JSngry

Is the record any good?

Thumbelina Thimbelina Topolina

RIP Red Trumpet, they was fun!

Well, this is a hoot - I just called the Los Angeles Barnes & Noble and got the exact same story about The Epic - they'll be happy to order it for you for home delivery, but there is no way in hell that they can order it for you to pick up in the store. Impossible. They'll get it for you and to you, just stay home while they do. Call them yourselves! Barnes & Noble 189 The Grove Drive Suite K 30, Los Angeles, CA 90036 (323) 525-0270 Open 9:00 AM - 11:00 PM Right in the man's back yard and they ain't botherin'. If there's a market there, they don't appear to want in on it. And if there's not a market there, where are these people coming from? Barnes & Noble so not relevant to any Kamasi Washington conversation going on to this point, unless it's the one about the man going to the forest and wondering where all the fish are.

I don't know about the whole world, but I am in a better place when it's Sonny, for sure.

Then again, if those 25 people never visit Barnes & Noble, online or otherwise, or otherwise consider "Barnes & Noble" as little more than/nothing other than some name of some place that does....something in some buildings....someplace, Barnes & Noble is not really relevant to their conversation, correct? This is how points get missed all the time, not just here, everywhere - by people assuming that all people that occupy the same territory live in the same world. It's just not true.

If you let Barnes & Noble define (or be a part of your definitional equation for defining) your "nation", then right, little national impact. Now, are there nations within the nation? Or is that all an illusion?

Nothing nefarious about it. You target your product at who you want to buy it, and if you know who already has bought it, you know who you want to continue buying it. If your strategy is to stand pat rather than broaden, then that's what you do. It works, at least until it doesn't, and it can work for a long, long time. Hot Ptah is making the point that there is no concerted media blitz behind The Epic, and it appears to be true if we use Barnes & Noble as our model. Barnes & Noble just don't give a shit, not even half a shit, about selling Kamasi Washington (or "Kamasi Washington") right now. And Kamasi (and "Kamasi") seems to be doing just fine without them, so, win-win.

Plano says they can order for me, but only to be shipped to my home. What if I wanted to pick it up at the store and buy some books while I'm there? Can't do it. exact quote - "Is it a problem for you to have things delivered at home, sir?" Well, I guess I should have asked is it a problem for you for nobody to come into your store anymore, how do you see that trending over the next 5-10 years, and your job security along with it? But then - what if I wanted to order a copy of a Beatles CD that you didn't have in stock, could I get that sent to pick it up in the store. Sure! About paying in advance - Kamasi - you would have to pay in advance and it would have to come to your home. Beatles -you could pay in advance if you want to, but you could also wait until it comes in to the store here. Are most things like Kamasi or like the Beatles? Well, we can't really tell, there's no real reason for any of it that I can see, and I've worked here five years. But we can get you most things in here w/o you needing to prepay. (a contradictory answer, but I let it ride). My take-away from this is that Barnes & Noble is not all that concerned with what music is in their brick-and-mortars as long as its targeted to a known-quatity customer, you can buy stuff there if you want to, and if not, they don't care even a little. This is not a place to buy music that's still blooming, if you will. Their policy for special orders seems to be wholly arbitrary on the surface, but sure seems to me to be retro-driven, i.e. - if they know it's been popular before, it will probably get an ok. If they don't know about it at all or aren't "sure" about it, keep that strictly on line. Even if the customer would prefer to pay in advance, pick it up in-store and shop for additional items once there. I can do this with underwear at JC Penney, but I can't do it with CDs at Barnes & Noble. So as far as B&N being any kind of indicator about music except the most trailingest kind, and then of their more or less known demographic sets, forget about it. They're locked in for the duration, how ever much longer they will be, selling what they sell to the people they know they will sell it to. They're static in that sense, very static. And I guess they can keep on doing that for a while. But it's not where I'd go to look for anything outside of what's already there. Doesn't seem like that's what they're into doing. As all of this pertains to Kamasi Washington, there is definitely something happening amongst certain peoples, but it's not happening in Barnes & Noble Brick & Mortar Land, neither this thing nor those people. Probably true of any number of other things as well...

"probably"? Why not be sure?

Barnes & Noble is headquartered in NYC. Let me take a sec and call my comatose Plano B&N and see what they have on hand, or to roder.

