Tag: Jazz Record Mart

Miscellaneous Music and Musings

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Back from a road trip that took me from The Berkshires to Chapel Hill to DC to New York and back. Didn’t stop in a single record store along the way and returned home to find that there are now two new record stores a few hundred feet apart in the little town of Great Barrington near my home. One of the record stores opens next week, the other opened this past weekend. I stopped by the one that has opened and it has the feeling of a guy clearing out his house, basement, garage and attic of a lot of stuff. But there were definitely records to view and buy, particularly if you are into vocals. I came upon a lot of Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, but I can’t vouch for the conditions. As of now, there is no organization to the store, everything seems to be thrown in at random. I did find three 10-inch records to buy: Lars Gullin on Vogue, James Moody on Emarcy and Frank Rosolino on Capital. They seemed in decent enough condition at the store, but when I took them out of the car I realized I would have to sneak them into the house because they smelled of mildew. I may go back to check out the store again, but I’ll be careful. Maybe next time I’ll take off the mask so I can make use of my sense of smell before buying anything. As for the other store, I’ll check it out when it opens and get back to you with a report.

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Guest Column: Dancing in Your Head

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Greetings to all. I’m Lenni Bukowski, whose comments under the moniker of Lennib you may have read, although recent ones may have been anathema as they dealt with dissolution rather than accumulation. I have also been emailing Al on the matter of disposing due to his post of May 3rd, 2015, titled ‘See You in Brooklyn? Not Anymore.’  He suggested  “Why don’t you write a post or two on your experiences…how to find a place in our lives for the passion we get by collecting, listening and playing jazz.”

I believe I have always been a collector of some sort, of something. Baseball cards, books, stamps, coins, toy soldiers. And looking back, I outgrew all of them over time. Being Chicago born, I had always been riding the subway or buses when I was old enough to and on one such journey of exploration in 1963 or ‘64, I walked into the Jazz Record Mart, 7 West Grand, and immediately heard a sound that would stay with me always. I asked the clerk, dig now, a hipster for real, red haired, goatee’d, all in black, beret’d, what was playing over the speakers. The reply came, with hipster hauteur, “That’s Bird, man.” Seeing a look of befuddlement, he took pity on a youngster and said that’s Charlie Parker.

And off I went. Read more

End of an Era

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Sonny Rollins, Prestige 78I see there was a mention in the previous post of the impending closing of the Jazz Record Mart in Chicago. Thought it is worth having a separate post if people choose to comment. I had some great experiences at that store. I’m sure I’ve told the story here before, but let me tell it again. Back in the mid-1980s I would go to Chicago fairly often on business and I would typically stay at the Hilton on Grand Avenue. It was just a short walk to the Jazz Record Mart and I always made sure I had extra time to do some record shopping. I think it was the first time I was there, I was looking through the rows of LPs when I noticed that there were also 78s on bottom shelves. I got down on the floor and began looking through the 78s and, to my great pleasure and surprise, there were hundreds of Prestige 78s — all of which looked like they were old store stock and had never been played. I started pulling them out, one after another after another after another. Pretty soon I must have had at least 60 Prestige 78s in various piles next to me on the floor. Read more

Adventures in Jazz Collecting: 78s

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I asked the question the other day: Does anyone out there collect 78s? No one replied, so I figured I would get the ball rolling.

The answer to the question, for me, is that I don’t collect 78s. I do, however, have more than 1,000 78s. The reason I say I don’t collect 78s is because if I did collect them, I’d be obsessed about them and worried about filling in my collection and getting all the Blue Notes and searching for 78s and hunting them down on eBay. That is what I do with my LP collection. I have never done that with 78s. Yet, through the years I have accumulated them.

It started back in the 1980s. There was an ad in the classified section of the local newspaper. A guy had a collection of jazz 78s and wanted to get rid of them. Normally I wouldn’t have cared, but I was curious: What if there were some original Bird 78s on Dial? So I called him and, indeed, there were some original Bird 78s on Dial: Yardbird Suite, Moose The Mooche, A Night in Tunisia. Holding these in my hand, it really felt like I was holding a piece of jazz history. The guy had about 1,000 78s and wanted $100 for them. That night I walked into the house and began unloading crates of 78s. Mrs. JC just looked at me and sighed.

Then, of course, I had to get a 78 player. I still have the first one I ever purchased: A crank-handle

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