Imagine the opening credits to a summer blockbuster movie that starts out in space looking down at the earth. As the camera moves in you recognize North America, then the east coast comes into frame and finally the island of Manhattan. The camera pans across the skyscrapers, down, down, down to Chinatown between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges. Finally, you see 13 Monroe Street at street level. You notice an old building, first you here the chanting, then you see the American Buddhist Association. Carefully look down and to the left or you'll miss a true national treasure, the Downtown Music Gallery.
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Imagine the opening credits to a summer blockbuster movie that starts out in space looking down at the earth. As the camera moves in you recognize North America, then the east coast comes into frame and finally the island of Manhattan. The camera pans across the skyscrapers, down, down, down to Chinatown between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges. Finally, you see 13 Monroe Street at street level. You notice an old building, first you here the chanting, then you see the American Buddhist Association. Carefully look down and to the left or you'll miss a true national treasure, the Downtown Music Gallery.
Maybe you have made the pilgrimage to DMG in one of their two prior locations, opened first in 1991 in the east village and then later, the Bowery. DMG is Bruce Lee Gallanter and Manny 'Lunch' Maris, but more about them later. This past year they signed a ten year lease to continue delivering the self-described “music on the edge: underground & avant jazz, art rock/pop, contemporary classical, and the completely uncategorizable.” With the closing of Tower Records, HMV, and soon Virgin Records, these two entrepreneurs are carrying the responsibility for making available the recorded music of our time, and as I found out, so much more.
If you have been to their web site and searched the database with over 35,000 entries (most with reviews or detailed descriptions) you understand the breadth of their holdings. We're talking everything from long out-of-print releases to artist-produced limited edition CD-Rs, small domestic labels and labels from all parts of the globe, including Belgium, Russia, and Lebanon. They provide CDs, hundreds of DVDs, and also the coveted LPs, buying collections in addition to delivering the latest releases.
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