Pining (Again) For Record Store Days
May 17, 2012 Features
Here’s an article about another record store closing: Cutler’s record store in New Haven closing after 64 years in business. It’s not necessarily news anymore when a record store closes, but this seems to have been a pretty popular store. The real news would be a record store opening. Not much chance of that, is there? I’ve never been to Cutler’s in New Haven, but I’ve been to many record stores in my day, all around the U.S. and a bit in Europe as well. Of all the things I love about collecting, the think I miss the most is being able to go into a record store and going through the bins searching for that one record or two or even, hopefully, many more that are sitting there with great music, great covers and an affordable price. You know that feeling of rifling through the bins, record by record, passing all of the Herb Alperts and George Bensons and Al Jarreaus and, boom, there it is, an original Fats Navarro on Savoy or Stan Getz on Verve or, on the best days, a Jackie McLean or Lou Donaldson or anyone else on Blue Note. The business of collectible buying and selling has moved to eBay, with good reason (at least for the sellers), but it’s certainly not nearly as much fun. Is it?
European Vs. U.S. Pressings
Mar 21, 2012 Features
I recently picked up a batch of European — and South African — pressings of original jazz records from the ’50s and ’60s. Being American and a New Yorker at that, I’ve always had access to the U.S. pressings and, frankly, never had interest in the European pressings. I’m now listening to a Brubeck Columbia, CBS actually, with the heavy vinyl, red label, deep grooves. It has the soft cover and, now that I look at the cover, is actually from South Africa. There’s a note at the bottom: “Everyday is somebody’s biirthday. Give a national record gift token exchangeable anywhere in Southern Africa.” I just took off the Brubeck and am now listening to Ella Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook. All of this is leading to a point and some questions. For those who follow these things closely, is there a noticeable difference in sound quality between the American and European pressings?In listening to the Ella record now, the pressing, quite frankly, sucks. Really bad. The Brubeck was much better. How do you feel about the soft covers? And for those of you who were actually buying records in the era — Rudolf? Michel? — were you content to have the European pressings, or did you focus on the U.S. pressings? Just curious. Not sure what I’m going to do with these European pressings I now own. There’s something nice about having them, knowing they were issued at the same time as the U.S. versions, but I do have U.S. pressings of most of these. Oh,the challenges of being an obsessive collector. I hate to get rid of anything, even if I have it.
Tags: Dave Brubeck, Ella Fitzgerald
A Little Bird, A Little Philosophizing
Feb 22, 2012 Features
Glad to see there is still some collector interest in Charlie Parker. I had heard this theory, and once discussed it here, that there’s a window of about 50 years for interest in a performer/musician and after that period the people who actually could remember him are no longer around and the influence that he or she engendered, no matter how profound, would eventually fade or be forgotten in the afterglow of artists who succeeded them. This seemed particularly apt in the case of popular artists — a Bing Crosby or Fred Astaire, for example — but it also seems to have impacted the jazz world as well. You don’t get the sense that collectors and even aficionados today have the same esteem for, say, Duke Ellington or Count Basie or even Lester Young that collectors and aficionados had 20 years ago. I think about this a lot and wonder, not just about my collectible records (and their value), but about how history will treat earlier artists and whether their contributions will be remembered in the perspective of their era and the eras that came subsequent to their contributions. Artists like, say, Johnny Hodges or Art Tatum or even Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Getz (and no, I’m not just focusing on the Verve label, although those provide good examples). This came to mind because
Tags: Bing Crosby, Charlie Parker, Dial Records, Fred Astaire
Why Do We Collect?
Jan 3, 2012 Features
Why do we collect? I’ve been giving that a lot of thought lately, trying to figure out what to do with all of my stuff and trying to determine what is worth keeping – and why – and what isn’t. So along comes this interesting article from The New York Times on the very topic. The author, Philipp Blom, is a cultural historian, writer and journalist who lives in Vienna. Here’s the article below. Here’s a link as well, so you can see all of the comments on The New York Times site: Objects of Desire and Dreams
Why do we amass stuff we don’t need? Not all collecting is art collecting and no real collector would acquire things just as a status enhancement or investment. Real collectors are after something else. The objects in their collection are taken out of use, removed from circulation. The real value of a piece lies not in its auction price, but in the importance it has in the collection.
