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Stopped by Dusty Groove on my way to Corbett vs. Dempsey for the Albert Oehlen opening (the show is excellent, check it out if you’re in town) for a little end of the semester reward and ended up with some of my best finds so far. I was doing well keeping the prices down until the last two which I couldn’t pass up. Conveniently both have exclamation points in their titles to match my excitement.

• Deodato: Prelude - Continuing my recent discovery/fascination with CTI (the story on Creed Taylor in this month’s Wax Poetics adding fuel). This album was the label’s huge hit because of the funky cover of Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001) that Phish ended up covering which I guess means that Phish covered a cover.
• Herbie Mann: Push Push - We’d been discussing this album earlier in the day during lunch at Hot Doug’s. The cover is sublimely ridiculous and best experienced in person. Oh, and Duane Allman sits in and proves he can hang with the jazz cats.
• Hubert Laws: Crying Song - More CTI, but this time with covers from Pink Floyd’s Soundtrack for the Film More. I’ve been looking for this for awhile.
• Idris Muhammad: Boogie to the Top - I realized not too long ago that I don’t have any Idris Muhamamd. Problem solved.
• Merl Sunders: Fire Up - With Jerry Garcia and Tom Fogerty. I haven’t heard this in ages. The reissue that combined this with Heavy Turbulence served as the template to the first band I gigged with.
• Ramsey Lewis: Sun Goddess - Another one I haven’t heard in a long time. Filling in some gaps from the past.
• Brother Jack McDuff: Down Home Style - I’ve been a huge fan of this album since first hearing on CD as part of Blue Note’s “Rare Groove” reissue series from about 10 years ago. Don’t think I’ve ever seen it on vinyl. This copy is a little banged up, but it was pretty cheap.
• Curtis Mayfield: Curtis/Live! - Uncovered this original pressing in the just arrived bin. Almost didn’t buy it then thought better of it right before checking out. The vinyl is in great shape and sounds amazing.
• Jimmy Smith: The Sermon! - Another old, old favorite I’ve had on CD for a long time. Track listing of the original vinyl is slightly different, but it’s the title track that’s really the stand out. I don’t think mine’s an original pressing, but I’m pretty sure it’s from before United Artists bought Blue Note in the 70’s.

A couple friends had been talking this record fair up for quite a while. When it finally came around last weekend my expectations were high and it didn’t disappoint. Things were mostly skewed towards rock so that’s what I concentrated on for the most part. Most people seemed willing to cut deals or throw in freebies which was nice. I think I only paid full price at one table, but all I bought was a $4 copy of Crazy Horse’s record without Neil. Plus I got turned on to a couple shops and vendors who I’ll hit up later on. Here’s the breakdown:

