Great Finds

[Big Beat Steve]

I agree all the way with Jeffcrom, and would ask you, Jeff, to stay around, and keep posting. Please!

Yes, this thread IS about antiquarian obsessiveness, and I enjoy it, though I am thousands of miles away from where many of these finds can still be made at all, and yet I am not envious (well, hardly ever ).

I don't see any point either about dismissing the joy one experiences in finding an old, original, rare or otherwise desirable (PERSONALLY desirably, or else the one who make the find would pass the item up!) record, particularyl if you are able to find that item at an unbeatable price. This is part of the joy of ANY collecting hobby in ANY field out there.

So - sorry, Mr Nessa, I don't quite get your point (or your sore spot) in this discussion either. Like Jeff said, the "Great Finds" title pretty much sums up what one likely would talk and report about here, and rightly so IMHO.

And like corto maltese says, the excitement in finding a CD just is not the same. Finding a CD with music you have been looking for is nice and can be a satisfying experience, but unless you are all focused on CD or even newer methods (download etc.) it still remains "second best" to those who still treasure analog media.

BESIDES: How come I have not heard this kind of complaints or dismissals in those endless threads about "upgrading" the umpteenth re-re-reissues of this or that CD that had already been around the block a zillion times and YET masses of CD buyers droool about the (alleged) virtues of this or that latest/newest/best/superlative mastering/digitizing etc., although the sonic improvement often is marginal at best on most sound systems? Is it always about the music in THOSE discussions or isn't there some navel-gazing going on too, and isnt it often just a case just being able to say "Hey I got this latest of all latest remastering of this CD and the issue that YOU have is just old hat"?

As for it being about the music or not, are finding the music you have been looking for (and finding it at a good price) and finding it on the medium you prefer (here: vinyl) mutually exclusive? So it IS about the music after all, and as for the music being good or not, that is for the respective buyer and for no one else to decide. One man's meat is another man's poison, and certainly it its not for anyone to proclaim that what others are supposed NOT to enjoy.

[kh1958]

Last Saturday, I was pleasantly surprised to find these LPs at a small Half Price Books store:

Horace Silver, Silver's Serenede (Blue Note, NY USA, mono)

Jimmy Smith, Crazy! Baby (Blue Note, NY USA mono)

Herbie Mann, Charlie Rouse, Mal Waldron, Kenny Burrell, Just Wailin' (Status mono, heavy flat edge pressing)

Arnett Cobb, Ballads by Cobb, (Prestige Moodsville mono)

Thelonious Monk, Brilliant Corners (Dutch Riverside stereo)

Cannonball Adderley, In New York (Dutch Riverside stereo)

Buddy DeFranco, Bravura (Verve trumpet label mono)

Gene Ammons, Frank Foster, Nat Adderley, Frank Wess, Benny Green, The Swingingest (Vee Jay mono)

[Leeway]

It's not meant to be personal Jeff (or anyone else that feels this way). It's just a heads-up about a creeping (no, galloping) fetishism that seems to be taking over the listening experience, certainly the vinyl experience (but I also include endless remasters of CDs as well). It's a kind of kudzu on the music.

[jcam_44]

I've been super excited about finding a CD before. Vinny Golia - Puff of Smoke comes to mind, and the James Booker - United, Together We Stand that jeffcrom graciously helped me obtain.

If purchases were made just based on obscurity, Chuck has a valid point.

I picked up Tim Berne - The Five Year Plan a few months ago at a spot I like to visit every couple of months. Usually I can find a couple albums I like cheap but the Tim Berne really got me excited.

[Big Beat Steve]

It's not meant to be personal Jeff (or anyone else that feels this way). It's just a heads-up about a creeping (no, galloping) fetishism that seems to be taking over the listening experience, certainly the vinyl experience (but I also include endless remasters of CDs as well). It's a kind of kudzu on the music.

Well ... is it really just fetichism if one is pleased to find an interesting record from way back at a very good price that allows you to enjoy ALL aspects of the record (inlcuding listening to the music, but not only so), i.e. all the artwork, from the sleeve to the inner sleeve to the label in its original form as originally thought up and intended by those who published that object (record)?

