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Aris TUESDAY, AUGUST 17, 2010

Great Jazz, Long Unheard, Is Rediscovered

After 70 Years in Crates, the 'Savory Collection' Is Being Burnished for Its Place in Posterity

By LARRY ROHTER Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Bil­ For decades jazz cognoscenti have lie Holiday, Count Basie, Coleman Haw- · talked reverently of "the Savory Col­ kins, Lester Young, Bunny Berigan, Har­ lection." Recorded from radio broadcasts ry James and others that had been in the late 1930s by an audio engineer thought to be lost forever. Some of these named William Savory, it was known to remarkable long-form performances include extended live performances by simply could not fit on the standard discs some of the most honored names in jazz of the time, forcing Mr. Savory to find al­ - but only a handful of people had ever ternatives. The Savory Collection also heard even the smallest fraction of that contains examples of underappreciated music, adding to its mystique. musicians playing at peak creative levels After 70 years that wait has now end­ not heard anywhere else, putting them in ed. This year the National Jazz Museum a new light for music fans and scholars. in Harlem acquired the entire set of "Some of us were aware Savory had nearly 1,000 discs, made at the height of recorded all this stuff, and we were real­ the swing era, and has begun digitizing ly waiting with bated breath to see what recordings of inspired performances by would be there," said Dan Morgenstern, the Grammy-winning jazz historian and critic who is also director of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University. "Even .though I've heard only a small sampling, it's turning out to be the treas­ ure trove we had hoped it would be, with some truly wonderful, remarkable ses­ sions. None of what I've heard has been heard before. It's all hew." After making the recordings, Mr. Sa­ vory, who had an eccentric, secretive streak, zealously guarded access to his

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Doug Pomeroy, above, a recording engineer, is transferring the Savory Collection from disc to digital form. Originally recorded by William Sa­ vory, right, an audio engineer, in the late 1930s, the collection features live performances by jazz musicians like, top from left, Coleman Hawkins, Cab Calloway, Fats Waller and Lester Young. -~-- C2 y THE NEW YORK TIMES, TUESDAY, AUGUST 17, 2010 A Tribute to Alban Berg and His Viennese Influences Arts, ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. - "My job tonight is to allay Compiled by any residual fears you might have," the conductor Leon Bot­ stein said from the stage of the Sosnoff Theater at the MUSIC Fisher Center for the Old Battle Rejoined Over M Performing Arts at A longstanding tug of war has REVIEW Bard College here on begun again between the city of Friday night. Florence and the Italian state STEVE Was there a hint of SMITH over Michelangelo's "David,'' af­ concern in his state- ter a report by state-appointed ment? Perhaps. For the 21st sea­ lawyers was made public. The son of the Bard Music Festival, document argues that although which started on Friday, Mr. Bot­ the statue was commissioned by stein and his collaborators are fo­ the Florentine Republic in 1501, It­ cusing on the life and times of the aly became the rightful titleholder 20th-century Viennese composer after its unification in the 19th Alban Berg. century. At stake are both pride of You might think special plead­ ownership and millions of dollars ing would no longer be needed. in annual ticket sales. Florence's Berg, who was born in 1885 and mayor, Matteo Renzi, sought to re­ died, painfully prematurely, in but the claim, saying, according to 1935, left a relatively small oeuvre news reports, that a decree issued of mature pieces, including the shortly after unification granted two greatest operas of the 20th the city ownership of the building century, "Wozzeck" and "Lulu." where "David" was displayed. But one aspect of Berg's career The national government's lawyers continues to draw attention PHIL MANSFIELD FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES mention of the statue itself. With its above others: He was a promi­ "David" was a symbol of the freedo nent disciple of the composer Ar­ Bard Music Festival The violinist Akiko Suwanai and the American Symphony Orchestra at Bard College. Republic and an important source c nold Schoenberg, whose develop­ on Monday, Mayor Renzi declared f ment and promulgation of atonal Berg as much an inheritor of a Wagner and Strauss resounded Berg that pointed to the strong longs to Florence - there are no le and 12-tone composition decisive­ Romantic line running through in the vocal lines of the "Seven influence of Schubert and firm it." Italy's culture minister, Sa ly shaped the course of modern Schubert, Wagner and Mahler. Early Songs," mingled with Im­ Brahms. The clotted late-Roman­ statement on Monday describing t music during the middle of the Accordingly, and somewhat pressionist daubs in the piano tic sound of a similarly youthful and inopportune." 