bjlefebvre
Super Member
Visited my brothers in Chicago during the Thanksgiving holiday and was gearing for our traditional record shopping trip. Saw that Jazz Record Mart on E. Illinois St. closed and Bob the owner opened a new store further north (background here: https://www.google.com/amp/www.chic...wner-back-in-business-20160429-story,amp.html).
Went to the new store (after a trip to Dusty Grooves). It's still...uh, a work in progress. The CD section and Blues vinyl area are OK, if much stripped down from what Bob used to have on sale. The jazz selection was something of a shambles, however. The selection was almost entirely used, and almost all of that was in the VG condition range. A lot of records were jammed into the bins, too - maybe he was still getting the inventory properly sorted. Saw some good titles - a six-eye edition of Miles Davis' Milestones, for example - but so beat up that they just weren't worth even the low price he was charging. I think it was the first time I went to Bob's store without buying anything.
Bob seemed all right. He greeted my entry with "Welcome to Bob's Jazz and Blues. I can't call it Jazz Record Mart anymore." He said the store was keeping fairly busy and that he was expecting an order of new titles to come in soon. He said the biggest problem he was having was finding enough of those plastic theft-deterrent CD holders to put on his CD inventory.
Hopefully he gets the new place organized and gets restocked with some better - quality vinyl. I bought my first Sun Ra, Kenny Dorham and Rahsaan Roland Kirk titles at his old place. Was kind of sad to leave empty handed this time.
Bought Les McCann, Charles Mingus and Horace Silver at Dusty Grooves, though. And still kicking myself for not picking up a Sam Rivers album they had. It seemed too expensive for a late Blue Note pressing. But after a day of reconsidering...dammit.
Went to the new store (after a trip to Dusty Grooves). It's still...uh, a work in progress. The CD section and Blues vinyl area are OK, if much stripped down from what Bob used to have on sale. The jazz selection was something of a shambles, however. The selection was almost entirely used, and almost all of that was in the VG condition range. A lot of records were jammed into the bins, too - maybe he was still getting the inventory properly sorted. Saw some good titles - a six-eye edition of Miles Davis' Milestones, for example - but so beat up that they just weren't worth even the low price he was charging. I think it was the first time I went to Bob's store without buying anything.
Bob seemed all right. He greeted my entry with "Welcome to Bob's Jazz and Blues. I can't call it Jazz Record Mart anymore." He said the store was keeping fairly busy and that he was expecting an order of new titles to come in soon. He said the biggest problem he was having was finding enough of those plastic theft-deterrent CD holders to put on his CD inventory.
Hopefully he gets the new place organized and gets restocked with some better - quality vinyl. I bought my first Sun Ra, Kenny Dorham and Rahsaan Roland Kirk titles at his old place. Was kind of sad to leave empty handed this time.
Bought Les McCann, Charles Mingus and Horace Silver at Dusty Grooves, though. And still kicking myself for not picking up a Sam Rivers album they had. It seemed too expensive for a late Blue Note pressing. But after a day of reconsidering...dammit.