I'd agree it is nothing but fetichism if you pay insane top, top, top money (up to 4-digit figures) for an original/first/early pressing just because it is a platter that some geek had in his grimy, grubby hands way back in the 40s/50s/60s. No music can be THAT great if you pay something like 10, 20 or 50 times what a decent later pressing or reissue goes for (particularly if it is a well-produced facsimile reissue that evne gives you a decent reprodution of the orignal artwork). But if you find an original or early pressing at a very good/affordable/low price in spite of what the "market price" would be then why not enthuse and share your enthusiasm with others? And isn't that all that THIS thread is about?

@jcam_44:

As for obscurity, Chuck has a point but only to a very limited degree. At least as far as collecting goes. If it all were about only going after the big names, big artists, big disks, then a lot of valuable music would be unjustly overlooked and forgotten and history would be all the poorer for it. Besides, a lot of deserving music was unjustly neglected and overlooked back then and therefores is obscure now. 'bout time to resurrect some of it now if you can.

Or else you might as well dump all those "Complete Works" box sets by all the major artists because - by that reasoning - why should anybody want or even be be entitled to collecting even the lesser and less successful works or even outright duds (even most major artists have been guilty of some of these)? No doubt a lot of those "obscurities" by obscure artists would be better and more deserving than the duds comited to wax by the major names on a not so good day.

Anyway you look at it, this sort if swiping dismissals is a door that ALWAYS swing both ways.

Edited March 11, 2015 by Big Beat Steve

[Head Man]

I've been super excited about finding a CD before.

Me too.....I walked into a record shop (remember them?) in Manchester many years ago and found these....

Boy, was I excited.....

[clifford_thornton]

In fairness I think all Chuck appears to be pointing out is that it's all too easy to get hung on the medium rather than the music . Something I know I'm occasionally guilty of . Buying an LP because it's a vintage pressing rather than its musical content . Sometimes I find myself thinking, "would I buy this if it was a CD" . If no, then pass.

Of course it's about the medium. I've never been excited about finding a CD.

And of course it's about the music.

Most of my friends collecting records are musicians themselves.

I have been super pumped to find some CDs. It's exciting to check out something you haven't heard before and be rewarded with the sounds contained therein.

I also consider a lot of records to be art objects as well, and their look/feel is very attractive.

[A Lark Ascending]

I get excited when I find a download of a record I've been looking for.

[Homefromtheforest]

Downloads; booooooorrrrrrrriiinnnggg

[Chuck Nessa]

That's ok. Beat me up. I'm used to it.

I can never tell if you're joking, but I don't think there's any beating up going on here.

Forgive me. I was distressed by the list of current discussions when I clicked on "View New Content". Go there now and see how many discussion topics advance the appreciation of music. The ratio is depressing to me.

[Leeway]

That's ok. Beat me up. I'm used to it.

I can never tell if you're joking, but I don't think there's any beating up going on here.

Forgive me. I was distressed by the list of current discussions when I clicked on "View New Content". Go there now and see how many discussion topics advance the appreciation of music. The ratio is depressing to me.

Endless number of trivia threads. I protested that in another thread, but more spring up every day. Do we really need 70 pages of posts on the Eiffel Tower? Content-less threads like that drive out the ones that have something to offer.

[colinmce]

I've long contended they should be housed in their own forum. Outta sight outta mind.

[clifford_thornton]

Agreed. And so many repeats within those threads.

[Big Beat Steve]

I find these theme-specific record covers amusing - up to a point:

If it were all about each contributor showing record covers only from HIS OWN collection that match that category - then, OK .

Picking a record cover from an internet site - particularly if it is a record the contents of which you could not even stand listening to if you were forced at gunpoint - is not something overly original or even creative, OTOH, particularly since googling such covers is no big deal these days anymore.

So you can round up any amount of record covers on any subject just via the internet. Or beyond ... By coincidence, last weekend I had a talk with a colleague from the classic car field who told me (I had been totally unaware of this) that he collects records too and has come 3,500. And what does he collect? Records with cars (any age, any country, any style) on the cover! Never mind (in most cases) the music ... If you were to take the file of his scanned record covers (which he has) you'd be just one step from flooding such a topic to death forever ...

