VMP Anthology: The Story of Blue Note Records

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by senseabove, Apr 2, 2019.

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  1. Instant Dharma

    Instant Dharma Dude/man

    Location:
    CoCoCo, Ca
    No marbles or beer mats? Pshaw. As if.
     
  2. NorthNY Mark

    NorthNY Mark Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canton, NY, USA
    There are ALWAYS records that slip by QC--some plants are better than others, but it's pretty clear from years of reading these forums that there isn't a single plant or a single reissue series that has a perfect record. They are using RTI--I don't think it means they expect massive returns, but they are smart to avoid some of the problems inherent to releasing boxed sets all at once.
     
  3. birchstick

    birchstick Forum Resident

    Location:
    Rocky Mountains
    Yeah, even Music Matters titles have issues (as well documented throughout the many pages). But, they get it right in the end - both MM and VMP in my experiences.
     
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  4. Mugrug12

    Mugrug12 The Jungle Is a Skyscraper

    Location:
    Massachusetts
    Enough about the BN Grindr forum
    :frog:
     
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  5. bluejimbop

    bluejimbop Thumb Toe Heel Toe

    Location:
    Castro Valley, CA
    This is not directed at you, fellow EB resident but honest to Pete, I wish I had one of those BN scarves just so I could strangle the next poster to make fun of it. There’s more to collecting than number of titles. If you can’t see a place for exclusivity, pride of ownership, a sense of specialness or even *gasp* frivolousness in music collecting, then please just stick to your Joe Sixpack, no-frills 365 gram vinyl. Y’all act like Don Was is the Devil incarnate. I think he’s done a fine job with the large responsibility of Blue Note stewardship. The BN 75 vinyl was a mess but it would appear he has learned from that mistake. Isn’t that what we all aspire to?
     
  6. recstar24

    recstar24 Senior Member

    Location:
    Glen Ellyn, IL
    I guess one of my questions, or I should say a point of reflection, is...if I only had $230-$280 for a “blue note budget”, is that better spent towards the VMP box, or cherry picking tone poet and 80th anniversary titles? For me, I’m sticking with the tone poets and 80th series.

    Though I will add when I look at the future tone poets and 80th series, there’s at least 20 titles in for sure snagging :)
     
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  7. Guitarded

    Guitarded Forum Resident

    Location:
    Montana
    Between now and when the last LP is delivered, I can skip a meal or two a week and call it even!
     
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  8. MemoInPR

    MemoInPR Señor Memo

    I'm a VMP Anthology subscriber and received an email that the first podcast is available.

    Gorts, feel free to remove this entry if is not appropriate to post it.

    VMP ANTHOLOGY PODCAST - THE STORY OF BLUE NOTE RECORDS

    Episode 1: Mode for Don


    In the first episode of the VMP Anthology Podcast, our Editorial Director Andrew Winistorfer interviews Don Was, the president of Blue Note, about his history with the label, how he ended up working there, and how he used to ride the bus for hours in Detroit just to go to record stores to read liner notes.

    Listen Here
     
  9. Briskit

    Briskit “I don’t know karate, but I know ka-razy!”

    Location:
    St Kilda
    My snagging list is up to 37....
    Paying down credit card while I can.
    2019 is going to rain AAA vinyl!
     
    birchstick, Vinyl_Blues and recstar24 like this.
  10. brimuchmuze

    brimuchmuze Forum Resident

    As a Canadian it was no contest in favor on keeping with Tone Poet and the 80th series. VMP is just too pricey once International Shipping costs are factored in.
     
  11. Fractured

    Fractured Forum Resident

    I totally agree. I did buy one of the sets, but mainly because for the reason you mentioned: I didn't want to miss out on the KG mastering of what is apparently a hard-to-find Wayne Shorter title, and I also really like the Donaldson record. I'm a BN junkie, so I expect I will _like_ the others, and I justified it based on what I have paid for a few MMJ titles in the past year, and also what those two might end up going for on the secondary market.

