 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Bill
Date: 2016-02-29 03:03
Proof that I don't get out enough? I live within walking distance of the famous DC/MD music store "Dale Music," and just yesterday I discovered it has closed (because I noticed the entire block of buildings is gone).
I spent so many hours in that store, thumbing through sheet music, and I bought my very first Buffet clarinet from them. I traded in my Noblet and spent $1300 for a late 80s R-13!!!! It was like buying a house.
The world is spinning too fast.
Bill Fogle
Ellsworth, Maine
(formerly Washington, DC)
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Author: DougR
Date: 2016-03-01 18:46
In the least few years of its life, Dale Music had a far better browsing sheet music selection than anyplace in NYC (Schirmer's having closed; Frank Music keeping most of its music behind the counter where you couldn't get at it, Patelson's being chronically out of stock on major things).
I remember taking a clarinet lesson in one of Dale's little teaching cubbyholes in the basement with Norman Katz, who'd been an Army bandsman in DC. Suddenly there was a loud click and all the lights went off. We sat there for a minute in the dark, and then Norman did what any musician would do under the circumstances--played a soft chorus of "When the Deep Purple Falls…"
My folks rented a Holton Collegiate metal clarinet for me from Dale. My first "serious" clarinet was bought there--a D Noblet that I still have. I saved up summer job money and bought a Mark VI alto there--serial no. 115XXX--for $412 cash.
So no, I didn't pay much attention to the closing of the store. It was nothing to commemorate, even if they were putting up the world's finest medical center in its place (which, believe me, is not the case).
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2016-03-01 19:46
Yep, I grew up in Maryland and went to Dale's many times. Not my first choice for reeds or accessories, but they did have the best sheet music collection in the area. They went the way of the dodo and small family-owned music stores in general. Welcome to the Internet Age!
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Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2016-03-02 21:20
There's still Chuck Levin's Washington Music Center, not far from Dale's. Prices are great. The old man died and one of the sons recently passed on too. He wasn't very old. Hope they stay open. I bought most of my reeds from Teds Music behind Peabody Conservatory. Ted was a cool guy and the store was a complete mess! Dust 2 inches thick in some areas!
Designer of - Vintage 1940 Cicero Mouthpieces and the La Vecchia mouthpieces
Yamaha Artist 2015
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Author: DougR
Date: 2016-03-03 19:47
Just a quick note to say, if Chuck Levin's is still open, BUY THERE. To have an actual store, occupying actual real estate, where instruments are on display and try-outable, is an incredible luxury these days, one that is worth maintaining.
In NYC, the entire Music Row (48th st.) is now shuttered derelict buildings, just waiting for the parasitical real estate industry to turn it into yet another useless luxury something or other. Sam Ash managed to relocate to 34th St., and have showroom space for every kind of instrument, plus bins of music, right there--all you have to do is show up and you can play and browse on the spot. Granted, the sheet music is nowhere near as extensive as Dale's, but the staff knows their onions, and for reeds & accessories & whatnot, it's worth it to me to pay (perhaps) higher prices just so I can handle and compare merchandise instead of buying blind.
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2016-03-03 22:32
When I was in high school my parents took me to Chuck Levin's to buy my first bass clarinet, a Noblet -- and Chuck went upstairs with us to the storeroom to pull out a few horns for me to try. Nice customer service from the boss himself! His wife Marge ran the cash register downstairs. It was quite a place.
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Author: DougR
Date: 2016-03-04 06:20
I think Chuck Levin's must have opened after I left the area--before then the 'competition' for Dale Music was the Music & Art Center in Bethesda (and there was a guitar shop on the corner of Georgia and …. someplace, in downtown Silver Spring).
But Mr. Levin's behavior as you describe it was partly being a good businessman and partly establishing the store as a community resource, which is why it's so awful when they close. I remember seeing Mr. Pertschuk (who founded Dale) playing violin in community orchestras; You always saw them at the store, too--Mrs. Pertschuk let me pay off my new Selmer alto in installments, which was a great thing to do for a kid.
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Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2016-03-04 08:25
Both stores are/were great. I think Chuck's is still in biz. I bought an R13 there in the early 1970's and had my choice of about 20 clarinets. They had a huge stock back then and they probably still do.
Designer of - Vintage 1940 Cicero Mouthpieces and the La Vecchia mouthpieces
Yamaha Artist 2015
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