Lester Young. Sweets Edison | jazzcollector.com https://jazzcollector.com For those who love jazz Tue, 19 Apr 2022 12:57:48 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 175772384 A Mini Adventure in Jazz Collecting https://jazzcollector.com/record-stores/a-mini-adventure-in-jazz-collecting/ https://jazzcollector.com/record-stores/a-mini-adventure-in-jazz-collecting/#comments Tue, 19 Apr 2022 12:57:48 +0000 https://jazzcollector.com/?p=8952 I think, and hope, I will never get over my passion for buying records. A couple of years ago, I decided I had too many [...]

The post A Mini Adventure in Jazz Collecting first appeared on jazzcollector.com.]]> I think, and hope, I will never get over my passion for buying records. A couple of years ago, I decided I had too many records in the house. I was spending too much time looking at them and organizing them, and less time playing them. Plus, they were taking up more space than we had originally planned, of course, because that’s what record collections do when they multiply. So I took about 2,000 records out of the house and put them into storage with the idea that these will eventually be sold. I wrote about it here at Jazz Collector and have had many inquiries, but so far I’m not ready to do anything with these records. The point of retelling this story is this: Even though I have more records than I want, and certainly more than I will ever need, I am still buying more records and bringing them into the house. Because that is what I do and what I like to do. Buy records. The other day, I had a chance to go into a good record store where I had not been for a long time. I was, as has often been the case for many years, dragging The Lovely Mrs. JC along for the adventure. Before we got to the town and to the store, I told her “you know I’m going to buy records. I don’t know what, I don’t know why, but I do know that, yes, I will be buying records.”

The record store in question was Hudson Valley Vinyl in Beacon, New York, which is somewhat along the way from Manhattan to The Berkshires, and it was pretty easy to convince The Lovely Mrs. JC that, “oh, wouldn’t Beacon New York be a lovely place to stop for lunch. Oh, and by the way, there happens to be a record store there.” It’s a very nice store, well organized, a nice inventory and fair prices. I can see where Clifford is a big fan, because they have a fantastic selection of free jazz. I am less of a fan and collector of that genre of music, but the store has a broader selection, and I like buying records, so I bought a few, because, well, that’s what I do.

There was a copy of Pres and Sweets on Verve, and I thought I could upgrade my cover. I put the record on when I got home. Is it just me, or does Pres sound pretty bad on this record? Like, they were happy to get a few takes out of him, but he certainly was not playing his best. I also got a mono pressing of Lookin’ at Monk! By Lockjaw Davis and Johnny Griffin. This was an upgrade for me and when I put the record on the turntable, I was not disappointed. Solid record. Finally, I picked up an original Fantasy record of Fatha Hines playing Fats Waller.  This was an original red vinyl pressing from 1956, very nice cover, liner notes by Ralph J. Gleason, and, what the hell, it was only $10. Also a nice record, with some surprisingly refreshing guitar by Eddie Duran.

Anyway, it was fun to go to a nice record store. As for the rest of the day, we never did have that lunch in Beacon New York. I guess we’ll have to do that next time.

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