20th century. For those who view unusually for a Bard presenta­ writing; the soprano Christine Piano Quintet by Anton Webern, Schoenberg as the start of every­ tion, you sensed an agenda at Goerke sang magnificently, with who along with Berg became a thing wrong in modern music, work during the first weekend, ti­ elegant accompaniment from the Schoenberg adherent, offered no Berg is guilty by association. tled "Berg and Vienna." In six pianist Pei-Yao Wang. hint of the gemlike miniatures of In subscribing to Schoenberg's long concerts and related lec­ Berg's "Four Pieces" (Op. 5), Webern's later years. Eastwoods 'Hereafter' methods, Berg extended a puta­ tures, weight was shifted from for clarinet and piano, had dra­ More distinguished were two tive lineage devoted to musical Berg's debt to Schoenberg to­ maturgical concision and a lapi­ works by Zemlinsky, based on To Close Film Festival logic, from Beethoven and ward his strong connections to dary gleam in a riveting perform­ poetry by Richard Dehmel. The Clint Eastwood's "Hereafter,'' a Brahms into Schoenberg's work. other Viennese late Romantics, ance by the clarinetist Alexander pianist Alessio Bax showed a movie about the intertwining ex­ What made Berg's music stand like Mahler, Zemlinsky and Fiterstein and the pianist Danny dreamy ease in "Fantasien Uber periences of people who have apart from that of Schoenberg Schreker (whos~ opera "Die Driver. And even if you didn't Gedichte von Richard Dehmel" dealt with death, near-death and and most of his disciples was a Ferne Klang" was presented know that Berg planted numer­ ("Fantasies on Poems by Richard the afterlife, will be the closing­ reconciliation of modernist tech­ here in previous weeks as a pre­ ous references to an extramarital Dehmel''); the tenor Nicholas night selection niques with emotional efficacy cursor to the Berg events). affair in his "Lyric Suite," a su­ Phan, with Ms. Wang, was poised of the New and unambiguous communica­ The initial concert on Friday perb account by the Daedalus and insightful in five elusive York Film Fes­ tiveness: qualities that made was a concise overview of Berg's Quartet made plain the urgent songs Zemlinsky composed near­ tival, on a pro­ career arc, including some of his passions and melancholy regrets ly a decade later. Agreeable gram that will The Bard Music Festival contin­ most approachable works. Jere­ encoded into the work. works by Joseph Marx and Karl also feature ues Friday through Sunday at my Denk's account of the Piano The Saturday afternoon pro­ Weigl indicated a more conserva­ new works by Bard College, Annandale-on-Hud­ Sonata, a wistful, elusive study in gram, "The Vienna of Berg's tive agenda. Jean-Luc son, N.Y.; (845) 758-7900, post-Wagnerian chromaticism, Youth,'' included rudimentary pi­ Saturday night's concert by the Godard, Mike fishercenter.bard.edu/bmf/2010. seemed conjured on the spot. ano works and fledgling songs by American Symphony Orchestra, Leigh and Kelly meant to show the powerful influ­ Reichardt, among other direc­ ence of Mahler, opened with a tors, the Film Society of Lincoln businesslike account of the Ada­ Center said on Monday. "Hereaf­ giofrom his unfinished Sympho­ ter," directed by Mr. Eastwood, Ken Ken ny No. 10: music searing in its Answers to above, and written by Peter Mor· Previous Puzzles emotional impact and rich with gan ("The Queen," "Frost/Nix­ 36X 240X 3+ 2- 2+ 3- the promise of future develop- on"), chronicles the gradual con 1 2 4 3 men ts Mahler would not live to nections of an American psychic 96X B+ 3+ real·1ze. Berg's "Three Pieces" (played by Matt Damon), a 4 3 1 2 (Op. 6), despite a shaky perform­ French journalist (Cecile de 27 anc e, suggested how Berg's or­ France) who has a brush with 72X I 2 4 !'I .__ _ I - - '----~-;- 3 1 che stral writin_g_mi,ght have death1n.tb.e_20.0A.L.::.11nam.Llind

.L!filnOAVS30 3N3~n3 .:10 AS3.LllnO::J !HdlOON~ (31SdOd) WVIlll!t\ !HdlOON~ (3JSdOd) WVIlll!t\ !)ll!OA M3N .:10 A.LI::> 3H.L .:10 wmsnw 3H.L !•O.Ll VN.L3ll/8311.L.LO~ .d WVIlllM !S3Wl.L )ll!OA M3N 3H.L/"llf SN!~~IH ll3.LS'.'IH::J '3A08V WOll.:l 3SJM)l::J01::J THE NEW YORK TIMES, TUESDAY, AUGUST 17, 2010 y + C7 Great Moments in Jazz, Rediscovered After 70 Years 'Some of us were aware Savory had recorded all this stuff, and we were really waiting with bated breath to see what would be there.'

