Collections

[mrjazzman]

What would be the appropriate forum to discuss collections. I want to see how mine stacks up against the rest.

[Big Beat Steve]

Misc. Music?

[Big Beat Steve]

27 minutes ago, Captain Howdy said:

Dick-measuring contest? 

Going on in more than the occasional discussion here already ...

How many "name" musicians have I rubbed elbows with after-hours?
How many festivals have I attended (festivals abroad counting double)?
What unreleased tapes inaccessible to common mortals among jazz listeners have I laid my grimy hands on?
With how many musicians/bands have I achieved my completist goal of their recorded opus?
Who has visited the farthest away B&M record shop in search of that elusive item?
On how many live gigs have I ruined everybody else's view of the stage because I have jumped about and around and across the stage firing away with my camera?

(and so on and so on ...)

 

[Patrick]

Perhaps a poll to get an idea about the size distribution, and a gentle request that participants in said poll vote anonymously?

I know, unlikely.

[Rooster_Ties]

Of course the very best thing about such a "collections comparison thread" -- would be to convince my wife that there are plenty of others here who are WAY more obsessed with this stuff than I am.  Bring it on!!

And needless to say that the various "post a photo of your collection" threads on the Steve Hoffman Forums are automatically shared with my wife.

[Big Beat Steve]

1 hour ago, Rooster_Ties said:

And needless to say that the various "post a photo of your collection" threads on the Steve Hoffman Forums are automatically shared with my wife.

A friend (waaaay more FB-obsessed than I had imagined, though I ought to have known) on his first-time visit to my place took a pic of the vinyl wall in my music room (he's a collector himself, though on a smaller scale) and POW, there it was up on his FB page. Needless to say, the immediate comments of his frineds were "What? Who? Where??" So I had to admonish him to take iz easy from then on. 
But your idea of using the replies here to convince your wife of whatever you feel necessary to convince her of is VERY laudable (I guess most of those around here will sympathize with you).

I used the photos shown here ...
https://thevinylfactory.com/features/crate-diggers-interview-mats-gustafsson/
to make that point with MY wife. 

And if that doesn't help with yours too, how about this?

 

Edited July 23, 2019 by Big Beat Steve

[Ken Dryden]

I didn't realize that there was a collection competition, though I was amused when I shared the recent radio station CD sale list with my friend Scott Yanow (whose collection is likely triple the size of mine) and there were actually five CDs on it that he didn't already own. 

[Big Beat Steve]

12 minutes ago, Ken Dryden said:

I didn't realize that there was a collection competition ...

I'd rather think it is a "mutual self-help group" thing to find comfort in the fact that others ARE more obsessed than yourself or to find out what forms the details of this obsession can take.

BTW, if Scott Yanow's collection is only triple the size of yours, then your collection must be awfully enormous too.

[Ken Dryden]

Frankly, I am not sure of how many CDs and LPs I own, it's been years since I attempted to count them.

20,000-22,000 might be a good ballpark estimate for my combined CDs and LPs, but it's a guess. I just moved and I am awaiting delivery of my prefab CD shelves to put out the rest of the jazz, the unheard discs, rock, classical, bluegrass, blues and comedy stuff. 

Scott's total is over 60,000 CDs and LPs, but he did get started writing about jazz in 1975. 

[Big Beat Steve]

Like I thought ... yours IS huge ...

[Rooster_Ties]

If anything, I'm really looking to downsize my collection by about 20%, maybe 25%.

Best thing I ever did was thinning the herd (the "heard"?) by 30% back when I moved to DC in 2011 -- and I'm really due to get rid of more.

And I liked what I kept a lot better, honestly, because it was "diluted less" by all the stuff I obviously didn't need, that I got rid of when push finally came to shove.

Yeah, I've bought back 6-8 individual titles that I wished I'd kept, but that pales in comparison to the 3,000+ CD's I got rid of (and don't miss one bit).

[Brad]

I have about 3,000 CDs and I think that’s too much. 20,000 is mind blowing but then again Ken is in the business.  

Chuck and Larry must have huge collections. 

