That One Stop on the Way

Libby's Old School Music in Frisco, CO, after work

So, the second half of this week I spent in a resort town for a work conference, and it was great to see colleagues, some of whom I'd not met face to face. There were good food and drink, and I had brought my trumpet and Yamaha Silent Brass mute, which lets me practice trumpet without disturbing hotel guests, while hearing myself through headphones. It's a handy device. It works well.

Here's the frost on my car's back windshield yesterday morning. Very cool effect.

After saying goodbyes, including sharing my love of quality audio with a colleague (I'd brought my Focal Clear Mg’s and Cayin N7 digital audio player), I headed out, and took a detour to a little record shop that I knew also tended to have good used jazz cds at $8 apiece. That's a good price, especially for a mountain town shop.

Libby's Old School Records is on the main drag of the town of Frisco, Colorado (here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/X2nhTFQ25etcctEx6). I hit them up for some excellent jazz cds that featured lineups I'd never heard of, such as Sonny Rollins playing with Thelonious Monk, bassist Paul Chambers, and all-star drummer Art Blakey. I chatted with the proprietor about how great it is to find these line ups, and we agreed that it was a wonder to think about the many combinations of great, classic jazz musicians that never ended up on tape.

Loaded with a few boxes of CDs and LPs, including two Herb Alpert LPs as gifts for a relative who loves Herb, I finally began my return trip home. It'll take me a bit to incorporate these CDs into my collection, and it's always nice to have some “back stock” waiting in the wings, so i don't go out and buy even more but dive into what I haven't heard yet, which is waiting in a corner or somewhere for me to make it part of my slapdash collection.

And now it's the weekend. The jazz station I know and love, https://www.jazz935.org, had a fund drive this week, and I hope they did well and got a lot of new supporters. Right now I'm playing Freddie Hubbard's album Fastball: “Live” at the Left Bank, and it's worth more than the $8 I paid for it, to me. And I have many more hours of great jazz to listen to from this latest haul.

With the time I had before I needed to be home, I could have taken a walk and seen the beautiful fall colors up close—in the peace of my own presence, but still alone. I could have bought books at the nearby bookstore on the same strip in Frisco—but they don't have a philosophy section. Since the one thing, besides being outside, that I was hungry for after a couple of days spent watching multi-m3dia presentations about finances, one very good one about the difference between the way important calls are decided in soccer/football vs. rugby, and many more—was music, particularly the music I typically spend hours listening to every day. There was nowhere I'd rather stop—given I had only enough time for one stop, realistically —than Libby's. I hope sometime you get the chance to stop at whatever Libby's equivalent is for you.

Happy Listening 😊🎧!! 🔊

Please think of anyone who loves music. They just might be interested in this blog. 💯

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