Hot Ptah

Another store I have liked is Mad City Music Exchange on Williamson Street in Madison, Wisconsin. It is not very large, but it puts a hurt into my pocketbook all the same. The first time I went in, there was the Sun Ra/John Cage LP for sale in a display area behind the counter. Has anyone gone to Mad City Music Exchange in the past few years? I read that one of the employees took over the ownership and wonder how it is doing now.

Reid Nichols Big Nick Nicolas Jack Nicklaus

Must be a Horo release, or maybe a Sun Ra on Saturn Records, with a white cover with magic marker squiggles as the cover art.

Chuck, I visited your Discount Records store on State Street in Madison about ten years ago. It was unrecognizable to me. I spent a lot of time there from 1974-82, but it was a different store inside when I went back in the late 1990s. It had been totally remodelled, into a charmless place, with a completely different atmosphere. If there were any vestiges of your tenure left there, it would be very surprising. Also, the nearby Record World was gone in the 1990s. Charles, the boss of Record World in the 1970s, was working as an employee of The Exclusive Company, a very good music store on State Street close to Badger Liquor (if you remember that corner). He was managing the jazz and classical departments in the basement. They were truly outstanding jazz and classical departments under his guiding hand. Charles passed away a few years ago.

Good to hear that Wazoo is still around. I shopped there a lot in 1978--81. Back then, I also shopped at the Wazoo in Madison, Wisconsin, owned by the brother of the guy who owned Wazoo in Ann Arbor. I wish I could support them more. Great store. Is Wazoo in Ann Arbor still in the upstairs location?

Hey, those are the kind of details that give a good used record store its charm!

Fats Navarro Chubby Jackson Tubby Hayes

Good to hear that Wazoo is still around. I shopped there a lot in 1978--81. Back then, I also shopped at the Wazoo in Madison, Wisconsin, owned by the brother of the guy who owned Wazoo in Ann Arbor.

In the Kansas City area, there were 11 used music stores in a one mile radius about 15 years ago. They are all gone now. There were two very large, excellent used and rare music stores, Music Exchange and Recyled Sounds, which went out of business at about the same time, a few years ago. That was a terrible blow to the Kansas City area music community. In the light of the end of the Music Exchange and Recycled Sounds, these multiple smaller stores sprang up. Also, Half Price Books opened three stores in our metro area, and a fourth in nearby Lawrence, Kansas. So the scene in Kansas City is not what it once was, to be sure. I am surprised that a new generation of stores did spring up, and that at least one of the Barnes and Nobles and one of the Borders maintain a decent jazz selection. There is not much of an impact of gentrification or rent hikes in Kansas City. It is a geographically far flung, sprawling metro area, with no natural boundaries. There are older buildings to rent in, which most likely do not have high rents (Zebedees, Prosperos), but you can always move to another part of the endless metro area and get a cheaper rent if you need to. There has been a lot of flight to the exurbs, and vacancies in the central city, so there is a good selection of vacant spaces in the central city, if you don't want to be in the high end retail areas.

I think that the economic downturn has hit some of us. I know that I am more hesitant about going out and buying everything I would like to hear and read. I read your initial post, found it intriguing, and made a note to myself to check it out someday, when the greenbacks are blowing around more freely.

I had hoped that they were reissuing "Karuna Supreme". The Columbia albums have not been difficult to find, on vinyl or CD.

We recently had a discussion about whether it would be good for record stores to die off, so that downloading and online ordering would become the methods of buying CDs and records. I still like to go to a music store. I have started this thread so that we can list the music stores which are still open, and which you like to go to. My current favorites: In the Kansas City metro area: Zebedee's, 39th St., Kansas City, MO (mostly used, good jazz vinyl selection, old time used music store, with that kind of atmosphere--could have been open in 1972) Prospero's, 39th St., Kansas City, MO (used, variable selection but some incredible gems at times, old time used bookstore with music in basement) Vinyl Renaissance, Shawnee, KS (excellent jazz vinyl selection, not inexpensive, also sells older stereo equipment and turntables, in suburban setting) Needmore Discs, Shawnee, KS (surburban store with surprisingly good used jazz CD section. The staff seems to be made up of 1980s rock lovers and I don't think that they understand how great their jazz selection is). Vintage Stock, 135th St., Overland Park, KS (Chain specializing in a variety of used stuff, used CD section is usually quite good) Half Price Books (Westport, Kansas City, Mo.; 91st and Metcalf, Overland Park, KS; Olathe, KS) (amazing selection of jazz vinyl and CDs, variable but nearly always rewarding) Barnes and Noble, Plaza, Kansas City, MO (new CDs, jazz and classical selection still quite good) Borders, 92nd and Metcalf, Overland Park, KS (new CDs, jazz selection stil quite good) In Lawrence, KS: Love Garden (on Massachusetts Ave.--a large used record and CD store, of the type that used to be more common, often excellent jazz vinyl and CDs, and much selection of obscure genres other than jazz) Kiefs (smaller store, but often very good new and used jazz selection, with jazz on small indie labels often available, on Massachusetts Ave.)

