Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919

Acknowledgments

acknowledgments Nobody does it alone. Like the artists profiled here, I have been helped by many hands along the way. Whether it was checking their local libraries, raiding their own files (or, in one case, giving me their files), making copies of articles or tapes of otherwise unobtainable recordings, taking pictures of important sites, or simply providing leads, researchers in the United States and around the world have responded to my inquiries during the long years this book was being researched. Some of them probably wondered if “the book” would ever actually be published. My debt, and yours, to them is immense. Among those contributing information and advice were Lynn Abbott, George Adams (a member of the Fisk Jubilee Singers in the 1950s), Barry Ashpole, Dr. Lawrence Auspos, Arthur Badrock, Mark Berresford, Carol Blais, William Bryant, Sam Brylawski, Peter Burgis, Brigitte Burkett, Paul Charosh, Norm Cohen, Frederick Crane, John S. Dales, Prof. Allen Debus, John Devine, Sherwin Dunner, Bevis Faversham , Patrick Feaster, Harold Flakser, Ray Funk, David Giovannoni, David Goldenberg , Tim Gracyk, John Graziano, Dr. Lawrence Gushee, Lawrence Holdridge, Rick Huff, Eliott Hurwitt, Asa M. Janney, David Jasen, Bill Klinger, Allen Koenigsberg, Len Kunstadt, Gary Le Gallant, Dr. Rainer E. Lotz, Richard I. Markow, Michael Montgomery , William Moran, Kurtz Myers, Dr. Charles Poland, Steven Ramm, Quentin Riggs, Prof. Thomas Riis, Brian Rust, Howard Rye, Doug Seroff, William Shaman, Peter Shambarger, Steve Smolian, Jean Snyder, Bronwen C. Sounders, Dick Spottswood , Linda Stevens, Paul W. Stewart, Patricia Turner, Steve Walker, and Prof. Raymond Wile. Institutions from which I drew information included the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College, Chicago (Suzanne Flandreau, Dr. Sam Floyd); Detroit Public Library (Agatha Kalkanis); Edison National Historic Site (Jerry Fabris, George Tselos, Doug Tarr); Emerson College Archives (Robert Fleming); Greenwich Public Library; Hogan Jazz Archive at Tulane University (Dr. Bruce Boyd Raeburn); John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York (Eileen Rowland); Library of Congress (Sam Brylawski); New York City Municipal Archives (Kenneth R. Cobb); New York Public Library Theater Collection and Rodgers and Hammerstein Archive of Recorded Sound (Don McCormick); Ohio Historical Society (Thomas J. Rieder); Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; Sony/Columbia 00.FM.i-xii_Broo 12/17/03, 1:43 PM 9 x acknowledgments Records Archives (Martine McCarthy, Nathaniel Brewster); Thomas Balch Library, Leesburg, Virginia (Jane Sullivan); U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Hartford, Connecticut, office; and the Historical Sound Recordings Archive at Yale University (Richard Warren). Special thanks to the most supportive editor an obsessed author could wish for, JudithMcCulloh,andtoThereseBoydforherpainstakingworkcompilingtheindex. Some of the recordings discussed here are finally being reissued on CD (see discography ), but for this study I have relied primarily on original78s and cylinders due to their superior sonic quality and the clues they reveal regarding original issue and marketing practices. For example, the form of artist credit, characterization of the musical genre, and approximate year of manufacture can all be gleaned from inspection of the original discs but not from modern reissues. Manufacturing codes in the shellac can also be revealing, at least to experts. Biographical details are in many cases drawn from original sources, due to the lack of reliable modern sources. Early versions of some chapters appeared in American Music, ARSC Journal, The New Amberola Graphic, and Storyville. Dick Spottswood, a preeminent authority on early ethnic recording, contributed the appendix on black recording in Latin America prior to 1920 and graciously helped proof the entire manuscript. To all those who have helped make this work possible, my sincere appreciation. Errors and omissions—and there must be many—are my responsibility. 00.FM.i-xii_Broo 12/17/03, 1:43 PM 10 LoSt Sounds 00.FM.i-xii_Broo 12/17/03, 1:43 PM 11 00.FM.i-xii_Broo 12/17/03, 1:43 PM 12 ...