Sam the man

Sam Cooke's first album, on Keen Records. He looks really young. Cover could look better but who am I to complain, got this for free!

Beatnik stuff

Ok i've been lazy but summer is officially over, so back to it. Here is a sampling of some of the more interesting records I found in San Francisco:

Kerouac-Poetry for the Beat Generation & Ginsberg - Howl
The cover for Howl is kinda beat, but both records look and sound great. Original Pressings(!)





Another cool Beat Gen record, comlpete with Hip Manual.

Nina Simone's first album. On Bethlehem Records. Yes.

1960's self-hypnosis record. You would think a "doctor" could afford a better hair piece...

John Coltrane live at the Village Vanguard. Coming across an original John Coltrane record in a dusty crate is as close to gold mining as i'll ever get. Score!

Only three records from these guys. I read they stopped using the JFK in their name after the assassination. High quality bebop/hardbop Riverside recording with a great cover.

A real personality

Ok here is my single favorite item from the recent record-hunting trip to San Francisco.  Babs Gonzales. Who is this guy?  I had no idea either so I did some homework and found out he was a pretty heavy dude, having significant influence in the development of bebop and jazz in general. Babs was hippest of the hipsters and knew anyone who was anyone.  He made up words like expoobident.  Just look at the picture, the man was cooler 60 years ago than most people could ever hope to be.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babs_Gonzales

Here is his take on x-mas:

San Francisco Moods

How appropriate for me to have found this record while digging in a basement in San Francisco all weekend.  Cal Tjader, one of the grooviest jazz cats to make the scene, shows some San Francisco love while also taking some influence from the beat generation a la 1958.  Rare and beautiful, this is the kind of find that keeps me going.  It was a very productive trip, so i'll be posting a number of choice items that I managed to find up there, including afro beat, calypso, jazz, and of course a few beat poetry discs.

I couldn't find anything from this album, but the below track was sampled by Gangstarr so some of you might recognize it (and its importance in hip hop):

Unexpected score

Here is an example of a great record just falling into my possession.  While dropping off some old clothing at a local salvation army, I just happened to see the guy in front of me donate a box of old records.  Now there is no way I was leaving before checking out those lp's.  SCORE!  Found this copy of a damn near impossible to find 1965 "You Never Heard Such Sounds in Your Life" - Milford Graves Percussion Ensemble with Sunny Morgan.  I can't tell you how f'ing awesome this record is! The free-est of the free form jazz drummers, Milford goes to town on his homemade drum kit with Sunny backing him up with even more percussion!  No horns, strings, melodies, nothing.  This is straight up free form drumming at its finest.  The only thing better than finding an album as rare as this is finding it by accident!  It was meant to be! <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xU3La5e9r6U?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xU3La5e9r6U?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

Catchy song that you won't be able to get out of your head

One more thing

from today's excursion.  Well, two actually.  While digging around in a sea of dusty old 80's pop lp's I found these 2 worn but still very playable Blue Note 45's.  The first one is Lou Donaldson - Funky Mama parts 1&2, the other is Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder parts 1&2.  Pretty awesome finds considering how people frequent that spot.  This is why I keep digging.

another good day

It was another good day of digging at one of my local spots (1 million+ records in a warehouse).

Amongst a few very interesting pickups today, this one stands out.  It is a 1962(i think) 45 of Martin Luther King Jr's speech 'The Negro Dilema: The Old & New Slavery - The Challenge - Dignity and Self Respect' b/w 'Excellence: A Good Job - The Street Sweeper - Be The Best'.  From what i've been able to find online, this appears to be a series of sermons/speeches delivered to the Zion Hill Baptist church in Los Angeles around 1962 and produced by the non-profit Public Information Communications Association out of Compton, CA.  I just listened to both sides. Seven years deep in the civil rights struggle, you can hear the determination in his voice.

A good day

Not a bad weekend of digging.  On Friday I scored an orange King 45 of James Brown's original 1969 Mother Popcorn and yesterday I came across the even more rare 'Answer to Mother Popcorn' (I Got a Mother for You) by the lovely Vicki Anderson.    Very cool.

I like records

Hi.  My name is Josh, I live in LA, and I collect records. I have always had a fascination with records, so I've decided to create this blog to both catalog my personal collection and share the excitement of discovering those unexpected gems. Pics, vids, etc will be included where possible...  Hopefully I will encourage some of you to get out to those garage sales and dig dig dig!  I'm always on the lookout for new records and new spots to dig so please feel free to make suggestions.  That's it.  Enjoy.