The Thrower Music Collection Year 35

It is hard to believe that recently I have commemorated 35 years (October 1st) of collecting vintage big band records, and due to many factors I was delayed in giving the "state of the collection" address here this year, so I wanted to go ahead and do that now. 

To start, let's get the boring statistics out of the way.  As of October 1st, my music collection now stands at 918 LP records, 1236 CD recordings, 100 DVD's of vintage "soundies," concerts, and big band-related movies, and around 300 or so 78 RPM records.  That means that since last year I have gained 6 new LP records, 29 new CD's, and only 3 new DVD's.   Growth was not spectacular, but good given the fact that in January we moved back to my home turf after 27 years in Florida.  The anticipated outlook is about the same for next year, as my collection is at a point where there will not be much spectacular growth although I am looking to get some good stuff regardless.  Outside of the numbers though, a lot was significant about this past year, and I wanted to give some highlights. 

To begin, I was fortunate enough to come across a vendor who has managed to reissue many rare LP's that I wanted to get on CD that honestly I thought would never be released.  A couple in Arizona, Gary and Joan Sprunk, operate a service called My Music Boutique (or Arizol Music - their website in case you're interested is www.mymusicboutique.com), and they have reissued a number of rare LP's that many people have forgotten about.  Big band recordings are often associated with the vintage 78's of their heyday, and while those are classic and definitely essential to a collection, what is often overlooked is the LP era of the 1950's and 1960's, during which many good original big band records were released, especially by the more "sweet" bands.  The advantage to those is that many of them were either originally or later reissued albums which were stereo quality, meaning the sound is excellent on them.  Some of the bands who were very prolific at recording excellent dance band LP's in that timeframe were Sammy Kaye, Guy Lombardo, Lester Lanin, Ernie Heckscher, Lawrence Welk (naturally!), Peter Duchin, Jan Garber, and the Elgart Brothers.  A lot of good swing-oriented bands, such as Woody Herman and Les Brown, released some excellent material too.  Collectors often overlook the value of these good records, and often they can be found by the dozens at thrift shops and junk stores in most towns.  I would encourage you to start thinking about maybe getting a collection of those if you can do so, because in the very near future those will be antiques as well.  And, that being said, I commend the Sprunks for taking on the great task of releasing many of those quality LP's as CD recordings, and I was fortunate to have purchased about a dozen of them over the past several months from them.  Therefore, when you can, check out their website, as they are always coming up with new gems. 

The second thing I wanted to reflect on is that with our move back to my home territory, something significant happened this year in regard to my music collection.  Being we now live in Hagerstown, MD, I am actually quite excited to know that we are only about an hour or so away from the very store in Rio, WV, where I got my first records over 35 years ago, the famous "Rio Mall."  Since moving back here, Barbara and I have managed two visits over there, and I bought my first LP there back in February since my last purchase there back in 1987.  The LP was a reissue of Shep Fields's material from the 1960's, but it was a nice find nonetheless.  And, surprisingly, they are still the exact same price I paid for them years ago - a quarter a record!  The old Rio Mall has changed somewhat over the years, as they have added a second story and now also carry groceries, which is something they never had years ago. The records too have changed location - whereas they used to be in boxes in the front of the store back years ago adjacent to the counter, now they are in an adjoining room where the new grocery stock is at, and they have a lot of them.  It was good to be able to visit there again after all these years - that place has been in business well over 50 years, and still going strong as the Fitzwater family still operates it.  I even got to see Rick, who is the son of the owner, and wonder if he remembered me as the "record boy" who used to load up on those quarter LP's years ago?  Rick was actually the guy who sold me most of my original collection, so he and I were used to doing a lucrative business back in the day.  It is almost surreal to know that after 35 years I was finally able to visit the place where my massive collection had its origin, and that it is still going strong.  No doubt now that we live fairly close I will be visiting them more in the future - Rick does have an antique accordion I want to get my hands on eventually, as he wants $100 for it, so maybe I might just do that soon.  If all the factors are favorable, that may just happen too.

