The Story of Herbie Hancock “For the past 58 years, jazz pianist Herbie Hancock has navigated the music industry as a curious soul with big ideas and a collaborative spirit. Be it his time with the Miles Davis Quintet, his blending of funk and jazz in the ‘70s, or his use of cutting-edge technology and early cosigning of hip-hop, Herbie has endured because he’s adventurous; he’s never been afraid to push his music to weird new places, and even now as a legend, he’s still fascinated with the next wave of art and tech.” Marcus J. Moore, Music Journalist
The above is copy from a reddit post, and the vmp anthology website has the same message. VMP Anthology: The Story of Herbie Hancock
Do we think it will be a decades-long retrospective? Or will this set be concentrated on touchstone moments, deep cuts and dusty gems? I would love to see, hear, one of the trio/quartet/V.S.O.P. albums from the 1970s or 80s make the list.
The story of Herbie Hancock sounds like it is going to span multiple decades and periods. I have no idea if they will weigh certain periods more than others and, of course, everything I say is speculative.
I would be surprised if they included any of his Blue Note titles. Those seem to be very well done by Music Matters and Blue Note among others. His Warner and other issues seem to be a better target. I'll still sign up and see what they do.
I'd really love to see the Mwandishi band and V.S.O.P represented in this set, in addition to one of the Blue Notes, and I guess one of the headhunters lineup should be there too. I could very happily live without the late seventies' and eighties' electric stuff, some of which is really painful to listen to.
Interesting. Too bad there's no details. There are still several Japan-only albums late 70s-early 80s -- Tempest in the Coliseum, Five Stars, etc. Those would be nice. Herbie Hancock Trio from 1981 would be good. Maybe a new pressing of Live Under the Sky with the full recordings? Can't see them reissuing the WB stuff -- that was just done by two different labels, although my MOV Fat Albert pressing sucks. But I'm guessing they'll go with more "common" albums as implied by the title.
Press release? HERBIE HANCOCK CELEBRATES 80TH BIRTHDAY BY ANNOUNCING CAREER-SPANNING VINYL BOX SET • Red Light Management
From the press release: “The eight albums come on 180gram audiophile black vinyl with audio sourced from the original analog tapes from the vaults of Universal Music”. Again, we’re left playing the all analog/ digitally sourced guessing game. IIRC, VMPs press releases for the Motown and Stax box sets mentioned all analog and cut by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound.
i guess there's a chance some selections were digitally recorded in the first place? but man, i hate that deliberately vague wording.
I sure hope they announce the titles before they ask people to put $ down on this. I highly doubt that they'll be doing anything that has already been released by Music Matters, Tone Poet, Analogue Productions, or Speakers Corner. Here's what I hope to see: Fat Albert Rotunda Mwandishi Sextant An Evening with Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock V.S.O.P. V.S.O.P. The Quintet The Piano I can't come up with an 8th title that hasn't already been reissued on audiophile vinyl. Since this will probably be career spanning, I'm most likely wrong on at least 3 or 4 of these titles.
Of course it's a guessing game, this is VMP, they haven't even said what the titles are. That said, they're normally completely transparent about the sourcing and pressing info once the actual product listings are made available, so we'll just have to wait and see until they give more details.
No, that’s not entirely correct. VMP was transparent about the mastering information prior to announcing any titles for both the Motown and Stax box sets. Here’s the content from an email that I received from VMP announcing the Stax box. The individual content was not listed but they were upfront about it being all analog. See below: Introducing VMP Anthology: The Story Of Stax Records, an 8-album journey through the label’s first golden period from 1957-1975. Over the course of a month, we’ll tell the story of Stax via these albums, chosen by VMP and Stax Records, and through interviews with the artists who made them. 12/9 at 5pm ET - Sale begins Only 1,000 available 8 album, 180g audiophile vinyl box set AAA cut by Ryan Smith, pressed at QRP.
Stax and Women of Motown were great box sets for discovering new (to me) artists and titles. I don’t think a career retrospective of Herbie Hancock has the same appeal to me, especially at this price point.
