Folklife Center News, Volume XV Number 1 (Winter 1993). American
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CENTER NEWS WINTER 1993 • VOLUME XV, NUMBER 1 American Folklife Center • The Library of Congress tory in the Library of Congress, thus allowing the Library "to provide for Board of TrustPes schools, libraries, and individuals, William L. Kinney, Jr., Chair, recordings of American folk music, South Carolina American poetry read and inter John Penn Fix III, Vice Chair, preted by its makers, unpublished Washington string quartets, new American mu Nina Archabal, Minnesota sic and other similar materials." In Lindy Boggs, Louisiana; 1942, the Archive of Folk Culture Washington, D.C. issued its first albums of recorded Carolyn I Iecker, Maine folk music. The recordings were eo Robert Malir, Jr., Kansas ited by Alan Lomax, then head of the Judith McCulloh, Illinois Archive. Each album consisted of Juris Ubans, Maine five 78-rpm records pressed in black shellac (the famous clear red vinyl The American Folklife Centerwas Ex Officio Members created in 1976 by the U.S. Congress was to come later). The albums pa to "preserve and present American James H. Billington, triotically mixed ten-inch and folk1ife" through programs of re Librarian of Congress twelve-inch records--shellac was search, documentation, archival Robert McCormick Adams, being rationed in 1942. preservation, reference service, live Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution performance, exhibition, publica In describing the project for the tion, and training. The Center incor Anne-Imelda Radice, Acting Chairman, Carnegie Corporation, Librarian of porates the Archive of Folk Culture, National Endowment for the Arts Congress Archibald MacLeish ex which was established in the Music Vacant, Chairman , pressed the desire to make the mate Division of the Library of Congress rials in the Library's collections in 1928, and is now one of the largest National Endowment for the Humanities collections of ethnographic material Alan Jabbour, Director, widely available: "It seems to me from the United States and around American Folklife Center thatwecaneithereducatetheAmeri the world. can people as to the value of their cultural heritage and their national FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS civilization, or sit and watch the de Administration James Hardin, Editor struction and disintegraton of that Alan Jabbour, Director David A. Taylor, Editorial Advisor culture and that civilization byforces Ray Dockstader, Deputy Director Timothy Lloyd, Editorial Review now so ruinously active in this Timothy Lloyd, Assistant to the Director John Biggs, Library of Congress world." Doris Craig, Administrative Assistant Graphics Unit, Designer A new venture with a similar Hillary Glatt, Program Assistant Folklife Center News publishes ar impulse was launched on March 15, Camila Bryce-Laporte, ticles on the programs and activities of 1993, with a symposium and recep Program Coordinator the American Folklife Center, as well tion, and the story is told in three Jennifer A. Cutting, as other articles on traditional expres articles in this issue of Folklife Center Program Coordinator sive culture. It is available free of charge News . The Endangered Music Project Acquisitions from the Library of Congress, Ameri had its inception in 1990whenGrate can Folklife Center, Washington, D.C. Joseph C. Hickerson, Head ful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart 20540-8100. Folklife Center News does visited the Library of Congress and Processing not publish announcements from other Stephanie A. Hall, Archivist began to investigate the recordings institutions or reviews of books from in the Archive of Folk Culture. As he Catherine Hiebert Kerst, publishers other than the Library of Congress. Readers who would like to explained, "I knew it was Alexan America n Memon; Project dria and the Vatican Library all rolled Programs comment on Center activities or news letter articles may address their re into one, the Oz of archives-the Peter T. Bartis, Folklife Specialist marks to the editor. ultimate wine cellar. I couldn't wait Mary Hufford, Folklife Specialist to get in there and start sampling the David A. Taylor, Folklife Specialist vintage." Publications Cover: Choc6 Indians from the upper Hart proposed a joint venture James Hardin, Editor part of the Sambu River on the with the Center for a series of re Public Events Panama-Colombia border, recorded cordings from the Archive collec Thea Caemmerer, Coordinator for the Archive of Folk Culture in tions to be issued on the Rykodisc Reference 1949 by Norwegian filmmaker Per label, certain that there would be a Gerald E. Parsons, Reference Librarian Host. Archive of Folk Culture wide audience for music that once Judith A. Gray, Folklife Specialist would have been regarded as too Administrative Office exotic to appeal to popular taste. Tel: 202 707-6590 "There are enormous stockpiles of Reference Service EDITOR'S NOTES information in our repositories," he told Music Division interviewer Ann Tel: 202 707-5510 The Oz of