I count myself among those blessed (cursed?) to be an avid life-long record collector and I have long considered my collection of approximately 10,000 records to be a hell of a lot of vinyl. But truth is that my total number of records constitutes a modest collection compared to a lot others out there. Regardless, I have long dreaded the day that I might have to pack up and move my records. Just the thought of it is daunting in itself. But recently I got a taste of what that job might be like (only times three and with help) when I had the task of packing and shipping the vast 30,000 unit record collection from a Queens, NY private collection that Amoeba recently acquired.

My task was to pack up this entire collection and safely ship it cross country back to Amoeba Hollywood where this vast eclectic record collection (including lots of rarities) will go on sale July 21st. The 30,000 records (plus several boxes of CDs and cassettes) all made the 3,000 mile journey to Amoeba in LA safely and, in the process, I learned all the intricacies of what goes into packing and transporting vinyl. It's not quite as simple as it at first appears.

This expansive record collection occupied two big rooms of the fifth floor Queens, New York apartment owned by a sweet lady named Lola, a former singer from the Bay Area, that I got to know over the course of the week it took to pack up this vinyl treasure trove. The records were the lifelong collection of her late husband Eddie who kept most of them in shrink-wrapped, mint condition. The task of packing and preparing them for shipping back to Amoeba was something that took quite a bit of pre-planning. And for a novice like myself, that meant extra homework in the art of packing records. Luckily Amoeba Marc and Kent from Amoeba Berkeley (both of whom had flown out to NYC for three days to appraise the collection) gave me some invaluable guidance since they had done this task numerous times before.

If you're an avid record collector or an Amoeba regular then you might have already heard something about the incredibly large and eclectic record collection that Amoeba Music acquired recently  from a private collection in Queens, NY. This collection will be presented for sale to Amoeba shoppers at the Hollywood store starting on July 21st. Perhaps you read the enthusiastic preview of this collection by Amoeba Hollywood's ever-discriminating classical music expert Rubin who, in his four decades of working closely with classical releases, says he has never viewed a collection quite like this. "The most eclectic collection of classical music I have ever seen," he wrote in his recent Amoeblog Huge Vinyl Collection to Hit Amoeba Hollywood on 7/21. Eastern European Classical Gems Galore! 

Beyond the Eastern European and other classical (primarily 20th Century composers) that Rubin addressed, this vast treasure trove of vinyl - 30,000 units in scale - includes lots of different types of music. Among the many other genres that are liberally represented are a whole lot of jazz, an eclectic mix of soundtracks (movies and stage shows from the US, Europe, and beyond), and a refreshingly unique selection of spoken word. Even more impressive is the fact that the majority of these records were never opened, and are still shrink-wrapped and perfectly preserved.

We were lucky enough to buy a huge collection of vinyl from a well-known collector who lived in Kew Gardens in the New York Borough of Queens and collected a bit of every thing. My task is to describe what, in my 39 years of experience, is the most eclectic collection of classical music I have ever seen.

Normally, when one sees a large collection of classical, you see Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, and so forth, performed by world renowned artists. But Ed (withholding his last name) collected mainly 20th-century composers from every European country and a lot of American music that has been unjustly forgotten.

I think I know my composers, but there were a number of them in this collection that I have never heard of and whose existence is scantly documented in reference books that are in the English language.

One of the few sanguine effects of Eastern European communism was that each country had it’s own state-run record label that methodically recorded the music of every prominent living composer.

Here are a few examples:

 

COUNTRY	LABEL
Soviet Union	Melodiya
Romania	Electrocord
Bulgaria	Balkaton
Hungary	Hungaroton
Czechoslovakia	Supraphon
East Germany	Nova

ECM Records has always been one of my favorite labels, peerlessly rich in variety and deeply honest with it's mission and intent of quality. I remember my first ECM LP was an unplayed white-label promo copy of Terje Rypdal's What Comes After, which really set me up to fall in love and get on board with the vision of Manfred Eicher, the label's owner and director. The sound on that record, with it's reverberant, creamy echo and crystal clear, dissonant music and the impression it made on me shall never be forgotten (and I can revisit it at will). Was this Jazz music? Rock? Classical? I didn't care at all to label it, only to consume as much as possible of this new sound, and start down the path to discovery of each title I could find in my town and towns around Los Angeles.

Of course, I didn't love everything that the label released, but I always listened with very open ears. Just the cover art direction alone still fascinates me and is the subject of multiple design books. Manfred has also become the preeminant Classical music producer since I've been a listener, not an easy coup, resulting in a perfect fit with his sound and the composer's vision. It still applies that ECM is a creative energy second to none with no cliches, no boundries, and no borders as to what can be done within it's domain, Year after year, which totals over 40 now, the ECM label has been there for me, re-igniting my passion for music, and with a quality like no other.

Here, fellow travellers, are some of my favorties of this moment's newest CD releases form this wonderful treasure. Click on the titles to see if they are available for purchase at Amoeba.com.

And what's your favorite ECM release?

Visit www.ecmrecords.com

 
Boris Yoffe
Song of Songs
ECM 2174

As the year 2011 flies to a close, I've gathered some of my favorite scores from the past year together to reflect upon how much great stuff gets traded in at our used buying counter. All this art came in over Amoeba's trade-in counter but didn't make it past my "gotta check this out" sensors-in-overdrive...lots of stuff maybe not have been released in 2011 but plucked from the ocean of "keepers" and brought ashore, as the relevance and quality make it so, and the joy of reconnecting with a reissue or another format.  Our "Insurance Return" policy keeps the good stuff coming in as well.  And I've forgotten more titles than I've remembered...

Vinyl LPs


John Adams
Harmonium
ECM 1984

I've owned this on a compact disc for ages, and then I see the magnificent film, "I Am Love" with the great Tilda Swinton and I see a vinyl copy of it and my head goes, "BUY THIS"!  This record was cut up and used as the score in such a wonderful, effective way, swooning, tilting and fanfare-ing the scenes making the picture so much more intense and sentimental. Bravissimo. The wax sounds amazing, too, as is the ECM tradition.



Havergal Brian
Complete Piano Music
Cameo Classics 1981

Amazing moods and very sound writing for piano. Think Debussy, Copeland, Ravel, Mozart, Haydn, Bryars and Gershwin and all this rolled into one fellow born in the U.K. in 1876. The great sound on this disc makes it so enjoyable, and being a wonderfully produced U.K. pressing with a brilliant performance by Peter Hill seals the deal.