For the past three years I’ve been trying to set up an interview with Eilon Paz, the creative force behind one of my favorite websites, Dust and Grooves, only to strike out at the last minute. After years of unsuccessful attempts, I was finally able to bring him in for an interview to talk about his project and especially the recently released and absolutely fabulous book, Dust & Grooves: Adventures In Record Collecting, which features photos and stories Paz has accumulated over the past 6+ years. As you’ll hear in the interview, though we only had 30 minutes, we discussed a broad range of issues, including the origins of the project, how he chooses collectors, the gender dynamics and politics involved in collecting, the experience of bringing together communities of collectors in ways that they never had been before and his plans for the future.
One of the more interesting aspects of this project we discuss, and something that I really only fully realized once I got a look at this book, is how ultimately what is most interesting about a collection isn’t it’s size or the rarity of the records, it’s how that collection often connects to the individual’s life in unexpected ways. 
Some of the pictures really act as windows into the soul of these indivdiuals, as Paz gains access to perhaps their most personal space, the room where they keep and listen to their vinyl. Talking about these collections and getting a chance to view enlarged versions of the photos at an exhibit/book launch/vinyl party that took place after our interview inspired me to think about some of the stories behind some of the records I own. We’d originally planned on having Paz put together a guest DJ set, but ran out of time (next time for sure!) and during Sunday’s show my thoughts had only started to form around this set, so I decided to add the 45-minute mix (titled Collected Memories) to this post, and also share the stories behind these 10 records, how they came into my collection and what they mean to me.
Eilon Paz of Dust & Grooves Interview on KPFK’s Melting Pot: 06-05-2014
Collected Memories: An All Vinyl Mix Inspired By Dust And Grooves
Collected Memories: Tracklist and Notes
Mtume Umoja Ensemble – Alke-bulan: Land Of The Blacks
{I was first exposed to the music of the artist controlled label Strata East while I was hosting Stompin’ Grounds on WORT Madison. The station had something like 20 albums from the label and every single one of them was amazing. This copy came into my hands while looking through records at a store in Oakland called House Of Soul. I noticed that in addition to the records in the bins, there were 45s and LPs stacked haphazardly underneath the bins. Didn’t take long to dig up this rare double LP of spiritual jazz. The cover was in poor shape, with some severe water damage, but the LPs looked decent. I asked about buying it and the clerk said he didn’t know since it didn’t have a price tage and he’d have to call the owner. The first response from the Boss (who I later found out used to own one of favorite stores in Atlanta, Red, Beans & Rice) was something to the effect of “That records not supposed to be there,” but after a bit of sweet talk from me he decided to sell it and it’s been a prized possession in my collection every since.}
Jorge Ben – From Brazil (O Bidu Silencio No Brooklin) & Wilson Simonal – Wilson Simonal
{These two don’t follow each other in the mix, but they’re very much linked together as I’ve detailed before on this blog, here and here. Short version of those longer stories is that I picked up the Jorge Ben album at Amoeba in Berkeley, loved it dearly, but it was one of many records I sold in 2004. It was years and years before I broke down and decided to by another copy of it, opting to get the Brazilian version. I was shocked to discover that the music was completely different than what I remembered, I then bought the US version of the same album and the music was the same as the Brazilian copy, but still different than what I remembered. Listening to dubs of the original songs I finally put two and two together and realized that I had a mis-press which featured a collection of music from Wilson Simonal on the album instead of Jorge Ben. My guess is that these two records were pressed up at around the same time and so maybe there are a few mis-presses out there, or maybe that copy was unique. Both albums are stellar and I’m thankful to have solved the mystery}
Jean Kassapian – The Snake
{This one slithers it’s way into the mix between Jorge Ben and Wilson Simonal. Earlier this year I bought a 45 from an Ebay dealer who happened to be local and willing to hand off the 45 in person instead of sending it in the mail. When I arrived I noticed that there were boxes and boxes of 45s just lying around the place. He told me that the 45 I had bought had come from this collection and I convinced him to allow me to look through them to see if there was anything else I’d be interested in buying. Took a couple of days but I pulled out a few nice 45s, including this private press belly-dance shaker (I’ll actually be featuring this and a few others from this dig in a post in a couple weeks). When I showed the guy the ones I was interested in, he immediately took them to the back room and returned with prices based off of quick internet searches. Some of the prices must have been based on what some of these would have gone for in 2001, but were way inflated for today (for example, he wanted $100 for a Shadows Of Knight 45 that you can find for $10 or less), but through some intervention of the record gods, he wasn’t able to find information on this 45 and a couple others. It’s not that the information isn’t there, he just missed it. So, this one is one of my best digs, a super rare 45 that I got for $5, though it’s probably worth over $200.}
Booker Little – Booker Little
