RESOUND A QUARTERLY OF THE Archives of Traditional Music Volume IV, Number 4 October 1985

From the Director

For years the staff of the Archives of Traditional Music that has characterized American music for over a hundred has been trying to fit more and more collections and ac­ years and is found increasingly around the world. tivities into the same amount of space. Generous gifts of The Hollywood career of Hoagy Carmichael encourages records, large tape collections, and grants have often been our move into videotape-for musicians in many musical greeted with as much consternation as delight because it traditions do more than produce sounds: they also dance, was so hard to find a place for them. interact with each other and the audience, and combine the That is over. Construction has begun on a new home for visual and aural in their performances. Increasingly, eth­ the Archives in Morrison Hall, which is appropriately lo­ no musicologists are using videotape as part of their re­ cated between Anthropology and Music, part of a quiet search. The Archives is applying for grants for the storage quadrangle formed with Memorial, Goodbody, and Syca­ and use of videotape throughout its new facilities. more Halls. Our storage space will initially double, and the The new quarters will also have a seminar room, an office floor of the storage room is being reinforced to permit the for Professor Emeritus George List, working space for vis­ construction of a loft that will increase the total storage iting scholars, and more laboratory space. We are no longer space by another sixty percent should it be needed. The wondering where we will put collections, and have recently storage area and sound laboratories will be served with acquired some large ones whose quality and variety reflect state-of-the-art climate control for better preservation. The the essence of the Archives of Traditional Music. Some of listening library will have two rooms for group listening, them are described elsewhere in this issue. Construction as well as carrels; administrative offices will be consolidated will take ten months; with luck we will be fully installed in on a single floor; and the whole physical plant will be more a year. attractive, twice as large, and more functional. The Friends of the Archives have been instrumental in The Archives will also have space for entirely new kinds our activities during the past year. Your generosity has of activities, thanks to the generosity of the family of the supported the publication of this quarterly, and its new late multi-talented Bloomington native, Hoagy Carmichael. expanded format, as well as expenses to bring a collection The family will be donating much of his memorabilia to the here and the purchase of equipment not covered by other Archives, where it will form the core of our growing funds. Your donations add flexibility for our daily opera­ collection. Some of the memorabilia will be displayed in a tions and indicate support in a way University administra­ room tentatively named the Hoagy Carmichael Suite. At tors can understand. When I argued for the importance of the family's request, this will not be a quiet museum but a the Archives, I used the growing number of Friends to lively place, designed for active use by the university com­ demonstrate the broad support the Archives enjoys. I hope munity. The handsome 960 square foot room, with attached you will make a donation to the Friends of the Archives of kitchenette and storage area, will be equipped with a small Traditional Music this year, and direct your attention to the modular stage and audio-visual equipment. It will be used form in this issue. for displays, receptions, and for informal music events: small Finally, I must announce a further personnel change here jazz concerts, groups of African drums or xylophones, fid­ at the Archives. Mary Russell, who as an outstanding vis­ dlers, penny whistlers, singers, salsa, and even chamber iting librarian here for two years put us "on-line" with music. The room will give the Archives a place to make OCLC, and had just been promoted to Acting Associate music as well as to store it, a place to appreciate performers Director, accepted a permanent position as Music Librarian as well as performances. It will also allow us to emphasize at Middlebury College. The experienced staff of the Ar­ the mixture of commercial and traditional musical forms chives is clearly attractive to other institutions. As with l Louise Spear a few months before, we rejoiced with Mary tion were issued on commercial discs in the early 1950s , for her success, and were very sorry to see her leave. She and notations made by were published has been replaced by James Smart, formerly a reference in 1960. 