"Music doesn't go seasonable to me." Rolling Jazz Dm7♭5 Thread 2017

http://www.npr.org/2017/04/27/525541596/first-listen-the-ecstatic-music-of-alice-coltrane-turiyasangitananda
^ does what it says on the tin

one track in and holy fuck

A lot of good points about Mosaic on this thread---in the late 80s, they used send me catalogs and newsletters which seemed lavish---the slick paper, the fonts, the layouts, incl. big amazing photos---the only thing I ever bought (since, for instance, I already had all those Mingus LPs for 99 cents each, via the Great Vinyl Dump of that era) was The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Herbie Nichols, on three CDs, with an incredible book, of course---it was and is everything I hoped for and more, after reading Four Lives In The BeBop Business.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91fa5pO1jSL._SL1500_.jpg

The latest from Mosaic (via their mailing list):

Dear Mosaic Friend,

In this time and place, the Mosaic business model is becoming harder and harder to sustain in this rapidly changing world. We aren't sure what the future will hold for us, but we want to let all of you know how much we appreciate that your support has allowed us to constantly make our dreams come true with set after set and that we intend to persevere. The way we operate may change but our mandate remains steadfast.

Charlie Lourie and I started Mosaic Records in 1982 and our first releases were in 1983. The company was almost an afterthought. The idea of definitive boxed sets of complete recordings by jazz masters at a crucial time in their careers was a small part of a proposal that we made to Capitol Records in 1982 to relaunch the Blue Note label. Even before Capitol turned us down, it occurred to me one night that the release of these boxed sets could be a business unto itself if we made them deluxe, hand-numbered limited editions sold directly to the public.

Our first release was The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Thelonious Monk, which came about because I'd found about 25 minutes of excellent unissued Monk on Blue Note. It was too short for an album and I was obsessed with how to get this music released. . It then dawned on me that all of this important material needed to be retransferred and assembled in chronological order as a significant historic document. I solved my problem of releasing those 25 minutes of Monk music and Mosaic Records was born. We had a wonderful run of projects. The Tina Brooks, Herbie Nichols, Serge Chaloff, Count Basie and Nat Cole sets were among those that were especially near and dear to our hearts.

Charlie was my best friend and working together was a joy. Mosaic was slow getting started and it took a few years before we could even draw a meager salary. I remember during those lean years worrying if we could afford to put out a Tina Brooks set. Charlie looked at me in amazement. "Isn't that why we started this thing - to do what's important without anyone telling us no?!" He only had to say it once.

In 1989, we moved out of Charlie's basement and into our own facility. Scott Wenzel joined us in 1987. We added employees as the business grew. We started issuing sets on CD as well as LP and eventually had our own website.

We lost Charlie to scleroderma on December 31, 2000. We managed to keep the tone and spirit of the company up to the level that Charlie created and continued to put out thoroughly researched vital sets of importance in jazz history. But in the early 2000s, the record business began to shrink and morph for a variety of reasons and we were forced to downsize our staff, move to smaller quarters and reduce the flow of sets.

We've always tried to be diligent about warning you when sets were running low so you wouldn't miss out on titles that you wanted. But at this point, some sets which are temporarily out of stock may not be pressed again. We are not certain how Mosaic Records will continue going forward or how many more sets we will be able to create and release. We've got a lot of great plans but few resources.

Scott and I want to thank every single person who has supported us, made suggestions, given advice and shown us such love and affection. If you are thinking about acquiring a certain set, now's the time.

- - Michael Cuscuna

The next JD Allen album, Radio Flyer, features his regular trio (Gregg August on bass, Rudy Royston on drums), plus Liberty Ellman on guitar. I'm pretty excited.

Also, Ambrose Akinmusire's upcoming double CD features all new songs recorded live at the Village Vanguard. I've heard about half of it so far; it's strong.