I didn't know the Latin Jazz Quintet made an album with Dolphy. Can't say I'm keen on him, but I might be interested in getting this separately, as I like the LJQ a lot. What's the original title and issue of this one, please? MG The Latin Jazz Quintet With Eric Dolphy Eric Dolphy (as, bcl, fl) Carlie Simons (vib) Gene Casey (p) Bill Ellington (b) Manny Ramos (d, tim) Juan Amalbert (cga) Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, August 19, 1960 2408 Sunday Go Meetin' New Jazz NJLP 8251 2409 First Bass Line - 2410 Mambo Ricci - 2411 Blues In 6/8 - 2412 Spring Is Here - 2413 Caribe - * The Latin Jazz Quintet/Eric Dolphy - Caribe (New Jazz NJLP 8251; Fantasy OJCCD 819-2) = Eric Dolphy - Caribe (Prestige MPP 2503) For me, this session is a bit of a snoozer, though. Well... But thanks very much Zed. MG I noticed that there is another session of the Latin Jazz Quintet with Eric Dolphy that isn't included in the Dolphy Prestige box: Latin Jazz Quintet With Eric Dolphy Eric Dolphy (as, bcl, fl) Felipe Diaz (vib) Arthur Jenkins (p) Bobbie Rodriguez (b) Tommy Lopez (cga) Louis Ramirez (tim) NYC, 1960-1961 You're The Cutest One United Artists UAL 4071 Speak Low - I Got Rhythm - A Night In Tunisia - Cha Cha King - I Wish I Were In Love Again - Lover - Mangolina - April Rain - * The Latin Jazz Quintet (United Artists UAL 4071, UAS 5071; Latin Jazz & Dance Records PLP 145) perhaps it is less of a yawn. It's not. What I mean is, both sessions are a yawn, in my opinion.

Oh, I do, man! I do! On the other hand, "those who dance are often thought mad by those who cannot hear the music." (Tao Te Ching)

Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands Gena Rowlands Fredric March

I wonder if the better analogy is train travel. Everyone traveled by train at one time. Then came the auto and the airplane, and many people switched and never rode on a train again. But some continue to do so, and to find it useful and even enjoyable. Some parts of the world have better train systems and stations, and more convenient lines. Some demographic groups are more likely to ride trains now than others. I think that this may be like buying CDs (train travel) vs. the auto and airplane (downloads). The train travel analogy can go one step further. At one time train travel was luxurious, then it became more utilitarian, functional, stark. Much like the change from the LP, with its wonderful artwork, gatefolds, expansive liner notes, the quaint pleasure of two distinct sides to the music, which changed to the CD, with its microscopic notes and shrunken artwork.

Pedro Gonzales Bobby Richardson Billy Martin

I wonder if there are differences between the U.S. and Europe on this subject. From what I can tell, people in the U.S. certainly do a lot of shopping online, for a variety of products, but there is still a big demand for physical stores too. Some of the smarter, better music stores seem to be surviving in the U.S. There are still a lot of people buying CDs. One example is the Barnes and Noble store on the Plaza in Kansas City. It has three levels of books and a basement level with CDs and DVDs. The selection of CDs, including classical and jazz, is quite good and deep. The staff is very knowledgeable and helpful. They have lots of customers whenever I go down there. CDs seem to fly out of the racks--if I hesitate and don't buy something it is usually gone the next time I go in. The customers are not all middle aged and older, by any means. I think that there will be a mix of CD sales and downloading for some time yet. Downloading music may turn out to be the way of the future. On the other hand, I distinctly remember when books were going to be passe and all of our reading was going to be online. The San Francisco library disposed of a lot of books after converting their contents to digital media, to be on top of the new bookless trend. That never happened. There are a significant number of people like me who like to be able to look at the personnel, song composers, even liner notes, when listening to music, which up to now is not that easy with downloading. To me, that would be the next hurdle to get another large group of people to download regularly. Another analogy--why does anyone buy physical DVDs anymore? It is so much easier to digitally download TV shows and movies from your TV and store them. But lots of people still want their DVDs.

Just remember, there's one of them right now, sitting at the bottom of the ocean under Antarctica, chained to a huge piece of metal.

I couldn't detect anything like that in the replies to the opening post. Seems like many mourn the demise of the stores, and those who do not exactly mourn the demise don't do so because they have found other ways of doing their music shopping. But even they do not seem to think it was a GOOD thing for good (!) shops to disappear. So what exactly is it that you think was condemned here in the replies in this topic? I have reread all of the posts on this thread, and it is my distinct impression that several of them do not mean to state that they have reluctantly substituted online purchasing for declining retail stores out of unfortunate necessity. Several posts, from the way that I read them, state that retail stores are inferior to online purchasing and that retail stores may as well go the way of the dinosaur. Others may interpret the posts another way. As mankind has argued endlessly about the meaning of the works of Shakespeare, the Bible, and James Joyce's "Ulysses", to name a few, it is not surprising that we may attach different interpretations to the posts on this thread.