4 librarian at the , who will serve through Following a visit to Tuskeegee Institute and some stim­ June 1986. In a year we should have new quarters and a ulating conversations with Thomas M. Campbell, Field Agent larger permanent staff. I would like to thank Marilyn Graf, for the Department of Agriculture (for work among Negro James Smart, and Brenda Nelson for their hard work to farmers), I spent a week or ten days in the neighborhood keep the Archives going in the meantime. of Selma, mostly talking to people and keeping a eye out for recording possibilities. S. W. Boynton, Negro County Agent for the Department of Agriculture, took me with him on his various rounds to farmsteads in the area. I told C. J. Hurston, Principal of the Dallas County Training School at Beloit, that I wanted to record some local church services, and he gave me the name of Mrs. Rebecca Anderson, dea­ coness of the Shiloh Primitive Baptist Church at Bogue Chitto. The next morning my wife and I drove to Bogue Chitto. It was raining and the road was a river of red mud. I stopped Resound here and there to ask the whereabouts of Sister Rebecca A Quarterly of the Anderson, but no one seemed to know her. Eventually we stopped in front of a dilapidated open shed-three walls Archives of Traditional and a roof-where six or seven men had taken refuge from Music the rain. I sloshed my way in, greeted them, and asked if they could direct me to Mrs. Anderson's house. Everyone Marilyn B. Graf, Editor looked puzzled at the mention of her name. One of them asked, "Who's that again?" I repeated the question, this Resound is issued in January, April, July, and October. time calling her Sister Rebecca Anderson, and I mentioned Comments, letters, and items of interest are welcome and that Mr. Hurston had sent me. They all shook their heads. may be addressed to the editor. "No, ain't no Sister Rebecca Anderson around here." One of them said to another, "You ever hear about her?" The Archives of Traditional Music other man said, "No, sure never did." Maxwell Hall 057 I :mad~s.ome ~lllall talk about 'Y-e.fl.thecand crops. After Inaiana university about five minutes of this, one of the older men said, "Guess Bloomington, 47405 you from the F.B.I. Or ain't you?" I said, "No, sure ain't." (812) 335-8632 Suddenly we were all laughing. Then one of them asked, Anthony Seeger, Director "Now, just who is it you say you lookin' for?" I said, "Sister Rebecca Anderson." He said, "How come you didn't say James R. Smart, Acting Associate Director so? That's her house right down there." Brenda L. Nelson, Librarian I thanked him and went about a hundred yards down Marilyn B. Graf, Secretary the road. Mrs. Anderson received me amiably, and I told her about wanting to record a Sunday service at her church. ISSN 0749-2472 It required a lot of explaining, including several references to the Library of Congress' special interest. I don't believe Mrs. Anderson had ever heard of the Library of Congress, but she was very cordial and invited me to come to the Sunday service, nine o'clock. Recording in In 1950 Sunday morning we put our tape recorder in the car and headed for Bogue Chitto. We picked up an elderly man who was walking along the road and asked where he wanted to go. He said, "Shiloh P.B. Church." I told him it was My recording trip to rural Alabama in 1950 1 had the fa­ exactly where we were going. He said, "Fine, fine! Look miliar open-ended objective of documenting whatever I could like everybody go in' there today. We got four churches in of Afro-American music and narrative in its natural setting. Bogue Chitto, and I ought to known 'cause I'm the preacher I particularly hoped to be able to record in depth within of one of them, but everyone goin' to Shiloh P.B. They say local, defined areas rather than to wander about from one something special goin' on there, and from the look of it, place to another. And I also wanted to hear and see enough must be you." to be able to compare musical concepts and practices with When we arrived at the church, a group of people, in­ those found elsewhere in Afro-America, including the Car­ cluding Mrs. Anderson, was standing in front of the door, ibbean. As it worked out, my recording areas were in the obviously having a serious discussion. Mrs. Anderson wel­ general environs of Selma, Livingston, and Tuscaloosa, Al­ comed us and introduced us to the preacher, Rev. E. D. abama, and Marian, Mississippi. Most of the recordings Tuckey. Rev. Tuckey shifted his feet uncomfortably, then from this trip are now in the Indiana University Archives said, "Sister Rebecca Anderson explained it to us, but we'd of Traditional Music. 