No true devotee would buy a T-shirt worn by Mick Jagger during a concert, chuck it in the washing machine and wear it. A Mick Jagger T-shirt is no longer a T-shirt, it’s a
Tags: Philipp Blom, The New York Times
Rollins Receives Kennedy Center Honor
Dec 5, 2011 Features
The actual Kennedy Center Honors took place last night, the one in which Sonny Rollins received his long-overdue and much deserved recognition. In looking over various accounts of the festivities, it seems as if it was a lovely evening all around. Bill Cosby did the honors of introducing Sonny and I saw a clip on one of the sites where I recognized Jimmy Heath and Joe Lovano, among others, playing tribute. Sonny was asked why the evening was so special. “It’s very nice to be recognized here in our country, which is the birthplace of jazz,” he said. “It’s where we started jazz, and people love jazz all over the world. It’s a peaceful expression of the spirit, of love, of everything.” In the U.S. there will be a two-hour broadcast of the evening on Dec. 27 at 9 p.m. on CBS.
Mingus on Mingus (on Mingus)
Nov 10, 2011 Features
We’ve been asked to help call attention to a proposed documentary on Charles Mingus and so we will. The filmmaker is Kevin Ellington Mingus and the documentary is called “Mingus on Mingus”. Kevin is Mingus’ grandson and the film will be about his journey to discover “the truth” about his famous grandfather. There’s a video explaining the project at the Website, Charles Mingus Documentary: Mingus on Mingus. I tried to embed it here at Jazz Collector, but my technical prowess was not up to it, so I recommend you go to the site and check it out. They are trying to raise money to fund the film, so if you are a Mingus fan and wish to see another documentary, please feel free. I have my own couple of Mingus stories to contribute. When I was a young journalist starting out I was assigned to interview Mingus, only he didn’t really want to be interviewed. I wrote the article and subsequently posted it at Jazz Collector. In case you missed it the first time, you can find it here, Memories of Mingus. Another story: I was talking to my cousin yesterday and he heard of the time Mingus was playing somewhere in LA and a woman was talking, and talking, and talking, and talking, and he kept looking at her but she kept talking, and talking, and talking, and talking. Finally, Mingus put down his bass, opened his case and pulled out a gun. The woman ran out of the club screaming with Mingus chasing her down the street, firing shots in the air. The great thing about the story, as surreal as it seems, is that there’s no one who knows anything about Mingus who would doubt that it happened, right?
Existential Thoughts About Non-Collectible Vinyl
Oct 26, 2011 Features, Jazz Vinyl
Had an interesting observation last night. I was going through the jazz auctions page by page, probably 30-40 pages covering about 1,500 records over a period of more than 24 hours. What struck me was the incredibly large numbers of listings of jazz vinyl that simply won’t sell. Page after page of records that probably don’t have a market at almost any price. And a lot of it was good music — Brubeck, Ellington, Errol Garner, Count Basie, Monk and many, many, many others. Try it yourself and you’ll see what I mean. One of the questions I have is this: Who are all these sellers and what do they think they are doing? It’s not a new thing that the demand for many non-collectible records is declining and, in many cases, the shipping fees are worth more than the records themselves. Still, hundreds of sellers are going through the process and expense of taking pictures, creating descriptions and posting listings on eBay for items that will not sell. How long can this continue? At what point, if ever, does eBay become a more exclusive haven for higher-end collectibles, at least in the jazz vinyl market? The other question to ponder, for someone like me, is this this:
Tags: Jazz Vinyl
A Young Jazz Singer Worth Checking Out
Oct 15, 2011 Features
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I mentioned the play Central Avenue Breakdown the other day and what a pleasant surprise it was. If any of you goes to see it, let us know what you think with a comment on the site. I had another pleasant musical surprise a few weeks ago. I was up at the house in The Berkshires and noticed that there was to be a jazz concert in my community. It was billed as the West 73rd Quartet doing the music of Kurt Weill. I hadn’t heard of the group and, while I have nothing against the music of Kurt Weill, I’ve never had a special affinity for it, compared to, say, Rodgers and Hart, Gershwin, Jerome Kern or Irving Berlin. But it was nearby and it was jazz and it was an interesting setting. So I went. The group, West 73rd, was a piano, bass and drums with a vocalist. The vocalist was Hilary Gardner and she was terrific. She has a pretty voice and a great jazz feel, whether on ballads of up-tempo numbers. She also had a strong stage presence and did a nice job talking about some of the music and bringing it to life. She apparently gigs a lot in the New York area, so you should definitely check her out and see her if you can. The rest of the band was quite strong as well, Frank Ponzio on piano, Saadi Zain on bass, and Vito Lesczak on drums. The music was carefully thought out and arranged and it was quite inventive without taking away from the beauty of the melodies or the message of the lyrics. As for the Kurt Weill music,
