Feeding the Obsession, Yet Again
So that trip to Spike’s Record Rack in Catskill, NY, sparked a bit of inspiration for me, as far as listening to records and enjoying my collection. First of all, I realized, one again, and this is obvious to everyone who knows me, including all of you here who know me but don’t actually know me, that I really enjoy buying records. I know, it’s a big reveal, but sometimes it’s easy to forget. For years it has seemed that the era of going to record stores and actually finding collectible jazz records in nice condition was over and never coming back, having evolved to an online/eBay world. Who would have thought that there would a vinyl revival, not just in records but in stores that carry jazz vinyl and cater to vinyl enthusiasts such as us? It is a pleasant and wholly unexpected surprise that an activity that has given me so much enjoyment all of these years is now something I can do again. Now, if my knees would cooperate with basketball and my arm with stickball, I’d really be drinking from the fountain of youth.
The other thing that was inspirational about buying those 15 or so records was that it gave me the push to better organize my records, listen to a bunch I hadn’t listened to in years, and sort through my doubles. All of this activity has led to a couple of stories, and we will start with the one that has to do with organizing my collection of 78-RPM records because, after that first moderate score at Spike’s Record Rack in Catskill, I followed up a week later with a return engagement and, this time, I looked down and noticed on the floor that he had a couple of boxes of 78s, including some complete albums in nice condition by Ellington and Armstrong and a few others, and they were $5 each and, what the heck, I do love these things and I do have a collection of them, so what could I do?
I brought these 78s home and I was looking at the shelves in my office and I knew something had to be done to clear space for new arrivals. And I realized that the top shelf in my office had books on it, in a place wherein the 78s would have been much better represented. So I pulled all of the books off the shelves and began moving the 78s onto these shelves and then I suddenly remembered why the books were there in the first place. The gentleman who built these custom cabinets decided on his own how high the shelves should be, even though I was clear that I wanted each of the shelves to be at least 12-1/2 inches in height so that they could contain LP records. Naturally. But he had his own ideas and decided to make some of the shelves precisely 10 inches high. His explanation was that he thought I could use them for books.
He’s a friend and he’s done great work for me and I didn’t have the heart to ask him to redo the cabinets, so I figured I would just put books on those top shelves as he suggested. The 78s just missed fitting by the tiniest fraction of an inch. Or so it seemed until last week, when I took down the books and tried to put the 78s on the shelf, only to be thwarted by the tiniest fraction of an inch, and then I tried something I hadn’t tried before. I took a 78 out of the brown paper sleeve and put it on the shelf. Voila, it fit, with perhaps an eighth or a sixteenth of an inch to spare.
And this, my friends, is where necessity became the mother of invention, or something of the sort, because at this point I really needed to put those 78s on that shelf, having, in my mind, already decided that putting the 78s on these top shelves were the linchpin of yet another re-organization of my entire collection, wherein I would move my 10-inch LPs from the bedroom, where they were doing me no good, to my office, where there were many other records as well as a nice turntable and a professional-grade record cleaner.
At this point I must stop and stay that I do feel comfortable sharing all of this with my friends here at Jazz Collector because I know that some of you may be at least as compulsive as me, or close to it, so it causes me no degree of embarrassment to expose my obsessions, as opposed to when I told this story to The Lovely Mrs. JC and she burst out loud laughing at what transpired next.
To paint the picture, in my office there are three fairly long shelves at the top of a cabinet, and each shelf is approximately 10 inches in height from top to bottom. On these shelves there is room for a 78- RPM record, but not the full Bags Unlimited brown sleeve of 78-RPM record. Across the length of these three shelves, if one were to be creative, there would be room for about 300 or so 78-RPM records. In my case, this would open up space for 300 10-inch LPs somewhere else in my office, a reorganization that was holding quite a appeal to me.
So, this is what happened. I took two 78-RPM records in their sleeves and cut the very top of the sleeves off, so the top edge of the record was barely visible. And then I put those two records on a shelf that was now devoid of books. Guess what? They fit. So all I needed to do to feed my obsession was cut the tops off 298 additional sleeves of 78-RPM records, with the records already in them, and keep them in order and line them up properly on the shelves.
No sweat.
In case any of you ever needs to do this, I do have practical advice to offer, in that I may be one of only a handful of people in the entire world to have ever been through this exact experience. Two at a time is the most effective way to cut the sleeves. Three is a little tough on the scissors and, if the sleeves don’t line up properly, you run the risk of actually cutting into the edge of the record, which turns out to be not so healthy for the record. Also, make sure you have a sharp pair of scissors. I would also recommend not starting this project at midnight, as I did, because it will take you several hours to complete and you may wind up not falling asleep until 4:00 in the morning, or even later. Oh, yes, and prepare to have a large broom on hand, because thin slices from 300 brown record sleeves can create quite a pile of confetti that you may have never anticipated.
One more piece of advice. If you ever do have to do this, you may not want to share the information with your wife, even if she is as understanding and lovable as The Lovely Mrs. JC. Somehow, she might get the idea that your record collecting may have crossed a line and become just a little bit obsessive/compulsive, and you certainly wouldn’t want her to get that idea, however true it may be.
Hopefully your shelves are sturdy as an expanse of 300 78 rpm shellac records on a top shelf may constitute a considerable mass and weight and mayhaps can create a situation not desired.
