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TJ GORTON
@tjgorton
TJ’s collection is seriously huge and overspills from his record shelves onto the floor in his house. That really is immersing yourself in the music!
I talked with TJ for almost two hours and we discussed lots of records, labels and artists and both showed some of our recent additions to the collection. TJ is a collector you must follow on Instagram and I guarantee you will discover some incredible new records that you will soon be trying to add to your own collection.
So, why vinyl then? Why this format over anything else?
That’s a great question. Well, some of the great memories I had with my parents involved records and playing records and that’s where it started. We would play singles by Michael Jackson, Earth Wind & Fire and Miami Sound Machine and it was great that you had to select what you had to play with that format and then get up and change the record. It’s what I like about that process with records that a lot of people don’t like. The process of selecting what you are going to play, taking it out of the sleeve and putting it on the turntable. For me, the greatest sound in the world is that moment when you hear the needle drop onto the record. I also love the analogue sound. My parents used to take me to record stores when I was a kid which really set me up for life. Back then, I didn’t even know what a record store really was? The final thing about why I like records are they are almost like a well crafted book or a piece of art. I love the effort that gets put into a record package with the sleeve, the artwork, the inner sleeves and so on.
Do you have an idea of how many records you have in the collection?
I have an approximation which is around 5,000 LP’s and around 1,000 7-inch singles.
What genres of music do you have in your collection and what are your favourites?
t is varied but I’d have to say I’m a huge Jazz collector and that would be pretty much any type of Jazz including Spiritual Jazz, Jazz Funk, Jazz Fusion and all the variants of Jazz from different countries. Jazz has been my world for over a decade and I work for a Jazz organisation called “SFJAZZ” which means I’m constantly surrounded by Jazz Music. I’m a big fan of the ‘70s era of Jazz when Jazz was really becoming more experimental with Electronic and Spiritual sounds and the combination of lots of other different genres. I also love collecting Brazillian and African records. I have a nice sized Brazillian music collection but it’s so hard to get a lot of that music here in the States and you pretty much have to take a trip down to Brazil to dig for those records. Other genres I love are Disco, Soul, Funk, House and Electronic music. When I started collecting records I was collecting more Funk and Soul music from the ‘70s and when I hit my late twenties I started to switch more to Jazz. The Jazz genre is so vast and there is so much out there to collect, I think that’s why it became so attractive for me to start digging into the Jazz genre. I don’t think I really understood the genre when I first started to listen to it but I enjoyed it which made me want to keep digging into Jazz and discover more about it. What I find interesting about Jazz is that there is something out there for everyone whether it be the late ‘50s Jazz from Miles Davis or Dave Brubeck or you could dip into the Spiritual sounds of Pharoah Sanders or go to the Electronic Jazz sounds of Herbie Hancock and that’s what I like about it, there’s so many different layers.
What was the first record you bought?
This is a tough question but I think I know what the answer is! I did have records handed down to me previously but when I was in college I remember going to a record store and I bought Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Greatest Hits” album and I still recommend that record to anyone. I got exposed to them via my mother who was a big fan of theirs and subsequently I am now a big fan. I love the fusion of Soul, Disco and Funk within their music. I thought the “Greatest Hits” record was the perfect first album to buy. I’m usually not a fan of the greatest hits albums and I’d rather get all the albums by the artist but that album had some killer tracks on it and even contained some tracks that featured on there for the first time even though it was a greatest hits record. A must own I think!
Lets talk about shopping for records. Where do you buy records from usually?
Record stores pretty much always! Shopping online at places like Discogs serves a need when I think I’m never going to see that elusive record I’m looking for but I’m all about going into the record shop, supporting the shop and spending hours going through all the racks and bins. I’m the kind of person who will look in every rack every week to see if I’ve missed anything previously. I think record shopping is like therapy. It’s so therapeutic to me and when I’m in a record shop and I’m digging, I’m in my happy place. Even if I don’t find anything, it’s the process of getting my hands dusty and dirty going through the records. Digging for records is just an overwhelmingly great feeling!
Is there a record you have been chasing for a long time?
There are many, but one record I would say would be by the Clifford Jordan Quartet and it’s called “Glass Bead Games” which is a Spiritual Jazz record on the Strata East record label. I’d also put forward a Stanley Cowell record called “Regeneration” which is another record on Strata East. That label only ever existed for a few years but it has so many great records. All the records on that label go for upwards of $300 or more as it was an independent label so not many records were pressed. There are also a lot of Brazillian records I’m looking for as I mentioned before, particularly ones by Marcos Valle. I think the one big want for a lot of collectors of Brazillian music is the self titled record by Arthur Verocai which goes for a few thousand dollars easily.
Finally then, What will happen to the collection when you pass on?
I’ve probably thought about this too much but obviously I think I’d like my partner to keep anything she wants to keep to play herself. However, I’d love for a record swap to be arranged for my collection where collectors can come and buy anything they want from my collection and go and enjoy them. I even thought a poster could be created advertising it and explaining that it’s in memory of myself and the record swap becomes the memorial for me. I also like the idea of donating any revenue made from selling the records to be donated to a local music program in the area to hopefully help create opportunities for a new generation of musicians.
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