Russ Solomon passes at 92

[jazzbo]

http://www.sacbee.com/latest-news/article203542104.html

[JSngry]

dies at 92 while drinking whiskey and watching the Oscars...that's up there with having your heart give out while watching/laughing at a vaudeville act on the Jimmy Dorsey show!

one way or another, the SOB got enough of my money that I don't feel obligated to say RIP or whatever.

and I'd do it all again.

[soulpope]

4 minutes ago, JSngry said:

dies at 92 while drinking whiskey and watching the Oscars...that's up there with having your heart give out while watching/laughing at a vaudeville act on the Jimmy Dorsey show!

one way or another, the SOB got enough of my money that I don't feel obligated to say RIP or whatever.

and I'd do it all again.

Amen ....

[Chuck Nessa]

As someone with decades in the music retail business, I mourn his passing. He was a giant in that market. Met him once and he seemed to be a nice human. Thanks Russ, I know you sold a bunch of nessa records.

[paul secor]

RIP.
A good bunch of my record collection came from Tower. He got my money and I got a lot of great music, Fair trade.

[CJ Shearn]

RIP.  My 3 visits to Tower in Shinjuku this past November were very very special.

[clifford_thornton]

13 hours ago, paul secor said:

RIP.
A good bunch of my record collection came from Tower. He got my money and I got a lot of great music, Fair trade.

Ditto.

[Tom 1960]

A lot of great memoires whenever I visited Tower Records. I really miss those days! R.I.P.

[T.D.]

Damn. I enjoyed spending lots of time and money in the 2 big NYC Towers (Village and Lincoln Center). The Village location had an annex that sold books and cutout CDs, as I remember; Lincoln Center had incredible classical/opera inventory, and also a bookstore. (My memories of the bookstores are foggy because there were many preferable booksellers in Manhattan). I even blew a lot of money at the (Yonkers? southern part of NYS 100 shopping strip) Westchester branch.

It was clear that the chain overexpanded, and the sea changes in music preferences/distribution ensured there'd be no recovery.

[Tom 1960]

T.D. I only had one opportunity to visit the Lincoln Center Tower and for classical music, it was amazing. Agreed. 

[Brad]

I visited the Lincoln Center site many, many times.  Always a treat and so much great stuff.  

Times Obituary

 

[sgcim]

I remember walking into the Village Tower one afternoon, intending to spend an hour or so looking at records, and walking out of there about midnight, completely disoriented. 

[mjzee]

I have a different perspective, since I worked at J&R (a competitor, though we came first in NYC) for many years.  Tower’s prices were much higher than ours.  I also thought our selection was better, and our cutout selection was much better.  The one area they excelled in was Japanese imports, because they could bring in stock from their Japan operation.

[Ken Dryden]

I remember going into Tower Records in New York City and picked up a number of releasably priced Japanese jazz reissues, but there overall selection didn't blow me away compared to what Peaches had in a typical Southeastern store when they first opened in the mid-1970s. I think I only made it to J&R once and I can't remember what I bought there, but I doubt that I left empty-handed.

[JSngry]

18 hours ago, sgcim said:

I remember walking into the Village Tower one afternoon, intending to spend an hour or so looking at records, and walking out of there about midnight, completely disoriented. 

I can relate to this, not just at Tower, but every time I went to a good record store that was more deeply stocked than the last good record store. So much music...

[sidewinder]

Tower, Picadilly Circus in London is still badly missed. All time greatest visit there must have been mid/late 90s when they had all of the Jazz 625 releases on video, the early Miles Davis Columbia CD sets, a whole bay of Japanese imports. I ended up purchasing the Coltrane Atlantic vinyl box that day. Having said that, the Tower US prices worked out quite a bit cheaper ($ for £ effectively).

RIP.

[mjazzg]

Tower, Piccadilly Circus opened until midnight for some time so you could leave a gig and head down there to stock upon whoever had just impressed. Also, more worryingly you could do the same after an evening in a central London pub - great fun but invariably an expensive exercise especially in the cold light of the next morning!

[sidewinder]

Yes, I can recall some post-10pm saunters into there but never made it to midnight !

The glass window floor gave me the willies after a few pints though..