Marked-Up Records #1

I love other people’s marked-up records, and I love having a fine selection of these objects in my collection. Starting today, I’ll start displaying some of my favorite written-on, drawn-on, stamped, stickered, DymoTaped items that I own.

First up: Wild Bill Davis at Birdland. This 1955 album is an early example of the subgenre of “organ jazz” that would become more popular in the ‘60s with the likes of Jimmy Smith and Jimmy McGriff. Wild Bill embraced organ jazz early, as this swinging live album shows.

My record is beat-up, but not as bad as it could be. There are a couple of skips that I might be able to clean up. The front and back covers are separated. But, at some point long ago, somebody stamped “Rainbow Music Shop, 102 125th Street, New York City” on the back cover, indicating that once this album sat in the racks of what was probably an amazing record store, located just a few blocks down the street from the legendary Apollo Theater.

How cool is that? I’ll tell you: it’s way cool. I don’t know the details of the journey this copy of Wild Bill Davis at Birdland made from Harlem to Phoenixville – I don’t even remember where I got it – but I’m happy it found its way here.

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