DAN MORGENSTERN, director, Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University

citement he felt then about the quality From First Arts Page of the music on the discs. "I asked him collection, allowing only a few select once, 'How much more have you got?,' tracks by his friend Benny Goodman to and he said, 'I don't know,"' Mr. Ava­ be released commercially. When he died kian said. "He was really vague about in 2004, Eugene Desavouret, a son who it." lives in Illinois, salvaged the discs, When he moved to suburban Wash­ which were moldering in crates; this ington, Mr. Savory took a job with a de­ year he sold the collection to the mu­ fense contractor, working, Mr. Desavou­ seum, whose executive director, Loren ret said, on. electronic communications Schoenberg, transported the boxes to and surveillance devices designed to New York City in a rental truck. pick up audio and data signals. His son Part of what makes the Savory col­ also said his father told him that he was lection so alluring and historically im­ "a spook, connected with the CJ.A.," an portant is its unusual format. At the assertion he is inclined to believe be­ time Savory was recording radio broad­ cause "when I'd come for Thanksgiv­ casts for his own pleasure, which was ing, we'd go out with six retired CJ.A. before the introduction of tape, most guys," and because, on retirement, his studio performances were issued on 10- father was given a memento calling him inch 78-r.p.m. shellac discs, which, with "the master of mysterious projects." their limited capacity, could capture After Mr. Savory's death, his lawyer only about three minutes of music. and heirs were not sure what to do with But Mr. Savory had access to 12- or the meticulously annotated collection. even 16-inch discs, made of aluminum Some of the boxes with discs had been or acetate, and sometimes recorded at sealed in 1940 and never opened again, speeds of 33 VJ r.p.m. That combination and others had been damaged by ex­ of bigger discs, slower speeds and more posure to water or were covered with durable material allowed Mr. Savory to "50 years of mold and gunk," as Mr. record longer performances in their en­ Schoenberg put it. tirety, including jam sessions at which Mr. Desavouret, a musician and re­ musicians could stretch out and play ex­ tired computer scientist who lives tended solos that tested their creative northwest of Chicago, said, "When he mettle. died, I felt overwhelmed," because "Most of what exists from this era "there was a danger it was all going to was done at home by young musicians be thrown away." In fact, he added, or fans, and so you get really bad­ "Dad's lawyer hired a couple of people soundiug recordings," Mr. Schoenberg to clean things up, and they dug said. "The difference with Bill Savory is through everything and threw away that he was both a musician and a tech­ some stuff that they thought was not nical genius. You hear some of this stuff useful. So I had to issue instructions to and you say, 'This can't be 70 years preserve all the recordings and writings old."' until we found out what the hell it is."· As a result, many of the broadcasts Eventually, Mr. Desavouret had the from nightclubs and ballrooms that Mr. recordings shipped to his home in Mal­ Savory recorded contain more relaxed ta, Ill., where Mr. Schoenberg, who had and free-flowing versions of hit songs been trying to track him down, finally originally recorded in the studio. One heard them this spring and immediately notable example is a stunning six­ realized that "we have struck gold." minute Coleman Hawkins performance of "Body and Soul" from the spring of From Disc to Digital 1940; in it this saxophonist plays a five­ "This has been on my mind for 30 chorus solo even more adventurous years," Mr. Schoenberg said. "I cultivat­ than the renowned two-chorus foray on ed and pestered Bill Savory, who never his original version of the song, re­ let me hear a damn thing and wouldn't corded _in the fall of 1939. By the last even tell me what was in the collection chorus, he has drifted into uncharted besides Benny Goodman," for whom territory, playing in a modal style that Mr. Schoenberg, 52, used to work. would become popular only when Miles But because of deterioration, convert­ Dav.is recorded "Kind of Blue" in 1959. ing the 975 surviving discs to digital form and making them playable is a Glimpsing the Jazz Hierarchy Billie Holiday, shown