If you have a few days and you want to prolong the suspense try going to the mosaic record website and look there. They have 3 CD sets in a nice package,most of them contain the artists entire catalog. If I had to pick a few Andrew Hill is an absolute melodic genuis whose composistions in the 3 CD set dealt with the civil rights movement and the turmoil in the black communnity. the John Patton set chronicles his beginning and leads the listener to what Lou Donaldson and Lonnie Smith ended up recording Funky accesible jazz for FM airwaves. But if I had to pick one set it would be trombonist Granchan Moncur III which includes in my opinion the most over looked classic in the Blue Note catalog Evolution. I do believe they have gift certificates and if your friend has never heard of Mosiac then you have not only given him the gift of music but a website to get JAZZED up about.
