It was the annual meeting of the Association for Recorded
Sound Collections (ARSC) and it was to be held in Washington DC May 28 through
the 31st and I was going. Now I've held the reins of what I've always
considered an important sound collection, worthy of preservation, for a lot of
years but I only became aware of these folks after I got my Grammy grant a
couple of years ago (even though they've been around for about 40 plus years).
However, in looking over the membership roster, I certainly did know a lot of
the people, many of whom have visited Folk Arts Rare Records, to talk old music
with me, and many others whose names I'd seen on LP and CD liner notes during
the time I've been a collector of records and related stuff (about 55 years)
and shop owner (about 42 years).
Rolling
into DC from the Dulles airport, passing the turn off to Lee Highway (had an
old time fiddle tune named after it: "Lee Highway Blues," a good sign) and
checking into the Liaison Hotel in the shade of the Capitol building (right on
the hill) and walking right into a workshop on the technical side of archiving,
which included all those folks who know what is needed, how to keep your older
machines (which you absolutely need to keep in good shape to play older formats
like reel to reel and even wire recordings) in some kind of good order. A lot
of the technical stuff was a bit over my head but I sure am grateful that there
is an organization that gets people together to talk about this sort of stuff
because we, who are on the music side of all this, sure need the folks who keep
our access to what we care about in good working order.
Friday
morning we went around the other side of the Capitol building to the Library of
Congress for a tour of the archives' Music Division, the Folklife Center, and
the Reading Room, as well as a discussion with the folks there about our
archiving and digitization project of the material in the Lou Curtiss Sound
Library. Aaron Bittel (from UCLA, who is acting as a co-sponsor with us and the
LoC) joined us in this meeting and tour of the place that will become one of
the depositories of my collection.
From then
on it was back at the hotel, talking and listening shop, with acquaintances old
and new. On Friday afternoon my "partner in digitization" Russ Hamm, UCLA's
Aaron Bittel, and I conducted a workshop called "A Partnership for
Preservation: The Lou Curtiss San Diego Folk Festival Collection, which, with
the help of slides and reminiscing (from me), we told all these folks (most of
whom are in the know) about what we are doing (preserving my collection), what
we have done (presented festivals and concerts for over 40 years), and who has
supported us and not supported us along the way (not dwelling on the latter).
During the discussion period of the presentation, Chris Strachwitz (of Arhoolie
Records and a major West Coast collector) commented that "Lou Curtiss has never
been one to be afraid of the powers that be (his financial source) when it came
to presenting traditional and roots music and giving that music a place in his
festivals above that of the so-called folksinger songwriters." That was a good
way to end the presentation with an upbeat comment by a person with an awful
lot of respect in the music community, and who I have worked with from time to
time going back to the 1960s (he helped me bring blues singers like Bukka
White, Mance Lipscomb, Lightnin' Hopkins, Jesse Fuller, and John Jackson to San
Diego, plus norteña groups like Los Hurricanes Del Norte, Santiago Jimenez, Lydia
Mendoza, and others, and cajuns like the Balfa Brothers, and Sady Courville and
Dennis McGee to San Diego festivals, clubs, and concerts).
After that
high point, meeting old friends like Chris and Dick Spottswood and making new
ones like Kip Lornell, Kurt Nauck, and the University of North of Texas' Morris
Martin, we talked about music ranging from vintage jazz, blues and country,
bluegrass and R&B. I had quite a talk with Richard Carlin from Smithsonian
Folkways. Then there were the workshops. Mostly, I stayed with the music side
of things (although for someone involved with the technical side of collecting
and archiving there was a lot to be learned) and I attended workshops on:
-Hoagy and
Bix: The Seed of Harvestry
-Charlie
Parker and Lennie Tristano
-A Brave New
World at the National Archives
-Rhodes
Baker's Duke Ellington collection at the University of North Texas
-A panel
discussion on the state of jazz radio
-Bluegrass
and the rise of independent record labels in Washington DC following WWII
-R&B and
the rise of independent record labels in Washington DC following WWII
-The World
of Sound: The Story of Smithsonian-Folkways
That's what
I heard and did. I wish I could have been in town a day earlier for workshops
that included:
-Late and
Post-Ottoman music in New York in the 1920s (Greek, Armenian, Turkish, West
Indian Immigrant)
-Life and
music in the Harlem Jazz Age, independent record labels in the British blues
revival, lost television
-Broadcasts
from 1946-1972, access to historic field recordings at the Library of Congress
Folklife Center, the fight for copyright reform and what it means to you (see
last month's "Recordially"), plus one on the state of audio preservation in the
United States and what are the next steps, and a whole lot more.
It was back
to Dulles on Sunday and back to San Diego with a whole lot of ideas and
thoughts about next year's meeting of ARSC in New Orleans. If you have an
interest in archives of one sort or another and like to be around people who
know a lot about what you care about, I encourage you to get in touch with
these folks at P.O. Box 543, Annapolis, MD 21404 or at their website. You won't
be sorry.
A
Couple of Suggestions
A one-hour
film titled For the Record examines
the activity of record collecting from the positive view of 16 major record
collectors. Filmmaker Leah Biel made this film (available on DVD) as her thesis
for a Master of Fine Arts degree from Brooklyn College in New York. It's a good
way to see what this record collecting stuff is all about and if you're already
a collector, a good way to explain the profession of archeophony and
phonautographic history to your critics and significant others.
There are a
whole bunch of CDs on the Buzzola label of stuff sorted by subject. Some of
them include Sugar in My Bowl: Hard
Drivin' Mamas - Vintage Sex Songs 1923-1953, Outside the Law: Gangsters,
Racketeers, and the Feds - Vintage Songs 1922-1947, You Done Me Wrong: Vintage
Country Cheating Songs 1929-1952, Kicking Hitler's Butt: Vintage Anti-Fascist
Songs 1940-1944,Got a Light, Mac?: Vintage Songs About Smoking 1926-1954 (a
couple of chewing songs in this one), Like
an Atom Bomb: Apocalyptic Songs from the Cold War Era, Junkers, Jivers, and
Coke Fiends: Vintage Songs About Drugs 1926-1952, High Rollers: Vintage
Gambling Songs.
The
packaging and notes are good and so is the remastering. Check out their catalog
on the web or write them c/o Chrome Dreams, P.O. Box 230 New Malden, Surrey KT3
6YY, United Kingdom. Good fun stuff.
I'd like to
do another benefit concert for the sound library project. My idea this time is
to present a cajun band on one show, a norteño conjunto, a bluegrass band
(preferably early '50s stuff), an Irish Ceili, a blues band (maybe Tomcat), a
group with Eastern European origins, and maybe something Hawaiian or Far
Eastern or some Jazz. Any volunteers or folks with ideas?
I guess
that's it this time around. Keep your nose clean.
Recordially,
Lou Curtiss