^^Just what I was going to mention, the public domain stuff - in the UK at least, there is SO MUCH great jazz on CD that is public domain and/or totally dirt cheap, enough listening for a lifetime, that full price specialist import CD box sets really seem like an unnecessary expense, no matter how great.

― Bernie Lugg (Ward Fowler), Thursday, April 27, 2017 4:28 PM (three weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Listening to the Real Gone Jazz 4CD Hank Mobley Eight Classic Albums. Dirt cheap, sure, but one of the albums was apparently mastered from a skipping CD, and another from a low-bitrate MP3 source. I'm not enough of a Mobley fan to shell out for the Mosaic set. Caveat emptor with these public domain dealies.

(I didn't have any such problems with the Real Gone 10CD Art Blakey 19 Classic Albums, fwiw.)

My Stereogum column (which goes up tomorrow) talks about the Mosaic news, and the public-domain-cheapo-boxes thing. I'll post a link when it's live.

As promised, my latest Stereogum column. Pay particular attention to that jaimie branch album, 'cause it fucking rules.

You're right about the Branch. I just bought it. The Montgomery/Kelly track sounded really good too. I look forward to the rest, esp Cuong Vu.

scrolling through Bandcamp's jazz releases...new Matthew Shipp on a Polish label?

http://bandcamp.for-tune.pl/album/not-bound

first track is tremendous, a lot of room & air in it -- flute, piano, drums and bass -- just really wonderful

http://bandcamp.for-tune.pl/album/not-bound

there is loads of good stuff on this thread + the linked column, would also vouch for the Montgomery/Kelly(I especially love this one right now), Cuong Vu/Frissell and Nicole Mitchell recent live albums.

Ha-ha. wow: the best and maybe only relatively longform jazz commentary by xgau I've ever come across---I don't agree with all of these opinions as such, and maybe he wouldn't either now, but certainly finds and builds on a groove. which is 1971 as hell, lemme tellya (and his descriptions do make me want to check out all of the albums here that I still haven't heard, esp. that last Coryell he digs)
http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/rock/jazz-71.php

Going to the Vision Festival tomorrow night, 20 years after the first time I attended. Looking forward to it.

would love to hear how that goes! Report back!

Saw Andre 3000 at the Vision Festival tonight (attending, not performing).

Went back to the Vision Festival last night, saw drummer Whit Dickey's trio with Matt Shipp on piano and Mat Maneri on viola. They've got a really great new album out on AUM Fidelity which they were celebrating.

There were some last-minute substitutions in the lineup: poet Tracie Morris was supposed to appear with guitarist Marvin Sewell, but he dropped out and Vijay Iyer subbed in (on piano). Also, the final act of the night was supposed to be a trio of Charles Gayle on sax, William Parker on bass, and Marvin TA Thompson on drums, but Gayle (who lives in Buffalo now) didn't show up, allegedly because his plane was delayed a half hour and he got impatient and went back home. So Joe McPhee took the sax spot, and Matt Shipp joined, making it a quartet.

The headline GQ slapped on this Christian Scott interview is awful, but the piece itself is great. He really gets to explain his persona and his art in detail. Well worth a read.

Also, the final act of the night was supposed to be a trio of Charles Gayle on sax, William Parker on bass, and Marvin TA Thompson on drums, but Gayle (who lives in Buffalo now) didn't show up, allegedly because his plane was delayed a half hour and he got impatient and went back home. So Joe McPhee took the sax spot, and Matt Shipp joined, making it a quartet.

what a quartet!!!

yeah, sounds fun!

Just bought 2 of the 3 albums Jason Moran has for sale on Bandcamp - the live trio date from the Village Vanguard, and the one with Mary Halvorson on guitar and Ron Miles on cornet. Gonna be interviewing him for the site soon.

he's the best; i can't think of anytime i've seen him live where i haven't been impressed.

Yeah, I saw him in the early 2000s at the Iridium, with Sam Rivers. It was fantastic.

