If you’re looking for something to whoop it up about, April 21 is Record Store Day, an international day of appreciation for bricks and mortar music retailers and the people who run them. Two of Canada’s primo jazz record retailers, Soundscapes in Toronto and Fascinating Rhythm in Nanaimo, will be taking part and hoping for a good day at the till inside their respective temples of recorded loveliness, while the sterile world of digital downloading carries on unabated all around them. At the heart of every good record store are the knowledgeable individuals whose job it is to impart a little magic to the shoppers looking to hear something they’ve never experienced before.
Jay Anderson is a sales clerk at Soundscapes and has been in the record retail business for fully half of his 34 years. He’s passionate about curating a collection that will inspire his clientele.
Q: What makes a good jazz record store?
A: We kind of carry everything including the classics and also the new stuff like the Robert Glasper Experiment CD, Black Radio. Keeping up with what’s going and even on stuff on the fringe is important. Also, turning people on to great records is huge. I get kind of excited when I see a 17-year-old walk away with A Love Supreme. There will be a weird disconnect when those kids grow up. Then we’ll see the first generation that has never known anything but digital downloads. I guess we’ll wait for the other shoe to drop then.
Q: How have record stores changed in the decade or so since iTunes arrived?
A: It’s crazy how much it’s changed. Michael Bublé still sells a lot of CDs but we’re selling way more tickets. Seeing record stores closing is always a pretty sad thing. I don’t think there’s ever going to be a new physical form of storage like CD or vinyl so we just hope that vinyl keeps getting more popular. Also our clientele is always getting older.
Q: What makes Soundscapes special?
A: No one had ever seen a store like this before, so clean and perfectly curated. Greg [Davis], the owner, once did a display of the 100 greatest albums from Mojo magazine. It made the experience so easy for new people. We got so popular we had to knock out a wall. Soundscapes is a destination for our customers. We’re in an area of restaurants, not retail. American Apparel opened a store once and had to close it down due to a lack of shoppers walking by.
Q: What are you planning for Record Store Day on April 21?
A: We’re doing a 15 or 20 per cent off sale and we’re trying something new with an in-store performance by The Elwins at 7 p.m.
Steve Lebitschnig opened Fascinating Rhythm in Nanaimo 23 years ago. It’s a favourite destination for music lovers, including artists such as Diana Krall, Ross Taggart, Duke Robillard, Colin James and Roy Forbes. CBC personality Stuart McLean once said it’s the store that most reminded him of Dave’s store in the Vinyl Café.
Q: What makes a good jazz record store?
A: I always wanted a store that I could be proud of and would like to shop in and also make a living at. I think you need a certain amount of business acumen and a really good music selection with a fairly deep catalogue where possible. Classics are important. There will always be a market for Miles or Red Garland or whatever.
Q: How have record stores changed in the decade or so since iTunes?
A: Whoa. It actually started with Napster easily 15 years ago. That’s when I started feeling the effect on sales.
Q: What makes Fascinating Rhythm special?
A: We have a very wide selection of titles and serve a lot of outlying communities here on the island. Nanaimo is less than 100,000 people so we cater to people in the Comox Valley and the Gulf Islands and elsewhere. We have quite a depth of selection, fairly big, not like an Amoeba [large U.S. retailer] or anything, but good. We sell a lot of vinyl. There was a point where we got up to a critical mass of vinyl and stuff just started to flow out the door. We probably make most of our money on the used inventory.
Q: What are you planning for Record Store Day on April 21?
A: Nothing special, just the usual. Play some good music. I’m kind of old school. Spin some vinyl and 78s. Stuff like that.
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Stories and Standards - "St. Louis Blues"
Celebrating Jazz Day north of the border