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.

The post Another mini-adventure in Jazz Collecting first appeared on jazzcollector.com.]]> https://jazzcollector.com/features/another-mini-adventure-in-jazz-collecting/feed/ 5 9619 https://jazzcollector.com/features/listening-to-random-jazz-vinyl-for-fun-and-inspiration/ https://jazzcollector.com/features/listening-to-random-jazz-vinyl-for-fun-and-inspiration/#comments Sun, 31 Jan 2021 14:48:59 +0000 https://jazzcollector.com/?p=8652 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 [...]

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.

So far, my excursion deeper into the depths of my collection has only yielded positive results. It has convinced me that I could probably pull out virtually any record from my collection and be at the very least satisfied with the quality of the music. Which is saying something, because there are more than 7,000 vinyl records sitting on these shelves. I’m sure there are probably a few records that won’t make my personal grade – I am not partial to the organ, for example – but I have been aggressive about pulling those records out of the collection and moving them off the shelves. What I am going to do with those records is something to be decided, but sometime in the future you might see them in some kind of offering here at Jazz Collector or on eBay. Stay tuned.

l give you a couple of other records that ended up the turntable. The other day my friend Dan sent me a link to the Miles Davis record Blue Moods, Debut 120. He had never heard the record, nor had never heard of it. Fortunately, I had a very nice clean copy sitting right behind me on the shelves so I put it on. Interesting record with very interesting instrumentation, Miles with Britt Woodman on Trombone, Teddy Charles on Vibes, Charles Mingus on Bass and Elvin Jones on drummers. Music is terrific, but the quality of my pressing leaves a lot to be desired. It looks pristine, perhaps played once, but there is some surface noise that seems to be in the pressing, which wouldn’t be surprising, perhaps, as Debut did not have strong financial backing and the recording was back in 1955. Another great thing about these original records are the liner notes. In here, we have stories of Mingus giving Elvin a hard time. Of course, Mingus had a financial stake in Debut and thus would be concerned about the quality of the playing. And, also, he was Mingus, so he didn’t particularly need a reason to be obstreperous. And Elvin was still pretty young and just making his mark. If any of you has this record and wants to take the time to give it a listen, I’d be curious if your copy also has pressing-related surface noise, or if it’s just me.

I have all of the Curtis Counce records on Contemporary, but can’t recall ever listening to one, until last week when I put on The Curtis Counce Group, Contemporary C3526 from 1957. The personnel is Counce on bass with Jack Sheldon on trumpet, Harold Land on tenor, Carl Perkins on piano and Frank Butler on drums. Another winner. Sheldon and Land are both inspired and in their primes.

The final record in this series was a guitar record, Dick Garcia, A Message From Garcia, Dawn 1106. This one looks to be from 1956 and features a young Bill Evans on several tracks. The record is surprisingly well recorded and features some nice playing from Gene Quill on alto. Garcia plays well in the Tal Farlow mode, but not quite as creative or dexterous as Tal, but, then again, no one else was either. Anyway, I recommend all of these records and I recommend going through a similar process if you have listening time, rather than putting on one of your tried and true go-to records. Like me, I imagine you will be pleasantly surprised and perhaps find some inspiration.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The post Listening to Random Jazz Vinyl for Fun and Inspiration first appeared on jazzcollector.com.]]>

He has always had a decent stock of  jazz records at fair prices, so I was curious what might strike my eye. I have also recently set my sights on upgrading my Beatles collection. A couple of years ago, I purchased reissues of some of the U.K. Parlophone records, which I did not own growing up in Bayside, NY. Some of the later pressings were issued as “audiophile” issues and they sound fine, but the reissues of the earlier Parlophones sound like crap and I have decided I want to have original pressings. I know I diverge from the theme at Jazz Collector and, for those of you who didn’t realize that I am also an avid Beatles fan, now you know. Also, for the record, James Taylor.

