too close for comfort

Back-to-Mono is an imprecisely named little shop in a tiny arcade off the High Street in Lincoln. It sells pre-owned 12” LPs, a few in stereo, hence my opening line. Here I fell upon a hoard of inexpensively priced jazz albums. I bought two, thereby trebling my collection.

One was a Gerry Mulligan compilation, a series of duets with what were at the time (1957 – 1960) more famous saxophonists, specifically Paul Desmond, Johnny Hodges, Stan Getz and Ben Webster. True, I already had most of the tracks on CDs, but one in particular caught my interest. Mulligan and Getz swapped instruments on a slightly muddy version of “Too Close for Comfort.” Both obviously took the title literally; they sounded uncomfortable in their new environment. Mulligan lost his immediately recognisable phraseology and Getz sounded as if he was being asked to play while climbing Steep Hill. Rather than delivering superb examples of the art, these doyens of their trade produced a curio. But I like the tune. I treasure the version by Art Pepper.

The second album was “T for Trombone” by the Jack Teagarden Band. The cover lauds the name of Ruby Braff (t), but I bought the album because it includes Lucky Thompson on tenor. To Associated Recordings’ eternal shame, no recording date is listed, and I can’t find the information on line. If you know, please leave a comment. Needless to say, the album includes “A Hundred Years from Today” and “St James Infirmary Blues.” These two are not listed in my top 100 jazz numbers, but they are entwined with Teagarden’s name – and the man does play wonderfully soulful trombone to match Thompson’s bluesy horn blowing.

Of essence is that I’ve discovered Back-to-Mono. The two albums cost me £8.50 and I could have bought lots more but the mobile rang to say our table was ready at Pizza Express, a few yards away. The proprietor told me he’d only just started trading but expected to be able to change his stock of jazz albums frequently. I shall visit whenever I’m in Lincoln. I recommend you to do the same.

And if you’re lucky, you’ll encounter the busker. Is he a Lincoln regular? He played the tenor sax in front of a recorded backing track. He’s no Lester Young, but he was well worth the couple of pounds I tossed into his pot. I like buskers. On Saturday we had the jazz man in black leather gloves, a bagpiper with frost-bitten knees, the Salvation Army brass band and a guitar man named Joshua Meek.

These buskers were vastly more entertaining than that execrable Christmas music now mandatory in every shop we entered. We need a campaign – abolish piped music in shops, especially at Christmas, ESPECIALLY Wizard and Cliff Richard.

Looking back on my blog postings, I can see how grumpy and intolerant I appear, but I’m consistent.