Impulse Record Collector Feature

For this, I thought I would feature one of the Instagram accounts I follow @fast__and___bulbous

Ben lives in London, Ontario, which was the home of Sparton Records, Impulse's Canadian pressing and distribution partner. It's definitely helped him collect a good number of original vinyls.

When did you buy or get your 1st Impulse record ?

I bought my first Impulse! release on CD when I was in Grade 10 (16 years old).  It was Black Saint and the Sinner Lady by Mingus. I remember liking it but not as much as Mingus Ah Um and Blues and Roots which were more accessible. It took me a few years to really get to appreciate it but by the time I was 20, it was my favourite Mingus album and possibly jazz album period. It still is my favourite Mingus and would make my Top 5 list for sure. 

How soon after that did you start specifically hunting out Impulse records, or was it artist selections first ?

The first Impulse! album I bought on vinyl was a reissue of Alice Coltrane’s Journey in Satchidananda. I got into Alice’s music around the time she passed away when I was in high school. I was listening to a lot of psychedelic music at the time and instantly loved her sound. A couple years later when I started actually making an effort to collect records, Journey in Satchidananda was high on my list. I still have that copy as well as an original, I just can’t bring myself to sell it. 

For me, it was Ashley Kahn’s The House That Trane Built, that gave more of an interest, and of course Coltrane. Were there any other factors that drove your interest over say, other labels. Or do you have an equal interest in other labels ?

At some point the black and orange really start popping out to me on my shelves.  I had the classic “Coltrane pocket” that stuck out like a sore thumb, but my eyes would always catch an Impulse! spine and I wanted more of them. I developed a habit of looking for Impulse! titles when I was digging for records. This was also at a point in my mid 20’s when my listening habits were narrowing in on jazz, so I was looking to expand my horizons and check out a wider variety of artists. I was (and still am) also really into Blue Note Records but they were much harder to come by in my area. For the last 5 years I’ve lived in the city of London, Ontario which just happened to be the home of Sparton Records, the pressing plant that handled all of ABC’s Canadian presses. This meant there were/are a bunch of Sparton/Impulse! records floating around here, and they could be bought relatively cheap. 

I love Blue Note cover designs, especially the fantastic Reid Miles period, but there’s something about the Impulse laminated gatefolds and spines that encourage collecting too. How do you display your Impulse records ?

The packaging definitely ups the collectability of Impulse! There’s something about finding an old gatefold record that’s still in really good shape and cracking it open and hearing that sound. You can’t beat that! Then you have the great photos from the sessions inside the gatefold with the liner notes… it just encapsulates so much of what makes collecting records so fun in the first place. The music, the art, the stories and the physicality of it all. Also, like I mentioned earlier, the spines are iconic in their own right. When I reached around 40 or 50 albums I realised there were enough to fill a cube in my shelf. I moved them all together and really got that stark orange and black going on. However it led to comments from people, such as my Dad - "why do you have 30 copies of the same album".

I notice you also have the two Folk albums. I’ve not bought those, but it’s clear they were still experimenting. Of course later on Thiele introduced Bluesway, and did his own thing later with Flying Dutchman. Do you have a favorite period of Impulse ?

Impulse! was hot right off the bat, they had so many quality years it’s hard to pick a favourite. If I had to pick a three year stand it would probably be ’62-’64. With ’63 being probably my favourite year for the label overall. On the other hand, I also have a soft spot for the Pharoah/Alice years of the late 60’s/early 70’s. The great thing about music is that you don’t have to pick favourites. 

Do you have one favorite record, if not a top five or ten ?

I just lamented about singling out favourites, so I’ll try something different. The first 5 are the ones I hold dearest because they created my love for the label and are all classics. Also, I’m not going to repeat artists. 

    1. Charles Mingus – The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady

    2. John Coltrane – Africa/Brass

    3. Gil Evans – Out of the Cool 

    4. Alice Coltrane – Journey in Satchidananda 

    5. Pharoah Sanders – Karma

The next 5 are my darkhorse albums.

    1. Max Roach – It’s Time

    2. Coleman Hawkins – Today and Now

    3. Ahmad Jamal – The Awakening 

    4. Sonny Rollins - Alfie

    5. Chico Hamilton – The Dealer

What is your most expensive purchase ?

My most expensive was John Lee Hooker’s It Serves You Right to Suffer which I paid a little over $100 (Canadian) for. 

What about least ?

I’ve had a few given to me, but the album I paid the least for was a VG+ original Africa/Brass for $4. The thrill of the hunt!

How many have you bought in stores versus online ?

I would say 70% of my Impulse! titles were purchased in Southern Ontario and about 30% I bought online from discogs.  The majority of those online purchases were hard to find Coltrane albums that I ordered from Japan, as well as some heavy hitters that I couldn’t hold out for finding in the “wild”. Titles like Stolen Moments (Oliver Nelson), Out of the Afternoon (Roy Haynes) and Heavy Sounds (Richard Davis & Elvin Jones). 

What about the new Impulse label, do you have any of the recent ouptut, for example any of Shabaka Hutching's three bands. I think with Shabaka, he’s bringing back some of the cool and protest that existed at the label in the 60s.

Yep, I have the Sons of Kemet record and The Comet is Coming records are I think they are fantastic. Waiting on the Shabaka and the Ancestors record that I preordered but I’m really looking forward to it as Wisdom of the Elders is probably my favourite album of his discography so far.  I am definitely interested to see if his association with Impulse! leads to a new era for the label. Considering all the young talent in the jazz scene today, I feel like that would be a win for the artists and fans. But who knows? 

Impulse! is a great label to get into, especially for someone who is just getting into jazz.  You can find anything from Dixieland to Free Jazz, blues to bop, hell there’s even a Genesis record on Impulse!. Another reason I say it’s good for beginners is because you have masters like Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter, Ben Webster, Johnny Hodges etc etc. For me, this was a way to hear these guys and then move backwards through jazz history. Jazz is huge, and sometimes a bit daunting. Collecting Impulse!, listening to the music and reading the stories brings a welcome familiarity to the genre. This can lead to constant branching out and exploring jazz, there’s always something to learn!