    However, I really hope that they _do_ repress these and release them individually, because I'm never in favor of artificially excluding people from getting music they would like to have (and are willing to pay the original price for). I've been on the other side more times than I can count, just getting into vinyl the past 3-4 years. I didn't buy this as an investment (except a musical one), and don't care if such a release would impact the value of my purchase.
     
    alarickc, Jerry James, wgb113 and 2 others like this.
  12. recstar24

    recstar24 Senior Member

    Location:
    Glen Ellyn, IL
    OK - I just ran through both lists and I wrote my personal “definitely will buy list” and it’s at 30 :) that assumes the 80th series is truly AAA when applicable, and I’m not even double dipping with those that I have on MM!

    So I took those 30, and picked my top 6, and curated my personally box set using tone poet and 80th titles:

    Lee Morgan - cornbread
    Andrew Hill - Black Fire
    Tina Brooks - minor move
    Kenny Dorham - trompeta toccata
    Herbie Hancock - inventions and dimensions
    Tony Williams - Intrigue

    I feel my curated set of 6 smokes the VMP one personally ;)
     
  13. I have the 3 Tone Poets thus far and my list is at 35 more between the 80th and TP with several more maybes. The only saving grace here is that they are not limited so no need to grab them all at once. Though I'm not sure I'll be able to help myself.
     
  14. GentleSenator

    GentleSenator what if

    Location:
    Aloha, OR
    i love my $19-$38 nightly meals!

    guess it's great that my wife got a raise recently.
     
  15. Guitarded

    Guitarded Forum Resident

    Location:
    Montana
    Skip chinese take-out once a week. Not peanut butter and jelly lunches.
     
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  16. btf1980

    btf1980 Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    I actually don't mind the the idea of exclusivity for some things. VMP is a music club after all (I know you don't have to be a member to purchase the Anthology), so the criticism that something they are releasing won't be available to all is odd considering that they aren't catering to all in the first place. Their entire business model is one of uniqueness and exclusivity. If not for uniqueness and/or exclusivity, what would be the point of any club? This is why VMP does color variants on a lot of releases. What I don't like about the Anthology rollout is that the presale link was published by Billboard. It defeats the purpose of exclusivity, which was the idea of the early signups in the first place. VMP needs to execute the initial rollout better with the next Anthology set. Just have a presale link for early signups, then a link for regular buyers the next day. Set aside a certain amount of sets for early signups, then leave the rest for everyone else to make the purchase. Don't just have a mad scramble on day 1. It makes no sense.

    I agree with you regarding Don Was. If we sit back and look at what Blue Note is offering for the 80th anniversary, it's really staggering. Was and Blue Note are offering something for every kind of buyer, with most of what is available being $35 or less. It's essentially what we've been demanding for years. This is an ambitious undertaking and he's doing it well imo.

    First, BN is offering two series with worldwide distribution available to all with the Tone Poets and the standard BN80. With the Tone Poets, you get AAA titles that haven’t been reissued to death, mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent, and pressed at RTI. It’s all that we could ever ask for in a jazz reissue program. Modest price, deluxe presentation, jackets made by Stoughton printing, and worldwide distribution. BN80 does much of the same, without the deluxe gatefold jackets and RTI pressing. Between both these series alone, if we add up how many titles are going to be released through to 2020, it really is a lot. Additionally, the Tone Poet series will return for a second year.

    For those who want exclusivity and are willing to pay for it, you have the VMP and Blue Note Review boxsets. I'd still prefer more music over scarves and baseball cards of Blue Note artists in the BN Review sets, but your point about the frivolity in collecting expensive boxsets is valid. In the grand scheme of things, none of this is essential. Seriously, it's just ephemera in a nice package. Some of us are losing sight of that.

    Then you have licensed stuff not included like the SRX Music Matters and Wallen Bink titles.
     
    Last edited: Apr 10, 2019
  17. wgb113

    wgb113 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chester County, PA
    @btf1980 stop being so rational and upbeat! This is the MO part of FOMO! This is the most FOMO time of the year, just check out the downward spiral of the RSD 2019 thread!

