Best Record Store In New York

If you like jazz, you gotta go to Downtown Music Gallery. It's not that big but they have got all the good and hard to find stuff. The owners really know their stuff and they even have free in store concerts of some of the best jazz artists in the world.

Next time I'm in New York it would be at the top of my list.

Is Colony Records still in business?
J&R Musicworld is the last "full catalog" record store in NYC. Sad!

For jazz, the best address is:
Jazz Record Center
236 W. 26th St.
Suite 804 (take the elevator to the 8th floor)
Thousands of used and new LPs and CDs. Also choice of DVDs.
The owner, Fred Cohen, is friendly and knowledgeable.

If you find yourself in Philadelphia, try Philadelphia Record Exchange on S. 5th St. They have a very good selection of used vinyl at reasonable prices in all categories of music. It isn't NYC, but it's close enough. The last time I was in Academy Records, the selection was next to zero. Princeton Record Exchange has a pretty good selection of jazz and rock and I was there just 6 weeks ago. Of course, all of these places have a varying amount of vinyl as they buy and sell. It's the luck of the draw and usually requires several visits in order to come up with really great finds. Used vinyl stores are often cherry picked by on-line dealers who sell on ebay or on their own websites at premium prices.

This is not a recommendation for everyone but if your jazz tastes run to free jazz, improvisational jazz, and modern jazz, as well as modern classical, and the late 60s and early 70s progressive scene, there is one place that is absolutely the best place on the planet on a per square foot basis (because it is a small basement shop): The Downtown Music Gallery (now in Chinatown). Check it out:

http://www.dtmgallery.com/Main/index.htm

Think Andrew Hill, Cecil Taylor, John Zorn, Keith Tippett, Anthony Braxton, Soft Machine, Terry Riley, Phillip Glass, King Crimson, X-Legged Sally, Miles Davis, Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Brotherhood of Breath, Robert Wyatt, Last Exit, Peter Brotzmann, Mathew Shipp, William Parker, Larval, Gunter Hampel, Misha Mengelberg,..."that" sort of thing.

You've never seen most of the stuff nor heard most of the artists, but they've got stuff playing all the time in there and I've picked up many things just because I was there and heard something playing. I've spent a couple of hours in there on more than one occasion. A real treasure.