faine books
  • Home
  • About
  • Music Books
    • Serendipity Doo-Dah #1
    • Serendipity Doo-Dah #2
    • Ellington at the White House
    • The Best Gig in Town
  • Short Stories
    • Prisoner Chaser
    • Taxi Driver
  • Blog
  • Contact

Portrait of an LP-Era Jazz Fan: Part 1

10/29/2019

3 Comments

 
Picture
Photo credit: Adobe Stock/creativenature.nl
From 1954 to 1984, I acquired 640 jazz vinyl LPs before switching over to the more convenient CDs to stay current with the music I enjoyed most. Only recently, with the help of Mike Petillo, did I give a sense of order to my collection by arranging the LPs alphabetically by jazz artist on the online resource discogs.com.

There it was, right before my eyes, my collection history as a young man, a lot of which I had forgotten, largely because as of late, I had only sporadically selected an LP or two every so often to play. Now, thanks to discogs.com, I could take a nostalgic jazz trip down memory lane.

Of course, I remembered that I was the sort of aficionado who would fall madly in love with a particular artist’s music and then snap up every subsequent album he or she produced, whenever and wherever I could. And perhaps, not too much of a surprise, as can be seen below, Miles Davis tops the list with 29 LPs.

​Looking at the rest of the top nine, I discovered a number of—what shall we call them—experimentalists, new thing, new wave, avant-garde musicians. 

Obviously, I fell in love with the music of an eclectic mix of jazz people:

29:
23:
19:
19:
16:
15:
13:
  9:
  9:
Trumpeter Miles Davis 
Saxophonist Art Pepper 
Saxophonist Charlie Parker
Pianist Abdullah Ibrahim
Keyboardist/bandleader Sun Ra
Tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp
Trumpeter Don Cherry
Pianist/composer Andrew Hill
Art Ensemble of Chicago
​
In addition to the above top nine favorites, I greatly admired other choice artists but purchased fewer of their LPs, numbering in the 8 to 5 range as listed below:

8:

7:


6:


​5:
​
Anthony Davis, David Murray, Henry Threadgill 

Dizzy Gillespie, Wayne Shorter, Red Garland, Marion Brown, Stan Getz, Ran Blake, Charles Mingus, Roscoe Mitchell 

Modern Jazz Quartet, Arthur Blythe, Bill Evans, John Coltrane, Art Farmer, Oliver Nelson,  Don Pullen, Chico Freeman, Oliver Lake, Thelonious Monk, Mal Waldron

George Russell, Sonny Rollins, Muhal Richards Abrams, Lester Bowie, and Jack DeJohnette
​

Not every jazz enthusiast will recognize all the names above, but that would also be true for me if I checked out another person’s collection.

Based on the information above, I can see that 50 percent of my LP collection consists of multiple buys (5 and above) from 36 artists. Further, over a thirty-year period beginning in 1954, I was a fan with eclectic tastes, preferring a diverse mix of—shall we say—traditionalists (Parker, Gillespie, Pepper) and avant-garde musicians (Shepp, Art Ensemble, Pullen).

But this is not the whole story.

​What about the rest of my collection, the remaining 50 percent that consists of four, three, or fewer per artist, representing a number of singular, transcendent one-of-kind albums?

I'll examine those in my next blog.
​
3 Comments
Alice Richardson
12/22/2019 03:02:36 pm

Always so nice to 'hear' from you ! Happy Holidays to you & yours! I hope we meet in the new year!

Reply
Cindy Cole
12/23/2019 12:08:35 pm

That is an amazing collection.

Happy holidays to you too!

Best regards,
Cindy

Reply
Edward Faine link
12/23/2019 12:50:56 pm

And best regards and holidays to you as well. You'll find the follow-up blog just as amazing . . I think.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Picture

    BUY NOW

    Picture

    BUY NOW


    EMAIL SIGNUP
    Receive news of upcoming blogs and events.


    Most Popular

    Music Blogs 2015–2022
    Business Advice from Miles Davis
    Miles and Me at the Modern Jazz Club

    Categories

    All
    Album Review
    Book Review
    Ellington
    Film Review
    Guest Post
    Jazz Albums
    Jazz History
    Jazz Musicians
    Music History
    Nixon
    Top 10 Jazz Albums

    Archives

    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015

    RSS Feed


FAINE BOOKS

Home  About  Books  Stories  Blog  Contact

Copyright © 2022 Edward Faine. All Rights Reserved.
Proudly powered by Weebly

BACK TO TOP

© 2021 FaineBooks

© DivTag Templates Ltd | All Rights Reserved