The third aspect of my collection this year is upgraded housing.  Since we now live in a mobile home instead of a more spacious house like we have been used to, it is a bit cumbersome to haul around 19 boxes of records and 8 boxes of CD's, so I had to come up with a solution.  So, a couple of months ago I was able to purchase two large metal cabinets, and they are shaping up to be the perfect housing for my extensive collection.  The first cabinet at this point is together, and all the single LP records are in that one, as well as 2/3 of my 78's.   The second cabinet is a work in progress, hopefully to be assembled by the week after this is published, and it will house my boxed LP sets, including my "Holy Grail" collection of the Franklin Mint 100-LP Greatest Recordings of the Big Band Era set that came out in the early 1980's.   I recall, when I started collecting records, how that set was advertised in the various issues of Reader's Digest in those years, and I would look at that and literally drool because I wanted that collection so bad - if you love big band music, it is the crowning glory of a collector's library.  They are housed in boxes of two records each (making 50 double albums) and the records are pressed in red vinyl.  As big as it is, it doesn't contain everything, but it is perhaps the most ambitious and largest undertaking of big band reissues to ever hit the market.  I finally got my collection in 2006, thanks to the miracle of internet purchasing called EBay, and that collection is now part of my overall collection, comprising almost 10% by itself of my LP's.  So far, not even the CD era has produced anything that ambitious, and it would be interesting if someone did try to reissue that collection on CD's - how many CD's would it have?  If I were to guess, I would say at about two LP's fitting on one CD, and two CD's per album, it could easily be a 25-case set of CD's if it were reissued.  Definitely something to keep an eye out for in the future for sure!

As I reflect back on my collection over the years, I am thinking about many things.  For instance, other than a few of us who are diehard collectors who really love vintage big bands, no one knows a lot about them anymore, which makes collection and preservation of this great music more crucial.  Also, in the coming year, I am focusing on big bands as far as their roots, how they developed, etc.  Do you know, for instance, that there were dance bands in the 1880's who recorded?  Of course, there was Will Marion Cook, who only has one recorded work to his name (he is featured on a record by the legendary Ethel Waters in the 1920's as a pianist), but there were also people like Edward Issler and even Johann Strauss III, who for all intents and purposes had the first "society orchestra" that played his uncle's and grandfather's classic waltzes.  Many of those recordings are on cylinders, and maybe I will come across some of those in the future as cylinder recordings are not something I have had much luck in finding over the years.  Fortunately though, there are sites such as archive.org that have those vintage recordings available for download, and I have been able to capture them on flash drives.  I am anticipating that someone - a diehard collector like myself - may see the importance of a CD reissue of that vintage stuff, and when such a person does, I will plan on getting it.  Adding people like Edward Issler to my extensive collection, for instance, would be a great accomplishment for me.  And, who knows, maybe I might get my hands on some cylinder recordings this year too - we'll see what happens.

To wrap up this end-of-year reflection as far as my collection is concerned, the question remains about where I will be going this year?  My immediate goal is to more or less look out for some significant new releases that interest me, as well as tying up some loose ends in my Amazon wish list - I would love to add some newer material by Toshiko Akiyoshi and Lew Tabackin, for instance, and have that "waiting in the wings," so to speak.  My other watch item this year is a recent 5-CD collection of all of the legendary accordionist Charles Magnante's vintage recordings, which is the product of accordion virtuoso and historian Dr. Henry Doktorski.  Charles Magnante is significant to my collection in that he, like many soloists such as Rudy Wiedoeft and others, also are pivotal figures in the history and legacy of big bands.  Therefore, his collection added to my library is a very imminent objective.  I don't anticipate a lot of purchases this year, but will be always vigilant and keep my eyes open.  Also, a couple of more trips to Rio may yield a few more LP's and 78's as well.  Any rate, that is what my year was like as far as music collections are concerned, and I will see you all soon.