About Lush Life Records

Lush Life Records was born out of a deep love for music, collecting, and the culture of vinyl. Based in Sydney, Australia, we specialise in jazz, soul, funk and contemporary sounds, curating a catalogue that brings together essential classics, rare finds, and the most exciting new releases on vinyl.

Our goal is simple: to make it easy for both collectors and new listeners to discover music that matters, presented with care, knowledge and passion. Every record in our store is chosen for sound quality and artistic value, so you can buy with confidence whether you’re just starting your collection or chasing a long-sought favourite.

More than just a record store, Lush Life is about community: sharing music, stories and the joy of listening. We can’t (and won’t) stock everything — that would be madness. Instead, we curate the best mix of new jazz, essential reissues, and vintage pressings whenever we can find them.

We’re proud to be Australia’s home for jazz on vinyl. Our catalogue brings you the best jazz recordings worldwide. But a Lush Life record is more than just jazz. We don’t stick rigidly to genre, because those lines are blurry anyway. Wherever jazz’s influence flows — into blues, soul, funk, hip hop, even indie — if it feels like a Lush Life record, we’ll stock it.

The Lush Life philosophy

Jazz is a living, breathing artform, not a museum piece. We stock today’s innovators alongside the legends of the 20th century, so tomorrow’s crate-diggers still have something real to discover.

We believe in supporting new talent, especially local artists. If no store gives them a platform, how can they grow? Record shops should keep the music alive, not just trade in its history.

We also believe records should be accessible. Vinyl has become shockingly expensive — what young fan can drop $100 on a single LP? Most records in Australia are imported, and that makes them costly. But our approach is simple: we price records as fairly as we can. If we find a record for $10, even if it’s “worth” more, we’ll sell it for $16. Fair for us, fair for you.

Because records should be for everyone, not just people with deep pockets.

For us, jazz is crucial, dynamic, gritty and real. It’s the people’s music. It doesn’t belong to an elite. We hate jazz snobbery — everyone has to start somewhere, and curiosity should always be welcome.

Yes, selling records is a business. But there are easier ways to make money. Every time you buy from Lush Life, you’re helping build something bigger: a catalogue, a platform, and a community for jazz lovers in Australia.

Where we’re at

Lush Life is being bootstrapped from almost nothing. We’re starting small, growing our catalogue one record at a time. For now, every cent of profit goes straight back into buying more stock.

This isn’t about chasing margins. It’s about building something sustainable: a place where Australians can access the incredible jazz being made worldwide, and a platform for local artists too.

When you buy from Lush Life, you’re not just adding to your shelves — you’re helping build a record store, a catalogue, and a community that celebrates jazz as the living artform it is.

We also have a price promise. Not to undercut the competition (though we often do), but to always sell at the most affordable price we can manage. For now, and for the foreseeable future, we’ll reinvest almost all our profits into growing the catalogue — more records, more discovery, more music for everyone.

A note from Lush Life founder, William Turner

I’ve dreamed of owning a record store for as long as I can remember. I’m a lifelong music fan and vinyl tragic. A failed musician (believe me, it’s better this way), I’ve had to be content with appreciating those who can.

I grew up in the UK but now live in Sydney. Jazz has filled my days and nights for more than 20 years. Like many, I started with Kind of Blue, but it was Coltrane’s A Love Supreme in my late twenties that tipped me from casual listener to full-blown obsessive. I still put that record on often.

I started Lush Life because, despite Sydney’s thriving jazz scene, this city of five million has only a handful of record shops — and just one dedicated to jazz. I want to change that. For now, we’re online while we build inventory, but the dream is bricks and mortar: the jazz record store Sydney deserves.

Why “Lush Life”?

The name comes from one of the first jazz records I truly connected with — John Coltrane’s Lush Life. It also nods to Billy Strayhorn’s timeless standard Lush Life. On the surface it plays like a ballad, but the lyrics capture something darker and more conflicted: the dual nature of jazz. Elegant yet dissolute, luxurious yet weary, full of glamour and cocktails but also grit and soul.

That duality sums up the music we love. Strayhorn used “lush life” to mean “a drunk’s life”, but it carries a double meaning perfectly. Lush Life is both opulent and raw. A Lush Life record isn’t background music — it has soul, it has blues, it has edge.