Tag: Spike’s Record Rack

Listening to Random Jazz Vinyl for Fun and Inspiration

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Recently I’ve been pulling random records off the shelf and listening either to a side or the whole album. The impetus has been to just play records I haven’t listened to for a while or because something or someone piqued an interest. For example, as I write this the album I have on the turntable is Cannonball Adderley and the Poll Winners, Riverside 355. My impetus was purchasing a second copy to upgrade the condition, not of the record but of the cover. It turned out that the copy I owned was in pristine condition, but it could use a better cover so I went back to Spike’s Record Rack in Catskill to pick up the copy I had left behind. This 1960 album features Cannonball with Wes Montgomery, Ray Brown, Vic Feldman and Louis Hayes. As if I really needed confirmation, this is quite a great record, with great playing and a nice selection of originals, standards and the Charlie Parker composition Au Privave. Read more

Another Visit to A Record Store, Pandemic Edition

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One of the things I have missed during the pandemic has been going to record stores. I love going to record stores. It’s a life-long habit, and pleasure, one which I have never wanted to give up, even in the dark days of the recent past when vinyl was an endangered species and brick-and-mortar record stores seemed to be going the way of the 8-track. Even then, I would regularly visit the surviving stores and always buy something, it seemed, because, fundamentally, I like buying records. Anyway, I couldn’t remember the last time I physically walked into a record store, even though there are several decent, recently opened stores in a reasonable driving distance from my home in The Berkshires, where The Lovely Mrs. JC and I have permanently relocated since the pandemic began. I decided this was an itch that just had to be scratched and the other day I grabbed my son’s dog, Gordon, who is visiting for a few weeks, and got in the car and took a ride over to Catskill, New York, a little more than an hour away, to visit my favorite of the record stores in the area, Spike’s Record Rack, of which I have written several times in the past. Spike and I have gotten to be quite friendly during our brief interactions, so I sent him a heads-up in advance that I would be making a visit. Read more

The Jazz Collector Inbox: A New Vinyl Store, Dex Bio, Strayhorn, Etc.

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Being an infamous jazz vinyl maven and member in good standing of the Jazz Journalists Association affords me the pleasure of having my name appear on many mailing lists for press releases, other announcements and the very occasional free record, CD or digital download (whether I want it or not).  Which is a roundabout way of saying that I am going to use this post to clean out my inbox.

Most of my inbox is filled with releases from a guy named Jim Eigo at Jazz Promo Services, a service I used a couple of years ago to try to bring greater attention to the post I wrote after the election called Chasing Trane: A Review, an Appreciation, a Spiritual Awakening. It looks as if Mr. Eigo has taken the plunge that has often been a pipedream of my own and has opened a brand new vinyl record shop called Original Vinyl Records in Warwick, NY.

This is yet another town in the Hudson Valley of New York, which, for some unknown reason seems to have become a mecca for vintage vinyl shops. According to an interview in Goldmine, Eigo chose this location for a pretty simple reason: It’s a minute from his home and the price was right. Read more

Have I Ever Mentioned That I Like Buying Jazz Records?

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Time to close the books on the latest round of stories and sprees that sprung from my first visit to Spike’s Record Rack in Castkill, NY a few weeks ago. You may recall that I purchased about 15 records, which I somehow found to be more than somewhat rejuvenating in terms of listening to music and appreciating the breadth and depth of my collection. After I got home from that first visit to Spike’s with the 15 records, I did what I typically do, which is clean the records, listen to a few and sort out which ones may be duplicates with records I already own, so as to ensure that I keep the copy in best condition for my own collection. In this case, I was surprised to see that I did not have a copy of Oscar Peterson Plays Irving Berlin on Clef. Certainly I’ve had one in the past, but I must have weeded it out based on the condition.  I gave it a quick listen and it was about what would be expected, perhaps even a bit better because the sound quality was quite good and the condition was excellent.

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A Visit to A Record Store, Upstate NY Edition

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Sometimes you are lucky enough to  find a decent jazz vinyl score where you would least expect it. Here’s one for you. The other day I was scheduled to pick up The Lovely Mrs. JC at the Amtrak station in Hudson, NY, for a weekend in The Berkshires. I’ve already checked out the record store in Hudson more times than I can count, so not much interest there. But I happened to do a search of record stores in the region and, voila, there was a complete guide to them all, courtesy of an online publication called Chronogram. I have wanted to check out the one in Beacon, NY, called Hudson Valley Vinyl, because our friend and sometime-contributor Clifford has recommended it to me in the past. Not to mention that it is on the way when I drive up from Manhattan to The Berkshires. But, alas, timing hasn’t worked out, yet. In the meantime, I noted one of the stores was a new one, just opened in April of this year. It is called Spike’s Record Rack and it is in Catskill, NY, just 10 minutes or so from the Hudson Amtrak station. The listing in the article was quite sparse because the store was quite new when it was written, but I had some time to kill before The Lovely Mrs. JC’s train was due to arrive, so, I figured, what the hell. At the very least I would get a lovely drive over the Rip Van Winkle Bridge and the Hudson River during the peak of fall foliage up here in the mountains. Read more