Paz - Dust & grooves : adventures in record collecting

COPYRIGHT 2015 BY DUST & GROOVES LLC

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
PUBLISHED IN THE UNITED STATES BY TEN SPEED PRESS, AN IMPRINT OF THE CROWN PUBLISHING GROUP,
A DIVISION OF PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE LLC, NEW YORK.
WWW.CROWNPUBLISHING.COM
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TEN SPEED PRESS AND THE TEN SPEED PRESS COLOPHON ARE REGISTERED TRADEMARKS OF PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE LLC.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE UNITED STATES BY DUST & GROOVES PUBLICATIONS, BROOKLYN, IN 2014.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA,
PAZ, EILON.
DUST & GROOVES : ADVENTURES IN RECORD COLLECTING / EILON PAZ.FIRST TEN SPEED PRESS EDITION.
PAGES CM
INCLUDES INTERVIEWS WITH QUESTLOVE, GILLES PETERSON, FOUR TET, THE GASLAMP KILLER, EGON AND MORE.
INCLUDES BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES AND INDEX.
1. SOUND RECORDINGSCOLLECTORS AND COLLECTINGINTERVIEWS. 2. SOUND RECORDINGSCOLLECTORS AND COLLECTINGPICTORIAL WORKS. I. TITLE. II. TITLE: DUST AND GROOVES.
ML406.P39 2014
780.266075--DC23
2014047318
HARDCOVER ISBN9781607748694
EBOOK ISBN9781607748700

DESIGN BY JULIANO AUGUSTO AND MARCELO DANTE (45JJ.ORG)
PHOTOGRAPHS AND ART DIRECTION: EILON PAZ
FOREWORD: THE RZA
EDITOR: SHEILA BURGEL
PHOTO EDITOR: MARIE A. MONTELEONE
RESEARCHERS: JULIA RODIONOVA, SAM SWIG, LILY WEN
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: SHEILA BURGEL, KEVIN FOAKES, APRIL GREENE, JAMISON HARVEY, JEFF CHAIRMAN MAO, MARC MINSKER, JULIA RODIONOVA, DOM SERVINI, JOSIAH TITUS
ASSOCIATE EDITORS: APRIL GREENE, BILL ADLER, CELESTE HAMILTON DENNIS, SAM SWIG, JOSIAH TITUS, LILY WEN
TRANSCRIBER: HARRIET NOTMAN
PRODUCTION COORDINATOR: JAMISON HARVEY

FIRST TEN SPEED PRESS EDITION

ON THE COVER: ANDREW CARTHY (MR. SCRUFF)

v3.1
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PREFACE BY EILON PAZ

M ake no mistakeI love music and I love vinyl, but Dust & Grooves wasnt born out of a personal obsession with records. Ive never had a want list, nor have I ever paid much attention to the distinction between VG+ and M-, or sought out limited editions, one-off pressings, or acetates. My passion lies with music, photography, and, as I discovered, photographing those with an unshakable devotion to collecting records. Through Dust & Grooves, Ive been able to meet over 150 of the worlds most fervent collectors, photograph their prized collections, and ultimately connect to a world that has always been dear to me.

Like nearly every single person profiled in this book, I grew up in a household filled with music. My parents collection of Argentine folk (Mercedes Sosa), tango (Carlos Gardel), and Pink Floyd LPs would be regular fixtures on the family turntable. I later discovered jazz via ECM Records and jazz-funk artists like Ramsey Lewis and Jimmy Smith, and have since accumulated a small but satisfying collection of records. Pink Floyds Animals has been a longtime favorite, as much for the music as for the striking cover art. It was actually the dark, surreal mood of the cover photo that fueled my desire to pursue photography. I spent a good chunk of my twenties and thirties making a living as a photographer in my home of Tel Aviv, Israel, mostly covering food and travel, but also working with record labels and artists. I enjoyed the work, but I always had the nagging feeling that I wanted to embark on my own music photography projectsomething more personal, more creative, more inspiring.

In the summer of 2008, I left the comforts of my friends and family in Israel and moved to New York City. Of course, I didnt pick the ideal timethe recession was about to sweep through the city and take all the jobs with it. Being unemployed sucked, but it also left me with a lot of time to spend in record stores. Back then, the vinyl resurgence was in its early stages, and records were cheaper and much more plentiful in New York than in Israel. A couple of months after I arrived in NYC, a friend emailed me an unforgettable photo of a man in combat boots, holding an AK-47 machine gun, surrounded by masses of records. I was completely captivated by this exotic, intriguing image, and it somehow ignited my creative callingto photograph record collectors. I read on to discover that the man was Frank Gossner, a German record collector who regularly travels to West Africa to dig for records. It turned out Frank was living in Brooklyn, and he was game to meet me for coffee.

When I told Frank about my idea to photograph the New York crate-digging scene, he went to the trouble of introducing me to some of the citys major vinyl-heads, including Joel Oliveira, once owner of the now-shuttered East Village record store Tropicalia in Furs. Joel welcomed me into his shop, and we spent the day talking about his Brazilian mainstays, rare Japanese Beatles pressings, and the Crazy World section of his shopwhere X-rated LPs sat next to recordings by Pope John Paul II. Although this was officially my first interview, I didnt have any grand aspirations for this project yetit was simply for my personal enjoyment, not for the public. It took one more step for the true nature of Dust & Grooves to come into focus.

Backtracking to 2005during a brief visit to NYC, I saw DJ Cosmo Baker spinning this gritty, raw funk set at a Sharon Jones album launch party in Brooklyn. He completely blew my mind, and I asked if I could shoot him for a photo spread about the funk revival scene. The shoot never panned out, but when I contacted him a few years later to request an interview for my new project, he happily obliged. He invited me to his home in Brooklyn, where I photographed him amongst the endless shelves of vinyl in his record room. And thats when everything clicked. In the comfort of the homewithout any professional lighting or other people aroundI watched my subject open up. My experience with Cosmo that day was truly up close and personala photographers dream. And thats when I realized that I needed to share these photos with the world.

I started posting the photos and long, conversational Q&As online, and it quickly became apparent that there was a large community out there who identified with these pieces. Id seen features on DJs record rooms before, but few articles had really dug into peoples personal collections in such an intimate way. Just through word of mouth, my blogs readership grew, and I felt like I was tapping into a hidden scene I never knew existed. While trying to earn a living as a freelance photographer, I continued working on the blog and started purposefully working layovers into my tripsin Paris, Istanbul, Londonto track down collectors from outside the United States. As I began to interview more and more people, I found we had something in commonwhen they dig and make a new discovery, their desire to dig grows. In a similar way, one interesting interview prompted me to dig for another and then another.

The backing of the vinyl community was another major driving force. I absolutely wouldnt have taken the project this far if it hadnt been for the enthusiasm of so many devoted collectors who rated my work and bothered to tell me so. They made it clear that this was more than just a fun projectit was meaningful to people. In the beginning, Id sometimes let the blog slide and not post for a few months, but readers started to nudge me if they saw it neglected. I realized I had a responsibility to the growing Dust & Grooves community to keep the stories coming.

Another turning point came in 2011 when King Brittwhose records I had loved and spun as an amateur DJ in Tel Avivsent word, giving his thumbs-up to the blog and expressing interest in being profiled. That was, to put it mildly, a nice pat on the back. That King believed I was doing something worthy reinforced my faith in karma; it showed me firsthand the power of doing what you love, sticking with it, and believing that it will someday pay offmaybe in a way you wouldnt have expected. It was King who suggested I publish a