Vinyl Me Please Anthology

Lee Newman said:
Yup. 7 Lps, 180 gram, tip on, aaa where possible (the modern album was recorded digitally), cut by Kevin Gray and pressed at RTI with a very nice box and new liner notes by Ben Ratliffe. A little pricey but right below the upper limit I was willing to spin in the product as advertised ($250)
Click to expand...
The big draw for me was Blue Note albums I have wanted for awhile and haven’t been repressed recently and the pressing specs. The educational experience was a big bonus but it’s largely missing (to put it lightly). I think if it had everything it promised, it would actually be good value. But as ya said, right now too early to tell if it will live up to the price tag. The records sound fantastic so far. I want to see the rest and don’t trust them to not screw it up further.
 
jamieanderson1968 said:
Has anyone listened to the 2nd podcast yet? I listened to the first and was bored. The same Don Was stories I have heard several times. I would prefer to hear a few different opinions/thoughts from writers and musicians about why these specific albums are excellent examples of a particular genre/style of jazz.
Click to expand...
Hi there. I tried to do something akin to what you mentioned, but it got buried pretty fast by other posts. In case you didn't see it, here it is:


How is this bebop?

Like many of you, I held off on listening to any of the albums until I had the Blue Note Anthology records to hear (I wasn't familiar with any of the albums prior to this). Having listening to both The Horace Silver Trio and Dexter Calling, I am struck by what a bold decision it was to put the Horace Silver box in the set! Including it in any Blue Note retrospective would be an interesting decision, but to put it in as the exemplar of the bebop style took real courage!

I've had this album on nonstop for a few days now, and it's a fascinating winner in my book! It did strike me, however, that I was relying on some music theory knowledge in order to feel like this was a great choice to be THE bebop record (and I think it was a fantastic choice!). Without some experience playing and analyzing this music, I would have a hard time getting into the feel of the record, and it would be difficult to really hear how this is related to more typical bebop records (e.g. Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, etc.).
I have a few ideas that I hope will help people appreciate this album as much as I do. There are three that jumped out at me that weren't too in-the-weeds of music theory, so here they are. Please enjoy!


How is The Horace Silver Trio bebop?
The song lengths, for starters! The whole conception of this as a series of mostly 3-minute pieces really calls back to the days of issuing music on 78 RPM records and 10" LPs (much of this album was originally issued on 10" 33 RPM LPs, which held about 12 minutes per side). It's no coincidence that the two songs that are most obviously different (Message From Kenya and Nothing But The Soul) are the longest tracks on the record. Records as a medium are inextricably tied to the evolution of jazz

Keeping the songs to around 3 minutes in length is just as much part of the bebop records idiom as chord changes or melodic lines.

There are a few melodic and rhythmic ideas that scream "bebop" on The Horace Silver Trio, but they are tough to explain with words! I threw these videos together (low production value but I'm hoping the educational value is high!) to illustrate some of these.

The lead off track (Safari) is a cool hybrid of Silver's unique style and a melodic bebop mainstay. Here's how I hear it:

https://youtu.be/skO7qZvwI_c
https://youtu.be/SP3Lbe85jSw
The rhythm I mention can be heard in the wild here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8rrsfRC-sk
at 0:53, 0:55, 1:17, 1:21, 1:25, and many other places!
 
seeirwin said:
Hi there. I tried to do something akin to what you mentioned, but it got buried pretty fast by other posts. In case you didn't see it, here it is:


How is this bebop?

Like many of you, I held off on listening to any of the albums until I had the Blue Note Anthology records to hear (I wasn't familiar with any of the albums prior to this). Having listening to both The Horace Silver Trio and Dexter Calling, I am struck by what a bold decision it was to put the Horace Silver box in the set! Including it in any Blue Note retrospective would be an interesting decision, but to put it in as the exemplar of the bebop style took real courage!

I've had this album on nonstop for a few days now, and it's a fascinating winner in my book! It did strike me, however, that I was relying on some music theory knowledge in order to feel like this was a great choice to be THE bebop record (and I think it was a fantastic choice!). Without some experience playing and analyzing this music, I would have a hard time getting into the feel of the record, and it would be difficult to really hear how this is related to more typical bebop records (e.g. Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, etc.).
I have a few ideas that I hope will help people appreciate this album as much as I do. There are three that jumped out at me that weren't too in-the-weeds of music theory, so here they are. Please enjoy!


How is The Horace Silver Trio bebop?
The song lengths, for starters! The whole conception of this as a series of mostly 3-minute pieces really calls back to the days of issuing music on 78 RPM records and 10" LPs (much of this album was originally issued on 10" 33 RPM LPs, which held about 12 minutes per side). It's no coincidence that the two songs that are most obviously different (Message From Kenya and Nothing But The Soul) are the longest tracks on the record. Records as a medium are inextricably tied to the evolution of jazz

Keeping the songs to around 3 minutes in length is just as much part of the bebop records idiom as chord changes or melodic lines.

