More Pacific Jazz
From Honest Jon's to Big Al's....
This week, we’re back on the West Coast. When we left off, I was working at an antique store in Carmel. I spent a lot of time down in Pacific Grove too. The beach by Lover’s Point was such a great place. I’d go down there after work and park in front of a used record store – I have no idea what that one was called. After browsing, I’d go next door to get a cup of coffee and walk down to Lover’s Point. One day, the owner of the record store told me that he just got in some great old Jazz albums - he knew I was a jazz guy at this point. He told me, “You should take a look at these.” Here they are:
After all these years, I realize I stumbled onto a little gold mine. True confession, this week’s journey is Chet Baker-heavy. But, as I look back, it really was Chet that defined those early years of my jazz journey in California.
When I look now at that lot of six LPS, at that time, I had only heard of Chet Baker. On the strength of his push, I bought them all, and they would end up being some of my favorite all-time LPs. Of particular note to me now are the Oscar Pettiford LPS. I would find out much later that Oscar Pettiford was, in fact, from Minnesota – we’ll pick up that story next week….
Here are a couple great ones:
I love this song with the odd orchestration of a harp (yes, a harp) and two French horns.
And this one:
Killer cello solo (dedicated to Dutch).
I’m so glad that guy gave me the opportunity to buy those LPs. I recall it was what seemed like a lot of money back then, but they ended up being a bargain. Record stores have always played an important role in my Jazz journey. Starting with The Jazz Inn in Den Haag and Ray’s in London, and this trend continued when I returned to California.
Papa Jazz
During this time, I was still in the U.S. Army Reserves, so every month I’d spend the weekend down at Fort Ord in Monterey. I was in a basic training unit, so once a year for 2 weeks I was sent to Fort Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina. During that time, I took over as the Company Commander of an active basic training unit. When I had the chance, I’d head into Columbia and hang out at a coffee shop next to a great used record store, Papa Jazz Record Shoppe.
I remember the first time I went into Papa Jazz. This place was loaded with West Coast Jazz. In fact, it was a mini-Mecca of West Coast Jazz. I commented to the owner how I was from California and no one in Cali had this much West Coast music. I remember picking up Shorty Roger’s Chance Are It Swings recorded in Hollywood in 1959 – I loved the cover.
I couldn’t buy all the stuff he had. So I asked him if he’d just start shipping me all his West Coast Stuff, and I’d pay him via mail. So every few months or so, I’d get a package of West Coast Jazz records from Papa Jazz with a bill. I would just send him a check and that was that! This arrangement went on for a few years, until either I got out of the reserves and stop going to Columbia or he ran out of West Coast Jazz records.
Here are a couple of the first LPs I got at the Papa Jazz Record Shoppe:
In fact, most of the Contemporary Records LPs I have now Papa Jazz sent to me from Columbia.
I can’t recall how long I stayed in Carmel. At some point, I thought to myself, I should probably get a real job. I started looking at ads in the San Jose Mercury News newspaper. I remember my first job interview was for a Quality Engineering job in Silicon Valley. The first question the man asked me was, “Mister King, what is Quality?” I hesitated a bit - all I could think of was a nice wave at Carmel Beach. I didn’t say that (maybe I should have) and instead made up something bogus. I didn’t get that job. I ended up taking a position at the Marine Division of Westinghouse working on ICBM launch tubes for the Department of Defense’s rail car program. I moved out of Carmel and into a spare bedroom in a man’s house in Campbell. He rented me a bedroom, and I had free use of his kitchen and a bathroom. Anyway, I loaded up my Jeep CJ-7 with pretty much everything I had that I wanted and left the rest behind in Carmel. I still had my footlocker, which was full of records and also another couple of boxes with my West Coast stuff and the Blue Note reissues I’d picked up in Europe. I was off to start a new life….
Big Al’s Record Barn
Campbell was a great location. Los Gatos was just up the road and, more importantly, Highway 17 was right there, and I could be over to Santa Cruz in 30 minutes or so. Just a short ride into San Jose was another great record store, Big Al’s Record Barn.
Unfortunately, Big Al’s recently closed down. When I went there it was at the Santa Clara location on the El Camino Real. I don’t think I ever went to his newer location on Bascom Ave. My memories of Big Al’s is that he had a lot of Chet Baker 45RPM EPs and 10” records that were basically impossible to find anywhere at that time. Here are the ones I got there.