• Caravan: In the Land of Grey and Pink - The first seven records all came from the first table I looked at. I could have spent all the money I’d budgeted for the entire fair but wisely showed some restraint. For some dumb reason I didn’t get a card. Plus his jazz records were generally in better shape most other jazz stuff I saw. This Caravan record is something I’ve been keeping an eye out for. Not really sure why other than a curiousity about the late 60’s Canterbury scene beyond The Soft Machine. I’ve only given it one spin but this one might take some work to really get into.
• The Incredible String Band: U - Another gamble and this time a loss. I don’t know anything about ISB other than The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter which I really like. This one seems to have all the worst of their idiosyncracies and very little of the what makes The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter so good, namely quality songs.
• The Electric Flag: The Trip OST - A British reissue. I’ve seen the first twenty minutes of The Trip but don’t remember the soundtrack. Still, it doesn’t seem to work on it’s own without the film which is a bit of a bummer.
• It’s a Beautiful Day: It’s a Beautiful Day - This one mostly redeems the first three. I’ve had mp3’s of this for some time and really dig it. It’s a good album, but not great.
• Herbie Mann: Live at the Whisky A Go Go - Herbie Mann gets a bad rap from serious jazz lovers but I usually really like his records. He always has some weird combination of players who really shake up what could be some really middle of the road lite jazz and this is no exception. Roy Ayers, who I always like, is on this, as is Sonny Sharrock who is even more out here than he is on Memphis Underground.
• Sonny Stitt with Brother Jack McDuff: The Best of Sonny Stitt - Solid soul jazz comp on Prestige.
• The Rolling Stones: Miss You 12″ Special Disco Version - In case I ever become a DJ. They threw this in for free.
• Pink Floyd and Frank Zappa: Pink Floyd Meets Frank Zappa - I’ve seen this show up on Dime but never downloaded it. There was another guy looking at it (he ended up getting the picture disc version) and since I’m a huge fan of both Zappa and Floyd I went for it. Frank jams on Interstellar Overdrive and it’s pretty awesome. From a Belgian festival in ‘71.
• Miles Davis: In Concert - Found this at one of the only tables that had an extensive jazz selection. Wasn’t sure if I already had it (I didn’t). One step closer to having all of the electric Miles records. No track listing or musician credits, what an ego!
• Crazy Horse: Crazy Horse - Mentioned above. Bought from a vendor who had stuff in categories like “Good While Stoned”. His business card read Saucerful of Secrets yet he had no Floyd.
• Talking Heads: More Songs About Buildings and Food - The next five I found at 2nd Hand Tunes‘ table. They’re up in Evanston. While they didn’t have anything really unusual, everything they had was really good, in good shape and reasonably priced. Filled in some holes and found a couple of gems.
• Pink Floyd: A Nice Pair - This will have to do until I find another copy of Saucerful of Secrets to replace to POS copy I bought off eBay a couple years ago.
• Pink Floyd: The Final Cut - Another hole filled and a much better record than most people give it credit for being.
• Little Richard: Little Richard is Back - I’m still trying to track down release information on this one because I’m finding it hard to believe I found an original pressing of this for $10. Released in 1965 after Little Richard had ‘retired’ from rock and roll in response to The Beatles stealling his schtick on ‘Twist and Shout’. Also notable for the presence of James Marshall Hendricks on guitar.
• Lee Morgan: The Sidewinder - The vinyl is a bit banged up, but the cover is in great shape. Not be an original pressing, but from the 70’s when Blue Note was owned by United Artists. Still a rad find.
• Slint: EP - The last thing I bought of the day. Picked it up at the Touch and Go table. Given the news of their recent drastic downsizing and my longtime love for the stuff they put out I felt I should do a little something to help out.

Afterwards I stopped by the Reckless in Wicker Park because it was Record Store day but didn’t buy anything. All in all I’d say I had a pretty good day.

I hit up Dusty Groove a couple weeks ago during a break in class (which was happening in the gallery upstairs at Corbett vs. Dempsey). In fifteen minutes I managed to find some cool stuff.

• Beastie Boys: Paul’s Boutique - The deluxe 20th anniversary reissue and all I had intended to buy.
• Gilles Peterson: Digs America 2 - Overall I’m not as impressed as I thought I’d be.
• various artists: Welcome to the Basement (A Spicy Mixture from Black and Latin America) - I don’t know anything about the label that put out these last two comps other than that they’re German. Both are pretty good and there’s a third volume I think I’ll need to get.
• various artists: Cold Sweat (From Jazz to Soul ‘n’ Funk to Blaxploitation)

Then a week later I swung by Jazz Record Mart for the first time in about a year. I told myself I was only going to buy one record and ended up with three:

• Jack McDuff: Gin & Orange - Dusty Groove reissued this on CD recently.
• Herbie Hancock: Blow-Up OST - For anyone who ever wondered where the bassline on “Groove is in the Heart” came from.
• various artists: Nigeria 70 Lagos Jump - Sequel to what, for me, is still the best afrobeat/afrofunk compilation ever assembled and the one which turned me into a fiend for all things Nigerian from the 70’s. I downloaded this from emusic awhile back and tried looking online for it on vinyl at the time with no luck so I was surprised to stumble across this. !K7 has taken over Strut and I’m really hoping they’re gonna get the entire catalog back in print.

Rode my bike up there the other day. Found it to be a lot better than the locations in Wicker Park and the Loop. Maybe it has something to do with the lower concentration of hipsters up there? Anyway, I wasn’t looking for anything in particular like I was when I visited the Wicker Park store. Maybe that’s why I walked out with so much? Hell, I even put a few things back.

