Jack White attaque le blues par la face nord

Jack White’s Third Man Records is set to release an enormous Paramount Recordsretrospective this November, in collaboration with the late John
Fahey’s Revenant Records and leading music researcher Alex van der Tuuk. The Rise & Fall of Paramount Records 1917-1927, Vol. I truly is a sight to behold, coming packed in a hand-crafted oak cabinet with velvet upholstery made to look like a 1920′s phonograph case. Opened up, the cabinet reveals (among myriad other things) six marbled vermilion LPs with gold leaf center labels, over 200 fully-restored images from the era, a 250 page clothbound, hard-cover book of art and a 350 page encyclopaedia with detailed histories of the artists and their repertoires. A whopping 87 fully remastered tracks are featured across the six plates, but that’s just the start of it… For those who like to travel with their sounds (not that you couldn’t just pack this thing up and go), a specially designed USB drive is included, allowing portable access to 800(!) tracks by 172 different artists, as well as 200 original Paramount adverts.

The artists represented here range from the well-known, such as Blind Blake, Ma Rainey andJelly Roll Morton, to more obscure but no less crucial cuts from people like C.H. Gatewood and the enduringly enigmatic Mozelle Alderson. Jazz, blues, gospel and vaudeville are covered in all their defining glory, as well as a selection of delightful oddities. At 800 songs it is practically impossible to cover the sheer scale of this remarkable product in any satisfactory sense (the track list alone takes up several pages), but please enjoy the pictures and the full list of items from the cabinet below. The Rise & Fall of Paramount Records 1917-1927 Vol. I is slated for release on November 19, with Vol. II to follow in 2014.

The Rise & Fall of Paramount Records 1917-1927 Vol. I:

-800 newly-remastered digital tracks, representing 172 artists
-200+ fully-restored original 1920s ads and images
-6 x 180g marbled vermilion vinyl LPs w/ hand-engraved gold-leaf center labels; housed in laser-etched white birch LP folio; comprises 87 tracks
-Deluxe large-format clothbound hardcover art book: 250 pages; feature-length narrative w. full-color art plates
-Encyclopedia-style softcover reference manual: 360 pages; field guide to artists & repertoire; chiaroscuro artist portraits; full Paramount discography
-Handcrafted quarter-sawn oak cabinet; lush sage velvet upholstery; custom-forged metal hardware
-Track & Image App: first-of-its-kind music and image player app, allows user mgmt of 800 tracks and 200+ original ads; housed on custom-designed USB drive