Ed Mosaic

Sam Rivers - The Complete Blue Note Sam Rivers Sessions 1964-67 (1996) {3CD Box Set Mosaic MD3-167}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.27 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 465 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 335 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1964-67, 1996 Blue Note / EMI-Capitol Music / Mosaic Records | MD3-167
Jazz / Post Bop / Avant-Garde Jazz / Saxophone

From the time of his first Blue Note recording in 1964 to his final session for the label in 1967, Sam Rivers made stunning progress as an avant-garde innovator. Starting with an inside/outside hard bop foundation, Rivers quickly took his music as far out as he could while maintaining a recognizable structure; his work fearlessly explored wildly dissonant harmonies and atonality, dense group interaction, cerebral rumination, and passionately intense, free-leaning solos.

Chu Berry - Classic Chu Berry Columbia and Victor Sessions (2007) {7CD Set Mosaic MD7-236 rec 1933-1941}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.18 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 1.16 Gb
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© 1933-41, 2007 Columbia / Victor / Sony BMG / Mosaic Records / BMG | MD7-236
Jazz / Swing / Tenor Saxophone

This is a comprehensive collection with countless pivotal sessions. It features 203 separate recordings on seven CDs and collects both the sessions led by Chu Berry and other sessions where he contributed significantly as a sideman. You can study his remarkable surefootedness as a soloist; remember an era where evolution in the music was running rampant and Chu Berry's tenor saxophone was one of the things making it run.

Anthony Braxton - The Complete Arista Recordings Of Anthony Braxton (2008) {8CD Set Mosaic MD8-242}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 2.46 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 1.29 Gb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 376 Mb | 5% repair rar | 24-bit remaster
© 2008 Mosaic Records / Arista / Sony BMG | MD8-242
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Creative Orchestra / Experimental Big Band

Since he released the completely solo For Alto in 1968, the accepted image of Anthony Braxton has been that he is more a theoretician and art music composer than a jazz musician. Therefore, it might seem strange that Mosaic Records is giving his Complete Arista Recordings one of their fabled box set treatments. But Braxton is both – and much more. This set – as well as the original Arista recordings – were produced by Michael Cuscuna, Mosaic/Blue Note label head. The sheer scope of these recordings is staggering. What we get in this amazingly detailed collection is the weightiest argument yet for Braxton's range and depth of field as a musical thinker and his role as a pillar of modern jazz.

Miles Davis with John Coltrane - The Complete Columbia Recordings (2000) {Vinyl, Mosaic MQ9-191 rec 1955-1961} (Out-Of-Print)
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/48kHz - VINYL RIP -> 2.26 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 929 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 193 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1955-61, 2000 Columbia / Mosaic Records | MQ9-191
Jazz / Hard Bop / Cool / Bop / Jazz Blues / Modal Music

Some nine years after Miles Davis’ untimely death, Columbia Records is still repackaging his recorded legacy. The most recent efforts in this area have been made available both on compact disc and in 180-gram vinyl versions by way of Mosaic Records. It is the latter edition that this review is based on, though it should be noted that basically the only difference between the two sets, besides the presentation medium, is that Mosaic’s package is a 12 x 12 box with an album-sized booklet accompanying the records.

Grachan Moncur III - Mosaic Select (2003) {3CD Set Mosaic MS-001 rec 1963-1967}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.16 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 544 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 470 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1963-67, 2003 Blue Note / Mosaic Records | MS-001 | 24bit remastering
Jazz / Post Bop / Trombone

Mosaic Records – that venerable jazz and blues collector's label that issues completely necessary packages by legendary, if sometimes obscure, artists in limited editions on both LP and CD – is a name synonymous with the finest quality in sound, annotation, and packaging, and they are branching out. Mosaic Select is a side label dedicated to bringing to light the work of musicians whose role in the development of jazz was seminal but whose catalog was small, or whose work was neglected or otherwise overlooked. These editions, in two or three CD sets, just like their other boxes, are numbered and limited.

Terrence Brewer - Mosaic (2014) {Strong Brew Music SBM-08-0114}
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© 2014 Strong Brew Music | SBM-08-0114
Jazz / Contemporary Jazz / Post Bop / Guitar

“Mosaic” is 8th studio album as a bandleader by award-winning guitarist/composer, Terrence Brewer. “Mosaic” features freshly reimagined compositions by George Benson, Wayne Shorter, Sonny Rollins, Tadd Dameron, and more. Mosaic” follows several critically acclaimed albums for Brewer; Jazz/Funk/Rock fusion project Citizen Rhythm’s “Of, By, For The People” (2012), “Setting The Standard: Vol. 1” (2011), “Groovin’ Wes” a Wes Montgomery Tribute Project (2009), and “QuintEssential” (2008). These four albums garnered several “Top 20” and one “Top 10” ranking on the JazzWeek national jazz radio charts; the albums, combined, spent well over 100 weeks in the “Top 50” on those same charts.

Sonny Stitt - The Complete Roost Sonny Stitt Studio Sessions (1952-65) {9CD Box Set Mosaic MD9-208 rel 2001}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 3.05 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 1.37 Gb
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© 1952-65, 2001 Mosaic Records / Capitol / EMI | MD9-208 | 24-bit remaster
Jazz / Bop / Saxophone

Under the watchful eye of famed producer Michael Cuscuna, this nine-CD set serves as a compilation of Stitt's 1950s and 1960s Roost LPs. This release also features a 28-page booklet consisting of comprehensively annotated liners. Moreover, the record label does its best to convey the artistic element via a series of black-and-white photos of Stitt and his sidemen amid anecdotes by many of the late saxophonist's affiliates. Interestingly enough, seven of the original LPs did not list personnel. In some instances, guesses were made, although most of these tracks are well-documented, thanks to the producer's diligence and painstaking research. Artists such as drummer Roy Haynes, bassist/composer Charles Mingus, and pianist Harold Maber represent but a few of Stitt's accompanists.

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith's first Ghostly International release, The Mosaic of Transformation, was inspired by electricity, and its relationship to the energy of the human body. The composer began a daily practice in which she would pass electricity through her body, setting it into motion. These improvisatory movements, which changed from day to day, fed into the creation of the album, an ever-shifting, multi-sensory mass of bubbling synths and cascading vocal arrangements. The record doesn't feel as structured and focused as The Kid, Smith's new age pop opus from 2017, but it's meant to be amorphous and fluid, and it follows its own current.

Clifford Jordan - The Complete Clifford Jordan Strata-East Sessions (2013) {6CD Box Set Mosaic MD6-256}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.96 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 773 Mb
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© 2013 Mosaic Records / Strata-East | MD6-256
Jazz / Hard Bop / Post Bop / Saxophone

A really amazing set of work from tenorist Clifford Jordan – a player who first rose to fame in the hardbop scene of the late 50s, but who moved into tremendous new territory with these Strata East recordings of the late 60s and early 70s! Jordan was a Chicago contemporary of players like Johnny Griffin and Von Freeman, but he was never content to rest on his laurels – and stretched out on these records with a spiritual vibe that he'd never expressed before – and which would go onto inspire countless other musicians in years to come! This set brings together all the Dolphy Series recordings that Jordan recorded – either as an artist or producer – two of which were never issued on record at the time.