Music shops in BA

[herculix]

Hi there,

I'll be coming to BA from New Zealand with my family in April. We're all very interested in music and can't wait to take in the Tango scene. Was wondering if anyone has any shopping tips for browsing old hi-fi, vinyl, instruments, musical curios, etc?

Best regards,
Keith

 

[Ries]

There is a musical instrument neighborhood, with a lot of shops selling new and used instruments, near Callao y Sarmiento in the Microcento.

Old Vinyl is for sale at the better music stores- Miles in Palermo, which has a great CD selection, also sells used Vinyl.
There are used Vinyl stores in the two hipster gallerias on Santa Fe- kind of indoor minimalls of vintage clothes, punk and skater stuff, tattoo parlors, etc- One is called Bond Street, the other is called 5th Avenida-
http://www.galeriabondstreet.com/
http://www.buenosaires-argentina.com/attractions/galeria-5ta-avenida.html

There are a bunch of weekend flea markets with individual vendors selling vinyl, sometimes instruments.
The fancy and expensive one is Sunday Mornings at Plaza Dorrego in San Telmo, but cheaper and potentially more interesting ones include the one on weekends at Parque Centenario and Parque de los Andes. These are both Saturdays and Sundays, much funkier and more hit or miss than San Telmo.
There are also several permanent street markets with kiosks of booksellers, some of whom sell vinyl. One on Santa Fe near Plaza Italia, another in parque rivadavia.
And lots and lots of small antique stores and book dealers that might have something.
Its a big city, and due to geographical location and expense and customs laws, a lot of stuff from the past is still here.

 

[herculix]

Great response. Many thanks for that. You mention customs laws. Is it difficult to bring vinyl and musical curios out of Argentina?

 

[Ries]

not as an individual bringing them on the plane with you.

Of course, its is really bad karma to try to export a bandoneon, but thats not a legal thing. There is a great movie about Bandoneons, called El Ultimo Bandoneon, about a woman musician trying to find a "new" Bandoneon- and since the good ones were all made in Germany before the second world war, they are rare and expensive. Argentines take a dim view of collectors buying them and taking them out of the country.

I mean that its very difficult for a dealer to come to Argentina, buy a whole bunch of stuff, and ship a container home to Europe or Australia or the USA.
Commercial exports of antiques are not too common, because of all the paperwork and fees.

But buying a few records, or a musical instrument or two, no problem.
I yo yo back and forth to the USA, and while my vinyl buying days are over, I always carry stacks of CD's both ways- I take a lot of Argentine stuff back with me, and my argentine friends are always looking for various euro and american music that is hard to find in Argentina. New imported CD's in Argentina are expensive, and back catalog for things I take for granted in the USA is often next to impossible to find.
And a lot of Argentine music collectors still really like physical media.

For instance, I am now collecting the entire ouevre of Bark Psychosis for a friend of mine in BsAs, as its just NOT in Argentina.