The Mosaics are WAYYY too expensive.

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