Vinyl Me Please Classics

NewsFedora said:
I remember at one point (pretty sure prior to the death of the forums) Storf said they were going to have an exception and have an upcoming Classics from 1980. He's since gone back and upped it a couple more years, with I think the March 2020 Classics coming from 1983.
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If that continues I’ll be out of the track. Just not what I signed up for. To me that’s not a classic Jazz album.
 
Selaws said:
Ok so Herbie's move into the more heavy electronic/synth sound started in 1972 when he met Patrick Gleeson. Gleeson wasn't actually a jazz musician (I believe he had a doctorate in English and began experimenting with the Moog in the later 60's). So the first album to go down this path was 'Crossings' in 1972. The reason I point this out is because the further we venture from this, the less 'Jazz' is seen as he attempts to blur the lines between genres.

So, Mr. Hands is deep in the electronic/fusion era BUT still maintains some level of recognizable jazz. Lite Me Up is perhaps 4-5 albums after BUT importantly has very little recognisable jazz, I would describe it as a disco album personally. If you listen to Future Shock, which was the next release after Lite Me Up, hes moved again to the pure electronic sound (you might be familiar with Rockit?).

The reason I would personally be annoyed if they went with Mr. Hands is because its not even an obscure album which best shows off Herbies work, imo. If they were looking for a pick which would be unexpected BUT shows off Herbies talents then I think Mwandishi would have been a cool pick. Its an era which really really influenced him, he became an activist after forming the band, a vegan, later a Buddist, and claims that a a live show from that time produced the greatest music he had ever created.
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I mentioned this before (see quoted above), when Mr Hands was unconfirmed, but my issue with it as a pick is that its a poor choice to reflect on Herbie Hancock's career. I saw VMP or Storf mentioned that it was an 'obscure' pick (or something along those lines) which it is, but not one that's obscure AND a top album. I would imagine that even Herbie wouldn't select this as an album to best show his career. The more obscure but relevent (to his career) pick IMO would have been 'Mwandishi' (1971) which is the time he became an activist, vegan, later a buddist etc. In his autobiography he barely (if at all) mentions 'Mr Hands', but devotes pages to other albums. I was lucky enough to see him live the other month (where he openly stated he wanted to present a decent reflection of his career) and he played songs from Thrust, Empyrean Isles, Head Hunters.....but not Mr Hands.
 
Selaws said:
I mentioned this before (see quoted above), when Mr Hands was unconfirmed, but my issue with it as a pick is that its a poor choice to reflect on Herbie Hancock's career. I saw VMP or Storf mentioned that it was an 'obscure' pick (or something along those lines) which it is, but not one that's obscure AND a top album. I would imagine that even Herbie wouldn't select this as an album to best show his career. The more obscure but relevent (to his career) pick IMO would have been 'Mwandishi' (1971) which is the time he became an activist, vegan, later a buddist etc. In his autobiography he barely (if at all) mentions 'Mr Hands', but devotes pages to other albums. I was lucky enough to see him live the other month (where he openly stated he wanted to present a decent reflection of his career) and he played songs from Thrust, Empyrean Isles, Head Hunters.....but not Mr Hands.
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Mwandishi would have been a stellar pick! Or even Fat Albert Rotunda. Those are both on Warner Bros I believe. I bet they got the pressing permission for Mr Hands cheaper. Assuming they have a budget and can make some incredible picks, and others they have to scrape the bottom of the barrell.
 
VMPKJ said:
you think it fits as a Classic though? It’s not a “Jazz“ collection. Or Essentials. I don’t consider it to fit classics at all.
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Not sure. Guess it's up to the curators do decide what the criteria are. I didn't think we'd hit the 80s in this sub, but here we are. If we're going there, then why not hit up some electro-funk? I'm thinking that's out of bounds, but who knows, really.
 
I guess it seems like they keep moving the sticks. To me classics has been the dependable track. If that changes I won’t see the point.
Turbo said:
Not sure. Guess it's up to the curators do decide what the criteria are. I didn't think we'd hit the 80s in this sub, but here we are. If we're going there, then why not hit up some electro-funk? I'm thinking that's out of bounds, but who knows, really.
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Reminds me of when the "Pulp Fusion" series went all boogie funk on volume 8. It was deep funk and jazz-funk until then, so Vol. 8 was completely out of character. Plus the cover was neon pink. But then vol. 8 had Herbie Hancock, Parliament, Cameo, Roy Ayers and Loose Joints all in one place. Sign-me up!
 
agutierrezb said:
Yeah, anyone who thinks Sorcerer is as bad a pick as Mr. Hands can cash me outside. Sorcerer is a very good album by one of the best groups in jazz history, and one of Miles's most interesting and influential eras. It may not be a top 10 Miles album, or even an iconic Second Quintet record, but it is still great, while Mr Hands is an ok album in a moment in Herbie's career where things started going downhill.
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I don't think anyone really thinks Sorcerer is as bad a pick as Mr. Hands or on the same level musically (unless I missed a post somewhere claiming that, if so sorry). If you compare the two albums, Sorcerer is a way, way better album. It's not really a contest at all. The issue is more that both albums are a similar kind of head scratcher within the respective artist discography. Especially as an Essentials pick, Sorcerer didn't make any sense at all. There are at least 20 Miles albums more essential. Same with this Herbie pick, there are probably 20 albums that would have been more deserving of some love and many of them haven't been reissued a lot or at all (certainly not AAA).
 