here at ajam session at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1943, is featured in the Sa­ challenge. Mr. Schoenberg estimates vory Collection singing a live version of her famous anti-lynching anthem, "Strange Fruit!' that "25 percent are in excellent shape," Asked if the Savory recordings were he said, "half are compromised but sal­ likely to prompt a critical reassessment vageable, and 25 percent are in really of some jazz musicians or a reordering bad condition," of which perhaps 5 per­ of the informal hierarchy by which fans Of.J U NE: cent are "in such a state that they will rank instrumentalists, Mr. Morgenstern LOST AND FOUND tolerate only one play" before starting responded by citing the case of Her­ to flake. schel Evans, a saxophonist who played The tran sf er of the Savory collection in the Count Basie Orchestra h.Y.1-..run1~--__._ ____,,,...... _...... _""""'"'.....,.~ _J_! ~~J ______:_ • 1--.!- o ection," a video 1e ear y , Just e ore 1s t by Doug Pomeroy, a recording engineer birthday. Evans played alongside Les­ about the process of in Brooklyn who specializes in audio ter Young, who was one of the giants of rescuing and restor­ restorations and has worked on more the saxophone and constantly over­ ing a lost era ofjazz, than 100 CD reissues, among them shadowed Evans on the Basie group's and more: projects involving music by Louis Arm­ studio recordings. nytlmes.com/muslc strong and Woody Guthrie. The process "There can never be too much Lester involves numerous steps, beginning Young, and there is some wonderful with cleaning the discs by hand and pro­ new Lester Young on these discs," Mr. One of the discs re­ ceeding through pitch correction, noise Morgenstern said. "But there are also removal, playback equalization, mixing some things where you can really hear corded by William Savory, now owned and mastering. Herschel, who is woefully under-repre­ "As fate would have it, a couple of the by the National sented on record and who, until now, we most interesting Count Basie things are hardly ever got to hear stretched out. Jazz Museum. so badly corroded that it took me two af­ What I've heard really gives us a much. ternoons and 47 splices just to put one of better picture of what he was all about." CHESTER HIGGINS JR./THE NEW YORK TIMES them back together again,'' Mr. Pom­ The collection has already shed new eroy said while working on yet another light on what is considered the first out­ Basie tune, a shuffle featuring Lester door jazz festival, the 1938 Carnival of music, the discs also include a few per­ vory's son, said he did not know why his 1940, when Mr. Savory moved to Chi­ Young on clarinet rather than saxo­ Swing on Randalls Island. More than 20 formances by the Norwegian soprano father changed his name.) He grew up cago to work for Columbia Records and phone, his main instrument. "In almost groups played at the event, including Kirsten Flagstad, taken from one of her in New Jersey and Southern California CBS. During World War II he was ini­ every case I've been able to get a com­ the Duke Ellington and Count Basie or­ very early tours of the United States, and showed an early fascination with tially assigned to the Naval Research plete performance, but it can be very fa­ chestras, and though newsreel footage and several by Arturo Toscanini's NBC technology, which led, while he was still Laboratory, where, Mr. Desavouret tiguing to hear the same skip over and exists, no audio of the festival was be­ Symphony Orchestra. There are even a teenager, to his entry into the record­ said, he helped develop radar for all­ over again and have to close the gap lieved to have survived - until part of speeches, by Franklin D. Roosevelt and ing business. weather fighter aircraft, but later also digitally." performances by Count Basie and Stuff Pope Pius XII, and a broadcast of James served as a test and combat pilot. Initially, Mr. Pomeroy was reluctant Smith turned up on Mr. Savory's discs. Joyce reading from his work. A Mysterious Man At war's end, Mr. Savory went back to to take on the project, saying he had too Other material consists of some of the The collection also provides a glimpse work for Columbia, where he was part much of a backlog to accept new work. most acclaimed names in jazz playing in into the history of broadcasting, thanks As best as can be reconstructed, Mr. of the team that invented the 33YJ-r.p.m. But as