And yes - the repetitiveness of what is posted in these threads is a problem too.

Which is why I visit those threads hardly anymore either, though I have long been a fan of those record cover art books that were arranged by theme.

But to each his own ...

Now as for advancing the appreciation of music, I can see that point, but aren't there quite a lot of discussions going on in that field at any time? Or is it about the complaint that people are not appreciating enough of what they are SUPPOSED to appreciate? I guess THIS is difficult to achieve, because tastes do differ. though I can understand the zealousness of those who feel this or that contemporary artist ought be more widely appreciated. But still ...

And in this context it is not helpful either if whenever certain artists, records or subcategories in the wide, wide field of jazz are mentioned you can almost set your watch to see how soon the detractors from among the partisans of "jazz as high art" rear their heads and dismiss the music outright as not being substantial/serious/advanced/musically complex/aspiring/challenging etc. (take your pick ..) enough. Not a very constructive attitude either if it is all about getting today's jazz out of the corner of a scant few followers, even if this means EASING people into jazz through something relatively accessible that they can already relate to right from the start.

Edited March 12, 2015 by Big Beat Steve

[mjzee]

We went down to New Orleans for a brief vacation.  While there, I found a Peaches store - had no idea that chain was still around.  I bought John Scofield's Who's Who? and the Heath Brothers' Live at the Public Theater for $10 each.

[aparxa]

70€  for 35  VG+ excellent Duke Ellington records from a UK auction (shipping+fees included).

I was late for that  live auction and a 27 NM LP  Mosaic NK Cole was already gone for £180 (I had made a prebid of £170) .

[mjzee]

At a Half Price Books today, I scored the following for $3.99 each: Sarah Vaughan Live in Japan, Ira Sullivan (on Horizon/A&M), and Monty Alexander @ Montreux.

[danasgoodstuff]

The Complete Sonny Criss on Imperial for $3.50 CND at the Vinyl Dinner in S'toon.  Yes I know it's a (dbl) CD, but it's too risky transporting vinyl across the scorching hot inter-mountain west in the summer, and good luck finding that material on LP much less at that price.  And a short appreciation of the music:  the relatively short playing times of the tunes tell you nothing at all about the total commitment of the players here.  Also bought some other (later) Crss and some early Ike Quebec, not bad for a trip with other purpose.  And my mom gave me some stuff.

[clifford_thornton]

Hmmm... I can't remember if I still have this CD set or not. I know I picked up a Japanese pressing of one of the Imperial LPs in Austin, but did I then unload the discs? All that stuff is boxed up and inaccessible now. Great music, in whatever form.

[danasgoodstuff]

Hmmm... I can't remember if I still have this CD set or not. I know I picked up a Japanese pressing of one of the Imperial LPs in Austin, but did I then unload the discs? All that stuff is boxed up and inaccessible now. Great music, in whatever form.

It is indeed, as are the two later sessions (1969 & '75) on one CD I bought for slightly more the same time and place.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

Found a near mint version of this for $6.00 the other day.

 

this is really good, right? i prob need to get this

Edited August 17, 2015 by chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez

[JSngry]

Is really good, yes. It's the Rocky Boyd album.

[clifford_thornton]

The tenor saxophonist who sort of began my career was Rocky Boyd, and he was hot, very hot at that period. He was responsible for bringing Sam Rivers into the music, Tony Williams into the music; he's from Boston. So he helped me begin, and he was very encouraging of me in my studies, as we were living together downtown. Because, from [age] 20-22, I had a coffee shop in the Village, called Cafe Somethin' Else, and I sold my shop to get deeper into the music and started studying harder. When I had my shop, you know, I had my drums in the back, and one thing led to another, and I became professional with Rocky, around '58, but really on the map with Cecil, as far as people know. 

From an interview I did with Sunny Murray in 2003 for All About Jazz.

[spinlps]

Picked up four of the 2LP 45RPM BN titles at steep discount ($18 each) but was more excited to find two BeeHive's...

 

[rdavenport]

I found what appears to be an unplayed copy of John Gordon's "Exotica Suite".