Anyway, Spike and I were both wearing masks, although Gordon, being a canine, was spared. No original Beatles Parlophones in Catskill, NY, but I found a vinyl copy of the Beatles Anthology 3, which I don’t own, so that made the pile. In jazz, I pulled out a VG++ copy of Cannonball Adderley and the Poll Winners to upgrade the condition of my record, but somehow I left it behind. I did take a few jazz records, including an original Buddy Rich on Norgran because the copy was really clean, the personnel was strong including Sonny Criss and Ben Webster, and, frankly, the sight of the yellow label Norgran was just too compelling to pass up for $15. I also grabbed a couple of Riversides, Paul Serrano and Don Friedman, because the condition was strong and the price was right and I don’t own these records and because, fundamentally I like buying records and I want to support stores I like. Will I ever listen to the Buddy Rich, Don Friedman or Paul Serrano records? I am going to make a concerted effort to do so.

I did pass up some decent collectibles, mostly because I already own them and I already have more duplicates than I would like. There was a Gene Ammons on Prestige, as well as one of the early James Moody yellow label Prestiges. There was Jimmy Smith House Party, a couple of nice Monk records, a couple by Roland Kirk. There were more, but they all didn’t register because I didn’t buy them. And, of course, Cannonball Adderley and the Poll Winners, which I expected to see in my pile when I got home but somehow had left behind in the store. I want to blame Gordon the dog, but he insists he had no role and was locked in a traveling bag the whole time. I guess it means I’ll have to make a return appearance to visit Spike in the near future.

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.

A quick search tells me this store is about an hour and 10 minutes from my apartment in Manhattan and another two and a half hours to my house in the Berkshires, so I will have to add it to my Hudson Valley itinerary on my travels along with Spike’s Record Rack in Catskill, NY, and Hudson Valley Vinyl in Beacon, NY. I will make sure Mr. Eigo is there on my travels so I can chat with him about what he may have in store for us.

In the meantime, he has been using his own service to send out promotions about the store, including the pictures accompanying this article of records from several newly purchased collections. Looks like some interesting stuff, further fueling my interest in getting to the store soon, which, of course is the intent. I’m sure if you contact Jim at the store or at Jazz Promo Services, he would be happy to add your name to his mailing list.

Speaking of record stores, there was this notice that the original proprietor of Bleeker Bob’s, Robert Plotnik, passed away earlier this year. I was in that store dozens of times and never bought a single record there. But that was me. Of course, it made it into Seinfeld, so it will live forever.

There’s a new biography called The Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon written by his wife Maxine Gordon. Looking forward to reading it after seeing this review in The New York Times.

If you want insight into the mind and music of Billy Strayhorn, you can now access his archives at The Library of Congress.

The media company Vox has done a video series on jazz, including this one on Blue Note album art.

Finally, there is this animated infographic on The Top 20 Jazz Pianists of All Time.The young woman who created this sent me a link and I said if I got a chance I would post it. So I did.

But I knew the music wasn’t going to knock my socks off and it didn’t. I had a much better experience with the Mulligan Plays Mulligan record on Prestige, which I probably hadn’t listed to since I first purchased it more than 30 years ago. Great record, both sides, the tentette as well as the quintet/sextet. It’s hard to believe the ensemble sides were recorded in 1951, they still sound so fresh and innovative. And Allen Eager was a mother. It was eye-opening to sit back and really listen to him play. So that inspired me to put on a bunch of other ensemble records, including Miles Davis Birth of the Cool and Benny Golson The Modern Touch, two of my favorites. All in all, I spent a couple of days listening to new records, sorting out duplicates and following the inspiration from discovering a new record then moving to a record in my collection and generally having a good old time just listening.

This, of course, inspired me to take another trip back to Spike’s Record Rack to see what I may have missed and that was the inspiration behind the second story I posted on Jazz Collector, Feeding the Obsession, Yet Again, in which I wound up reorganizing all of my 78-RPM records and my 10-inch records and generally making a mess of things, what with slicing the paper sleeves of 300 78s and stuffing the records onto my shelves. The second visit to Spike’s brought a new round of records, including the 10-inch Blue Note James Moody and His Modernists, as well as a few others that filled gaps in the collection. Writing about the trips to Spike’s Record Rack also elicited an invitation from the owner of another record store in the general area, Hudson Valley Vinyl in Beacon, NY, and, of course, how could I pass I an invitation to a record store I had never before visited, particularly one that had previously been recommended to me by our friend and sometimes contributor Clifford Allen.