[Ken Dryden]

Doug Ramsey told me that he has thinned out his collection due to his many moves during his broadcast journalism career. It's funny but he worked in New Orleans twice, but before and after my four years at Tulane. He still occasionally posts a huge stack of promotional CDs sent his way and how it is impossible to hear them all.

I've got more aggressive about thinning out new arrivals, especially the projects featuring unknowns (especially vocalists) doing all original material with musicians I've never heard of at all. I have to draw the line somewhere and unless artists are savy enough to include a familiar tune or musician, I'm afraid that a lot of writers and broadcasters have the same reaction. 

Surprisingly I haven't slowed down on buying CDs and LPs much (until around the time of the move, which is still in progress), but I have slowed down acquiring books. After moving 55 or 60 boxes of books, maybe that had an effect.

 

[clifford_thornton]

Mats's collection is pretty stunning. Hope in a couple years to bring everything out of storage and get it all better arranged before I get tired of it and sell it all!

[Brad]

3 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

A friend (waaaay more FB-obsessed than I had imagined, though I ought to have known) on his first-time visit to my place took a pic of the vinyl wall in my music room (he's a collector himself, though on a smaller scale) and POW, there it was up on his FB page. Needless to say, the immediate comments of his frineds were "What? Who? Where??" So I had to admonish him to take iz easy from then on. 
But your idea of using the replies here to convince your wife of whatever you feel necessary to convince her of is VERY laudable (I guess most of those around here will sympathize with you).

I used the photos shown here ...
https://thevinylfactory.com/features/crate-diggers-interview-mats-gustafsson/
to make that point with MY wife. 

And if that doesn't help with yours too, how about this?

 

That is rather impressive Steve. Understatement

[Ken Dryden]

Lorraine Feather told me that her father's record collection wasn't all that big. He and his wife suffered the effects of an earthquake and it could be that he donated or otherwise disposed of many records and CDs accumulated over the years.

I think most of us collect or keep stuff because we treasure it. If we don't, why allow it to take up shelf space? 

[Pim]

7 hours ago, Rooster_Ties said:

If anything, I'm really looking to downsize my collection by about 20%, maybe 25%.

Best thing I ever did was thinning the herd (the "heard"?) by 30% back when I moved to DC in 2011 -- and I'm really due to get rid of more.

And I liked what I kept a lot better, honestly, because it was "diluted less" by all the stuff I obviously didn't need, that I got rid of when push finally came to shove.

Yeah, I've bought back 6-8 individual titles that I wished I'd kept, but that pales in comparison to the 3,000+ CD's I got rid of (and don't miss one bit).

I can feel you on this I used to buy everything I saw, made quite a few bad choices also. That made me sell quite a lot of stuff. I am now mainly focused on stuff I really want to have, which includes collectors stuff too: like some rare stuff by Billy Harper, Mal Waldron and Abdullah Ibrahim. That stuff is expansive so in stead of buying 15 cds/records a month I buy about 2 or 3 now. That makes my collection probably the smallest around here with only 957 cd’s and LP’s combined.

on the other hand: I am still young....

 

[soulpope]

21 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

Going on in more than the occasional discussion here already ...

How many "name" musicians have I rubbed elbows with after-hours?
How many festivals have I attended (festivals abroad counting double)?
What unreleased tapes inaccessible to common mortals among jazz listeners have I laid my grimy hands on?
With how many musicians/bands have I achieved my completist goal of their recorded opus?
Who has visited the farthest away B&M record shop in search of that elusive item?
On how many live gigs have I ruined everybody else's view of the stage because I have jumped about and around and across the stage firing away with my camera?

(and so on and so on ...)

 

😂 ....

[Gheorghe]

6 hours ago, Brad said:

That is rather impressive Steve. Understatement

Great really ! Never saw such a huge collection. Is the small bass fiddle in the front a piccolo bass ? Kind of that Ron Carter played sometimes.....? 

[sidewinder]

11 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

A friend (waaaay more FB-obsessed than I had imagined, though I ought to have known) on his first-time visit to my place took a pic of the vinyl wall in my music room (he's a collector himself, though on a smaller scale) and POW, there it was up on his FB page. Needless to say, the immediate comments of his frineds were "What? Who? Where??" So I had to admonish him to take iz easy from then on. 
But your idea of using the replies here to convince your wife of whatever you feel necessary to convince her of is VERY laudable (I guess most of those around here will sympathize with you).