Archives Federal Cylinder Project McLean. "Alan [Jabbour] is sitting Tel: 202 707-1740 on a gold mine here. And I believe it In 1941,agrantfrom the Carnegie should be for the people, because Corporation made possible the es tablishment of a Recording Labora continued on page 15 2 Folklife Center News Opening Up the "Oz of Archives'': Mickey Hart and the Endangered Music Project Mickey Hart (center) at the Library of Congress on March 9, 1991, with Alan Jabbour (left) and Mike Donaldson (right) , head studio engineer for the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. Hart visited the Library to work on the selection and digital mastering of rare field recordings from the rainforests of tropical Central and South America. His interest in traditional music from throughout the world led him to the Archive of Folk Culture, where he conceived the idea for a series of commercial re leases that has become the Endangered Music Project. By James McKee rainforests of Panama's Darien Prov American Highway would herald ince withconflicting feelings of hope an invasion of industrial and trade "The isolation which had preserved and imminent loss. Host had heard interests into the region, setting in their ancient customs was in the pro tales of the Embera Choc6 Indians of motion the machinery of irrevocable cess of breaking down. It was the the upper Sambu River Valley, change. beginning of a development which mountain dwellers who had hidden After making his way to the se contained the germ of a complete themselves from the outside world cluded mountain valleys of the change in their mode of life." since a smallpox epidemic in the Choc6, Host shot more than ten thou Per Host, What the World Showed 1920s wiped out a large part of their sandfeet of film andrecorded a num Me population. ber of songs on magnetic tape, in His hopes of filming a seques cluding a spellbinding fever-curing In 1949 the Norwegianfilmmaker tered forest society were mixed with chant sung by a renowned shaman Per Host journeyed into the fears that the completion of the Pan- named Gajego. Winter 1993 3 One year later, when Host re of ecosystems and the loss of cultural Wayana songs recorded in an office turned to Darien to shoot additional diversity, and strategies for preserv of the Dutch Consulate in Paramaribo, footage, his fears were confirmed: ing the oral traditions of culturally during an impromptu session; the Panamanian government had threatened peoples. granted a large concession to a tim An evening reception celebrating From the Enrique Pinilla Folk and ber company to extract mahogany the release of The Spirit Cries was Indian Music of Peru Collection from the region, and soldiers had hosted by Librarian of Congress (1963-64), songs of the Ashaninka been dispatched to put down any James H. Billington in the Library's Indians, featuring their striking imi possible resistance. Many of his Great Hall. Guests included Grate tative polyphony; Choc6 friends had succumbed to tu ful Dead members Jerry Garcia, berculosis brought to their village by Mickey Hart, and Bob Weir; Don From the Kenneth Bilby Jamaican Christian missionaries. Gajego's tra Rose, president of Rykodisc; Sen. Maroon Collection (1977-78), two ditional medicine, so effective against Patrick Leahy; and congressional possession-trance dances from the spirit-caused afflictions, was no representatives Neil Abercrombie, Kromanti Play, one of the most purely match for the diseases brought by the Anthony Beilenson, Sherrod Brown, African of the Caribbean musical foreigners. Death usually came Vic Fazio, Joe Knollenberg, Jerry ritual complexes; within a few weeks. Lewis, Norman Mineta, Jim Moran, Lewis Payne, Robert Underwood, From the Carol and Travis Jenkins er Host probably never and Tom Lantos. Garifuna Collection (Belize, 1981), a thought that his field record Coproduced by HartandJabbour, variety of religious and dance mu ings, safely stored in the Li The Spirit Cries contains music from sics, including the bawdy social com P brary of Congress's Archive six collections recorded between 1949 mentary of the punta dance and the of Folk Culture, would be heard by a and 1987. Some of the disc's high strikingly beautiful abaimahani and worldwide audience. But for the past lights are: arumahani songs, created while the three years his work, and that of four composer is dreaming or in a trance; other collectors and several dozen From the Per Host Panama/Choc6 and performers, has been the focus of the Indian Collection (1949), an Embera Endangered Music Project, a public healing ritual performed by the sha From the Kenneth Bilby Aluku Ma priva te cooperative venture between man Gajego, who shakes a palm frond roon Collection (French Guiana and the American Folklife Center and 360° over a man to drive feverish spirits Suriname, 1981-84), ritual and social Productions, the California-based from his body; dance drumming, popular music, production company of Mickey Hart, and solo game-songs accompanied percussionist for the rock group the From the David Findlay Suriname by the agwado, a three-stringed bow Grateful Dead.