Mosaic Records Limited Edition Sets
“ Mosaic is the king of the boxed set, releasing beautifully packaged reissues with some of the most exhaustive liner notes in the industry” – David Germain, Associated Press
Classic V-Disc Big Band Jazz Sessions
(#284 – 10 CDs)
Last year, Mosaic released a massive 11-disc set of small group jazz recordings from the V-Disc program — the World War II project that sent music discs to military bases overseas while the domestic music industry was enduring a recording ban over performance royalties.
We’re thrilled to present that set’s counterpart, the equally weighty 10-CD set featuring Big Bands. Not only is this music most listeners today have never heard, it’s also music from the apex of the Big Band era, when bands were at their peak.
“Classic V-Disc Big Band Sessions” includes music by Woody Herman, Chubby Jackson, Les Brown, Charlie Barnet, Stan Kenton, Boyd Raeburn, Kay Kyser, Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, Harry James, Claude Thornhill, Count Basie, Lionel Hampton, Yank Lawson, Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Jimmie Lunceford, Don Redman, and others. And we’re not talking about a cut here and there.
Classic Decca Recordings of
Bob Crosby And His Orchestra
& The Bob Cats (1936-1942)
(#283 – 6 CDs)
At Mosaic we think it’s time to re-evaluate the contribution to jazz made by Crosby’s orchestra, with its unique approach to big band music and to his small group, which featured some of the most stunning soloists of the day. Our new set, “Classic Decca Recordings of Bob Crosby and His Orchestra and The Bob Cats (1936-1942)” should help set the record straight. It features 144 cuts on 6-CDs that reveal what made this band — and its members — so special.
Just as startling is the quality of the transfers and restoration we were able to accomplish, exclusively for this release. As is typical of Mosaic projects, we’ve meticulously remastered this music. But this set in particular makes you feel like you are in the room with the band in front of you and not revisiting the music 80 years later.
We can confidently promise you’ve never heard this music with such clarity, dynamism, and power.
The Complete Pharoah Sanders Theresa Recordings
(#282 – 7 CDs)
Sanders’s discography from the 1960s and ‘70s is well-represented in the canon, but his recordings from the 1980s on Theresa Records, a small but ambitious San Francisco Bay Area label, remain overlooked, misunderstood and underrated.
The Complete Theresa Recordings of Pharoah Sanders captures the saxophonist in transition, brokering a compelling truce with the jazz tradition without mortgaging his avant-garde bona fides. Sanders embraces the blues imperative, melodic interpretations of the Great American Songbook and jazz standards.
His group features fiercely swinging, post-bop rhythm sections. Among the A-listers on board are pianist John Hicks, bassists Ray Drummond and Walter Booker and drummers Idris Muhammad and Billy Higgins. Top-tier guests making cameos include vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, trumpeter Eddie Henderson, drummer Elvin Jones and vocalist Leon Thomas.
Classic Vanguard Jazz Piano Sessions
(#281 – 6 CDs)
On six CDs, “Classic Vanguard Jazz Piano Sessions” contains 88 compositions, many of which will be new to jazz listeners who weren’t around in the days on 10-inch vinyl. Our deluxe set includes an updated and corrected discography and one of our famous booklets featuring many vintage photos and a track-by-track appreciation by noted jazz historian Thomas Cunniffe.
It’s a shame that the bulk of these recordings have been unavailable for so long. We encourage you to snap up a set before our collection — extremely limited — disappears as well.
As critic Whitney Balliet wrote at the time regarding the Ruby Braff/Larkins duets, “For sheer inspiration and first-rate creativity, these should find a permanent place among the greater efforts of recorded jazz.”
Classic Vanguard Small Group Swing Sessions
(#280 – 7 CDs)
Our greatest pleasure at Mosaic comes in unearthing surprising alternate takes, forgotten sessions, and overlooked artists that may have inadvertently slipped into obscurity. Rarely do we get an even greater honor — presenting a treasure trove of recordings that have remained almost entirely unheard for many, many decades.
The set includes highlights from the six-year effort — 1953-1958 — that was originally labeled the Vanguard Jazz Showcase series. This collection of 85 tracks represents Vanguard’s first forays into jazz and brings fresh life to the original LPs that were released some 70 years ago.
