Vinyl record shop with live jazz hips up Outer Richmond
Vinyl record shop with live jazz hips up Outer Richmond
Mom-and-pop stores are dying, but a mom-and-son record store and art gallery has sprung to life in the Outer Richmond.
Called Noise, it combines the hippie vibe of Sara Johnson, 58, with the hepcat cool of her son Daniel A.J. Brown, who is 27 and blows the tenor sax.
The stock of 7,000 LPs and 78s represents all styles, classical to funk, and they will all be represented live when Noise sponsors four bands during Playland on Balboa Street, a free arts and music festival on Saturday, April 16.
The only hints of modern times are a smartphone for credit card charges and the lonely tower of CDs banished to the corner.
On Sunday afternoons, all three are in the store to host a jazz jam that is drawing musicians and fans from all over the city and the Bay Area beyond.
“It’s an addition to the neighborhood that you just dream will happen,” says Chris Dugan, a 63-year-old jazz musician spending a recent rainy Sunday afternoon at Noise.
The pianist starts tinkling, and when the horns come in, the sound carries out over the front row of seating, which is a full-length couch, through the shoppers at the bins and out the door to the sidewalk where the smokers are.
The set ends and Brown puts down his 1949 King Zephyr sax and heads outside to join them, stopping to put “Welcome Home” by Osibisa on the turntable.
“I just wanted to bring the community together a little bit and try to bring music back to the neighborhood,” he explains of his motivation, during the break.
Brown grew up 10 blocks away and still lives at home with his mother, sister and his album collection.
[...] he started selling records in the back of the Mysterious Rack, a knickknack store on Balboa at 36th.
Photos behind the counter are by Dennis Hearne, who has been shooting the jazz scene in the city since the 1960s.
“I play with a dozen different bands around town,” Brown says, and I wanted to take advantage of the space.
On his way out the door, he shows his support by purchasing a 1950s Count Basie album and both “Beatles ’65” and “Magical Mystery Tour.”
Musicians come and go, and so does their audience, following the live sound across the street from Simple Pleasures Cafe, or up from the Balboa after a movie, or down from Shanghai Dumpling King, a fluorescent-lit restaurant that is sufficiently devoid of atmosphere to attract the intelligentsia.
“It’s unexpectedly good, super professional,” says Meehan, 28, who was compelled to stick around until the break, then thumb through the bins, where Raffel, 26, was immediately drawn to a record by her Palo Alto homie, Joan Baez.
To experience a Sunday jazz jam at Noise, go to http://bit.ly/1WaSzUp.