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Posted by: Stephen Winick
The following is a guest post by Todd Harvey, AFC’s Lomax collection curator. Portions of the post appeared in a short essay Todd contributed to the Haiti box set pictured below. In 2009, ethnomusicologist Gage Averill edited and compiled the CD box set Alan Lomax in Haiti 1936-1937, and wrote the accompanying Grammy-nominated notes. He …
Posted in: AFC Events
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
One hundred years ago this month, February 26, 1917, what is generally acknowledged as the first recording of jazz was released. “Livery Stable Blues,” performed by the Original Dixieland Jass Band [1] was a best-selling record for Victor, but is a problematic “first” as it is a recording of a white band performing an African …
Posted in: African American History, African Americans, Blues, Folk Music, Folksong, Jazz
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
Happy Chinese New Year! The Year of the Rooster begins on Saturday, January 28th. To celebrate, here are four recordings of Chinese music recorded on Victor in 1902 and 1903. We hope that someone reading this article might be able to tell us more about these songs. The recordings are part of the collections of …
Posted in: Asian American History, Chinese Americans, Folk Music
Posted by: Nicole Saylor
This is a guest post by the American Folklife Center’s Alan Lomax curator Todd Harvey. Fans of folk music fire up your browsers! The second—and largest—phase of the Lomax family papers has just gone online at this link. This set of manuscripts joins ca. 25,000 items that went online last fall. Researchers now have access to nearly …
Posted in: Alan Lomax, Archival Practice
Posted by: Stephen Winick
On behalf of the American Folklife Center, I’m very sad to pass on the news of the death of our founding director, Alan Jabbour. Alan was a folklorist, fiddler, fieldworker, and friend of the highest caliber, and he will be missed at AFC and around the world. AFC’s current director, Betsy Peterson, expressed the feelings …
Posted in: AFC 40th Anniversary, AFC Events, AFC History, Alan Jabbour, Benjamin Botkin Folklife Lecture Series, Fieldwork, Folk Music, Folklorists, Obituaries
Posted by: Nicole Saylor
This is a guest post by Todd Harvey, acquisitions coordinator at the American Folklife Center (AFC). The American Folklife Center is pleased to announce a major acquisition, the Cooperative Recreation Service collection (AFC 2016/051) donated to the Center by fiddler, scholar, and publisher Bruce Greene. The Cooperative Recreation Service is a publishing company founded during …
Posted in: Acquisitions, Dance, Folk Music, Folksong, Religion