Another mini-adventure in Jazz Collecting

I have a bunch of things to catch up on, including a mini-adventure in Jazz Collecting from earlier this year. Let’s start with the mini adventure and then do a separate post later on all of the other stuff. Because I’ve been doing the Jazz Collector site for about 20 years, I come up very high on Google searches for anyone looking to do anything with jazz collectibles. Over the years, I’ve gotten some weird and fascinating inquiries. I’ve also been able to buy some collections, such as the one from Irving Kalus back in  2012, 13 years ago, believe it or not. If you’re new to Jazz Collector and never read that story, check it out. It’s a fun read. To give you a little tease, the graphic accompanying this post is from back then. I would say I average one or two inquiries a week, and most of them turn out to be nothing. This latest one turned out to be something, although I’m still not sure what. It started, as they all do, with an email. The subject line read: “Donation of a collection.” Here was the text: “My brother passed away. He had a collection of well over 1,000 Jazz CDs, many unopened. I am not a fan, so I would like to donate the collection to someone who would enjoy it. I’m in White Plains, NY. Please find someone to take it, I would hate to send it to recycling. Thank you.”

Normally, I wouldn’t get overly excited about CDs and I wouldn’t go too far out of my way for them. But it just so happened I was planning to drive through White Plains just a few days after receiving this missive. I wrote back, mentioned that I would be in White Plains and said that I would be happy to take the CD collection and either keep it, donate it, or use it on my radio show/podcast. The sender wrote back that his brother had been collecting for at least 30 years and “I could not even think of dumping it.”

My reply: “As I mentioned, I’m very happy to take the CDs and find a home for them. However, you would also have the option of selling them to a local record store if there is one in the area. Depending on the CDs, you might be able to get $500 or more for them, so you wouldn’t have to just dump them.”

His reply: “I have 4 cases of about 60 to 70 each and 4 cardboard boxes with 150 + in each. I never considered selling. All I want is that you mention in your blog they he loved the music and is now giving his 30 + year collection to those like him.”

So, the next day I drove down to White Plains, knocked on the door, and there in the living room were the four cases and large boxes all filled to the brim with CDs. The CDs were in a variety of states: Many were in their original jewel case packages with liner notes, etc., as you would find in a store. There were probably 200 to 300 like that. There were also a few hundred CDs that were in jewel cases without the original liner notes or packaging.

The largest percentage of CDs were mixed tapes that the owner made himself. Each of these was carefully curated with the artists’ name and the tracks. Clearly the owner had spent a ton of time organizing this and taking a great joy out of his collection and the music. Some of these mix tapes were in their own jewel cases, and many were in these six-player CD magazines that would go directly into a CD player.

Anyway, we loaded the entire collection into the trunk of my car, filling pretty much all of the space, and I drove off with 1,000 CDs that I had no idea what to do with. I was heading to my niece and nephew’s house for a family gathering the next day, and I left the CDs in the car, hoping perhaps, that some family members may be interested. At this point, I had barely even looked at the CDs to see what was there. The general reaction from my family members was this: “CDs? Hah! How quaint.”

No interest there.

When I got home I unloaded the boxes and cases from my car and brought it all into the house. I have a lot of CDs, but I don’t actually collect them. And I rarely listen to them. But I have been using some on my radio show/podcast, so that was perhaps an opportunity. In fact, I’ve just used a Charlie Parker boxed CD set for some of the recent shows I did on Bird. Beyond that, I had promised the owner’s brother that I would try to find a home (or several homes) for the CDs, and I would try to do that.

Thus began the rather painstaking task of going through every CD and deciding what to do with it. The first part was relatively easy, and that was going through the original CDs that were still in their jewelry cases. I will say that the owner had an interesting mix of music. Clearly some of his favorites coincided with some of mine. There were lots of Bill Evans and Sonny Rollins, Chet  Baker, Monk, Miles Davis, Brubeck and more. I decided I would keep these, even if I had my own copies. I felt like I was the curator of a collection that the owner clearly treasured, and I would always know that these CDs came from someone who loved them. All in all, I kept about 100 CDs and they are now sitting on a shelf behind me as I type this.

Next. The CDs in jewel cases I decided not to keep were artists that didn’t appeal to me. Grover Washington Jr. was one, Willis Jackson was another, and there were also rock and pop CDs that were not in my sweet spot. I did think about offering these up on Jazz Collector but, at the time, I was really busy with my life and, frankly, didn’t want to go through the hassle of listing them, packing them, mailing them, etc., etc. If you are reading this and disappointed with that decision, I apologize.

I have a good relationship with the owner of one of the record stores in my general area, Spike’s Record Rack in Catskill New York.  I know Spike sells CDs, so I called him and he said to stop in. He wasn’t interested in the mix tapes, but he was interested in some of the CDs, so I exchanged them for a store credit and picked up a few Beatles collectibles that I will always remember came to me as a result of the CD collection I accidentally inherited in White Plains New York. Looking for some good karma here.

The mix tapes – should I call them mix CDs? – were a separate issue because they were very particular to this one man’s taste. I painstakingly went through all of the magazines to see what was there, take them out, and organize them. I bought a couple of 200-capabity CD folders to hold them, so any interested party could go through them. The radio station wasn’t interested. But in my local community we have a couple of places where they could go to find a home, or several homes.

At our town dump, which we euphemistically call “the transfer station,” there is a small building affectionately called “the swap shop” where people drop off stuff they don’t need and other people in the community can just pick it up free.  The swap ship is often used by the residents of a neighboring facility that caters to individuals, mostly young adults, suffering from mental health issues and/or drug-related issues. These residents often use the swap shop for books, music and other things – for example, in the past I’ve donated a guitar, blackboard and other items. I’ve also picked up lots of good stuff from the swap shop, including, incredibly, a bunch of original Mosaic boxed CD sets. I wrote about this score on Jazz Collector 10 years ago, almost too the current day. More good Karma for me, and for the owner of the CD collection. The next day, I went back to check out the mix tapes. They were all gone, hopefully finding homes or a home where they will  be appreciated.

So, I eventually found homes for all of the CDs, fulfilling the commitment I made to the man’s brother.  There was also this commitment: “All I want is that you mention in your blog that he loved the music and is now giving his 30 + year collection to those like him.”

In one of the CD boxes was the following note written on a small memo pad from St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital:

“John R Brooks

Bridgeport CT

Tax lawyer – 25 years

IRS tax law instructor 6 years

Single. Died at age 77”

I can add that John loved jazz, clearly knew his stuff, and had a real passion for both the music and the joy of collecting.  And, among other things, he had a loving brother. Rest in peace.