I used the photos shown here ...
https://thevinylfactory.com/features/crate-diggers-interview-mats-gustafsson/
to make that point with MY wife. 

And if that doesn't help with yours too, how about this?

 

He doesn’t have any Mosaics though..

[Big Beat Steve]

1 hour ago, sidewinder said:

He doesn’t have any Mosaics though..

Do we know what's outside the picture? Unfortunately the picture that came up online was as small as you see it here so you cannot make out much.

 

4 hours ago, Ken Dryden said:

Lorraine Feather told me that her father's record collection wasn't all that big. He and his wife suffered the effects of an earthquake and it could be that he donated or otherwise disposed of many records and CDs accumulated over the years.

I think most of us collect or keep stuff because we treasure it. If we don't, why allow it to take up shelf space? 

Does anyone have any idea of the size of the collection of Chris Albertson? His memorabilis alone must be mindblowing. Hope it all finds a good new home/caretaker.

As indicated by himself in his "Bulletins", the collection of Hugues Panassié amounted to some 20,000 records (no details on the 78s-to-vinyl ratio, though). After his death in 1974 it was preserved intact and not dispersed and was later (probably after the death of Madeleine Gautier) donated to a municipal library near his home town. Some use seems to be made of it (including access for researchers) AFAIK but even under these ideal "inheritance" circumstances it had remained inaccessible for quite a few years after it was passed on to the municipality (to the dismay of the Hot Club).
The collection of researcher and author Johnny Simmen from Switzerland was also donated to a jazz foundation (in Switzerland) and therefore preserved as a unit.

Edited July 24, 2019 by Big Beat Steve

[Ken Dryden]

I remember attending the 2003 IAJE and sitting next to Ken Franckling during a great set by the Denny Zeitlin Trio. After finishing the first song, he started a beautiful ballad, playing softly, though the clown sitting on the other side of Ken chose that moment to snap a picture. The rather loud click of his SLR camera caused the two of us to look at each other with a frown and obviously thinking the same thing: "Amateur...." Of course, there were more than a few veteran photographers during IAJE who thought nothing of slowly walking up the center aisle and then in front of those of us seated in the front row to get a shot, taking their sweet time, no matter how many of us had their view blocked.

I will have to admit that I've got my share of unissued jazz broadcasts, many of which I recorded during my many years in public radio. There is a wealth of material that merits being issued to the public, if only in download form. 

On 7/23/2019 at 2:54 AM, Big Beat Steve said:

Going on in more than the occasional discussion here already ...

How many "name" musicians have I rubbed elbows with after-hours?
How many festivals have I attended (festivals abroad counting double)?
What unreleased tapes inaccessible to common mortals among jazz listeners have I laid my grimy hands on?
With how many musicians/bands have I achieved my completist goal of their recorded opus?
Who has visited the farthest away B&M record shop in search of that elusive item?
On how many live gigs have I ruined everybody else's view of the stage because I have jumped about and around and across the stage firing away with my camera?

(and so on and so on ...)

 

 

[BillF]

[gmonahan]

On 7/23/2019 at 0:31 PM, Ken Dryden said:

Frankly, I am not sure of how many CDs and LPs I own, it's been years since I attempted to count them.

20,000-22,000 might be a good ballpark estimate for my combined CDs and LPs, but it's a guess. I just moved and I am awaiting delivery of my prefab CD shelves to put out the rest of the jazz, the unheard discs, rock, classical, bluegrass, blues and comedy stuff. 

Scott's total is over 60,000 CDs and LPs, but he did get started writing about jazz in 1975. 

It's comforting somehow to know that my collection, which most of my friends regard as a product of uncontrolled addictive insanity, pales in comparison to yours. As for Yanow, where on earth does he keep 60,000?? In a warehouse?

 

 

gregmo

[Big Beat Steve]

3 hours ago, gmonahan said:

As for Yanow, where on earth does he keep 60,000?? In a warehouse?

 

Might this be him??

 

No, it's not.

Google "Zero Freitas", everyone. Makes us all realize that whatever we have accumulated our collections are just small fry and we are all perfectly sane and restrained to a maximum.