Classic V-Disc Small Group Jazz Sessions
(#279 – 11 CDs)
“Classic V-Disc Small Group Jazz Sessions” is a goldmine of traditional, swing and bop performances, recorded specifically for the V-Disc program, in a variety of solo piano and small group band settings from 1943-1949 on 11 CDs.
The tracks reveal what musicians were up to when the public-at-large was cut off from new recorded music, as well as giving musicians a chance to work with each other in groupings that would otherwise have been impossible because of their exclusive label contracts. And since V-Disc were released on 12” discs, recording times extend beyond the limits of typical recording sessions. Musicians could stretch out as never before.
Classic Bobby Hutcherson Blue Note Sessions 1963 – 1970
(#278 – 7 CDs)
It Was The Sixties. Blue Note Was Where It Was At. And Bobby Hutcherson Was At The Center Of It. The set is more than a compilation. It’s music history. And it’s a treasure.
The set features 11 sessions on seven CDs that chart his development from a more mainstream approach at first, to a very rapidly emerging expansive style of writing and performing. The disks also feature many of the most important musicians of the era, on whose dates Hutcherson was a frequent participant.
His very first date as a leader for Blue Note was “The Kicker” in 1963, though it was held back and went unreleased until 1999, possibly because Joe Henderson on saxophone steals a lot of the thunder from the date’s purported leader. From his second session, “Dialogue,” his growing association with new music was becoming clear. By his third date, 1965’s “Components,” Hutcherson’s authority over the music became established.
Classic Don Byas Sessions 1944-1946
(#277 – 10 CDs)
Rarely, if ever, has the saxophone ever been played more exquisitely than when in the hands of Don Byas. Charlie Parker is quoted as having said that Don Byas played everything there was to play, highlighting the technical achievement that Byas brought to the music.
There had been many saxophonists with nimble fingers before him, but Byas’ ferocity, clean-as-a-whistle articulation of eighth notes, and willingness to take a deep dive into Parker’s and Gillespie’s new idiom distinguished him above all others.
The Complete Sonny Clark Blue Note Sessions (#276 – 6 CDs)
This limited edition set of 9 classic studio albums on 6 CDs features Hank Mobley, Art Farmer, Jackie McLean, John Coltrane, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones . As well as Donald Byrd, Kenny Dorham, Clifford Jordan, Kenny Burrell, Art Blakey, and more from Blue Note’s stable of artists in a variety of settings including trio, quintet, and sextet.
Mastered from hi-res files of the original analog masters by Andreas Meyer. Thanks to current 24 bit/192 hKz technology and dramatic improvement in analog to digital converters, the sound on this set is far superior to any previous CD issues and is astonishingly close to that of audiophile vinyl.
Classic Black & White Jazz Sessions
(#273 – 11 CDs)
Unearthing the music on this collection has been a dream for decades. Finally, after years of research, and after generous help from a great family of record collectors around the world, the music of this incredibly neglected label, is finally available for us to release in the comprehensive, documented, and definitive fashion for which Mosaic is known.
Featuring a who’s who of 1940s Jazz. How about pianists such as Art Hodes, Cliff Jackson, Willie “The Lion” Smith, James P. Johnson, Meade Lux Lewis, Art Tatum, and Erroll Garner. Trumpeters include Jonah Jones, Buck Clayton, Dizzy Gillespie, Gerald Wilson, and Red Rodney. Woodwind players are represented by Mezz Mezzrow, Pee Wee Russell, Sidney Bechet, Art Pepper, Lucky Thompson, and Barney Bigard.
Why A Mosaic Records Collection?
Superb
Audio Restoration
- Access to record company vaults.
- Mastering and transfers by world-class engineers
- Our passion to make it the best you ever heard
First Class
Presentation
- Large elegant 12 x 12 booklet
- Fascinating essays by renowned writers
- Archival photos masterfully reproduced
Seal of
Approval
- Producing Limited Editions for over 30 years
- Garnered four Grammy nominations
- Top rankings in jazz magazine polls.
Mosaic Records Discography
Mosaic Records has over a 30-year history and has produced over 150 Limited Edition Box sets.
Here is a list of the sets we’ve produced which unfortuately are sold out and no longer available.
