Sunday Wax Bits

Waxing & musings. My eyes narrowed a bit when I read the headline in The New York Times about a week ago: "Vinyl Record Albums and Turntables Are Gaining Sales." I own a turntable and I own albums, but sales are "gaining?"

For a reality check, I turned to Fred Cohen. Fred is owner of the Jazz Record Center (236 West 26th St., 212-675-4480), which is easily New York's finest old-school jazz record store. Which means thousands jazz LPs in mint condition and a highly knowledgeable staff. Here's what Fred had to say about jazz records, buyers and trends:

"I opened the Jazz Record Center in l983, the same year CDs were introduced. We started out as a vinyl-only store, but our inventory has since evolved into CDs and DVDs and other jazz-related products including books, posters, postcards and T-shirts. However, our commitment to vinyl continues. For 10 years prior to opening the store, I sold LPs through the mail, so I have a special love for records.

"The LP has a lot going for it. Romantically, it's a throwback to an era when the presentation of music was more visually interesting. Economically, most new LPs are no more expensive than comparable CDs, even though the CD version may have alternate takes and a longer playing time.

"The law of diminishing returns suggests that the average listener's attention span may not be up to the 70 or so minutes of a CD. This is especially true when much of the content is 'filler'—music that's added because there's room on the disc for it.

"Technically, a distinction must be made between those LPs that are produced from analogue sources and those from digital sources. A pre-digital LP will usually sound warmer and will capture acoustic instruments such as guitar and piano with greater detail. LPs made from a digital sound source, whether recorded in digital or transferred from an analogue source, will sound the same as its CD equivalent—more clarity in some areas but a less warm sound. [Pictured: 180-gram audiophile virgin vinyl copy of Miles Davis' Bitches Brew]

"My customers? They're primarily from the U.S., Japan, England, Italy and France. The Internet has changed the demographic, giving greater access to collectors anywhere in the world. Because my store has such an international audience, the state of the economy (in terms of the dollar vs. the euro) is now the strongest factor in how much business we do. For the most part, 2009 was a good year for us because it was cheaper for European and Asian jazz fans to buy LPs here thanks to weakness of the dollar.
 
"The rarest jazz LPs currently in my store are original limited editions of four albums—Charlie Parker's first LP [pictured], Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Gershwin Songbook, The Fred Astaire Story and an unissued Charlie Parker 10" LP. The first Charlie Parker LP was marked DLP-1 and was one of the first LPs ever released. It was sold only by mail-order at the time and issued commercially by Dial later on. This record has sold in near-new condition for between $5,000 and $10,000.

The New York Times article? It didn't surprise me. The trend to LPs has been going on for years, ever since rap and hip-hop sampling and turntable DJ-ing became popular. Younger buyers are now more familiar with LPs and the benefits and joys they offer. It's a hands-on way of listening to music, which appeals to many young people.

"Overall, I think the driving forces behind LPs' increased popularity with audiences that grew up in the digital age are it's cool and it's retro. But I doubt very much that turntables will win out over iPods and MP3 players in the long run."

Clare Fischer. Do yourself a favor. If you're working at your computer or traveling with an iPhone, access David Brent Johnson's hour-long podcast radio show on pianist-arranger Clare Fischer [pictured] here. If you're unfamiliar with David, he hosts Nightlights for WFIU in Indiana, and his weekly show on Saturdays at 11 p.m. (CST) is always educational and enlightening. And oh that voice...

David's show last night (yes, it's also now podcast) was It's Jazz, Charlie Brown: The Vince Guaraldi Story featuring music and interviews. This Monday, David [pictured] will post Bob Brookmeyer and Some of His Friends. On Christmas week, David will feature Hep to the Holidays. Go here and wander around a bit.

Carla Bley. Jazz musician and writer Bill Kirchner will feature the music of pianist-composer Carla Bley on his radio show tonight (Sunday) from 11 p.m. to midnight (EST). Go here to listen.

CD discovery of the week. Jack Teagarden's son Joe is selling CDs featuring rare tracks of the great jazz trombonist who died in 1964. I stumbled across Joe's site after Wall Street Journal writer Will Friedwald asked me a question about a particular album. If you dig Teagarden's early 1960s period, you'll dig Jack Teagarden: When You Wish Upon a Star.

The CD includes a radio interview Teagarden gave Bob Miller of WFLM radio in August 1963. Then there's a fabulous lineup of songs: Moon River, All the Way, Gigi, The Last Time I Saw Paris, Learning the Blues, Never on Sunday, Time After Time, Secret Love, Atcheson Topeka and the Santa Fe, When Johnny Comes Marching Home, Dame Blanche and High Hopes. 