2 Numerous examples from the collec- be glad if you'd tell it again." I began at the beginning, about how I wanted to make a recording of the sermon, Pickens Tartt whom Alan Lomax had suggested as an in­ the praying and the singing, so that the Library of Congress valuable source of information about songs and singers. could have the tape in its archives. There still was an air of As I recall, Ruby was in her seventies at that time. She concern. Finally the preacher said, "Seems like the point of previously had given generous help to various song collec­ it is, just how much is this goin' to cost us?" After I assured tors in the Livingston area, including John and Alan Lomax everybody that it wasn't going to cost anything, they smiled when they were recording under the auspices of the Library with relief and we entered the church. of Congress. Ruby took us under her wing immediately Rev. Tuckey preached eloquently on the theme of Abra­ when we told her what we were doing. As we heard it from ham and Lot. From time to time he looked at the tape her, when she was a small child her father had frequently machine (possibly a little apprehensively) and reached un­ taken her into the rural countryside to hear Negro church der the pulpit for a bottle of cough medicine. When at last singing, and black traditional music had become an abiding the services were over, we were asked if we'd care to say interest. There were some people in town who regarded a few words. My wife stood and said some appropriate her as a little strange because of her passionate involvement things. I myself couldn't think of anything appropriate to with black songs and singers. She related that when her say, so I asked if they'd care to hear a recording of a West Negro friends came to call on her for one reason or another, African religious ceremony. They said yes, that would be she let them in by the front door, and they usually sat in just fine. I played a short segment of an African religious her parlor. A few Livingstonians complained, but she told dance with drums and bells. When it was over, there was them, "When I am in my parlor it's only a few steps to the an embarrassed silence, until the man we had picked up front door, but a long way to the back door, and I don't on the road said, "That was mighty fine, and we thank you, see why you all are trying to make me w~lk so much." After we certainly do. The only thing is, we couldn't understand a while the complaints stopped and people just accepted a single word those people said." Ruby as a "peculiar case." While I was in Livingston I fre­ I touched base with various people in or near Selma whose quently recorded Negro singers in Ruby's parlor. names had been given to me by Tom Campbell, and re­ Ruby not only brought us in touch with "her" singers, corded some miscellaneous things such as a 4-H Club meet­ but helped us find new ones. Dock Reed, Vera Hall (Ward), ing. After that I decided to go on to Livingston to see Ruby Annie Grace Horn (Dodson), Earthy Anne Coleman and

FRIENDS OF THE ARCHIVES 1986

I would like to be a Friend of the Archives for 1986. My contribution will support Resound and other activities of the Archives of Traditional Music.

____ Patron ($500.00 or more). I will be entitled to receive one record from the Archives Ethnomusicological Series, a copy of the forthcoming catalog of the Archives' cylinder holdings (I.U. Press, Fall 1986), and a significant discount on orders for duplicate copies of Archives' collections. ___ Sustaining Friend ($100.00 or more). Enclosed is my check for $ . I am selecting the following longplaying record from the Archives Ethnomusicological Series: ___ Songs and Dances of Nepal, recorded by Caspar Cronk (Folkways FE 4101) ___ Songs of Aboriginal Australia and Torres Strait, recorded by Geoffrey and Alix O'Grady (Folkways FE 4102) ___ Kurdish from Western Iran, recorded by Dieter and Nerthus Christensen (Folkways FE 4103) ___ An Historical Album of Blackfoot Indian Music, compiled by Bruno Nettl (Folkways FE 34001) ___ The Big Drum and Other Ritual and Social Music of Carriacou, recorded by Donald R. Hill (Folkway FE 34002) ___ Supporting Friend ($15.00 or more). Enclosed is my check for $ ______Student Friend. ($7.50 or more). Enclosed is my check for $ ______. My institution is ___

____ Other. Enclosed is my check for $ ______Send my issues of Resound and my gift to Name ______Address ______

Please mail this coupon with your check to Friends of the Archives, Archives of Traditional Music, Maxwell Hall 057, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405. her brother Rich Amerson were among her favorites, and Red Willie Smith. He worked in the lumberyard at York, they became mine as well. and we decided to