{If the Jean Kassapian is maybe my most recent steal, this record from Booker Little was the very first one. I started really seriously collecting vinyl in 1994/1995. One of my favorite dealers was a guy out in Brookhaven by the name of Bill Wolfe. He always had amazing records, stuff no one else ever had and they were almost always in perfect condition. His store was the one that nobody told anyone else about and you’d give a sideways glance if you ran into someone you knew when you were there. One Saturday morning he had a $1 record sale outside his store, with records that he clearly didn’t think were worth much and wouldn’t mix in with the gems he kept inside. Digging through those brought me this album from an artist who now is one of my all-time favorites. The cover had a major seam split and some other damage, but for the most part looked really good. The record itself looked beautiful. There’s just no reason this record should have been $1, even in this condition these days it would likely fetch $100-200. This Time record is the second rarest record in Little’s catalog and features work from the legendary Scott La Faro on bass, both artists tragically dying in the same year 1961, about a year after this was released. I don’t have a lot of stories digging up steals, nothing else as rare as this record and Kassapian mentioned above, these were definitely moments where good record Karma came through.}
Arnold Bean – Cosmic Bean
{This is a record I’ve featured here before, and one of the few records I’ve just gotten for free. I was expecting some crazy price, given that the store where I found it, Action Records (aka As The Record Turns aka A-1 Records), has some serious heavyweight pieces. Every time I’ve gone in there though, the owner has just thrown in one of the records I brought up to the counter. It’s not something he generally does when you see him at the PCC record swap, so I wasn’t expecting it at all, though I’m really thankful for it. “I Can See Through You” is one my favorite songs from this period of time.}
Cactus – Cactus
{As I’ve mentioned, “Can’t Judge A Book” was a song that I originally heard on WREK’s Stonehenge over 20 years ago, which was one of many shows I used to record on cassette while in High School. The tape ran out before the hosts mentioned what it was, so in those pre-Google days I was just left to wonder what the song was. I stepped up my efforts after getting to KALX Berkeley, playing it for other DJs (one of the rare times I stumped Matthew Africa) and even playing it on the air and asking listeners if they knew what the song was. Eventually I figured out two or three candidates based off of a industry book that listed song titles and the artist who had recorded them. The mystery was finally solved at The Record Man, which had all of the albums on the list and with a listening station allowed me to figure out which one it was. Remains one of my all-time favorite slices of brash and bloozy Rock’n’Roll…I especially love that the back cover suggests playing the album at a “high” level.}
Ohio Players – Ecstasy (Matthew Africa Edit)
{Probably the single most personal record in my collection is this dub plate that I made as a tribute to my friend Matthew Africa. Close to his death, Matthew was doing some of his best work as DJ, in terms of mixes and edits. This perfectly edited version of the far too short “Ecstasy” retains all of the charm of the original while expanding it into a 4 minute epic dance floor burner. One of the best moments of my entire DJ career was playing this at Funky Sole earlier in the year and having the response be just as ecstatic as the song itself. Through another moment of good record karma, I actually ended up with two copies of this due to an imperceptible pressing issue on one. No other record in my collection means as much to me as this one.}
Leigh Stephens – Red Weather
{It doesn’t happen too often, but every know and again I’ll walk into a store and walk into a fantastic record that I’ve never heard before but immediately desire. One of the places this happened several times was at the “old” Records LA (The owner Scott Craig has essentially moved everything to the Last Bookstore in DTLA) but my favorite was walking into the store and about 30 seconds later Scott dropping the needle on a reissue of this album from former Blue Cheer member Leigh Stephens. I really dig psychedelic rock, have since growing up listening to Hendrix and making cassettes of 96 Rock’s Psychedelic Saturday. When all of those washes of feedback and those heavy drums came through the speakers, I couldn’t even concentrate on looking at the other records, I had to know what the album was. When I found out it was a reissue, I immediately went about tracking down an original. I trip out that if I had left home later, or gotten stuck in traffic and arrived at the store 15 or 20 minutes later, or hadn’t even bothered to have gone that day, I would have never known about what now is one of my favorite psych records of all-time.}
Billy Harper – Capra Black
{Another record I’ve talked about here and how this is one of many records that reminds me of Matthew Africa, since Harper was one of our favorite Saxophonists and we discussed him at length and saw him perform in the Bay Area. What I didn’t mention is that this was actually the very first album I ever bought off of the internet. At the time Ubiquity/Luv’n’Haight records had an online storefront that not only featured their music, but also rarer things. Having heard this album through the aforementioned WORT Library, when I saw it listed online I snatched it up immediately. What I didn’t realize is that I had bought the album from Cool Chris of Groove Merchant, until he mentioned it during a conversation we were having years after that. This record symbolizes not only the friendship I had with Matthew, but it also highlights just how important this music and these records have been in shaping my life. When I was admitted to Berkeley, the #1 thing I was excited about was being able to go to Groove Merchant. Chris was actually the first person I knew in California, even before I moved there for Graduate School. As mentioned above, when I started to think of the records I have as not only music that I enjoy but as a source of collected memory, memories of finding the albums, memories of conversations about music, of friendships built around shared passions for music, it is really true that our collections tell stories about our life, big thanks to Eilon Paz for digging up those stories and thank you all for listening to mine.}