I said I wouldn’t do any year-end special posts. I lied. 2019 was a year. It was a full year. It was a stressful year. It was a great year. I passed my boards and was hired as a nurse in January, providing me with a way to obtain even more records than ever before. I was thrilled; my wallet was not. To close out the year and the decade, I thought I’d do a personal highlight reel, spotlighting important moments in my record-collecting career. Here we go!
2010-2011
My last year of high school. One of my best friends was getting into vinyl, so I went to the local record store in Redlands and bought two records, a Clifford Brown/Max Roach album and another one that I can’t remember.
2013
My grandpa lets me have his old record player that doesn’t really work. I don’t know any better and I happily buy a few more records.
2015
Searching for rare Brubeck recordings, I discover the wild reality that much of Brubeck’s rarest stuff is on vinyl in the form of bootlegs. The search for these records plus the desire to physically own music again results in me buying a record player and purchasing even more records. I buy on eBay for the first time and hate it. I end up moving from California to Alabama, where I quickly discover Vertical House Records, Huntsville’s local record store.
2016-17
I get further and further sucked into the world of record-collecting and realize my turntable is but a glorified toy. I start to save the little money I have to buy a better turntable. I add many of the Brubeck rarities to my library, and my excitement over those and other records I’m finding makes me want to start writing about it. Boom- My blog College Jazz Collector is born!
2018
I get the year started off with a bang by getting a fancy new turntable from the good folks at U-Turn Orbit, a “new” stereo receiver in the form of a Sansui 771, a pair of speakers, and a few Blue Note albums for cheap. One of those Blue Note albums is ‘Lee Morgan Volume 3’. By this point, I’m hooked. My record collection has ballooned from around 50 to well over 200.
2019
The year I got a job and the year I began spending too much money on records. For the first time in my life, I spend more than $50 on a single record, paying well north of $200 for a copy of Cannonball’s ‘Somethin’ Else’ on Blue Note, advertised as an original copy in mint condition. Was it actually mint? Nope. Lesson learned. I traveled the country a few times, going to California, Washington State, Georgia, and Florida. In each state, I made sure to visit the record stores, which put a serious dent in my wallet (especially Florida…) but was worth it. So many records do I know have that I had to get one of those hip IKEA shelving units to put them on. Mama I made it.
Seattle, WA; Huntsville, AL; Atlanta, GA
2020?
I don’t know what’s in store for the next decade, but I know that I’ll be on the lookout for jazz on vinyl. As for this blog, I want to get back to writing about the jazz I love the most without regard for if others find it cool or desirable. That’s why I started this blog, after all. I’d love to hear if any of you have any record-collecting goals for next year. Before closing, I want to thank you all- the readers! It’s always flattering to see you all taking time out of your busy schedules to read and engage with me. From Canada to the UK to Brazil to Australia to Japan, thank you all and I hope you have a happy new year! I’ll see you in 2020.
It's A Raggy Waltz 
In the coming year I think I’d like to focus on digging for more doo-wop and rhythm & blues 45s for my new DJing venture. I bought a lot of classical at the end of this year so I’d like to do more listening next year and catch up with what I own before I buy any more. Jazz is tough. Out of everything I collect, it’s the most in-demand and the most expensive. For jazz I’d like to stick to the WFMU record fair in the spring–one of my favorite ways to shop for records–and the occasional few-and-far-between fair deal on Discogs. I don’t know when the last time I bought a jazz LP on eBay was. Oh I almost forgot, I’m collecting bebop on 78 now so I’d love to score some more of those next year, especially Monk on Blue Note. 🙂 Happy New Year, this was a fun read!
That’s awesome. I too need to do more listening and digging in my actual record collection. Let me know how that fair goes, and i hope you post the results of your 78 bebop kick on your own site!
A very Happy New Year to you. And thank you for your posts which I invariably find educational and fun! It’s a great thing that you do and I for one greatly enjoy reading your perceptive and thoughtful commentaries. Wishing you all the best from Liverpool, England, David