There were 11 Mosaic boxed sets. All were left at the dump, most are in mint condition with the CDs, booklets, everything. A few have some minor damage on the boxes. They are, in no particular order other than this is how they are piled up in my room:

The Complete Blue Note Hank Mobley Fifties Sessions
The Complete Black Lion and Vogue Recordings of Thelonious Monk
The Complete Atlantic and EMI Recordings of Shorty Rogers
The Complete Pacific Jazz Recordings of The Chico Hamilton Quintet
The Complete February 1957 Jimmy Smith Blue Note Sessions
The Complete Columbia J.J. Johnson Small Group Sessions
The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Art Blakey’s 1960 Jazz Messengers
The Complete Recordings of the Paul Desmond Quartet with Jim Hall
The Complete Capitol and Atlantic Recordings of Jimmy Giuffre
Oliver Nelson: The Argo, Verve and Impulse Big Band Studio Sessions
The Complete Arto/Mercury/Art Farmer/Benny Golson/Jazztet Sessions

There were also four boxed sets from the Mosaic Select Series:

The Mosaic Select Art Pepper
Mosaic Select Paul Chambers
Mosaic Select Andrew Hill
Mosaic Select McCoy Tyner

There were also these various boxed sets:

Bill Evans: The Complete Riverside Recordings
Miles Davis, The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965 on Columbia
The Classic Quartet: Complete Impulse! Studio Recordings
Ella Fitzgerald, Twelve Nights in Hollywood
Charlie Parker: The Complete Savoy and Dial Studio Recordings, 1944-1948
Keith Jarrett: The Impulse Years, 1973-1974
Dave Brubeck,  Time Signatures: A Career Retrospective

In addition to these, I kept about 75 individual CDs, which I haven’t really gone through yet. I don’t think there’s anything collectible in there, but there’s certainly good music. I’m very excited about the boxed sets because of the packaging and all that goes with it. No to mention that they were FREE! Not sure what I’m going to do with the other CDs yet, but it certainly made sense to me to take them rather than just leave them there.  I can go through them at my leisure, assuming I will have leisure when my current workload starts to level off.

So I go in and look down and right in front of me there are four boxes filled with CDs. I could see right off the bat that one of them was an Impulse, so I was thinking, “jazz?” Then I looked to the right. The sight was unmistakable, the black boxes, the classic simple typeface, the photo of Hank Mobley holding his tenor. There was a pile of Mosaic boxed sets. Then, another glance to the right. A crate with several more Mosaics, plus, clearly, the teal boxed set of the Bill Evans Complete Riverside Recordings. All just sitting there on the floor.

I sought out the woman who keeps the place neat and is sort of a manager. I said, “Can I take these?” “Of course,” she replied. “That’s what they’re here for.” Then she added, “You know you’re pretty lucky. Somebody dropped those off about five minutes before you got here.”

I felt the familiar rush of adrenaline surging through my body. These were all CDs, no vinyl, but still, Mosaic boxed sets and who knows what else. I quickly grabbed the Mosaics and the Evans set and loaded them into the car, and told Marty the dog to relax, we may be here for a while. Then I went back to the shack, got down on the floor and started wading through hundreds of CDs. There were more boxed sets: Ella in Hollywood, The Mosaic Select Art Pepper, the Complete Coltrane on Impulse. Plus many, many more CDs. I thought it impolite to just take them all home, so I went through the whole batch, which wasn’t so easy since I thought I was just going to the dump and didn’t even bother taking my glasses.

All in all, there were 11 Mosaic boxes, the Evans, and probably 75-100 more CDs. Free. They are sitting in my office here in the country as I write this. I’m hoping to go through them later to see what I have and I’ll do another post, later today or tomorrow morning.

Oh, yes. And I’m heading back to the dump as soon as they open. Maybe the same guy decided to get rid of his vinyl today.

Here’s another one you’re not going to see too often: An autographed copy of Bill Evans, Portrait in Jazz, Riverside 315. The Bill Evans signature is on the back cover and it is dated from 1974. The record is an original pressing with the deep grooves and blue label and it seems to be in about VG++ condition for the vinyl and VG+ for the record. The auction closes tomorrow and the bidding is in the $150 range with 13 bids and what looks to be eight different bidders. Wouldn’t mind this one myself. Hmm — birthday is coming up.

Actually, if I was really thinking birthday, my preference would be an original black label pressing of Giant Steps. I was reminded of that from this listing from our old friend bobdjukic: John Coltrane, Giant Steps, Atlantic 1311. This is a stereo pressing with the bullseye label. Of course it is listed clearly as “mega rare.” Amazingly, I have never owned a black label Giant Steps. The copy I have in my collection is a bullseye stereo, similar to this one. I put it on the turntable the other day and wasn’t very pleased — a combination of mediocre condition and not the greatest sound. I said to The Lovely Mrs. JC that I really should have an original Giant Steps in nice condition in my collection. I wasn’t necessarily hinting at a birthday present, but come to think of it, perhaps that was a subconscious plant on my part. I’ll be on the lookout on eBay and see what gets listed over the next few weeks.