    I was glad to have snagged a copy of the Anthology after being a member for a couple of years. There’s so much other great stuff coming out that I think I could’ve have gotten past it pretty quickly if I hadn’t. It’s like the Bill Evans release that’s coming out this Saturday. My local requested 4 and only got one! It’ll likely be gone by the time It’s my turn in line. Hell the flippers already have them up for auction! But I’ll be leaving with other great stuff and still have a ton of records throughout the rest of the year to look forward to.
     
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  18. Kamaaina1

    Kamaaina1 Kanikapila!

    Location:
    Vancouver, WA
    Missed the boat I guess. 1000 copies is a pretty exclusive club. Well, after Jazz writers, Jazz broadcast stations, vinyl critics, resellers, hoarders, and so on; that probably left 100 copies for the general (music lovers) public... :shake:
    JMO... More to come I hope.
     
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  19. DeRosa

    DeRosa Vinyl Forever

    I find RSD very frustrating, it's the worst of FOMO plus all the downsides of local retail hassle.
    My ideal scenario is knowing what i'm buying, at what price, and when i'm getting it (for sure getting it!)

    It's been said many times in these Blue Note threads, a lot of us forum folks just want to buy the records done right.
    The disconnect seems to be that all the gimmicks, marketing, exclusivity, and FOMO is what seems to really sell records.
     
    ausgraeme and NorthNY Mark like this.
  20. NorthNY Mark

    NorthNY Mark Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canton, NY, USA
    You are always a welcome voice of reason! I guess the point of some of my criticism of the VMP Anthology, though, is not really that I think a club (which operates by definition on a notion of exclusivity) is wrong to try to present exclusive things. If anything, it's more of a personal frustration that none of the less-exclusive venues (AP, MM, Speakers Corner, Pure Pleasure, and either the Tone Poet or BN 80 series) have made Schizophrenia available. Simply put, people who want that album shouldn't have to buy Dexter Calling or Horace Silver Trio to get it. If the VMP's truly exclusive aspects (the curation, the podcasts, and the forum) were really the main attraction here, they wouldn't need to include rare titles.

    In that regard, it's a little bizarre reading some of the posts on the VMP Anthology forum, as many or even most of the posters are completely new to jazz. Reading their posts is wonderful and refreshing, as they have so much unbridled enthusiasm (and complete trust in the principle of curation). But it seems to me that for a broad introduction to jazz and the Blue Note legacy in particular, they would have been better served by less obscure selections, as the rarities are likely there mainly to entice an entirely different group of fans who already own the more classic titles. (I'm not going to say that to them, though--the enthusiasm I'm seeing is a rare and wonderful thing!).

    In any event, your points are very well-taken, and those of us who have complaints are to some extent just hoping to try (however vainly) to steer the market toward less gimmicky and manipulative practices, and more toward straightforward offerings of high quality product without the trappings of limited editions and exclusivity (with the Tone Poet series being almost a textbook example of the latter).
     
  21. Francisx

    Francisx Forum Resident

    Strange how all the "nay-sayers" were complaining about a new Blue Note Collection from VMP and now are crying the "Blue Note Blues" because they missed out on the 1000 copies that sold out.
    And for WI'sW'th I think it's great that all of these BN recordings are being re-released even if I have copies of them already. This recent "Blue Note" Jazz bug has reached a younger generation....
    And that is cool! Calm down you Ol' Jazzers!
     
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  22. fatwad666

    fatwad666 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Fat City, USA
    Thank you so much for posting this! Cool to be able to hear it.
     
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  23. NorthNY Mark

    NorthNY Mark Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canton, NY, USA
    I didn't miss out, though I can certainly empathize with those who did. I'm also sincerely happy that a lot (well, less than a thousand, but still...) of new listeners are being exposed to jazz, and that a lot of them seem pretty excited about it.
     
    bluejimbop likes this.
  24. DeRosa

    DeRosa Vinyl Forever

    So these "nay-sayers" are the people who tried to order it when it was sold out?
    You think it's literally the same people who complained an hour before,
    then decided they wanted it? I don't think so.

    I think you read posts from totally different folks who have different opinions.
     
  25. Francisx

    Francisx Forum Resident

    Oh my...
     
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