Tags: Frank Ponzio, Hilary Gardner, Kurt Weill Project, Saadi Zain, Vito Lesczak
Seeing Live Jazz: Bird With Strings (Really)
Apr 12, 2011 Features
Do you see a lot of live jazz anymore? I don’t. When people ask why, I kind of laugh it off and tell them that just about everyone I’d want to see is dead. Which, unfortunately, is pretty true, with a very few exceptions. I do still try to see Sonny Rollins whenever possible and perhaps a couple of others, but I no longer go to the Vanguard regularly or any of the other clubs in New York. Perhaps this will change when Mrs. JC and I make our long-awaited move to Manhattan, which is in the works (we hope). In any case, I bring this up because I did recently trek to Rose Hall in New York for the first time to attend a Jazz at Lincoln Center concert. The concert was billed as “Bird With Strings,” featuring Charles McPherson accompanied by a string section and playing the music from the original Charlie Parker Bird With Strings album. I like McPherson, a love Bird With Strings and I figured this would be a good opportunity to see some live jazz and check out the location. So how was it?
Tags: Bird With Strings, Charles McPherson, Charlie Parker, Jazz At Lincoln Center, Vincent Gardner, Wess Anderson
Adventures In Jazz Collecting: The Score (Not)
Dec 6, 2010 Features, Jazz Memoirs
Mattyman tells the story of the Blue Mitchell record and the rude and competitive and somewhat nasty rival who bid the price up for no reason other than in the hope that Mattyman would put the record down and he would lay claim to it. Good for Mattyman to not fall for the bait and to go home with a great record at a reasonable price. We all have stories such as this. I have many of them, unfortunately. The one I recall most vividly is this, which I may have already told in another context but is worth repeating anyway: I was working my first record show back in the mid-1980s, when there were record shows often in the New York area. There were also many record stores as well, so it was quite a vibrant market. I had bought my friend’s collection and had duplicates for the first time and I was just trying to get rid of some records. I haven’t come very far since then, come to think of it.
Anyway, as happened once in a while those days, a guy came in with crates of rare records and had absolutely no idea of their value. No idea at all. New records were selling for $7.99 in stores, or something like that, so he figured used records must be $5 or so. So he priced all of his records at $5. This included Tina Brooks True Blue; Lee Morgan Candy; Hank Mobley’s Message, 1 and 2; and many, many others too numerous to name. The guy was at a table near me, and I would have pounced, but I never got the chance. As he was getting the records out of his car, two of the top New York dealers of the day accosted him, convinced him to show them the records and pulled out all of the valuables before they made their way into the room.
Guest Column: Record Shopping in Japan
Nov 3, 2010 Features, Guest Columns
In a comment last week one of our loyal readers asked if he could write a guest column about his experiences buying vinyl in Japan. So without further ado, we offer:
Record Shopping in Japan
By Mike Falcon
For most of my adult life I have been very interested in Japanese culture. I love their movies, art, food, culture, and overall aesthetics. I studied Japanese while in college as my obligatory foreign language and have traveled there a few times. Something I have found very interesting about Japan is how they appreciate American and Western culture. Japan is very different from America or Europe but as a society they have a very deep appreciation for key things from these cultures. It was so amazing to me to eat various Western foods in Japan and find that the Japanese do Italian, French, Brazilian, and Spanish food more authentically than is available in the U.S. I ate in a small Italian restaurant where the chef took pride in his Italian food on a level I think could only be found in Italy itself. For me the Japanese appreciation of Western culture is most evident in three of “my favorite things:” Jazz, vinyl and baseball. I will save you from my interesting and wonderful experiences with Japanese baseball and other observations because this in an article about vinyl hunting.
