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| Some Recent Passings: 2 Hipsters and an Institution by Jim Eigo Stephanie Stone (1921-2014) Chances are if you were attending one of the downtown New York City loft jazz shows in the past forty years you may have seen a couple sitting usually in the front row digging the music. This couple was Irving and Stephanie Stone two hipsters who embraced the adventurous sounds of "The New Thing" ushered in the 1960s by John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, Sun Ra and many others who were the spiritual fathers to Sam Rivers who operated Studio Rivbea down on Bond St and a prime destination for improvised music played by David Murray, Hamiet Bluiett, Oliver Lake, Leroy Jenkins and many others that led to William Parker, bassist and prime mover of the downtown scene and founder of the Vision Festival. Irving and Stephanie were ubiquitous on the scene miraculously appearing at numerous shows where they were pretty much the audience. The downtown musicians loved Irving and Stephanie so much that a venue was named in their honor The Stone. Irving passed away several years ago, but Stephanie never stopped attending live shows until cancer slowed her down in recent years and finally succumbed at the age of 93 last week. There's a wonderful portrait of Irving and Stephanie written by Martin Johnson in the Wall Street Journal. A Ballad of New York, Lived and Played for All A MEMORIAL TRIBUTE TO STEPHANIE STONE will be held on Sunday, April 27th at Noon at The Stone Irving and Stephanie Stone were a strong presence on the downtown music scene and their love and support will always be remembered. The Stone hosts an afternoon of music and remembrances by those who loved them in honor of our dear friends. ADMISSION FREE MATT SHIPP SHELLEY HIRSCH SYLVIE COURVOISIER MARK FELDMAN NED ROTHENBERG IKUE MORI JOHN ZORN ANNIE GOSFIELD ROGER KLIER ANTHONY COLEMAN CYRO BAPTISTA CONNIE CROTHERS ANGELICA SANCHEZ STEVE DALACHINSKY YUKO OTOMO DAVE SEWELSON TIM KEIPER ROSEMARIE HERTLEIN WILLIAM AND PATRICIA PARKER DENMAN MARONEY ROBERT DICK STEVE SWELL OSCAR NORIEGA AND MANY OTHERS THE STONE is located at the corner of avenue C and 2nd street. A 2nd Memorial will be held at Roulette Friday, June 27th 6-11 pm. Norman Levy (1927-2014) I first met Norman Levy as a tenderfoot record collector back in the early 1970s as a customer at his legendary subway record store A Train Records which was located down in the subway at 42nd and 8th avenue. A Train Records was a funky little shop with bins right outside the store. I'd make the pilgrimage from Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn to flip through his bins always turning up gems like John Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme' or Yusef Lateef 's 'Psychicemotus' with those great gatefold covers and many other jazz gems from the classic era usually for $2 which kept me coming back for more. Norman began his career with a number of retail positions working first at Sy Bondy's, a stint with Masters and then as the record buyer for the entire Mays department store chain. In the 1970s I had the opportunity to work with Norman after I left Happy Tunes managing the jazz department there I was hired to set up the Soho Music Gallery located at Wooster and Grand Streets, the very first record store in the now totally gentrified Soho district of New York City. Norman was handling the cut outs and I managed the store. There was some shady going's on there so I moved on and so did Norman when he went to work for the legendary Brill building record emporium Colony Records located at 49th and Broadway. Affectionally referred to by his Colony colleagues as 'McVouty' for his cool hipster way of speaking ala Slim and Slam Norman became the go to person at the Colony sheet music department for his immense knowledge of tunes. If you could hum a few bars chances are Norman knew it and got you what you were looking for. Over his years at Colony music royalty passed through that department including his life-long friend Sonny Rollins who would on occasion stop in the store to say hello and buy sheet music too. After nearly 15 years managing that sheet music department he retired moving to Phoenix where he promptly got bored and took a job at Guitar & Keyboard City where he ran the sheet music dept. Eventually even seasoned retailers have to be put out to pasture so Norman and his wife of 61 years Lee decamped to Lake Stevens, WA a suburb of Seattle to be near family. Norman passed last week at the age of 87. He is survived by his wife Lee, his older son, Neil, a grandson Jonas (son of Neil). They had a second younger son Jay who passed away of Aids 4 years ago. J&R Music World (1971-2014) This is one headline I thought I'd never see: After 43 years the storied music and electronics store J&R Music World closes. One of the last bastions of music retail in the Big Apple having survived Sam Goody, Tower, Virgin, HMV and countless others who came and went over the years J&R Music World was a solid rock of retail. Opened in 1971 with one store on Park Row I can remember when Raachele Friedman worked the register in their record department down in the basement under her father's upstairs electronics store. From that one store they expanded to pretty much buying up all the real estate on that one block (except the hardware store) to an empire and giant of electronics retail with an international reputation. Back in the hey day of the record business J&R Music World probably sold more records per square inch then any retailer in the US. In fact when they first started they paid all their vendors in cash. I was a sales rep back then and believe me when I tell you they kept many an independent record distributor afloat with their cash flow. From 1985 to 1987 I managed their jazz department, a stand alone store on top of their classical store at 33 Park Row. Back in those days the record business was flush. You could sell records with both hands 9 to 5 with no problem. During the lunch rush (Noon to 2) you could sell a box of records right off the wall of any new release you played in the store. I did 'In Stores' with many jazz legends including Horace Silver, Abbey Lincoln and Wayne Shorter. You never knew who would stop in the store. One time the actor Matt Dillion came in looking for classic Be Bop records for a role he was considering. The article in the New York Times says it's a reorganization so who know's what the future will bring. For those interested for a glimpse of what the hey day of record retailing looked like send me an e mail for a preview of: Last Daze @ J&R Music World write your comments about the article :: © 2014 Jazz News :: home page |