• Cedar Walton: The Electric Boogaloo -Luckily this has nothing to do with bad movies about breakdancing from the 80s.
• Herbie Nichols: The Third World - From Blue Note’s mid 70’s re-issue series.
• Spirit: The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus
• Lynyrd Skynyrd: Street Survivors - With the original cover of the band standing in front of some burning buildings that was pulled from stores after the plane crash.
• Emerson, Lake and Palmer: Pictures at an Exhibition
• Jethro Tull: Benefit
• The Doobie Brothers: What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits - Purchased solely because of the title in the hopes it would live up to it. It doesn’t.
• Sir Victor Uwaifo: Guitar-Boy Superstar 1970-76 - Another great comp from Soundway.

As I mentioned previously, a friend and I are working on a project that involves collecting a number of specific records. He’d already compiled most of the required album covers by the time I got involved. There are approximately 20-25 left to obtain and, after an unsuccessful attempt at trying to locate them in some local record stores, I opted to get them from eBay.

Shopping for records on eBay is a bit of a mixed blessing. Yes, you can find just about anything you’re looking for, but the major drawback is that you don’t know exactly what you’re getting. I’ve been burned a couple of times by inaccurate descriptions and gradings. Now I don’t buy records from sellers who don’t use  Goldmine’s rating system and don’t primarily sell records.

Even with those caveats in place, I still managed to get  a couple of the records which failed to live up to my expectations based on the seller’s description. Here’s the breakdown:

• various artists: Woodstock (music from the original soundtrack and more) - I probably haven’t heard this since high school and was surprised how good most of it sounded, especially the CSN(Y) cuts. And the stage announcements are pretty hilarious .
• The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
• The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Are You Experienced? - Another album I haven’t listened to in years. Again I was surprised on how much better it is than I remembered. The cover has some ballpoint pen detailing that was added by a previous owner. At first I was a little pissed (especially since the description made no mention of it), but I think it will add some extra personality to the final project.
• Pink Floyd: Meddle - This, along with Wish You Were Here, is one of the biggest gaps in my collection for Floyd albums. Not anymore.
• Donovan: Hurdy Gurdy Man - Probably the most blatantly mis-graded record of the lot as there are extremely audible skips during the title track which is especially disappointing since it’s the best cut on the record.
• Led Zeppelin: Led Zeppelin II - While there’s nothing wrong with this per se, it’s just a shitty later pressing that’s slightly thicker than a flexidisc. The cover is in fine shape, which is, I suppose, what matters most for this project. I’ll still probably keep an eye out for a better sounding copy just because.

I’m helping a friend out with a project, the nature of which I’m not sure I can publicly disclose at the moment. But, it does require me to acquire a few records I’ve been meaning to get for years and been putting off for no reason in particular. Given that I am gainfully employed for the summer in the e-commerce department of a major brick and mortar retailer, I have some extra cash with which to buy records.

After a stop at the Wicker Park Reckless Records where I struck out not once or twice, but six times looking for stuff on my list (none of which was particularly rare or hard to find which made my first stop in here especially disappointing) I headed over to Dusty Groove. They had the mediocre James Brown record I was looking for, but only a re-issue. I opted to pass in the hopes I could find an original pressing. Instead I got these:

• Booker T and the MGs: McLemore Avenue - This is a cool later period record they cut of covers of most of Abbey Road. It’s basically “Something” and the medleys. In some ways I prefer it to The Beatles original, mainly because I don’t have to hear “Octopus’s Garden” and because Booker T and the MGs are generally pretty awesome. It also has a geographically accurate version of the much parodied Abbey Road cover, McLemore Avenue being the street in Memphis where Stax Records was/is located.
• Merl Saunders: You Can Keep Your Hat On - Mid-70s release from Jerry Garcia’s main man on the organ back then and even though he doesn’t appear on it, this does feature a couple songs they played together in the Legion of Mary.

Stopped in last week to see if they had the new Soundway Nigeria Special comps and they did. They were a little pricey, but after the first couple listens generally seem worth it.

