7-inch Record Specialty Shop Notes 777: "Dolphy is for home..."

Our regular customers, Mr. and Mrs. N, come to dine about once a month. They also buy records every time, so they are truly appreciated customers. Since they live quite far away, I also feel a bit sorry for them. Both of them are quite the music lovers. I suppose The Band is something we have in common.

The husband has also been buying a lot of jazz lately, which I am truly grateful for. As I have written many times, I started listening to jazz late, so I don't have much of a fixation on listening to it on analog. I only bought them if they were in good condition and cheap.

That Mr. N came to the shop again yesterday and asked, "Do you have any Eric Dolphy?" Dolphy!!!! I love him, so I do have a few... but it's not music to play as background music in a cafe. I declare, Dolphy does not work as background music. Honestly, I answered immediately, "Dolphy is for home." Even so, I had "Last Date" and one 7-inch record, so I sold them to him. ...In the end, I think he bought 5 records in total? Thank you very much.

And so, after returning home, I checked my record rack and found about seven of them. I listened to "Out To Lunch" on CD until I was sick of it, and then bought a reissue, so it's still unopened. The others are not in bad condition either.

Having come this far, I remembered that I had written about Dolphy before, so I searched for it... and it came up.

Yes, as I wrote before, I feel that sound common to geniuses who die young, and I just can't pass it by. Dolphy's sound, which is filled with bottomless charm, takes time to escape from once you get hooked.

If you are going to pursue Dolphy, he also left behind some great performances with Charles Mingus, so how about some Mingus while you're at it... that's the kind of thing. Maybe I should bring all the Dolphy and Mingus records to the shop by the next time they visit... If I could immediately offer recommendations like pulling a potato vine, maybe I could be a bit better at business...

Well, for that reason, this was almost like a business communication post. If you let me know what records you are looking for in advance, I will bring them from home if I have them. Thank you.