Mosaic Records - A Gift For Jazz Lovers

I don't buy a lot of LPs on Ebay. Partly, as I mention in my "about me" notes, that's because I enjoy the thrill of the hunt while picking through bins in used record shops and thrift stores. In addition, as LPs have become more and more popular in recent years, prices for classic albums online -- particularly jazz -- have skyrocketed. For me at least, it's almost always more fun picking up 50 $1 albums than one $50 dollar album.

In addition, I very seldom shop for a specific LP. Occasionally I will fill a gap in my collection or to try to find a better-sounding copy of a classic (I recently picked up a couple of Neil Young re-pressings -- On The Beach and Rust Never Sleeps -- that I inexplicably didn't have), but generally my approach to collecting is to trust in serendipity. I love stumbling on a forgotten psychedelic rock gem or maybe a jazz session where a favorite musician plays as a sideman.

Mosaic MR5-117

However, I do poke around on Ebay from time to time just to get an idea of what things are selling for and see if there are any bargains. The later are few and far between as both dealers and collectors are increasingly aware of the value of classic rock and jazz albums in good condition. In addition, I'm often leery of the descriptions of the condition of vinyl on Ebay, especially by dealers who say something like "I don't have a turntable, but it looks pretty good to me."

Anyway, if you saw my blog from August of 2016, you will know that I am a big fan of jazz clarinetist Buddy DeFranco. So last week I did a search on Ebay for albums by DeFranco. One listing that immediately caught my eye was a near mint copy of the 1986 Mosaic Records five-LP box set, The Complete Verve Recordings Of The Buddy De Franco Quartet/Quintet With Sonny Clark. Even better, the box was signed by Buddy DeFranco. Wow! The Verve sessions were cut in New York and Los Angeles in 1954 and 1955, with DeFranco on clarinet, Clark on piano, Gene Wright on bass, Bobby White on drums, and Tal Farlow on guitar. Some of the tracks were released in the 50s by Norman Granz on the Norgran and Verve labels. But most of the cuts had never been released anywhere. As luck would have it, there were only a couple of hours left on the Ebay auction. But that gave me enough time to do some quick research on the set and to see that the current high bid was less than half the resale value. And of course being autographed by DeFranco would add even more to the value.

Rather than get in a potential bidding war, I set an alarm for a few minutes before the auction would end and waited. About 15 seconds before the end of the auction, I punched in a much higher maximum bid (but still considerably below the current market value). Immediately, the winning bid went up three or four times before time expired and I saw that I had won with a bid about $10 less than I had put as my maximum. Nice. 

Mosaic MR6-126

As I was looking at the information provided by the seller, I noted that he was selling off a large number of jazz albums from a very large collection, and he encouraged people to look at his other listings. I did a quick search and saw that he had dozens of auctions for a lot of very nice jazz albums. One that quickly caught my eye was another Mosaic Records box set called The Complete Johnny Hodges Sessions 1951-1955. This is a six-LP set and a highly desirable collector's item. Once again, the high bid on Ebay was less than half of the current market value. 

However, as I was looking at the listing, I realized that the auction was ending in two minutes. Yikes! I quickly readied a maximum bid that was well above the current bid, but still below market value. With 15 seconds to go, I punched in my bid. After the same quick recalculations as the bid went higher, I once again won the auction with a bid that was about $10 below my maximum. Great. Before I had a chance to catch my breath, I saw another auction for a Mosaic box set that was ending about five minutes later. Even though I was tempted, I decided to stop before I drained the bank account.

I have been lusting after some of the Mosaic Records box sets for years. Until now, I just hadn't found one for a price I was willing pay. Now I'm the proud and happy owner of two. 

Michael Cascuna

In case you're not familiar with Mosaic, the label was founded in 1983 by record producer and jazz musician/writer/historian/promoter Michael Cascuna. He spent years trying to negotiate a deal to get access to the tape vaults at Blue Note Records in order to release some of the great music that has been languishing there for decades, much of it never heard by anyone since it was recorded. If you want to read the whole fascinating story, Mosaic's web site has the details. But to cut to the chase, after years of fits and starts, including a few one-off projects, Cascuna finally -- with help from Blue Note's then head of marketing, Charlie Lourie -- got the access he wanted and started to put together definitive collections from the Blue Note vaults of many of jazz's greatest artists. The first set that Mosaic put out, in 1983, was a four-LP set titled The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Thelonious Monk. Since then, Mosaic Records, which is still going strong, has expanded to include archive releases from other classic jazz labels such as Norgran, Verve, and Atlantic, and has put out more than 200 titles. Many of the collections are limited editions (both of my sets are limited editions of 7,500), and all of them are sold via mail order only. Unfortunately, most of the more recent sets are only being released on CD. Hopefully, given its growing popularity, Mosaic will put out more vinyl sets in the future. In the meantime, the used LP sets that are available online are going for two to five times what they originally cost.

Mastered by Joe Brescio at the
 Master Cutting Room in NYC

Mosaic is an incredible gift for jazz lovers and is clearly a labor of love for Cascuna. The box sets are beautifully produced from the best possible sources, usually the original master tapes, which have been carefully restored. Each box comes with a lavish booklet written by great music critics such as Ira Gitler, Stanley Dance, and Leonard Feather, with photos, detailed track notes and complete session information. Both my sets are in perfect condition. My DeFranco set was mastered by Rudy Van Gelder, who engineered many of the original Blue Note Sessions. It just never gets old seeing "Mastered by Van Gelder" in the deadwax. My Hodges set was mastered by Joe Brescio at Master Record Cutters in New York City. Above is a shot of the deadwax signature for Joe Brescio. "MCR" for Master Cutting Room is pretty straightforward, but the JOE could be just about anything unless you know what you're looking for.

The sound of both sets is fabulous. The vinyl, pressed by Record Technology Incorporated in Camarillo, CA., is flat and dead quiet. Then as now, RTI remains one of the best and most reliable LP manufacturers in the business. 

I will definitely be on the lookout for more Mosaic sets, though I'm not sure if I'll stumble on a deal as good as these anytime soon.

Enjoy the music!