My only gripe is that each side only contains 2-3 tracks totaling 14-15 minutes of music. Without getting into the minutiae of vinyl mastering and production, they could have easily fit an additional track on each side to and make it one 3-record set instead of two 2-record sets. Is this a gambit to get me spend extra money on the vinyl releases in order to get all of the tracks on the CD version?

Soundway does such a great job otherwise that I don’t want to harp on them too much for this. Maybe it just annoys me because I’m broke and have no spine when it comes to not buying Afrobeat comps. At least it’ll make it a little easier to rip these to digital files since there are so few tracks to a side.

I can’t seem to find these on allmusic.com, so in lieu of my usual links there these point to Soundway’s site.

• Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-Sounds & Nigerian Blues 1970-6 part 1
• Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-Sounds & Nigerian Blues 1970-6 part 2
• Nigeria Disco Funk Special: The Sound of the Underground Lagos Dancefloor 1974-79 - didn’t even know this was out so I was a little surprised when I saw it. It’s also the one I’m liking best.

After being here for five and a half months, I finally made it to Jazz Record Mart. My dad was in town and it’s only a couple blocks from the hotel he was staying at so we headed over before getting dinner.

I’d heard that Jazz Record Mart had gone downhill a bit in the last couple years, so I wasn’t expecting to be blown away by what that had and I wasn’t. It’s certainly not Dusty Grooves, but there was more than enough good stuff that I had to restrain from doing too much damage to my recently deposited tax refund. No CTI (that I saw), no Jimmy Giuffre, very little electric Miles, but I did find this:

• Henry Cain: The Funky Organization of Henry Cain - I keep buying soul jazz records because about one in five turn out to be really awesome. This isn’t that one. It’s not bad, but there’s not much to recommend it.
• Luciano Perrone: Batucada Fantastica vol. 3 - There were a bunch of records from this series in the Latin section. I never heard of them so I just grabbed one. This one is mostly drum beats and rhythm patterns. Maybe the rest of the series is better?
• Oneness of Juju: Space Jungle Luv - I’ve been a fan of Strut since I picked up the Nigeria ‘70 comp (still by far the best afrobeat comp I’ve heard) five or six year’s ago at Kim’s in NYC (the one on Broadway, not St. Mark’s). Strut went out of business a few years back, so all their re-issues are out of print and whenever I see something they put out I pick it up. This one is a little spacier than African Rhythms, but still good.
• Experience Unlimited: Free Yourself - Proto go-go? Not really as this is nothing like E.U., the seminal DC go-go band Experience Unlimited would eventually become, but their entry on allmusic.com says that Oneness of Juju was also from DC. Go figure.
• Lou Donaldson: Alligator Bogaloo - Given my predilection for soul jazz, I’m sort of embarrassed I didn’t already own this. Plus I just noticed that it’s Bogaloo, not Boogaloo.
• Caetano Veloso: Tropicalia - I’ve been looking for this for a while now. Haven’t even been able to find it on CD. Someone thankfully re-issued it on vinyl at least.
• Herbie Hancock: Fat Albert Rotunda - One of the dopest albums ever.

Not a bad haul, although I should point out that these are all re-issues. Jazz Record Mart isn’t that good and my tax refund wasn’t that big.

Stopped by there this past weekend to pick up a few things for Zombie Disco (see above). Ended up with a bunch of stuff on CTI. What can I say, most of this stuff hasn’t been issued on CD. The rundown:

• Lonnie Smith: Mama Wailer
• Freddie Hubbard: Straight Life
• Kenny Burrell: God Bless the Child
• Hubert Laws: Afro-Classic
• Marvin Gaye: Live!

The indoctrination into the Chicago record store scene continues. This week’s installment brings us to Hyde Park Records in, where else, Hyde Park. I stopped in there with Zed on the way to Leon’s BBQ. They had tons of great stuff. Unfortunately it was all pretty banged up. Walked out with a couple good things though:

• Rahsann Roland Kirk: Volunteered Slavery
• Jimmy McGriff and Groove Holmes: Giants of the Organ in Concert
• Jimmy McGriff: Black and Blues
• Jimmy Smith: Rockin’ The Boat
• Grateful Dead: From the Mars Hotel