"Life sucks ... and then you die." There was actually a graduating class at the school I work at that had my "motto" printed on the back of their graduation T-shirts once, well-knowing that I love to play the eternal cynic with a bunch of virtual winking smileys added for good measure. So, before I disappear into 14 days of "hell week(s)" of day-job last-minute panic, I thought I'd leave you with a brief post here to outline what's been going on.
Mosaic Discographies
The new page added to this site has been more than an instant success. It just shows that there was and is a definite need for a one-stop site to have access to more detailed information in regard to Mosaic's wonderful boxed sets. I still have a few weeks to go, but the number of downloads has been, to say the least, staggering. In short, I will continue to do my best to get every snippet of information onto that page for you to download. Be a bit patient though. It's a major project and still needs a lot of input for sets I simply don't have enough information on (and have too little time to piece together via three million different websites, discographies, sessionographies, etc.).
Recent purchases
I haven't had the chance to buy much, but as most collectors know, our obsession never ends, so I added the following to my collection:
a) Francis, André and Schwarz, Jean: "L'histoire des Big Bands 1914-1955", Le Chant du Monde/Harmonia Mund 2006 (10 CDs, 5741481.90).
I've been watching the development of copyright discussions in the EU for years now and as it looks, the (mostly American) pressure groups, you know, those who have been unable to come up with a sensible business plan for the past 20 years, have unfortunately been able to roll out enough clout to pressurize our "community" into adopting restrictive and profit-ensuring regulations. If you have at all read along here on a regular basis, I am the first person to insist that artists should be paid for their work (as if the music industry has ever been interested in that), especially because I believe that without a sensible business scheme in place for the artists, music as we have known it these past decades is bound to disappear. Although there are tons of successful independent businesses around today, there's so much at fault with the current global players that I think defending an out-dated system is doomed to fail in the end. And we'll all lose if that happens, simply because a lot of the music we are all interested in is doomed to rot away in some vaults, be lost in warehouse fires or, at worst, is simply about to be ignored because you can't profit from it. I mean, how many damn Miles Davis reissues does the world need? If you follow reissue series at all, you'll probably wonder if there was anything else recorded besides those two or three famous Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Wes Montgomery, etc. sessions that have been reissued a million times already.
Francis and Schwarz are two people who have brought to the table an invaluable mass of restored recordings which might otherwise have been lost to humanity altogether, usually "embedded" in 10-CD boxed sets that also restored many of the classics which are readily available. They are collectors with a true passion, who have supplied us with an endless number of reissues that both fill gaps in available discographies and cater to those of us who don't belong to that comparatively small group of fans and collectors who spent a large part of their lives hunting around for every snippet available around the globe.
I thought I had most of what these two have put out and, surprisingly, I didn't have this big band box yet and before the 70-year copyright does go into effect in Europe (it can still be stopped, I think), I thought I'd snatch up everything they put out before it disappears. You should too, by the way!
b) Michael Naura Quintet: "European Jazz Sounds", Atelier Sawano/Universal Classics and Jazz 1963/2005 (Japan).
This one was one of those CDs I had in my shopping basket time and again but I never pulled the trigger because I thought it was too pricey. Then, suddenly, one copy was put online over at the German Amazon marketplace and I practically dive-bombed that "buy me now" button as soon as I was alerted via eMail. A mint copy, still wrapped, in absolutely perfect condition.
Yes, in my humble opinion, some of the material on here is only an inch away from a sharp turn into " modern/free(er) jazz" that I usually dislike (and have neither ear nor brains for), but, damn, this is some of the best German jazz had to offer these past 50 years or so. I've had this one reissue spinning almost endlessly since I got it.
For many fans, it is a true highlight of European Jazz from the early 1960s, and I'd like to add my voice to that group. It does help that I'm a huge fan of the vibes - and Wolfgang Schlüter delivers a maximum dose of cool vibes, to boot - and of "musical drumming" (Joe Nay does an excellent job here), but most of all, this session swings with an added dose of funk, soul and groove. It is the saxophone that my melodically-oriented ears had to get used to (and Peter Reinke blows some really edgy and 'mean' lines all over this (re)issue), but I'm beginning to get with the program. When I first listened intently to this reissue, I was surprised about the parallels to the somewhat later MPS (saba) sound that I have so much of.
Great stuff!
Highly recommended!
c) Herman, Woody: "The Complete Capitol Recordings of Woody Herman", Mosaic Records (6CDs).
I have spent some more time back on the organissimo forums (including at least one extremely hissy fit when some misfits went wild over there again) and as a result I was able to work out a trade with another member there - this excellent Woody Herman set against a $150 gift card that he will be able to use for any of the in-print Mosaic titles. The dollar being what it is, I got this OOP set for around 100 Euro, which is more than a fair price.
I love big bands and Woody Herman's various "Herds" are always a highlight, especially these Mosaic CDs which cover - again in my humble opinion - Woody Herman's best work.
Interestingly enough, because I can track the shipment - it managed to travel from California to Germany in less than two days ... and then got stuck in German customs, where it still resides.
I had hoped that changes in our law might have made it easier for shipments below 200 Euro to clear customs, but nothing has changed whatsoever. Every minuscule shipment gets caught and the German bureaucratic machinery chews it up good. Backlog, incompetence, stupidity and delays. You name it, the German custom "service" can provide it.
I hope to be able to give this recent Mosaic addition to my collection a thorough listen, hopefully before the year is over and done (for).
Fat chance.
Site news
This site (and I like it the way it looks and works) has been based on Justin Tadlock's excellent "Structure" theme for Wordpress ever since its last incarnation. I'm not about to change anything, but Wordpress has been updating its software at such a rapid pace that I am afraid to run into major update problems along the way. Justin has stopped updating the theme and has put out a new nifty one called "Theme Hybrid", which has gotten both a premium members' club and steady updates. So, today I've enlisted as a premium member and have posted a "job" in the support forums, asking for Justin himself or anyone else who might be interested to port this site 1:1 to that new theme framework. I have no idea what that might cost me, but my eye condition simply doesn't allow me to do that kind of work myself anymore.
For you that means that within a few weeks, this site will be changed over to the new theme framework. If at all possible, you will not notice a thing and the site will remain identical down to the last pixel, but if you notice a couple of burps when dropping by here, you know what's up. As they like to say: "We're workin' on it".
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That's it. I could tell you about some other stuff I have in the works (especially some interesting interviews), but I'm not going to, especially because this site has been more than notorious for promising things that then never came to pass.
So, just stick around and wait for the goodies.
Cheers!
P.S.: Aside from the odd Mosaic discography going live, there will not be any updates until after the 26th of June (plus two days to get drunk). I'll be back around the 28th then. God, the universe and little green men and women not withstanding.
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