The Japanese, relative to the U.S., have a lot of record and CD stores. I don’t believe they have suffered the same setbacks as the American record industries have, as the music store business seems much healthier. In Tokyo you can find corporate-owned music and DVD stores eight stories tall that would take a day or more to explore. These places were interesting but I found the small record stores
A Random Post of Favorite Jazz Vinyl
Oct 31, 2010 Features, Jazz Memoirs
This is a completely random post. At the WFMU Record Fair last week I was selling a copy of Miles Davis Steamin’ on Prestige and got into a discussion with a buyer and he said, of the Steamin’/Workin’/Cookin’/Relaxin’ group of albums that Steamin’ was his least favorite. I said, hmm, that’s interesting because Steamin’ is my favorite of the group. He eventually purchased Steamin’ from me and I’m hoping he’s pleased. In any case, I’m sitting here in my home office/music room staring at my records and thinking about some of my favorites from among the artists where I have (1) a lot a records and (2) clear favorites. Looking through the records, I realized for some artists – such as Lee Morgan, Hank Mobley even Horace Silver – I don’t have any single record that stands above the others. If pressed, I could name a favorite, which I will not do for those artists, but which I will do for some of the other artists where the choices, for me at least, are more clearcut. Some may be obvious, some more obscure, some may even be ridiculous to others, but these are the ones I like. Staring at my collection, looking at them in alphabetical order, here goes nothing:
Day Three (Not) At The WFMU Record Fair
Oct 26, 2010 Features, Jazz Memoirs
So, after more than an hour of live rock music blasting in my ears, I decided to bag it at the WFMU Record Fair after Saturday, so I packed my records, loaded them in my Prius and drove them home. But what was I to do with them next? There were a dozen boxes of records, probably 700 altogether, plus another 500 or 600 records already in the house or in storage that are to be sold. I’ve bought three collections in the past year, and I have at least that many duplicates or reissues or records I simply don’t want. Previously, I’ve been selling records on eBay, but my real work has gotten quite busy and I’m not doing that anymore, so it seemed I was facing the prospect of just putting all of these records in storage and waiting another year for the next WFMU Record Fair so I could sell 100 of them while getting bombarded with close range music of mass destruction.
It is at times like this when I wish I had a record store.
Then, on Sunday morning at 6 a.m., on what would have been Day Three of the WFMU Record Fair, I woke up startled with a clear revelation. I would
Tags: WFMU Record Fair
Day Two At the WFMU Record Fair
Oct 25, 2010 Features, Jazz Memoirs
I mentioned that my table was towards the back at the WFMU Record Fair this weekend. There were some clear disadvantages to this location. For one, the front of the room was mobbed and there was a lot of jazz at almost every table, so by the time people made it to my side of the room – if, indeed, they did make it at all – they were pretty jazzed out, and perhaps even all spent out with no more cash in their wallets. The second disadvantage to my location was the unfortunate reality that it was close to where the WFMU people had set up their live broadcast, which meant there was loud music and gab incessantly in my ears from 10 in the morning through the day. All of which was pretty bad.
And then it got worse.
Sometime in the later afternoon, perhaps 3 p.m. or so, they decided to have live music: Yes a rock band, followed by another rock band, each one trying to out-noise the other. Or so it seemed to these delicate, jazz-oriented ears. Loud doesn’t begin to describe what it was like at my table. The
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Tags: WFMU Record Fair
Day One At the WFMU Record Fair
Oct 23, 2010 Features, Jazz Memoirs
So yesterday was Day One of the WFMU Record Fair in New York City and I purchased a dealer table to sell of duplicates from my collection and other odds and ends and this was my experience.
There was a time, when I was an compulsive buyer of records – as opposed to now, when I am merely an obsessive buyer of records – when I would purchase a dealer’s table at a record show just so that I could show up early and look at the other dealers’ records before anyone else. I’d get there and hover while dealers of jazz records would be unpacking their wares and I could get first shot at their offerings. Don’t laugh – I got some mighty nice records this way.
Now, however, I am more serene about it. I didn’t get there yesterday until 3:30 and the show opened at four to early arrivals so I barely had time to even look. In fact, I convinced myself that the only reason I was looking at all was so that I could write about it here at Jazz Collector. I even made certain that I would not be buying either compulsively or obsessively or both: I only brought $100.
