Was Arthur Moorhead the greatest jazz buyer that ever worked at Tower Records? Stan Goman believes that is the case. Growing up in Arizona, Arthur became a proficient trombone player and obsessed with jazz, movie soundtracks and orchestral music. By his own admission he was almost completely ignorant of pop music, except The Beatles. As a young teenager, his weekends consisted of hopping on a bus with a friend and making the rounds of Arizona record storeslooking for records. Eventually he worked for a local record store called Recordland in Phoenix and Mesa, Arizona.
In 1975 Arthur moved to San Francisco to pursue a career as a professional trombone player, as opportunities in Phoenix were few & far between. Needing a day job, he entered Tower Records Columbus & Bay. As luck would have it the current jazz buyer was planning to leave for a job with a catering company. Arthur’s interview consisted of Stan Goman and the current jazz buyer interviewing him with very basic jazz questions Arthur aced and he was hired on the spot. For the next five years, Arthur worked at Tower by day and evenings as a trombonist.
Through his tenure at Columbus & Bay, Arthur got to know the heads of the record labels and was approached by the US Managing Director of ECM Records which at the time was distributed by Warner Bros. Records, to be the National Sales Manager for ECM based out of New York City. For the next 40 years, Arthur worked in the WEA family of labels spending time with Elektra, Atlantic, Rhino and Nonesuch. At Nonesuch Arthur worked with John Adams, Steve Reich, Johnny Greenwood, Pat Metheny, David Byrne, Wilco, Fleet Foxes, Bill Frisell, Randy Newman and a host of other amazing artists. Arthur was also a producer, executive producer and reissue supervisor on many projects.