We’re supposed to be on vacation, but there are just too many nice people out there who want to give the ARC a record or two! So in just the last few days we got a hundred or so from Cecil Hopkins, who dropped off his usual assortment of pop and his unusual assortment of fab Latin and Caribbean LPs, and 220 plus LPs from Elenor Liebmann. Well respected music Lawyer Elliot Hoffman gave some choice items including signed photos and books by Dizzy Gillespie, an RIAA platinum record award for Tony Bennett and a copy of the Tommy musical script signed by Pete Townsend. But the biggest bundle of all came from Denise LaVetty. I’ll let Fred tell you what happened.
– On Monday, I took a short vacation from my annual August vacation in order to help the ARChive receive a donation of more than 5,000 LPs. Located at a storage facility on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, Bill Levay, Mr. B and I were led through the labyrinth of the facility by the Reverend Deacon Denise LaVetty, who was making the donation (and clearing out her storage space).
The records belonged to her deceased husband, who apparently was a huge fan of that American idiom we all know as “jazz.” 49 ½ boxes of LPs were retrieved and duly brought to the ARC, via the excellent carting services of our pal Keith Streng. Since some of the boxes were not properly closed, we could see that several Mosaic box sets were included in the donation.
Mosaic Records box sets are important for these reasons: They often contain the complete recorded output of a particular artist on a certain label or during a certain time period—not just the hits or titles that have been reissued to death (also, some of the material has not been available since it was released, if it were ever released at all!); they include detailed liner notes about the artists, the sessions and the sidemen; discographical details are about as complete as anyone can expect for music made so long ago; Mosaic takes great pains in locating the best quality audio source, going back to original master recordings when available; the packaging, though Spartan compared to some major label box sets, is sleek and elegant, with all of them given the classic black and white “Mosaic look.” …see complete list +
Most of the Mosaic releases, licensed from other (usually major) record companies, are of limited release. Sometimes Mosaic would issue the recordings on vinyl at the same time the copyright-holder would issue the same material on CD. The Compete Blue Note Recordings of Thelonious Monk comes to mind.
Also, as Mr. B is happy to point out, the Mosaic box sets have increased in value over the years, thus making this an outstanding donation to the ARC.
As the ARC’s head archivist, I was excited to see the box sets for all of the reasons above, plus I’m a big fan of most of the music that Mosaic releases, having purchases a few in my time, and yearned for many others. So as soon as the boxes of records were safely inside the ARC’s West Wing, I went through all them to pull out the Mosaics. 40 of them were found and cataloged.
I have yet to see everything that came in this donation—I won’t until I return to work on September 2—but I can easily say that it looks like it will fill in a LOT of holes we have in our jazz library. The good Reverend Deacon’s husband was a hard-core jazz fan who had excellent taste and treated his records with respect [most are mint-, maybe played once]. Here at the ARChive of Contemporary Music, we LOVE these kinds of donations!
• Chet Baker; Russ Freeman. The Complete Pacific Jazz Studio Recordings of the Chet Baker Quartet with Russ Freeman (Mosaic; USA, MR4-112, 12″, vinyl disc-4Lp, 1986)
• Chet Baker; Russ Freeman. The Complete Pacific Jazz Live Recordings of the Chet Baker Quartet with Russ Freeman (Mosaic; USA, MR4-113, 12″, vinyl disc-4Lp, 1986)
• Count Basie and His Orchestra. Complete Roulette Live Recordings of Count Basie and His Orchestra (1959-1962) (Mosaic; USA, MR12-135, 12″, vinyl disc-12Lp, n.d.)
• Sidney Bechet. Complete Blue Note Recordings of Sidney Bechet (Mosaic; USA, MR6-110, 12″, vinyl disc-6Lp, 1985)
• Tina Brooks. The Complete Blue Note Recordings of the Tina Brooks Quintets (Mosaic; USA, MR4-106, 12″, vinyl disc-4Lp, n.d.)
• Clifford Brown. The Complete Blue Note and Pacific Jazz Recordings of Cliffor Brown (Mosaic; USA, MR5-104, 12″, vinyl disc-5Lp, n.d.)
• Miles Davis. The Complete Studio Recordings of the Miles Davis Quintet 1965 – June 1968 (Mosaic; USA, MQ10-177, 12″, vinyl disc-10 Lp, 1998)
• Miles Davis. The Complete In a Silent Way Sessions (September 1968 – February 1969) (Mosaic; USA, MQ5-209, 12″, vinyl disc-5Lp, 2001)• Miles Davis. The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions (August 1969 – February 1970) (Mosaic; USA, MQ6-183, 12″, vinyl disc-6Lp, 1998)
• Miles Davis. The Complete Blackhawk Session (Mosaic; USA, MQ6-220, 12″, vinyl disc-6Lp, 2003)
• Miles Davis; John Coltrane. The Complete Columbia Recordings of Miles Davis With John Coltrane (Mosaic; USA, MQ9-191, 12″, vinyl disc-9Lp, 2000)
• Buddy de Franco with Sonny Clark. The Complete Verve Recordings of the Buddy De Franco Quartet/Quintet with Sonny Clark (Mosaic; USA, MR5-117, 12″, vinyl disc-5Lp, n.d.)