So at 3:30 I began roaming the floor with my $100. What struck me was that just about every table had jazz records: Some a box or two, some had many, many boxes. And it was a lot of the stuff
Tags: WFMU Record Fair
Bill Evans, 30 Years Later
Sep 27, 2010 Features
I was driving up to my home in The Berkshires for one of the last times this season on Friday and I had some music on the CD player and on came Waltz for Debby, the version with Cannonball Adderley and Bill Evans on Riverside. And I turned to the lovely Mrs. JC and told her to listen to the rapport and warmth shared between these two giants and it was remarkable listening to this track, which I must have heard thousands of times — no exaggeration — with fresh ears once again. And it is, indeed, a thing of beauty. Then I looked through my email this morning, clearing things out, and I noticed that someone had sent me an article from The Wall Street Journal paying tribute to Bill Evans on the occasion of the
Tags: Bill Evans
Why We Buy Records
Sep 22, 2010 Features
My friend sent me this earlier. It’s pretty apt: Although I don’t necessarily feel low, I was working on records at 3 o’clock this morning, trying to get the smell of mildew out of some of the beautiful boxed-set 78s I purchased last week and lugged home and am now trying to wedge into my collection somehow by shifting records from one shelf to another and getting records off shelves that I may not be listening to. Anyway, thought you all might appreciate this from Peanuts.
Tags: Peanuts
An Old-Fashioned Jazz Vinyl Auction
Sep 20, 2010 Features
Remember I had written about my late friend Red Carraro a couple of months ago and how he would compile these long lists of records and send them out for auction all over the world in the days before eBay. Red was among a number of practitioners of this art, which also included Leon Leavitt and Fred Cohen among many others (at least that’s how I recall it). I had thought that eBay had obviated the need for these mailed lists, but apparently I was wrong: The other day I received an email addressed from the intriguing name of Mr. Blue Note with an auction list of 1,460 records that apparently are up for auction but not for auction on eBay. I’m sure Mr. Blue Note will not object to me posting the list here, so
Another Day, Another Jazz Vinyl Collection
Sep 19, 2010 78-RPM Records, Features, Jazz Memoirs
I brought home another collection yesterday. It is an interesting one. It is mostly traditional jazz, but of more recent vintage. There was the full three-volume Mosaic Commodore set in near mint condition. That alone will cover my costs and the time and energy I expended. There were also a lot of 78s, mostly albums in beautiful condition – Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Lee Wiley, and others of that ilk, no bebop at all. There were also some nice 10-inch LPs in near mint condition, including a beautiful Lester Young on Clef and several of the Chet Baker’s on Pacific Jazz.
As I was laboriously going through the records on my porch in The Berkshires yesterday, much to the consternation of the lovely Mrs. JC, I discovered that there were about a dozen 12-inch Blue Note 78s – Sidney Bechet, Albert Ammons, etc. These are in
What Happened To The Jazz Vinyl Countdown?
Sep 9, 2010 Features, The Great Jazz Vinyl Countdown
In an earlier post, Rudolf poses the following statement and question: “Al announced the slimming down of his collection a while ago. But I don’t see anything else but buying records by the lot, ‘improving’ on quality, etc., etc. Al: I just would like an honest reply to my straightforward question (the lovely Mrs. JC is not tuned in, so your reply can be honest). The question: With how many albums has your collection grown since your slimming down action?”
Ahem.
I will answer the question directly and then go into some level of explanation. Since the launch of what I affectionately called The Great Jazz Vinyl Countdown almost exactly a year ago – September 29, 2009, if anyone would like to go back to the archives – I would say that my “collection” has increased by about 50 records, while the number of records in my house has grown by several hundred, at least.
Tags: Dexter Gordon, Wardell Gray
This Week — Live At The Monterey General Store
Aug 31, 2010 Features, Jazz Memoirs
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I play a little bit of jazz guitar — very little bit — but I am fortunate to have grown up with a fantastic, world-class jazz guitarist and we have remained great friends and this weekend we are doing a gig here in the beautiful Berkshire Mountains of Western Massachusetts. There are many stories I can tell about the circumstances that have led to this gig, 30-plus years in the making, but I will be brief. My friend, Dan Axelrod, was a musical prodigy from early childhood and he lived down the street from me and somehow we both fell in love with jazz as teenagers – Dan because he could play it as well as anyone and I because it was music that was always around, in my pores, courtesy of my dad. Dan and I used to hang around a lot and at various points he would teach me chords and how to strum and eventually I was proficient enough to accompany him as a rhythm guitarist, as long as we kept the changes relatively simple and dispatched with the suspended flatted fifths, ninths and thirteenths. What I lacked in ability I made up for in chutzpah and eventually I found us a gig at a local place called the Rainy Nighthouse and I somehow convinced Dan that this would be a fun thing to do, two nights a week. We were still in our late teens. Dan, if I recall properly, was studying with Billy Bauer and perhaps a little with Jim Hall and had not yet met his guitar hero, Tal Farlow, who would eventually become his great friend and mentor.
