Has anyone bought the Mosaic box set of Sarah Vaughan's complete Roulette recordings? I'm a huge fan and will probably get it no matter what, but I was wondering if someone could offer an opinion. I've heard good things about Mosaic, and it would be an easy way to have all those recordings in one collection. The Complete Roulette Sarah Vaughan Studio Sessions
I have this box, as I'm a huge Sarah Vaughan fan. The first issue is how much of this material do you already own? After ordering this box, I was surprised how much Roulette material I already had. After I do a more careful sonic comparison, I may have six or seven CDs to unload. You may want to check your holdings as well. Secondly, this is not the best Sarah Vaughan out there. There are some great sessions, but Roulette often placed her in a lot of commercial settings, attempting to cross her over into a general audience. Of course, the singer's still Sarah Vaughan, so there's always something to captivate the listener. (For primo Sarah, I prefer her many live albums, her album with Clifford Brown, or her autumnal sessions on Pablo.) I don't mean to sound negative; I did buy the box, after all. I'm just saying you may want to search out LIVE IN JAPAN or SASSY SWINGS THE TIVOLI if you don't already have them, or cherry-pick the best Roulette sessions already released on single CDs. One last thought: Mosaics always balloon in price once they fall out-of-print, so you could buy it, fairly sure you could eventually sell it for far more than you paid for it!
I don't have this particular set, but my general advice about Mosaic is, if you love the music on a particular set and you've got the money, buy it. As simple as that. They do a very classy job, and you can dissappear for weeks into a Mosaic box. I'm happy with all the sets I've picked up over the years, particularly with the sets by Sam Rivers, Jimmy Giuffre, and by Tristano, Konitz, and Marsh. And as Ron said, if you're disappointed, in a couple of years, after the set goes out of print, you'll make a profit selling it to some desperate Sarah fan. Don't wait. I couldn't buy the two Mingus sets they put together years back--I just couldn't afford them as a grad student. Now, I'd love to buy them, but I still can't afford them at the often farr too high price they fetch on E-bay! And they never show up in the local used record stores. L.
Thanks for the responses. Looks like I'm getting it (which is what I thought I'd do). I have all the live albums mentioned -- actually, Gershwin Live is my personal favorite -- all the Mercury sessions and most of the Pablo ones. The Mosaic box is definitely an investment but sounds like a worthwhile one.
I bought the Sarah Mosaic box even though I had several of the individual CDs. As with Sarah's complete Mercury recordings, there are some things specifically recorded for the singles market that definitely don't stand the test of time. But there's a lot of great things, too, and after doing some A=B comparisons with headphones on, I can definitely say the sound is better on the Mosaic set than on the individual CDs. (Malcolm Addey did both.) In general, the overall sound is warmer and, in a few instances, the reverb has been removed from Sarah's vocals, which sounds good to me. I think you'll be happy you got the box! JD
