More Records...

I know what you are thinking. This is another post about a record catch of catfish. It's not. It's about record store day. I know it's past and I kind of missed it. In case you don't know record store day started in 2007, is held on the third Saturday of April and a lot of folks use that day to issue new releases and special pressings. That's great and good but I never buy new records. I buy used ones and on a recent Chicago visit these are the ones I found at Shuga's record store.

Shuga's had some pretty high priced used records. Some were ones I have in my collection. For the prices they asked I would expect them to be in excellent condition. The ones in my collection are not in good condition. They have been played a few times. Shuga's did have a pretty good selection of $1 and $2 bins. In the pile pictured there we picked up another polka record, a recording of Jewish favorites, a Tom Lehrer, a French flute record, more Latin Favorites, Big Joe Turner 1940- 1944 (80s release, pretty scratchy sound like vintage 40s for sure) and the prize "Taboo"  by Arthur Lymon. 

Arthur Lymon was a a vibraphone and marimba play born in 1932. At age 8 his father locked him in his room with early Lionel Hampton records. It worked. He learned to play well. His recording career spanned 1957-1980 and enjoyed a revival with the lounge music craze of the 90s. He had three gold records with this one I purchased for $2 selling two million copies. Lymon played gigs regularly in Hawaii, California and Chicago into the 1990s and passed away in 2002. Much of his music was recorded at the Kaiser Geodesic Dome, a aluminum structure in Waikiki. They were done live with no over dubs. The sonics of these records were so perfect when this music was reissued on cd it required no remastering.  Funny thing was when I brought this recorded to the counter for check out the record store dude had another copy tucked under the counter, saved for himself. 

Someone recently asked me, "how do I find good music?" I just told you.