look him up. We rode over there one Rich Amerson was without question the most unique afternoon but found the lumberyard closed. Fortunately, singer, and person as well, that I encountered on the trip. his house was close by. His wife said he would be back any He lived in a small weather-beaten cabin in rural Halsel, a moment, so we waited. An hour passed, but still Red Willie few miles out of Livingston, where he farmed a few acres didn't come. However, a flatbed truck arrived with three in the summer. At other times he was only occasionally to white men in the cab. They didn't say anything, just looked be found there because of his restless wanderings. He was at us and our car with its out-of-state tags while passing a often somewhere on the road with his bicycle searching for whisky jug from one to another. Ruby said she didn't like short-term jobs and new experience. He worked variously their looks and that we ought to go. (She hadn't really liked as a track liner, caller (singer, rhythm-keeper and exhorter the idea of going to the lumberyard to begin with.) She for track crews), and digger of storm-pits (tornado cellars). said, "Those men are looking for trouble." (It was an idea He also dug wells and specialized as a "well-taster" (to that had already crossed my mind.) determine whether or not water was potable). I went to the truck to talk to them. It was obvious that In small towns along his route of passage he sang on they had been drinking heavily. One of the men said, "Guess street corners, danced, played his mouth harp, told stories, you're a Yankee." I said that my wife and I were from the and preached his own dramatic versions of Biblical texts. north, but were guests of Mrs. Tartt in Livingston. He said, He seemed to know the Bible by heart. Sometimes a small "What you want down here in Niggertown?" I said we were church temporarily without a preacher would call on him looking for Red Willie Smith. He said, "We always get along for a sermon. His voice was not smooth or cultivated, but with our Niggers till you Yankees come down here and stir it was tone-true, had marvelous subtleties and nuances, and them up." I told him I wasn't stirring anything up, just was dramatically compelling. When he sang religious songs waiting for Red Willie. He said again, as though he'd for­ he often introduced them with relevant Biblical preach­ gotten he'd already said it, "Yankees always come down ments. 5 His story-telling was eloquent, whether he told of here and stir things up." I explained that I'd come to tape actual happenings, apocryphal events, personal adventures some singers. or Buh Rabbit tales. He had had no schooling, but he was He seemed to ponder what to do next. Then, suddenly, a "natural-born" entertainer. He sometimes said, "I was he offered me the jug. I took a swallow and passed it back. schooled in hard work, and I read with a hoe and write (Continued on page 5) with a plow." One of Rich's field , "Black Woman," became a con­ versation piece later on in numerous articles about tradi­ tional Afro-American music. (, _Rich himself beca_m~ _ fu.~ 7 centerpiece of one of my fictional works , as well as the inspiration for a musical composition by John Benson Brooks. Archives to Receive Ruby took us to numerous rural one-room schools where Laura Boulton Collection we recorded a wealth of children's game songs. But the poverty and deprivation of some of the schools was heart­ rending. Several of them had virtually no books or teaching The trustees of the Laura Boulton Collection of World materials of any kind. Some were not weatherproof and Music and Instruments have announced their decision to had no stoves, and as it was winter the children had to transfer the collection to the Archives of Traditional Music wear coats or sweaters or wrap themselves in blankets. The in the fall of 1986. school yard of one of them was a sea of red mud and could The collection contains 2,830 tape recordings and their not be used. We stayed a while to visit, but did no recording documentation, more than five thousand photographs, and there. a large number of musical instruments; the results of the After several tries, we located an elderly man named late Dr. Boulton's numerous field expeditions to five con­ Enoch Brown, who was said to know many field cries. I tinents throughout a career which spanned nearly four dec­ had already recorded some splendid field calls by Annie ades. Grace Horn Dodson, who lived in Coatopa, but Enoch Brown Dr. Boulton, an ethnologist, musicologist, and film di­ was reputed to have an unusual repertoire. As it turned rector, began her studies of world music in 1929, when she out, Enoch knew only one cry. It varied a little from one was a