• The Paul Desmond Quartet with Jim Hall. The Compete Recordings of the Paul Desmond Quartate with Jim Hall (Mosaic; USA, MR6-120, 12″, vinyl disc-6Lp, n.d.)
• Stan Getz; Jimmy Raney. The Complete Recordings of the Stan Getz Quintet with Jimmy Raney (Mosaic; USA, MR4-131, 12″, vinyl disc-4Lp, 1990)
• Grant Green with Sonny Clark. The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Grant Green With Sonny Clark (Mosaic; USA, MR5-133, 12″, vinyl disc-5Lp, 1990)
• Art Hodes. The Compete Art Hodes Blue Note Sessions (Mosaic; USA, MR5-114, 12″, vinyl disc-5Lp, n.d.)
• Johnny Hodges. The Complete Johnny Hodges Sessions 1951 – 1955 (Mosaic; USA, MR6-126, 12″, vinyl disc-6Lp, 1989)
• Pete Johnson / Earl Hines / Teddy Bunn. Blue Note Sessions (Mosaic; USA, MR1-119, 12″, vinyl disc-Lp, 1987)
• Stan Kenton. Complete Capitol Recordings of the Homan and Russo Charts (Mosaic; USA, MR6-136, 12″, vinyl disc-6Lp, n.d.)
• Stan Kenton. The Complete Capitol Recordings of the Holman and Russo Charts (Mosaic; USA, MR6-136, 12″, vinyl disc-6Lp, 1991)
• George Lewis. The Complete Blue Note Recordings of George Lewis (Mosaic; USA, MR5-132, 12″, vinyl disc-5Lp, 1990)
• Charles Mingus. The Complete Candid Recordings of Charles Mingus (Mosaic; USA, MR4-111, 12″, vinyl disc-4Lp, n.d.)
• Thelonious Monk. The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Thelonious Monk (Mosaic; USA, MR4-101, 12″, vinyl disc-4Lp, n.d.)
• Thelonious Monk. The Complete Black Lion and Vogue Recordings of Thelonious Monk (Mosaic; USA, MR4-112, 12″, vinyl disc-4Lp, n.d.)
• Gerry Mulligan with Chet Baker. The Complete Pacific Jazz and Capitol Recordings of the Original Gerry Mulligan Quartet and Tentette with Chet Baker (Mosaic; USA, MR5-102, 12″, vinyl disc-5Lp, n.d.)
• Herbie Nichols. The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Herbie Nichols (Mosaic; USA, MR5-118, 12″, vinyl disc-5Lp, 1987)
• Charlie Parker. The Complete Dean Benedetti Recordings of Charlie Parker (Mosaic; USA, MR10-129, 12″, vinyl disc-10 Lp, )
• Art Pepper. The Compete Pacific Jazz Small Group Recordings of Art Pepper (Mosaic; USA, MR3-105, 12″, vinyl disc-3Lp, n.d.)
• Bud Powell. The Complete Blue Note Recordings (1949 – 1958) (Mosaic; USA, MR5-116, 12″, vinyl disc-5Lp, n.d.)
• Ike Quebec. The Complete Blue Note 45 Sessions of Ike Quebec (Mosaic; USA, MR5-121, 12″, vinyl disc-3Lp, n.d.)
• Ike Quebec; John Hardee. The Complete Blue Note Forties Recordings of Ike Quebec and John Hardee (Mosaic; USA, MR4-107, 12″, vinyl disc-4Lp, 1984)
• Freddie Redd. The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Freddie Redd (Mosaic; USA, MR3-124, 12″, vinyl disc-3Lp, 1989)
• Shorty Rogers. The Compete Atlantic and EMI Recordings of Shorty Rogers (Mosaic; USA, MR6-125, 12″, vinyl disc-6Lp, 1989)
• Cecil Taylor; Buell Neidlinger. The Complete Candid Recordings of Cecil Taylor and Buell Neidlinger (Mosaic; USA, MR6-127, 12″, vinyl disc-6Lp, 1989)
• Various Artists. The Complete Edmond Hall/James P. Johnson/Sidney de Paris/Vic Dickerson Blue Note Sessions (Mosaic; USA, MR6-109, 12″, vinyl disc-6Lp, n.d.)
• Various Artists. The Complete Commodore Jazz Recordings – Volume I (Mosaic; USA, MR23-123, 12″, vinyl disc-23Lp, 1988)
• Various Artists. The Complete Commodore Jazz Recordings – Volume II (Mosaic; USA, MR23-128, 12″, vinyl disc-23Lp, 1989)
• Various Artists. The Complete Commodore Jazz Recordings – Volume III (Mosaic; USA, MR20-134, 12″, vinyl disc-20Lp, 1990)
• T-Bone Walker. The Complete Recordings of T-Bone Walker 1940 – 1954 (Mosaic; USA, MR9-30, 12″, vinyl disc-9Lp, 1990)
• Larry Young. Complete Blue Note Recordings of Larry Young (Mosaic; USA, MR9-137, 12″, vinyl disc-9Lp, n.d.)
We’ll be loading in as many of these cherry condition titles to our online catalog after our vacation, as well as all the other jazz titles in due time. All in all we now have 55 Mosaic Box sets here @ ARC. Thanks to everyone who keeps us busy and happy – even on vacation.