Jun 10, 2025 4:13 PM
Theo Croker’s Dream … Manifested!
Partway through his early set at Smoke Jazz Club, Theo Croker blinks the room back into focus. He leans over the piano.…
Mosaic Records has made its name releasing comprehensive multi-disc box sets of jazz musicians, but the label is now trying out a new idea. The company says that since some historically valuable LPs do not fit into a box-set concept, it is releasing them individually as a new series called Mosaic Singles.
The series so far comprises six discs. These titles include Duke Ellington’s Spacemen – The Cosmic Scene, a 1958 small-group session of standards and some of the bandleader’s lesser-known gems. Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers’ Hard Bop from 1956 features the late Jackie McLean. Other Mosaic Singles include J. J. Johnson’s J.J.! (1964), Charles Lloyd’s Of Course, Of Course (1965), Bud Freeman’s Chicago/Austin High School Jazz In Hi-Fi (1957) and a tenor saxophone-led triumverate of Al Cohn, Bill Perkins and Richie Kamuca, The Brothers! (1955).
Along with the Mosaic Singles series, the company intends to continue releasing its box sets. In June, it will release a seven-CD collection of Dizzy Gillespie’s small group sessions on Verve and Philips from the late 1950s and early 1960s.
For more information go to mosaicrecords.com.
To record Dream Manifest (Dom Recs), Croker convened artists from his current and recent past ensembles, plus special guests.
Jun 10, 2025 4:13 PM
Partway through his early set at Smoke Jazz Club, Theo Croker blinks the room back into focus. He leans over the piano.…
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