There are a few melodic and rhythmic ideas that scream "bebop" on The Horace Silver Trio, but they are tough to explain with words! I threw these videos together (low production value but I'm hoping the educational value is high!) to illustrate some of these.

The lead off track (Safari) is a cool hybrid of Silver's unique style and a melodic bebop mainstay. Here's how I hear it:

https://youtu.be/skO7qZvwI_c
https://youtu.be/SP3Lbe85jSw
The rhythm I mention can be heard in the wild here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8rrsfRC-sk
at 0:53, 0:55, 1:17, 1:21, 1:25, and many other places!
Click to expand...
Thanks for all of this and all your other posts! One of my issues with Anthology is that this is exactly the type of content VMP should be offering but they aren’t. I emailed them to complain about the Dexter sleeve and said they should just hire you because your posts have been the most informative and best things on the FB group!
 
johnpisme said:
Actually they commented asking him to PM them because they want to send him Experience Unlimited free because they think he'd like it.
Click to expand...
Mather said:
WHOOOO ASKED YOUUUUU
Click to expand...

I must have missed that! I'm not affiliated with (or compensated by) VMP in any way. Just trying to create some content on the fb that either helps people gain a foothold into the music and/or promotes dialogue about the music.
 
seeirwin said:
I must have missed that! I'm not affiliated with (or compensated by) VMP in any way. Just trying to create some content on the fb that either helps people gain a foothold into the music and/or promotes dialogue about the music.
Click to expand...
Hey not sure why I'm quoted here as I was responding jokingly to a totally unrelated post, but good on ya for creating that content. I haven't seen it as I'm not a Anthology Subscriber but I hear it's great stuff.
 
MikeH said:
There is one user in the FB group that posts some awesome stuff about the history of jazz, how to distinguish between different subgenres of jazz, etc that appears to be original content. Chris Irwin I think is his name? That stuff is awesome to read and is the content that VMP should have been doing all along. Instead they are having members of the group do it for free.
Click to expand...
botherly said:
I literally just finished watching one of his videos, it's really good. They should pay this guy. Learned way more about the kinds of things to listen for from that 8 minute video than I have from anything else so far.



I honestly think it's the Facebook format. Fbook is really good with images. People loooove pictures and Facebook is really designed around promoting pictures as much as possible. That inevitably leads to long feeds of now playing and stuff (I'm not going to pretend I'm not guilty of posting a new playing picture in that group). I think the forum format is just so so much better. They obviously know how to host and moderate a forum, so why not have a pw protected forum hosted for each anthology with different threads? Some for now playing pics, some for discussing theory, etc etc. I have no clue why they're insistent on using Facebook unless it's to force everyone into using their real names? It's just not a good platform for discussion.
Click to expand...
I'm glad the video was helpful! Which one was it? Let me know if there are other topics you'd be interested in.
 
seeirwin said:
I'm glad the video was helpful! Which one was it? Let me know if there are other topics you'd be interested in.
Click to expand...

You put up those videos about Horace Silver which really opened up the whole structure of this music for me. I've always known that stuff but actually watching someone demonstrate/play it really helped make me understand what was happening. Plus I liked your take on how recording media shaped bebop but I'm a media theory nerd at heart. Really anything that helps contextualize these periods plus gives avenues for the sorts of structures to listen for is really helpful. Jazz can sound like awesome soup sometimes as a non-musician but I know there are things happening that I don't intrinsically understand.
 
seeirwin said:
I must have missed that! I'm not affiliated with (or compensated by) VMP in any way. Just trying to create some content on the fb that either helps people gain a foothold into the music and/or promotes dialogue about the music.
Click to expand...
Oh we know you're not affiliated with VMP, I think we all feel that you are the most interesting member of the FB group due to your amazing, enlightening, informative posts! I think if VMP were to send you a record that would be easily deserved! You're basically providing the kind of content everyone was expecting from them, except likely better than what they could do and totally of your own accord! You're awesome!

...and to be honest, while I'm 100% sure I saw them offer that record to someone, I might have been coloring my memory of who it was offered to with my belief that you deserved it. Now I cant find it.
 
Last edited:
Lee Newman said:
There are other VMP threads???
Click to expand...
wmeugene said:
So in response to my reporting the Morby warp:
View attachment 2360
To provide context, in the last two months I’ve ordered just under 30 records and only write CS about scratches or static that effect playback, major cosmetic issues or warps that are bad enough to note the tone arm moving and I always provide video proof. I also just notify them of the problem and never ask for a particular remedy. After the De La fiasco, I email as I discover them.

Got to say I’m pretty pissed at VMP right now for the insinuation that I’m taking advantage of their CS
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top