#blackandread

Since I was in college, I’ve always enjoyed spending a bulk of my weekend shopping at an independent used record store. I am not adverse to the dust and the dilapidated library classification infused in each and every one I have frequented. And since I’ve retooled my current library - besides a small remaining CD collection, I’ve replaced CD buying with a Spotify subscription and I pick up select new Vinyl records at a live show - I really enjoy digging through the crates on National Record Store Day each year, where I get to select gently used vinyl in a wide range of stylistic genres. This year, I wanted to focus on vintage reggae, world (specifically African), jazz, bluegrass, folk, r&b, blues, and anything within a similar range of these audiophiliac fusions. Here is a list of the vinyl booty I scored at Black & Read in Arvada, Colorado this year:

The Hiltonaires - Seven Bells (60′s era Ska-lip-so from Jamaica)

Toure Kunda - Casamance au clair de lune (Senegalese roots music)

The Best of Ella Fitzgerald on Verve Records

War - Why Can’t We Be Friends?

Leo Kottke - The Best on Capitol Records (double LP)

The David Grisman Quintet - eponymous Kaleidoscope Records’ debut

John Hartford - Aereo-Plain (my introduction into loving bluegrass)

Santana - eponymous Columbia Records’ debut

The Byrds - Sweetheart of the Rodeo (Grammy Hall of Fame Award)

Gary & Randy Scruggs - All the Way Home on Vanguard Records

The Essential Charlie Parker on Verve Records

Stanley Clarke - I Wanna Play For You (double live LP, 1979)

Quincy Jones - Ndeda (double LP) (early Dude recordings)

The Crusaders - At Their Best on Motown Records

Paul Simon - Greatest Hits, Etc. on Columbia Records

Weather Report - eponymous debut on Columbia Records

Santana - Borboletta (jazz-funk-fusion recording from 1974)

Vassar Clements - eponymous Mercury Records’ all-star recording

The J. Geils Band - Showtime! (recorded live in Detroit, 1982)

Eric Clapton - Slowhand (Glyn Johns’ produced) on RSO Records

Johnny Nash - I Can See Clearly Now (1 of the best vocals of all-time)

Ramsey Lewis - Golden Hits on Columbia Records

Wes Montgomery - Eulogy on Verve Records

Emmylou Harris - Evangeline (b-sides which charted Gold)

Shoji Tabuchi - In Concert, Grapevine Opry House (Japanese fiddler)

Derek & The Dominoes - Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs

Stevie Wonder - Talking Book featuring credits in American braille

Taj Mahal - Mo’ Roots

UB40 - CCCP, Live in Moscow (skankin’ in the USSR)