Thanks for the help?

[scottb]

I saw someone mention Danny Gatton in another thread. Great guitarist - formerly known as the best unknown guitarist in America. Finally getting more known and then committed suicide. Really tragic. Anyway, seeing his name reminds me of a story...

(Flashback sound effects here)

When I was in college, I was just starting to play guitar and really listen to a lot of different music. I liked a certain kind of jazz that I had heard (turned out to be Hardbop) but at the time didn't know what is was called, who played it, or where to find it in the jazz section.

Back to Danny Gatton, I bought his 88 Elmira Street disc and loved the song Red Label (anyone know this one? A latin groover that smokes) but not for the guitar solo but a wailling trumpet solo!

I bring the disc to the big chain disc store and ask the "knowledgable staff" where I can find playing like this. Many staff members acted as if this music came from outter space and didn't have a clue. One guy who was their "jazz guy" was called in. After a close listen to the solo which today screams Dizzy, Lee, Clifford and anyone else who ever played Night in Tunisia, he suggests....

HERB ALPERT AND THE TIAJUANA BRASS!!!

This story has several disurbing truths.

First, how does someone in college who played trumpet in middle school, played guitar, could read music, took Music Appreciation Classes (2 of them!) at the Univeristy level, and was eager to learn about different music and jazz not know anything about jazz!! Not to mention I live in Louisiana 90 miles form new Orleans where Jazz was born. I feel I was totally let down by the music education system.

A corollary to that is that this ignorance is so wide spread that a "jazz guy" at the record store doesn't know crap!!

[Jim Alfredson]

Man, that's incredibly lame. I can't think of any specific examples, but I used to have run-ins like that with record store guys. This was in the grunge era, so most of them knew only about rock and goth music. I'd ask them about some Jimmy Smith date and they'd look at me like I was from another planet.

Music exposure is really the parents responsability. I thank God that my dad loved Hammond organ enough to not only have a bunch of Jimmy Smith records, but also for being a musician and owning a B3. I wish he hadn't sold it when I was a wee one, though.

[Use3D]

..most of them knew only about rock and goth music.

Including those, I also know about industrial and electronic music.

[Stefan Wood]

Fortunately, in DC, Gatton is a local legend. The only ones who don't know about him are the out of town college kids who man the chain cd shops. If you can ever find the Blue Note cd that he was on (I can't remember if it was the Manhattan Project or something else), buy it -- it is stunning!

[jlhoots]

Close.

New York Stories - issued 1992.

[Joe G]

Last year my aunt bought me a CD as a "thank you" present, and it turned out to be The Philadelphia Experiment, with Chris McBride and Uri Caine. I asked her how she came to choose that one, as she knows next to nothing about jazz, and this is a pretty obscure (and hip) title. Well, she had also bought a Tony Bennett CD, and asked the guy behind the counter for a recommendation. He told her "if you like Tony Bennett, you'll love this!"

Makes me wonder if the guy was hip, and was playing a joke on her! Lucky for me in any case...

[Jim Dye]

Man, that's incredibly lame. I can't think of any specific examples, but I used to have run-ins like that with record store guys. This was in the grunge era, so most of them knew only about rock and goth music. I'd ask them about some Jimmy Smith date and they'd look at me like I was from another planet.

Well, you sure didn't have a run-in like that at MY record store. If I ever found out about one of my employees doing something like that, I'd have fired them!

[chris olivarez]

Unfortunately there don't seem to be enough guys like Jim Dye in the brick and mortars so I pretty much depend on myself and you guys. Case in point the previously mentioned Danny Gatton. The Elektra stuff was easily available but the odds of getting the Big Mo stuff were'nt real good but this one of those cases where I was not going to be denied. I searched every nook and cranny of the worldwide web until I came upon a likely looking candidate in the Washington DC area. I dialed the number and sure enough they had every Gatton Big Mo title save for one. I broke out the card and in a short time I had all those Gatton titles and I was a pretty happy camper.

The extra work was a lot less frustrating than having to endure a lot of "who is Danny Gatton?". Granted I could have gotten that response from the DC store but I played a hunch that since the store was in the basic area where Gatton lived and died that I might hit paydirt and I lucked out and I was also lucky that I talked to someone who had more musical knowledge than your average purple haired kid.

Enough blathering about that what this is leading up to is I'm wondering do any of the brick and mortars make an active effort to look for someone with musical knowledge outside the Billboard hot 100 and do they make an effort to educate their hires on different musical styles or is that just out of the question?

[Chuck Nessa]

With what retail pays, any store is lucky to find clerks who can tie their shoes.

[chris olivarez]

I asked.I received.

[Jim Dye]

Just so y'all know...I left music retail in 1995. I didn't own the record store, I just managed one for 5 years in East Lansing.

What Chuck said. One of the many reasons I had to leave the business. I did enjoy it while it lasted.

[GPfr]

Music exposure is really the parents responsability. I thank God that my dad loved Hammond organ enough to not only have a bunch of Jimmy Smith records, but also for being a musician and owning a B3. I wish he hadn't sold it when I was a wee one, though.

I often think "Man, if my mom had been into Kind Of Blue rather than whatever "adult contemporary pop"......"

I was exposed to jazz through private lessons. I was playing in the middle school big band and going through jazz etude books (the one by Lennie Niehaus (sp?)). We moved right before high school. My new teacher was the one to turn me on to Lester Young and Coltrane through transcribed solos and recordings of those solos. Then came Charlie Parker (I switched from tenor to alto for a while). In a way, I found a lot of music myself. I would look to see who played on what album. Then I would go find albums by those sidemen. I think I found out about Sonny Rollins by hearing him on Miles Davis' Dig, then got Tenor Madness. Or Saxophone Colossus.

This process was not without some pitfalls, however. Just going by name (and no knowledge of history at the time) I bought Coltrane's OM when I was 15 . Did not dig it at the time. I held on to it and checked it out a few years later and was in to it. Somewhat. Gotta re-visit that one.

As far as brick and mortar stores, I remember most of the staff at Tower Records NYC in the Village (jazz dept.) being very knowledgeable about recordings.