Forty or so years ago, in the summer I would pick through my vinyl record collection, selecting recordings that I thought I wouldn't listen to again. I'd take the selected records to Peter Dale's fabulous Car City Records in St Clair Shores, Michigan to sell for cash or to trade for vinyl recordings. I don't think I ever took the cash option. Peter Dale sold his store to Bob Setlick and retired. Later Peter came out of retirement to own and operate Encore Music in Ann Arbor. In between my dealings with Car City Records and Encore Music there was Steve Bergman's fabulous store in Ann Arbor, Schoolkids' Records and Schoolkids in Exile. In 2011, Peter Dale retired again and sold Encore Music to his employees. Steve Bergman closed Schoolkids also in 2011. Encore Music is still operating, thank goodness!
Ann Arbor! Many fond music memories: Eclipse Jazz Concerts, Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival, Bird of Paradise, Once Festival (Robert Ashley, Eric Dolphy).... All gone.
Meadowbrook: Mahler's 8th Symphony and Joni Mitchell with Jaco Pastorius, Pat Metheny, Brecker brothers. Goodness!
Detroit: The great Bluiett-Jackson-Thiam concert at the Serengeti, with quest Roy Brooks. David Murray Octet at Chene Park. Archie Shepp at the DIA. The Arditti String Quartet concert - at Orchestra Hall - Schoenberg and Kurtag, Ouch! .
Summertime Music Listening. My earliest music-listing memories reside in the year ca. 1949 when I was eight years old. I was awed by Coleman Hawkins' Talk of the Town and Stuffy and Woody Herman's Lemon Drop - can't imagine what "lemon drop" encoded. I was also in awe of the 16 inch 78 rpm discs that encoded my mother's friend's operas.
When we lived in Grosse Pointe music was accessible to us - recordings, concerts, clubs. Columbus, Ohio is where we have lived for the past 25 plus years. As a friend of my wife remarked, It's not Ann Arbor. It's not Detroit either. Both positives. Music and pizza are northern delights. I asked a deli owner in Columbus how he managed such bread-like bread. He replied, I have it sent down from Cleveland. I met Pierre Boulez in Cleveland. I met Gunther Schuller and Lucas Foss in Columbus. I still favor Cleveland - Music, Books and Food.
Back to Hot Fun in the Summertime.
Mahler and Clarinet music. Mahler's 6th Symphony and Brahms' Clarinet Quintet. Pianist Ivan Moravek's Debussy. Schoenberg's String Quartet No. 1. Grown-up music. Sublime music.
Art Music, Improvised music? I'm sure there was lots of it in the summertime. There is right now. Ah! John Coltrane's My Favorite Things at Newport with Roy Haynes in Elvin Jones chair! Coltrane's My Favorite Things at the Village Gate in NYC with his sextet and Roland Kirk has been the ultimate music experience of my life, August 1961.
Perhaps I'll add to these reflections later. As Jalen Rose would say, Best to get them on wax. It's been a while.