As I recall, he did little or no organizing other than, “The Jazz Section is along that wall there”. No alphabetical listening, etc. You were totally in the weeds. You basically needed a lot of time and patience, which back then I had. About that time, I had just started to become a big Chet Baker fan. I first recall learning about Chet Baker from the Sharky’s Machine movie soundtrack. Classic stuff here - dig the corduroy jacket.
In the movie, Chet sings My Funny Valentine:
I saw Sharky’s Machine on TV the first time I was in California before I went to Europe. This song caught my ear, and I started to become interested in Baker and Mulligan and the Lighthouse All-stars. But before I knew it, I was on my way to Europe. And not much Chet Baker in European music stores at that time – the Blue Note re-issues favored the East Coast sound. Actually, besides this classic Vogue release of the original Pacific Jazz LP, I picked up my first Baker LP from Papa Jazz in Columbia, South Carolina some years later.
Since finding that Baker LP, I had been on the lookout for more Chet Baker LPS, and Big Al’s was a motherlode.
In about 1989, the movie Let’s Get Lost came out. I saw it play at the Castro Theater in San Francisco. I saw it a couple of times actually. Then right before the last viewing, I went again. As I was paying, I said to the guy at the ticket window, “I’ll give you $100 for that movie poster.” He looked at me for what seemed like a long time, took the money, took down the movie poster, and gave it to me. I have it framed in my living room.
Another funny thing about Big Al’s. One sunny Saturday morning, I went down to Big Al’s and there was a big grand piano in the parking lot. Next to it was a sign that Dave Brubeck would be playing at noon - What? In the parking lot? Lord have mercy. So I wasted away a couple of hours inside hunting for Chet Baker albums and bought a comic book, which I gave to Dave Brubeck after the show to sign. He was a very nice man. Here’s the comic book:
Tower in Palo Alto
The final record store that helped me discover West Coast Jazz was the new Tower Records in the southern part of Palo Alto. It wasn’t a big shot store like in Greenwich Village or the one in San Fran, but it was solid - and jazz-heavy. I can’t recall the exact location, but I seem to recall racing up the Central Expressway from Sunnyvale to where it turns into Alma Street, taking a cloverleaf-type thing, and it was tucked in there somewhere. On many lunch breaks, I’d go there or to Bell’s Books in downtown Palo Alto. This was at the height of the Contemporary Records re-issues, put out by Michael Cuscuna, who had earlier been behind the hugely successful Blue Note re-issues. That Tower Records carried all the Contemporary OJC re-issues that were coming out. It’s difficult to understand now, but back then, Fantasy was re-issuing many Contemporary Records classics for the first time. For us, this was a chance to finally listen to the West Coast Jazz LPS we had perhaps only read about in books and magazines.
Helen Merrill
The final artist from those six records I picked up in Pacific Grove is Helen Merrill. It was on her debut album that I first heard the terrific Clifford Brown on trumpet and Oscar Pettiford on cello. The blue-toned cover with her straining face and the classic mic is a great album cover, and the music is just as great. I have always loved her low, rough tone.
Here’s my favorite from that album, with Pettiford featured on nice cello work. There is also a nice piano short solo from the very underrated Jimmy Jones.
Looking at those six albums again, I think about the original owner. This person clearly liked Oscar Pettiford, who appears on 5 of the 6 LPs. As it rightly turns out, Oscar Pettiford became my favorite bassist. I am honored now to maintain them until the time comes when they get passed on to the next owner, who I hope honors them in the ways I have….
With that, I’ll end this leg of our journey with one of my favorite Chet Baker tunes with Bill Evans on piano, Herbie Mann on alto flute, and Pepper Adam on baritone sax, as we meander down that Big River called Jazz.
Next week, we’ll head up the Mississippi River to Minneapolis, where I am now, and the home of not only Oscar Pettiford, but the Prez, Lester Young, and another lesser-known sax player, who I came to know, Frank Morgan….
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Feel free to contact me at any time to talk shop. I welcome and encourage that….
Also, find my playlist on Spotify: From Fred Astaire to Sun Ra.
Until then, keep on walking….
Another excellent post, Tyler. I have a feeling I will be listening to more Helen Merrill; doesn’t hurt to have Clifford Brown playing behind you!