Speaking of Bandcamp, did y'all see this On Bandcamp Daily?
"FMP Records’ Free Jazz Legacy is Alive and Well at Destination: OUT"
https://daily.bandcamp.com/2017/06/07/destination-out-feature/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_content=Destination%20Out

just blasting out that lost Monk soundtrack to roger Vadim's Les Liaisons Dangereuses movie. I love it so far.

It is essentially slow contemplative versions of numbers from Brilliant Corners, Monk's Dream and the Art Blakey album.

This was touching (Gary Burton): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7DadW138UE

Although I think there's also something touching about old jazz musicians not being able to play like they used to, but having the full weight of experience and history on their side.

(and his mom's 101!)

"Pay particular attention to that jaimie branch album, 'cause it fucking rules."

yeah, fine album is that.

I've been spinning it a lot, incl. this morning. More fun than Nickelback, I concluded.

(After reading an article advocating for Nickelback as good simple fun music)

This Jack DeJohnette/Scofield/Grenadier/Medeski album is really really enjoyable. Just feels really good.

https://hudson-music.bandcamp.com/releases

yeah the first track is especially brilliant

Hm, that group is playing here Saturday as part of the jazz festival. Maybe I should note that one down.

I find the first track a little too abstract and too long but I really like the playing.

so you like it then!

Hm, that group is playing here Saturday as part of the jazz festival. Maybe I should note that one down.

Ha, well, there are a lot of interesting things happening so I'm trying to pick. After listening, though, this will be a priority. Wow @ Scofield's solos on "Lay Lady Lay". "Song for World Forgiveness" was a highlight for me, too. I'll admit to skipping through the tracks with vocals.

Tremendous profile of Craig Taborn in this week's New York Times Magazine.

This is really nice too, although I'm sure they're going to take down the video and re-upload it so the url doesn't work anymore, because they do that every single time. Brian Blade is always a joy to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_9MyPALmYM

(Old and New Dreams tribute w/Joshua Redman, Ron Miles, Scott Colley, and Blade)

pharaoh sanders tonight

New Stereogum column is up. I hope Cooper-Moore doesn't get mad that I called him "somewhere between hillbilly and holy fool"...

That NYT Craig Taborn profile was a really interesting portrait of the artist as a social recluse, without the mythologising b/s that sometimes goes with that type of thing. His Daylight Ghosts + Ljubljana (w/Gustafsson) are both sick albums imo.

just noticed there is another Craig Taborn (w/Ikue Mori recorded live at Village Vanguard '16) album out on Tzadik.

Going to see Ambrose Akinmusire at the Montreal Jazz Festival. Pretty psyched, as his newest live album is really good. Unfortunately, that's about all I can afford among the plethora of good stuff. But I do plan to check out some of the free stuff.

I really think the Hudson show from last night was among the better shows I've ever seen! All four guys were killing it and the sound was great, which is not always the case in that space. They brought their own engineer, which probably helped. I expected great things from Scofield and deJohnette but Medeski blew me away. He had three keyboards: an acoustic piano, an organ (Hammond?), and an electronic keyboard. (The programme said "synth"; might have been a Fender Rhodes with a tonne of pedals?). (I obv can't ID keyboards as well as guitars.) With the latter, he got way noisier than he does on the album. I sometimes felt like I was hearing polytonality during the jams, with Medeski playing in a different key than the other guys? Scofield could get a really piercing, penetrating sound while staying fairly clean and clear. DeJohnette maintained a light touch throughout.

I love DeJohnette, he has got to be one of the greatest living drummers rn

He sounded great, yeah.

Wasn't he on a recent (past few years) tribute to Herbie Hancock at the Kennedy Center?

Him and Vinnie Colaiuta both

Haven't listened to that Hudson album yet, but intrigued by the personnel and what you guys are saying, despite the fact that it has (at least) two Dylan songs and one Band song, which might otherwise put me off in a jazz context.