So a few days later I was back in the car with Marty the dog on my way down the Hudson River to lovely Beacon NY to look at more records, the results of which can be seen in the picture at the beginning and end of this post. For me, the highlights of this excursion were the Gene Ammons Prestige and the Dave Brubeck Plays Leonard Bernstein. The Ammons was only $8, which felt like a bargain, considering that the condition was excellent. It is one of the only records that features John Coltrane on alto sax and, for that reason alone, is a worthy addition to any collection. I listened to that one first when I got home and was also pleasantly surprised. Coltrane on alto is quite interesting, and you can hear that he kind of approached it the way he later approached the soprano, with a lot of energy, hard blowing and a lot of notes. He doesn’t really sound like any other alto player you could readily identify.

I was pleased to get a copy of the Brubeck record because 1: It was an original pressing and sealed and 2: It has become one of my favorite listening records, the side with the West Side Story music, and I wanted to have a copy for my studio apartment in New York. Call me greedy, what can I say. For $20 it was well worth it. I’ve become swept away by the creativity of Paul Desmond’s playing over the past few years and he has become one of my absolute favorite artists, and he shines particularly well on this record. I also want to commend the owners of Hudson Valley Vinyl – nice store with an excellent collection of jazz vinyl at fair prices. I would recommend that Jazz Collector readers go there, although that belies my general instinct to keep these places to myself, although in this case I know it’s way too late to harbor any such illusions. Seems like I’m the last one to know about this store.

I am now a couple of weeks past these sprees and I have many more records to place on the turntable and perhaps I am not done yet with this latest round of purchsasing. There is still the local guy with 1,500 records who is not returning my calls and a collection of 10-inch LPs and 78s somewhere in the middle of the country that may have some promise. Stay tuned.

I was not disappointed on any level. It was a sunny day, late afternoon, and the scenery was absolutely spectacular, particularly going over the bridge, where you could see the fall colors in all of their brilliance for miles and miles up and down the river. Then I crossed the bridge and made my way to Catskill, just a couple of miles south. I remember Catskill from about 25 or 30 years ago as a really depressed, downtrodden, sleepy town that seemed to be headed toward oblivion. I had known that Hudson, NY, had undergone a gentrification transformation over the past dozen years or so, but I had not realized that Catskill fell into a similar category, starting a bit more recently. What had been a really rundown town is now quite vibrant with nice restaurants, artsy shops, a bookstore, even a theater. And, of course, it’s very own record store. Again, referring to Chronogram, Catskill is becoming to Hudson, what Brooklyn is to Manhattan. That is, a bit cooler and a bit hipper, still on the rise, not quite settled yet, but brimming with potential.

Anyway, I was able to park across the street from Spike’s and walked into a small but very neat, tidy and well-organized shop. I noticed the jazz right away towards the back on my left. There, above the several rows of records, was a wall display that was quite impressive: Max Roach and Clifford Brown at Basin Street; a nice Stan Getz on Norgran, and a few others. To be honest, I didn’t make more than a mental note of the wall display because they were all records I already own. But, the fact that each one on the wall was a true original collectible gave me cause for encouragement. No Blue Notes, but, nobody’s perfect, right?

I started going through the bins, the “New Arrivals” first and I was amazed at how many original pressings were in the lot, one after another, a bunch of Cannonball Adderley’s on Riverside and Mercury, some Gene Ammons. Again, I didn’t take much note of specific records because I had them. But then I started coming upon a few records I didn’t have. I checked out the prices on the back, and, they were actually quite fair. Not cheap, but not outrageous the way you see in some stores, where the owner has no idea what he is doing with jazz and just takes the older volumes of the Goldmine Price Guide or the highest prices on Popsike and tries to milk each record for all it’s worth.