The album features Bobby Hackett (cornet), Jack Teagarden (trombone and vocals), Bob Wilber (clarinet), Bud Freeman (tenor sax), Hank Jones and Gene Schroeder (piano), George Duvivier (bass) and George Wettling and Ed Shaughnessy (drums).

Each track is spirited, some in a Dixieland style, and the sound is excellent. You haven't lived until you hear Teagarden sing Learning the Blues and All the Way. Teagarden was the original saloon singer, so it's only natural that he should sound superb on material Frank Sinatra made famous. Time After Time, Secret Love and Atcheson Topeka also are superb.

When You Wish Upon a Star is available here or at Amazon. Or just email Joe: joe@jackteagarden.com.

Oddball album cover of the week. George Siravo was a fine arranger for Charlie Barnet, Artie Shaw and other big bands in the mid-1940s. This album from the late 1950s is a rare Kapp release that never made it onto CD. I have no idea how it sounds, though the partial personnel gives us a hint: Charlie Shavers, Billy Butterfield, Lou McGarity, Hal McKusick, Boomie Richman, Buddy Weed, Billy Rowland and Lou Stein among others, with Siravo arranging and conducting. Hard to tell why "polite" jazz (as opposed to what?) features a cover model hailing a cab in front of a giant licorice All-Sorts.

Comments

[Doug Zielke]

Marc,
I found the comments of Mr.Cohen interesting. I agree with him that although vinyl is making a comeback, it will never surpass the current digital formats. If not sonically, it's the ease of the mp3 player's accessibility that fills most peoples music needs.
To unlock the acoustic benefits of vinyl playback, a person really has to make some serious commitments. The financial side alone can be enough to discourage the budding "vinylphile".
However, once you have found the magical synergy between components and the medium itself, the sound rendered can be breathtakingly similar to live performance.

[Matt LeGroulx]

I have to disagree. The moment a group musicians playing in a room is captured by microphones and sent through two (or four or more) speakers, no matter how high the quality of all the components, the fidelity of the original aural event has been compromised to the extent that it cannot approximate live performance. Ultimate fidelity is sitting in front the people playing. Any recording, no matter how good, will never sound the same as that performance. It may sound better but never the same. I think far too much is made of the differences between media. They are for the most part stereo representations of that original event. Nothing can really come close but the human mind is a powerful thing and if one wishes hard enough one can find oneself in the midst of, say even Louis Armstrong's Hot Five swinging Muskrat Ramble despite the obvious limitations of the recording medium. That sense of history can be palpable. But recordings are exactly that and can never be truly comparable to a live performance.

[Vikram Devasthali]

I am the proud owner of a copy of "Polite Jazz", and can sincerely affirm the appropriateness of its title. It is a good LP for Great American Songbook aficionados, with several selections you aren't likely to hear elsewhere--"I'm Putting All My Eggs In One Basket" by Irving Berlin, anyone?
As for the lofty claims made in the liner notes--well, you'll just have to pick up a copy and decide for yourself:
"Remember the days when jazz used to be considered vulgar, raucous and uncouth, the kind of music that just wasn't heard in polite company? Well, those days are really gone--and here the word "gone is used in its original meaning...The polite jazz contained on this record would not only be approved by the Society for the Preservation of Blue Blood, but should also draw a good deal of actual approbation from those who have always liked jazz for itself, with all sociological holds barred. It's definitely very superior jazz, very listenable jazz, very easy jazz, very relaxed jazz."

[John P. Cooper]

The "Polite Jazz" genre was a commercial venture to make Jazz more appealing to people who didn't like Jazz much. All the 'Polite Jazz" LPs I have heard tend to be somewhat reserved and demure with nothing too loud or too torrid. The one that comes to mind was a Rex Stewart and some great trombonist on RCA Victor called "Chatter Jazz" which has the two protagonists 'chattering' to each other with their instruments. Heartbreakingly bad.

[ortega]

In my opinion, CDs represented poorer, althoght cheaper, sound quality than vinyl.
Today's trend is mp3, whose compresion technique makes the sound ever worst but, again, cheaper.
Since the market is embracing practicality and prize over quality is not surprising that the dying formar is CD.
In Barcelona shops, CD space has been reduced by 50% in the last year alone, while LP have gone up four times the previous level (I´m talking about jazz and rock music sections). CD only shops have closed down while vinyl shops, based on second hand and reeditions, are selling more than ever.
It seems that the quality plus nostalgia market has a good future.