I’m standing in my favorite flea-markety antiques store panicking a little as I stare at milk crates filled with used records. My husband and I have decided to start buying old trad jazz records—we like the “old timey” sound that records have (the pops, hisses, and crackles) and, in theory, there are some records/songs (even artists?) that have not been converted to CD or digital (mp3) and can be only found on record. The only problem is: I know nothing about records.
I was born in the mid-1970s. I know what a record is—my dad owned some (that he never played because he’d moved on to 8-tracks and cassettes by the time I was old enough to understand the concept of recorded music) and my grandmother still listened to her favorites on record—but I came of age when cassette tapes had taken over as the main form of recorded music and was a teen when CDs hit the market. So I have no first-hand experience with buying or owning records.
I stare at the bins of records in terror. I know there are multiple “sizes” of records (45s, 78s, and… something else), but I can’t for the life of me remember what number size my record player accepts. I’m pretty sure it’s the “big ones.”
Records by the famous Dukes of Dixieland (led by Frank and Fred Assunto) sold tons of copies, and are not particularly rare.