Whenever my collecting obsession feels like it’s getting a little out of hand this is my “I’m not that bad” reference.
Years ago a collector offered to sell me his jazz collection and named off all the right artists and labels. Upon entering the apartment I discovered that he had decided to save shelf space by putting all the lps in 12in 78 book style binders and threw away the covers!!
He had also arranged each lp not by artist but sequentially according to his favorite song, Willow Weep For Me, Easy Living, etc.
He believed this carefully curated jazz library was worth a fortune and hustled me out the door when I failed to appreciate his efforts.
Woody — glad I can be of service.
Lennib — have no fear. Shelves are well spaced and well braced. Next time I’m up in the country I’ll take a picture to reassure you.
The shellac attack is most welcome ! 78 r.p.m.’s is a speed I can live by. Thanks for recognizing their value in the jazz journey. Skip, hiss and pop always !
Al–I was referencing the OCD issues of the guy in my story, trust me, I’m on the spectrum.
One of the reasons we were behind schedual opening the original Academy Lp Store in the East Village is I was doing all the carpentry, bins, shelving, front counter etc. and in my head everything had to fit a certain way. I was accused of trying to Woodify everything…chosing to interpret that as a compliment was my only choice.
I once decided on a great way to organize my doubles… as I was falling asleep at about 1am. I decided to see if it would work by testing one or two… and ended up doing the whole project, which also required me to move almost every single record I own. I finished at 6am, and then I went in to teach an 8am class. I think that day took about ten years off my life.
OK, Woody, I need a quick catch-up on my NYC knowledge. It’s been almost 20 years since I lived there…
In the late 90s, Academy Records used to be on W. 18th between 5th and 6th Aves. I worked on 5th and 28th St., so it was only a short walk. They did a long move to somewhere in the 4th and 12th St area (maybe I am a bit off here but it was definitely south of 18th and east of Broadway) over the winter in 2000-2001. Then, I think, they opened a location in Williamsburg as well.
Now, I just looked on Google, and it looks like Academy Records is back on W. 18th, and the Academy LP store in East Village you are referring to seems to be a different organization? The store Academy was moving to over that winter (took them 6 months or so to re-open; I blame them for my collection being only some 3000 large) does not seem to exist?
New Yorkers! Cure my nostalgia a little, please!
yeah, so basically the EV store (and Brooklyn annex) is a different organization. The owners split off sometime in the early 00s.
the 18th store has been pretty fixed since the 90s though they sell a lot more jazz, rock, folk and whatnot these days, in addition to their classical holdings (which are the best in the city).
Thank you, Clifford!
Agree, I recall their classical section being equal or larger than everything else combined then. I still have quite a few things I picked up at the 18th St store in the late 90s. The move I referred to was probably due to a renovation at the 18th St. store. It stayed closed for way more than 6 months. Then they opened that location that I cannot ping exactly anymore; it was definitely not the current EV location as it was only a couple of doors east the avenue. Picked up an original 1960s unplayed French press of a Claude Nougaro LP (quite scarce) and a bunch of other stuff before moving away post 9/11.
There was a book shop right across the 18th from Academy that also consistently sold jazz records. Once, while on a lunch break stop, I picked up a first press of “Time Waits”. It was only VG but also it was only $3. And they had a 30% off sale on records that day.
yeah I don’t recall the name of the bookshop but it is long gone.
Gryphon was also really good for classical but they moved and no longer present a viable option, from what I understand.
Also missed from NYC in that era: Shrine, Other Music, The Sound Library, and there was a really good jazz store in Park Slope I’m forgetting the name of, which closed some years ago.
In 2000 the Academy Cd store on 18th street decided to build a lP only store to handle the overflow of collections at that time at the corner of 4th Ave and 10th St. We opened in 2001 but by 2003 the back stock was still building up and the owners decided to open a location in Williamsburg.
In 2007 the 10th St landlord want to sell the building and wanted the commercial spaces empty so we moved to 12th St between 1st Ave and Avenue A. The Williamsburg store moved around 2015 to Red Hook as Williamsburg real estate prices became unreasonable.My favorite part of buying original owner jazz collections was the owners themselves. As a professional editorial photographer my MO had been to interpret/illustrate a person by analyzing their environment. When evaluating a jazz collection for purchase I could often tell what years the owner’s kids were in college by when the original pressings stopped and then restarted. I’ve seen large collections organized by artist, or label(the spines looked so cool) or even by date recorded or date purchased. Even though we’re all educated collectors here, we often buy the same record for totally different reasons. But in the end it’s all about the emotional attachment to the music.
Greenpoint, not Red Hook… I’ve never gotten the full skinny on how Mike at 12th/BK was able to keep the name of Academy when they are in fact different operations now, but perhaps it doesn’t matter in the end.
Clifford – You’re right, Greenpoint not Red Hook, they moved shortly before I left the 12th St Store.
Typical old school Manhattanite, all the Boroughs are Greek to me.
Pingback: Have I Ever Mentioned That I Like Buying Jazz Records? – jazzcollector.com
My grandfather left me EVERY Duke Ellington vinyl record he ever made. I have no idea how much this collection is worth or where to find out hoping you can help. I also have Louis Armstrong Benny Goodman and Ella Fitzgerald has part of the collection. I even have some RCA Victor record albums. ( like a photo album only with records in them).