One: I happen to be a huge fan of Rosemary Cooney—not her work in the 1950s when she was a pop icon, but the series of albums she made for Concord Jazz starting in 1977 and ending with her death in 2002. These, in fact, are some of my favorite vocal records in my collection, particularly Everything’s Coming Up Rosie, Here’s to My Lady, Rosie Sings Bing, For the Duration, and Rosemary Clooney Sings the Music of Irving Berlin. I like them all, to be honest. It helps that on these albums she is typically accompanied by top-flight jazz artists such as Scott Hamilton, Warren Vache, Nat Pierce, John Oddo, Chuck Israels and many others too numerous to name. But it’s not the accompaniment that knocks me out. It’s the singer. The simple, clear, moving and heartfelt presentations of the songs, each one sung as if the singer had lived and experienced them deeply—and had also experienced quite a bit of life along the way. Which, of course, was exactly the case with Rosemary Clooney.

Two: I felt compelled to write about this set because I wanted to share my appreciation for Rosemary Clooney and, to be perfectly honest, because I felt an obligation to Mosaic. In all the time I’ve been doing Jazz Collector, going back to 2002 when I used to send out e-mail newsletters, I’ve rarely, if ever, actually requested review copies of anything. But when I saw the notice for this release, I decided to reach out to Mosaic and ask for a copy to review, which they were very kind to send me.

I wanted this set because it was a collection of small group recordings and I was curious to see if they would expose something new to me, something that would perhaps serve as a bridge from the kitschy pop singer I was familiar with from the 1950s to the jazz-infused recordings of her later years. The answer is a qualified yes. The singing on these records is quite reminiscent of the later Clooney. The voice itself is actually stronger with more range, but it doesn’t quite have that lived-in feeling of the later records. But this is clearly a singer of exceptional ability and depth, singing songs from the Great American Songbook, and a little bit beyond. So, from that standpoint, I highly recommend this set if, like me, you are a fan of the Concord records.

Where the set disappoints, from the jazz enthusiast’s viewpoint, is in the arrangements, by Buddy Cole. They are definitely of their time, very ’50s, very tight, very pop, very much designed for background music, which, was in all likelihood the expectation for these recordings, which were put out, after all, for the radio. Nothing too daring and, for me, a bit too much organ, celeste and harpsichord as opposed to piano. Also, with 104 songs and the same arranger/musicians for all of them, there is a certain sameness after a while. It’s interesting to me that the best jazz music of the same era — think Coltrane, Rollins, Kind of Blue, among others — seems absolutely fresh today, while this kind of pop sounds dated, except, of course, for the singer, who is marvelous.

The highlights of the set, for me, tend to be the ballads—The Nearness of You is playing in the background as I type this and the singing is lovely—as well as some of the songs Clooney subsequently recorded for Concord. These include, among many others, Everything Happens to Me, Cheek to Cheek, There Will Never Be Another You and a gorgeous version of But Not For Me (unfortunately, without the verse). As always, the Mosaic set is meticulously produced, with a 16-page booklet loaded with details, photos and context, written by James Gavin. This is a limited edition of 5,000.

Blue Mitchell, Blue Soul, Riverside 309. This was one of the ones from the recent bobdjukic auction. It was listed in VG++ condition for both the vinyl and the cover and it looked to be an original deep groove, blue label pressing. It sold for $275. One of the reasons I was watching this is that I just bought another small collection and a nice original mint copy of this record was in the batch. There were also a few original Blue Notes so, if I ever get back to selling records on eBay, I’ll have some nice items to start with . . . . or if I have Jazz Collector readers come to the house, as previously proposed.

Harry Carney With Strings, Clef 640. This looked to be an original pressing, although there was no picture of the label, with a beautiful cover illustration by David Stone Martin. It was listed in VG+ condition for both the record and the cover and sold for $110.50. You have to wonder how much longer there will be a market for Harry Carney LPs. Case in point: The Astaire Story. This was the original Mercury boxed set in beautiful condition, signed by Astaire, with the Stone Martin illustrations and the exclusive photos. In M- condition, this would have sold for somewhere in the range of $2,000 just a few years ago. Now, the seller had a start price of $800 and there were no bidders.

Bill Perkins, Just Friends, Pacific Jazz 401. This was an original pressing, featuring Art Pepper and Richie Kamuca. The record looked to be M- and the cover was VG+. The price was $113.50.

Zoot Sims and Bob Brookmeyer, Whooeeee, Storyville 914. This was an original pressing that was listed in VG+ condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $170.27.

Speaking of Leo Parker, someone recently sent us a link to this eBay auction:

The Parkers, Savoy 952. This is a 3-record 78-boxed set featuring both Charlie Parker and Leo Parker. I don’t usually look at 78s on eBay, but this is a nice one. The records and cover seemed to be in VG+/VG++ condition. It sold for $112.50.

Another one we’re watching at Jazz Collector is Zoot Sims, Cookin’ Fontana 123. This is an original British pressing. The record looks to be VG and the cover is VG+. It’s currently around $50. We’ve seen this sell for more than $200 in the Jazz Collector Price Guide, but those earlier copies were in better condition.