Can anybody advise on the sound quality of Mosaic Records?

I'm considering buying a couple of Mosaic LPs. Can anyone advise on their sound quality e.g. comparable to MoFi or Music Matters or Analogue Productions or not that good. I'm not really bothered whether they are all analogue, just how good they sound.

 

Uniformly very good. Mosaic is not an audiophile company though. I do believe they represent the sound of the music very good though. Ive never heard anyone say theyve had crap sound from Mosaic.

You also have to be aware of the source material. Louis Armstrongs early recordings, for instance, arent going to sound like a Music Matters Blue Note 45 RPM lp. What they do great, imo, is gathering comprehensive boxsets in really nice sound quality of great jazz artists. Thats been their strength in the past. As far as individual titles, the same effort goes into presenting a very nice package with much more than acceptable sound quality.

I have a few of the boxsets. Not near enough though. Most are OOP and can be pricey now.

 

Thanks for that. I was looking at the Monk and Coltrane stuff.

 

I have their Clifford Brown/Max Roach set and it sounds like Brownie is blowing his trumpet standing right next to me and that I'm sitting on Roach's shoulders while he bangs away at the drums.

 

Typically pretty darn good sound sound and pressing quality on the Mosaic box sets. Of course a lot of it depends on the material. The Miles Plugged Nickel box is a you-are-there recording and the Mosaic pressing is great. Some of the Blue Note mono recordings -- the Bud Powell and Herbie Nichols stuff -- to me ain't brilliant recordings to being with, the Mosaic boxes are great, but the original sessions are what they are. Some of the other boxes are really revelations -- like the Mingus '59 CBS sessions box which has a very tactile, close up sounding mastering different sounding from, say Mingus Ah Um. But it's a great company whose works are kind of labors of love. I've got the LP sets they did on Bud Powell, Jackie McLean, two of the Mingus sets (I don't love the sound on the Mingus Candid box, which is surprising since the old Candids typically sounded pretty good), Andrew Hill, Sam Rivers, Don Cherry, Miles Plugged Nickel, 1960 Blakey, Herbie Nichols, maybe some others I'm not remembering off the top of my head, plus some CD sets like on Django and Cecil Taylor. I don't have any of the Music Masters Blue Note reissues to compare any of the Mosaics too, but the Mosaics are good. Mostly though they're kind of library edition sort of boxes designed to give you, say, all the complete takes from a given session or set of sessions in a certain period, laid out in session order more than a kind of audiophile edition.

 

I have the Monk "Live At The IT Club" box.
It sounds superb.

 

I have 3 Mosaic cd boxed sets and they certainly have the best sounding versions on cd of the material (mono pre-1960 jazz) that I have ever found.

 

That's one of those I was going for. Thanks

 

I just got the Ella and Duke box set, it's great. The SQ blows away to 2 LP set I have on Verve and its mastered by Kevin Gray.

This is the 4th LP box I have by them and they are all wonderful, I just love the sound, it seems like you always get a flat transfer. The Getz is still in print and that is also great. Now I'm thinking about the Monk.

 

generally Mosaic does an outstanding job all around....the sound quality is as good as it gets for the most part although some of their sets are taken from very old and very poor condition masters and in those cases the sound will be primitive!

 

What he said

 

I own ~25 Mosaic sets. The older sets are more variable in quality. Newer releases have been excellent. Agree with the earlier poster regarding the Monk "Live At the It Club"...it is outstanding.

 

I've gotta get that one. I love the 2LP Verve set, and if you say the mastering is significantly better...

 

That Roland Kirk LP box set is great and I intend to search more out.

 

Yes, it's significantly better than MY Verve pressing. Verve pressings are all over the place, you may have a good one. I know I don't have an original, its a thin and bright re-issue. Either way you get more material with the Mosaic box with lots of solo Ellington instrumentals.

 

I have "The Complete Capitol Recordings of Gene Krupa & Harry James" on Mosaic, MD7-192. The sound quality is very excellent!