member of the Straus Central African Expedition rendition to another, but its main theme was: "If the times sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History. don't get no better here, down the road I'm gone." In every­ She returned to Africa on seven separate occasions in later day life he sang it only when he was about to cross a bridge. years, and the African section of her collection is especially I wanted to record some work songs, and we futilely large and varied. cruised along the railroad tracks on numerous occasions Liturgical music of the twelve principal world religions, looking for a track lining crew. With Ruby's help I arranged with a particular emphasis on Byzantine music, is well rep­ a session one evening in the local prison complex, Camp resented with at least fifteen thousand separate recorded Livingston. I can't explain it easily, but I felt guilty recording items, and numerous musical instruments and photo­ in that setting. When we were finished I wanted to pay the graphs. prisoners, but the guards wouldn't permit it. They would The Laura Boulton Collection was formerly housed at allow me only to give a pack of cigarettes to each man. I and at Arizona State University. The didn't feel good about it. Archives of Traditional Music looks forward to making this Somewhere in town I heard about a blues singer named large and valuable resource available to the public. (Continued from page 4) made available with each disc only the portion appropriate to it.) For a few minutes they didn't say anything, and we just "Black Woman" was described by Frederic Ramsey, Jr. as a "won­ derfully poetic blues," and by Charles Edward Smith as "one of kept passing the jug back and forth. But the older man, the finest of recorded blues, indoors or out, rural or urban." Roughly probably the father of the other two, still wasn't satisfied a decade later, Stephen E. Henderson characterized it as "a famous with the situation. He said, "What you want with Red Wil­ song by Rich Amerson" which tapped fundamental levels of black lie, anyway?" I said I wanted to tape some of Red Willie's experience. (Cook & Henderson, The Militant Black Writer in Africa blues songs. He said, "You mean Red Willie can sing blues?" and the United States, 1969). 7. The Big Old World of Richard Creeks, Chilton, 1962. I said yes, people had told me about him and that was why I was there. He exclaimed incredulously, "Red Willie sing ©Harold Courlander, 1985 blues? Well I'll be damned! You hear that? Red Willie sings blues. I sure never knew it." The crisis was over, but what came next was unexpected. He said, "Now, don't you go away. We'll find Red Willie for you." He spun the truck around and drove away, obviously having a hard time stay­ ing on the narrow road. We waited, but the truck never Bednarowski Jazz Collection returned. Just as we were about to leave, Red Willie showed Donated up. It was too late in the day to begin recording, but we made an appointment to meet again. When I made my next trip to the lumberyard, Ruby decided to stay home, though The heirs of the late Eugene Francis Bednarowski, who later on we had a session with Red Willie in her parlor. received a Master of Physical Education degree from Indi­ There is far more to tell about and ana University in 1960, donated his large collection of 78 her husband, Pratt Tartt, than I can get into this brief ac­ RPM and LP jazz recordings to the Archives. Mr. Bedna­ count. They were truly extraordinary people, especially when rowski had collected recordings for over thirty years, es­ measured against the attitudes and traditions of their com­ pecially those of the big bands. The collection, which munity. Pratt clearly was pleased to see Ruby so active and numbers over four thousand 78 RPM recordings and one sought after, though he himself had more interest in his thousand LPs, and includes card indexes and about two garden than in songs and singers. He wore a hearing aid, hundred publications, was brought to the Archives from and was quite deaf without it. Whenever the conversation Michigan by the director and five graduate students. A about songs and singers became too much for him he turned special record cabinet will be constructed for the collection, off the power switch. Ruby would raise her voice, but he with a plaque in memory of the collector, who died tragi­ would only smile, shake his head and say, "Sorry, battery's cally young in an automobile accident. The recordings he dead." Ruby yearned for a tape recorder of her own, and collected will provide an important resource for jazz re­ when I returned to New York I was able to obtain equipment search at Indiana University. for her from the Wenner-Gren Foundation. After leaving Livingston, one of the things I did was to research traditional musical instruments. I think a high spot for me was finding an African-style, hollow-log drum in a small cabin in western Alabama. Unfortunately, it wasn't functional any more. Its playing head was gone, and it had Archives of the Languages been converted into a storage bin for shelled corn. of the World