So it sits in the warehouse waiting for somebody to order it, as long as that customer is not ordering it through that store, where they are "not allowed" to get it? Huh? It's not that it's not carried in-store real time that surprises me, it's the corporate dictate that they cannot have it at all, ever, not even if. Try something, Hot Ptah - go back to that store, ask again to order it, show them that it's on BNDOTCOM tell them that you'd like to pick it up there at the store, what can they do for you, etc. If they still tell you that they're not allowed to have it in their store, even if a customer specifically requests it, ask them WTF? And then, for grins, ask yourself who ain't gonna be looking for any Kamasi Washington records or anything else at THIS place again, and then ask yourself why the B&N business model is probably quite alright with that.

"this is odd. We can't order it. It is in a special category, considered so unsellable by Corporate that we are not allowed to get it shipped to our store. Very few CDs or DVDs get that designation. Usually we can order in just about anything."

Just sayin' - somebody in the B&N Corporate Chain made a deliberate decision that a record that was getting some buzz in some circles (and within that buzz was being associated with a certain political movement) was under no circumstances going to be allowed inside the walls of a Kansas City Barnes & Noble. Not one copy,. That just sounds silly to me. Silly and weird. Maybe the label's got something against engaging mainstream corporate brick and mortar distribution channels. Maybe the B&N regional office don't want potential Black Lives Matter demonstrators having chance meetings in their stores. Either way, it's simply bizarre, that an individual inquiry into the availability of the items leads to a response of we have been forbidden from having this in our store.

The politics of indie-label record distribution should never be assumed or otherwise taken for granted.

I dunno, it might turn you into a huge fan of Mingus. Or it might not.

Yeah, they'll sell it to you from their computer, just don't come into the store looking for it, at least not in Kansas City. Just stay in your own neighborhood and they'll get it to you there. "this is odd. We can't order it. It is in a special category, considered so unsellable by Corporate that we are not allowed to get it shipped to our store. Very few CDs or DVDs get that designation. Usually we can order in just about anything." Hold it right there The Epic, just where do you think you're going?

No, but he's seen as part of the cultural synergy that has sprung up around the movement. Seriously no idea to what extent B&N Corporate thinks in these terms, but I do think it's funny that they've put out a mandate that goes all George Wallace and stands in the front door of that record trying to get into that store. I'd like to know what else is on that list, things that are so "unsellable" that you have to tell an interested customer that they can't be sold.

When was the last time you saw a Black Lives Matter demonstration held at a Barnes & Noble? Just sayin'...it's one thing for the store to not be able to locate it, quite another for Corporate to put out a DO NOT HAVE THIS RECORD IN ON NEAR YOUR STORE blockade/boycott in place.

They're keeping it out on purpose so "those type" of people don't come looking for it.

People still buy music at Barnes & Noble? I'm serious, the only time I go in there now is on a whim to pick up some magazines. And every time I've gone to the back of the store, where the CDs are, it's been deader than dead. One time, the dude seemed pissed off that I had disturbed his nap that he was about to take. Another time, I asked the lady if I could pay for my magazines back there and she said something about not really knowing how that would work as far as the register went. I asked her what would you do if I bought magazines AND a CD, and she smirked and said yeah, right. The final nail in that coffin was when I went shopping to get some Beatles CD for somebody for Christmas in 2014 and it was $5.00 higher there than it was at Fry's. Hell, it cost less on B&N Dotcom, but it was kind of a rush purchase. I told the dude, hey, how do you expect to sell these at this price, and he was like LOL, seriously? It seems like B&N (in this area, anyway) offers CDs the way that grocery stores in Vegas offer slot machines - it's not what any normal person would go there for, but if you're sucker enough to indulge, they'll be happy to take your money.

Especially strong recommendation for the Mingus. These are in-depth exploratory live performances that are either previously unavailable or previously not readily/always available. I'm not exactly short on Mingus, if you know what I mean, but the music on this set really got my attention, especially the My Favorite Quintet band.

That McPherson thing has gotten expensive... I wasn't really paying attention at the time, but Norman Granz recorded Jaws a lot for Pablo. Just one solo album, but he's on a bunch of "jams". I've been enjoying casually finding them over the years.