At this point, I decided it was time to introduce myself to the owner and mention, casually, that I happen to do a Web site focused on jazz records. The owner’s name, you guessed it, is Spike, and we got along quite well. Of course, he was there to sell records and I was there to buy records, so we had a bit of a shared mutual interest from the outset. But he seems like a very nice, self-effacing guy, excited to finally have his own store after years of selling records on eBay and other online venues. You can see that he has put a lot of care into the store and, in chatting, we realized we had at least one mutual acquaintance, Joe Schwab of Euclid Records in St. Louis and New Orleans.

Anyway, Spike and I were chatting as I was sifting through the bins, and he mentioned that he had purchased a big jazz collection earlier this year, including a bunch of beautiful, mint Blue Notes that he had already sold, some in the store, some on eBay. He said the owner of that collection stored the records on shelves that were protected by Plexiglass doors, so they were pristine, including the covers. It was obvious in going through the bins, that many of the records from the collection were still in the shop, judging by the condition of the original pressings. I mentioned to Spike that I thought his pricing was fair, not underselling, but not trying to oversell. He said he generally goes by Discogs, but sticks to the more conservative end. To me, this makes sense because it keeps potential buyers coming back to the store, knowing they can do better at the location than they can do on eBay. Of course, not everyone has easy access to Catskill, NY, so there is downside to that approach as well. But, I suppose, if I had a brick-and-mortar store, I would do the same, trying to build a base of loyal customers and becoming a bit of a destination for collectors who may be in Albany, The Berkshires or even New York City.

As we were talking and I was pulling records from the pins and starting to pile them up, Spike mentioned that he also had 10-inch LPs from the same collection, but he doesn’t put them out on the shelves because no one is really interested. Now, of course, this was music to my ears, so I asked if they were in the store and he reached under the counter and pulled out a pile of very nice, 10-inch records in excellent condition, Pacific Jazz, Clef, Norgran. There was even a James Moody 10-inch Blue Note, which I already own.

As I continued piling up records, I asked Spike if we could do some kind of package price and he seemed amenable, which sparked me to add a couple of records I might not have put into the pile. In going through this process, I realized that I still have something of a jones for some of the old Norgrans and Clefs. It’s not necessarily the artists, but the packaging, the heavy vinyl, the Stone Martin covers. I’d pick them up and think about putting them back, but then I’d look at the price and it was too tempting, so I’d just put them in the pile, Louis Bellson, Flip Phillips, Charile Ventura. Records that would be of little interest to me musically, but would give me great satisfaction, looking at the covers as I peruse my collection. I guess I’m a sucker. There were some nice Clef and Norgran records, including a 10-inch Stan Getz Plays, but the price was too much to spend just to have a duplicate copy, so I left it behind for someone else. No Lester Youngs, Birds or Billie Holidays to my recollection, for those I might have gobbled up, even to have duplicates.

In the end, I wound up with a pile of 15 records, many of which I just don’t have, including a couple of Gerry Mulligan 10-inchers, as well as the afore-mentioned Bellson and Phillips LPs. There was also an absolutely pristine copy of Mulligan Plays Mulligan on Prestige, and the price was right, so that also ended up in the pile, upgrading the copy in my collection. The 15 records are pictured at the beginning and end of this post and I thought I did well for myself and by Spike, paying an average of about $25 per record. He started off with fair prices and was very easy to deal with. I left behind a few records that I would have liked, but by this time it was getting late to pick up The Lovely Mrs. JC and, having spent nearly $400 on records, keeping her waiting was not a good idea.

Back home, I’ve listened to a few of the records at this point, about what would be expected. I put on the Flip Phillips Clef record and was kind of amazed at how poorly recorded it sounded. It was as if the musicians were in a room with the door closed and someone was taping it from outside the room. Certainly not a Van Gelder, but also not up to the standard I would normally expect from this label. By contrast, I was somewhat pleasantly surprised by the Ammons record on Moodsville. He was never a favorite of mine, but this album is all ballads and he certainly knows his way around a ballad. Not quite Dexter, but quite capable and listenable.

I am looking forward to listening to all of the records, and also to visiting again with my new friend Spike. I just found out that The Lovely Mrs. JC has a train ticket for two weeks from Friday so, if you want to beat me to the punch, you have two weeks to make your way to Catskill, New York.