Since Rudy Van Gelder’s passing in 2016, Van Gelder Studio owner Maureen Sickler has been working toward a reopening of the studio, and that time has now come. On Saturday, November 14 at 9:00 P.M. Eastern Time (alternate times for Asia and Europe), Van Gelder Studio will host a virtual tribute concert for legendary composer and saxophonist Hank Mobley. More→
It is with great pleasure that I announce the launch of RVG Legacy, a new website dedicated to preserving the legacy of Rudy Van Gelder. Since the pandemic has taken away all opportunities for me to give my presentation on Rudy in person, I decided to build a website that would essentially deliver all the content of my talk virtually. In the spring I wrote the narrative, then over the summer I put everything together and developed the site. More→
While I have never felt apologetic about my sincere adoration for music, sometimes I do struggle with feelings of guilt related to how important collecting is to me. I spend a lot of time thinking about and partaking in this hobby, and my propensity toward anxiety and obsession has made my active participation difficult at times. At this point in my life, some of the old challenges have compounded and new ones are presenting themselves… More→
While I still haven’t delved all too deeply into ‘pre-bop’ jazz, I managed to find another great 78 from that era. For a stretch in 2019 I was accustomed to seeing the silly grin on Fats Waller’s pudgy face regularly while volunteering at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. Footage of Waller performing was part of a video on loop there, and I was regularly reminded what a natural entertainer Waller was… More→
So far, Deep Groove Mono’s coverage of 78s has been limited to the very first 78 I ever acquired and the Dual idler wheel turntable I recently picked up for its popularity with 78 collectors. Since I have replaced that first 78 with a cleaner copy, abandoned the economical Califone portable featured in that post, and now prefer my modified Technics 1200 to play 78s over the Dual, this in some ways is my… More→
Although for many years I knew nothing of Japanese jazz, our hobby has helped me become aware that the Japanese by and large have a deep, heartfelt appreciation of jazz music. Before I bought this album though, all I knew about Japanese jazz musicians was what a disgruntled New York City record store clerk told me once, that they didn’t know how to ‘swing’… More→
Wrapping up the second season of Instagram interviews with our fourth and final episode, we turn to a West Coast collector with an early presence in the online jazz community. As a result, I have long had a ton of respect for @gstvinyl or just “GST”, a humble collector with a deep collection … More→
For regular readers of this blog, recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder needs no introduction. In fact, aside from the musicians themselves, he is probably more known by jazz record collectors than any other figure in the music’s history. For collectors then, any question of Van Gelder’s importance will surely seem puzzling if not … More→
My relationship with the full-length album that contains this EP, Brown & Roach Incorporated, began very early on in my collecting years. I would have initially ripped the album from a CD checked out from the library and now I own that CD, which is the ‘official’ PolyGram… More→
If vintage jazz record collecting were a contest where collectors set out to prove just how much the act of collecting really is “about the music” and not about the object, Tarik a.k.a. @araggywaltz wins, by a long shot. I’m sure many of us could admit that collecting feels slightly competitive at times … More→