During the past summer, the Archives of the Languages 1. Supported by a grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. of the World was transferred from the Department of An­ 2. Archives accession number 85-269-F. thropology to the Archives of Traditional Music. This ar­ 3. Negro Folk Music of Ambama, a set of six long-play records: FE chives, founded in 1954 by Drs. Carl F. and Florence M. 4417, Secular; FE 4418, Religious; FE 4471, Rich Amerson, I; FE Voegelin, represents just over three hundred languages­ 4472, Rich Amerson, II; FE 4473, ; FE 4474, Ring Game Songs and Others. With an accompanying 43-page booklet. Ethnic about one hundred of which are native American-and con­ Folkways Library (), 1950-55. tains approximately 2350 reels of tape recordings and 275 4. Negro Songs from Alabama, collected by Harold Courlander, discs. The archives represents the scholarly tradition of de­ music transcribed by John Benson Brooks, published with the as­ scriptive linguistics which developed in the United States sistance of the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Re­ in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Through the 1960s, the ar­ search, 1960. Contains 75 notations. A revised edition with more introductory text was issued by Oak Publications, New York, 1963. chives was expanded and used by a number of scholars Many of the Brooks transcriptions, along with others by Mieczys­ with a variety of interests. In recent years its holdings have law Kolinski, are included in my book Negro Folk Music, U.S.A., not been available for use. Columbia University Press, 1963. Dr. Bonnie Urciuoli, a linguistic anthropologist with an 5. For example, his "Jonah," to be found in Vol. 2 (Religious) of the Negro Folk Music of Alabama series. A complete transcription of appointment as visiting assistant professor in the Depart­ the introductory sermon appears in Negro Folk Music, U.S.A., pp. ment of Anthropology, has overseen the transfer of the 56-57. archives and is currently organizing the materials, matching 6. "Black Woman" is included in Vol. 1 (Secular) of the Negro documentation and transcriptions with the recordings, and Folk Music of Alabama set of recordings. Vols. 3 and 4 are devoted assessing the current condition of the discs and tapes, some entirely to Amerson, and the accompanying booklet contains a fuller account of him than given here. (Unfortunately, at some point of which have deteriorated somewhat due to inadequate unknown to me, Folkways discontinued the complete booklet and climate control. About ten percent of the languages represented in the on Norwegian bilinguals in the midwest, published as The Archives of the Languages of the World have few, if any, Norwegian Language in America. In addition, the archives has native speakers left. Thus, the archives may contain the about 170 tapes representing perhaps sixty-five or seventy only remaining aural documentation of some of these lan­ Australian languages, many of which have dwindling na­ guages. For example, several Salish, Penutian, and other tive speaker population. Northwest coast native American languages had fewer than Dr. Urciuoli is presently preparing an application for one hundred speakers, and some fewer than ten, when the funding to update and reactivate the Archives of the Lan­ materials were recorded in the 1950s. guages of the World. This will entail duplicating the original The field collections represent the work of such linguists tape recordings, cataloging the collections according to the as Morris Swadesh, Ken Hale, and in a few instances, Franz system used by the Archives of Traditional Music, and Boas and Gladys Reichard. Some of Reichard's original eventually issuing a catalog. In some cases, the Archives of manuscripts, field notebooks and diaries, transcriptions, the Languages of the World and Archives of Traditional and slip files are in the collection. The Archives of the Lan­ Music collections have the same sources, so it is especially guages of the World also holds the original field recordings important that their holdings be integrated into a common made by Einar Haugen in his work in the 1930s and 1940s system.

Archives of Traditional Music Non Profit Org. Bulk Rate Maxwell Hall 057 US Postage Paid Indiana University Permit No.2 Bloomington, IN 47405 Bloomington, Ind.