Speedracer said:
I don't think anyone really thinks Sorcerer is as bad a pick as Mr. Hands or on the same level musically (unless I missed a post somewhere claiming that, if so sorry). If you compare the two albums, Sorcerer is a way, way better album. It's not really a contest at all. The issue is more that both albums are a similar kind of head scratcher within the respective artist discography. Especially as an Essentials pick, Sorcerer didn't make any sense at all. There are at least 20 Miles albums more essential. Same with this Herbie pick, there are probably 20 albums that would have been more deserving of some love and many of them haven't been reissued a lot or at all (certainly not AAA).
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I don't consider Sorcerer a head scratcher, I legitimately think it is a very good pick considering the size of Miles's discography . I don't want VMP to release Kind of Blue or Sketches of Spain, I prefer an overlooked record from one of the best eras in his career. Mr Hands, on the other side, is nothing like that. The equivalent in Herbies discography would be something like Crossings or Sextant.
 
botherly said:
Ah okay. just from looking at their site I kinda figured this. No mention of source or master so probably digital. Thanks! I'll go original.
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with MOV it really depends. the Dylan monos they did were all AAA but others I’d not be so sure of. I’ve always considered them to be Sonys answer to Warner’s Rhino. The pressings are normally very reliable and consistent.
 
Ethos99 said:
I think VMP has spread themselves too thin with three tracks each month.

Can they do one great exclusive per month? Absolutely!
Can they do two? Maybe, sometimes, probably.
Can they do three? Doesnt look like it.

So the quality is balanced against what exclusives they can get and you have an off month like January where they are all ho-hum.
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I think it's the huge bump up in exclusives along with the Anthologies along with poor business management that's causing these significant issues. They're stretched really thin and it shows.
 
Ethos99 said:
I think VMP has spread themselves too thin with three tracks each month.

Can they do one great exclusive per month? Absolutely!
Can they do two? Maybe, sometimes, probably.
Can they do three? Doesnt look like it.

So the quality is balanced against what exclusives they can get and you have an off month like January where they are all ho-hum.
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Anthologies might add to that problem if they want to keep pumping those out at rates of every 2-3 months. Although i can imagine "outtakes" from tgat just landing as classics or essentials.
 
Ethos99 said:
I think VMP has spread themselves too thin with three tracks each month.

Can they do one great exclusive per month? Absolutely!
Can they do two? Maybe, sometimes, probably.
Can they do three? Doesnt look like it.

So the quality is balanced against what exclusives they can get and you have an off month like January where they are all ho-hum.
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I don't really think it is possible to spread yourself too thin when it comes to music. There are an incredible number of great albums out there, spread across many different genres. I mean you could do a year of only Miles Davis or Ray Charles albums for the Classics track and all of them would be great picks. Of course there are always going to be people who like some picks better than others, but that's unavoidable. However, there are countless albums that have a certain place in music history and are musically well regarded and thus have a good argument to be picked for one of the three tracks.

Now I do agree that their curation isn't consistently great. The question I have, is why this is? Are the people picking these just doing a bad job? Or can't they attain the rights to certain albums and decide to go with others? Maybe some other reason?
 
agutierrezb said:
I don't consider Sorcerer a head scratcher, I legitimately think it is a very good pick considering the size of Miles's discography . I don't want VMP to release Kind of Blue or Sketches of Spain, I prefer an overlooked record from one of the best eras in his career. Mr Hands, on the other side, is nothing like that. The equivalent in Herbies discography would be something like Crossings or Sextant.
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I see where you are coming from and don't necessarily disagree with your point. Maybe head scratcher was too strong for Sorcerer. But I do think there certainly was a better pick that could have been made within Miles' discography.
 
Speedracer said:
Now I do agree that their curation isn't consistently great. The question I have, is why this is? Are the people picking these just doing a bad job? Or can't they attain the rights to certain albums and decide to go with others? Maybe some other reason?
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I think its the ability to get certain albums. By spreading too thin i mean with what they have the ability to press. Sorry to offend anyone but the Dirty projectors, Phoenix, and Sleater Kinney are all terrible IMHO.
 
Ethos99 said:
I think its the ability to get certain albums. By spreading too thin i mean with what they have the ability to press. Sorry to offend anyone but the Dirty projectors, Phoenix, and Sleater Kinney are all terrible IMHO.
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I'd assume they make deals to get certain records too. EX - press mediocre bands/records "A" and "B" (so the record company gets some traction on these groups) to get awesome band "C" (Miles/Coltrane exclusive).
 
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