Guest Column: Collecting Jazz 45s
Aug 26, 2010 Features, Guest Columns, Uncategorized
A couple of weeks ago friend of Jazz Collector Erich Schultz asked why we never wrote about collecting jazz 45s here at Jazz Collector. We said that we didn’t collect them ourselves, we didn’t know of any collectors and no one had ever even asked. We also invited him to write a post on the joys of collecting jazz 45s and, voila, here it is. Erich, it’s all yours:
Collecting Jazz 45 RPM Records, by Erich Schultz
Although I have a large library of jazz 10” and 12” 33 RPM records, I also have over 1,000 jazz 45 RPM records as well. I starting collecting these 45’s about five years ago, and I have picked up most of them in the Los Angeles area when I visit my two children (I live in the San Francisco Bay Area.) I also get them sometimes through bulk sales on ebay. My reasons for collecting them include:
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Tags: Jazz 45-RPM Records
Adventures in Jazz Collecting: Red Carraro, Part 3
Jul 16, 2010 Features, Jazz Memoirs
Red in the basement
Back to my Red Carraro stories. If Red were alive today and reading this he’d look at the name on the Web site and swear he never knew me. That’s because when I first met Red I was still going by my childhood nickname, which was “Lit.” This came from being somewhat short in height and someone once started calling me little and it became Lit and it really stuck. Kids in school called me “Lit Perlman” but Red never knew my last name, or my first name, and always just called me Lit. “Lit, hey how ya doin,” Red would always say when he’d see me, with a smile and a warm pat on the pack. “I see you’re still hustlin’ for records.”
When I started my journalism career my first paying job was as the jazz critic for the New Times in Syracuse, an alternative weekly paper. I’ve repurposed at least one of my articles here at Jazz Collector in Memories of Mingus. Anyway, I had spent the first half of 1973 at home in Bayside mending my broken leg and spending a lot of time at Red’s house, in the basement, poring through records and listening to music. It was definitely good times. When I got back to Syracuse, I wanted to do Red a favor so I wrote a review of a record
Yet Another Adventure in Jazz Collecting
Jul 14, 2010 Features, Jazz Memoirs
I have another story for you.
As many of you may recall, I have this oddball penchant for occasional wild gambles on eBay: Purchasing records that are not well described or, more often, buying batches of records that might contain one or two gems without having any sense of whether the listing is accurate or even feasible. I have done this maybe a couple of dozen times and it has almost always worked out to my advantage.I tried it again recently and thought I had finally met my Waterloo.
Here it is: I was recently up the country for a couple of weeks, doing work, doing fishing, some writing, a little Jazz Collector and occasionally looking at eBay. One day I was perusing the eBay listings and came upon a listing that was as follows:
Jazz Record Albums – 118 Albums from collector.
The seller had zero feedback: A complete eBay novice. In the description he noted that these records were the collection from his late stepfather, who was a CPA and accountant for musicians. It was a really strange list with a lot of non-jazz, such as Al Green and
Tags: Jazz Vinyl, Jazz Vinyl on eBay
Adventures In Jazz Collecting: Red Carraro, Part 2
Jul 13, 2010 Features, Jazz Memoirs
I can’t tell you all how much pleasure it gives me to see the many wonderful comments about Red Carraro from his family and friends, as well as from the many jazz collectors whose lives he touched. This was why I started the Jazz Collector site in the first place, to build this kind of community. That it has actually happened is intensely gratifying, as you can imagine.
But I also left you all in the middle of a story, with me in a cast clutching a batch of records, sitting with Red in his basement, with no way of getting home. So there were Red and I sitting there, no idea what to do, when the door flung open and Dan came charging down the stairs again.
“Are you giving me the record?” he said.
“No,” I replied.
He looked at Red, as if Red should fix this with a Solomon-like gesture of perhaps breaking
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