An Interview with Bob Erdos of Stomp Off Records

I didn’t have far to travel to write this installment—25 miles to my hometown of York, PA—to interview my friend Bob Erdos. Bob, as many readers know, is the founder, producer, and owner of Stomp Off Records. Since 1980, Stomp Off has released over 400 LPs, cassettes and CDs of repertory bands in the US and abroad—a total of nearly 200 bands, and over 3800 tunes. I made no attempt to count the number of individual musicians, but they undoubtedly reach close to 1,000. With downloads replacing CDs, Stomp Off’s inventory is now also available in this format. But there will not be any more CDs other than reprints of existing titles that have sold out. Stomp Off has been a labor of love for 36 years for Bob, as became evident during our chat. My connection to Bob dates from long before Stomp Off. My parents and grandparents knew him, his wife Erda, and his parents. We also have a distant family link. Bob had a first cousin, now deceased, who married one of my father’s second cousins. Bill Hoffman: What were your reasons for starting Stomp Off? Bob Erdos: had gone to several jazz festivals in Europe and thought that Americans should hear some of the bands there playing traditional American jazz, and conversely, I thought Europeans should know that trad ja