Mr. Schoenberg recalled their unusual settings or impromptu ensem­ to the presence of Martin Block, a Savory went into a Manhattan record­ long-playing record. In the 1950s he initial conversation, standing in Mr. bles. Goodman, for example, performs a WNEW announcer who hosted a show ing studio to make a demo for a group moved to Angel Records, EMI's classi­ Pomeroy's studio one morning last duet version of the Gershwins' "Oh, called "Make Believe Ballroom," on he played in, found that the equipment cal label; engineered or produced nu­ month, "when I said 'It's Bill Savory,' he Lady Be Good!" with Teddy Wilson on many discs. Walter Winchell coined the was not working and offered to repair it. merous albums there under the name said, 'I'll see you tomorrow morning."' harpsichord (instead of his usual pi­ term "disc jockey" to describe Block, That led to his being hired to maintain W. A. Desavouret; married Helen Ward, Mr. Schoenberg said the museum ano), while Billie Holiday is heard, ac­ whose citation when he was inducted the gear and eventually to a contract a former singer in the Goodman band; planned to make as much as possible of companied only by a piano, singing a into the Radio Hall of Fame gives him with a studio that specialized in tran­ and eventually moved to Falls Church, the Savory collection publicly available rubato version of her anti-lynching an­ credit for being "the first radio disc scribing live performances off the air Va. at its Harlem home and eventually them, "Strange Fruit," barely a month jockey to become a star in his own for radio networks and advertisers. "As an engineer, Bill was remarkable, online. But the copyright status of the after her original recording was re­ right." "He was doing these air checks, he the guy who developed the technique recorded material is complicated, which leased. Mr. Savory himself played piano and told me, to get the balance in the record­ for cutting the masters" of 78-r.p.m. re­ could inhibit plans to share the music. "The record is more like a dance tem­ saxophone, and his choice of what to ing, and recorded the shows on his cordings that were being transferred to While the museum has title to Mr. Sa­ po, whereas this version is how she record reflects a musician's refined own,'' said Susan Schmidt Horning, a the new format, said the jazz record pro­ vory's discs as physical objects, the would have done it in clubs," Mr. tastes. "We're lucky that he was such a historian of technology and culture who ducer George Avakian, 91, who worked same cannot be said of the music on the Schoenberg, a saxophonist and pianist jazz fanatic, because he really knew teaches at St. John's University in with Mr. Savory at Columbia in the discs. who is also the author of "The NPR Cu­ who was good and who wasn't," Mr. Queens and who interviewed Mr. Sa­ 1940s. "He was an all-round character, a "The short answer is that ownership rious Listener's Guide to Jazz," said of Schoenberg said. vory several times. "I think he was just humorous, delightful guy who never got is unclear," said June M. Besek, execu­ the live Holiday recording. "You have According to his son Eugene, Mr. Sa­ interested in recording and loved music. as much credit as he deserved, and he tive director of the Kernochan Center the· most inane scripted introduction vory was born William Desavouret in He did it because he could do it. He did so much." for Law, Media and the Arts at the Co­ ever, but then Billie comes in, and she June 1916 aboard the ocean liner Maure­ knew the value of these recordings, ar­ Mr. Avakian said he remembered lumbia University School of Law. drives a stake right through your tania, where his parents were passen­ tistically and commercially, and wasn't hearing a few songs from the collection "There was never any arrangement for heart." gers immigrating to the United States going to let them go. "The recordings in the late 1950s, when ]le visited the Sa­ distribution of copies" in contracts be­ Because Mr. Savory liked classical from France. (Mr. Desavouret, Mr. Sa- that the museum acquired end around vory home, and still 'recalled the ex- tween performers and radio stations in the 1930s, she explained, "because it was never envisioned that there would be such a distribution, so somewhere between the radio station and the band is where the ownership would lay." At 70 years' remove, however, the bands, and even some of the radio net­ works that broadcast the performances, no longer exist, and tracking down all the heirs of the individual musicians who played in the orchestras is nearly impossible. In the meantime Mr. Pomeroy is plunging ahead. He has digitized just over 100 of the discs so far, and knows that additional challenges - and de­ Left, William Savory with a 1950s vin­ lights - await him. tage tape machine; right, Doug Pomeroy, "Every one of these discs is an unex­ at left, an audio restoration specialist, and pected discovery," he said. "It's an edu­ cation for me. I can hardly wait to trans­ Loren Schoenberg, executive director of fer some of this stuff because I am so the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. eager to hear it, to find out what's there Above, the digital information extracted and solve all the mysteries that are from one of the old Savory discs. there." AUDIO ENG. SOC., VOL. 52, NO. 12, 2004 DECEMBER PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHESTER HIGGINS JR./THE NEW YORK TIMES THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONAL SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2010 A Long Road Fr~@ne By Here' to 'Kumbaya' Nearing 40' and nearly broke, ousted from his last job as an English professor, a folklore buff named Robert Winslow Gordon set out in the spring of 1926 from his temporary home on the Geor- gia seacoast, lug- SAMUEL G. ging a hand- cranked cylinder FREEDMAN recorder and searching for songs REL~:ION in the nearby black hamlets. One particular day, Mr. Gordon captured the sound of someone identified only as H. Wylie, sing­ ing a lilting, swaying spiritual in the key of A. The lyrics told of people in despair and in trouble, calling on heaven for help, and beseeching God in the refrain, "Come by here." With that wax cylinder, the old­ est known recording of a spiritual titled for its recurring plea, Mr. Gordon set into motion a strange and revealing process of cultural appropriation, popularization PHOTOGRAPHS BY AMERICAN FOLKLIFE CENTER ARCHIVE, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS and desecration. "Come By Robert Winslow Gordon, below in 1928 and at the Library of Congress with his wax cylinders, Here," a song deeply rooted in captured the sound of someone named H. Wylie singing a lilting spiritual in the key of A. black Christianity's vision of a God who intercedes to deliver both solace and justice, by the atic version - deep, rolling, im­ missed." 1960s became the pallid pop-folk placable - sung by the congrega­ Not surprisingly, much of the sing-along "Kumbaya." And tion at Zion Methodist Church in dismissiveness emanated from "Kumbaya,'' in turn, has lately Marion., Ala., soon after the Sel­ the political right. been transformed into snarky ma march in March 1965. Urbandictionary.com defines a shorthand for ridiculing a certain The mixed blessing of the "kumbaya liberal" as "knee-jerk kind of idealism, a quest for com­ movement was to introduce thinkers, politicians and other in­ mon ground. "Come By Here" to sympathetic dividuals of the far left who tend Conservative Republicans use whites who straddled the line be­ to (a) believe force is never an the term to mock the Obama ad­ tween folk music and progressive answer, (b) talk about problems, ministration as naive. Liberals on politics. The Weavers, Peter See­ rather than do something about the left wing of the Democratic ger, the Folksmiths, Joan Baez them" and so on. The Web site Party use it to chastise President and Peter, Paul and Mary all re­ RightWingStuff.com sells Obama for trying to be biparti­ corded versions of the song. T-shirts, coffee mugs and other san. The president and some of By the late 1950s, though, it merchandise that show a drill his top aides use it as an example waS-being called "Kumbaya." Mr. sergeant choking an antiwar of what they say their policies are Seeger, in liner notes to a 1959 al­ demonstrator and shouting, not. bum, claimed that America mis­ "Kiss My Kumbaya, Hippie!" . Yet the word nobody wants to sionaries had brought "Come By Yet while running for presi­ Here" to Angola and it had re­ dent, Barack Obama once said, own, the all-purpose put-down of t turned retitled with an African "The politics of hope is not about the political moment, has a mean­ said John G. Geer, a political sci­ 11 · word. ingful, indeed proud, heritage entist at Vanderbilt University in holding hands and singing, 'Kum­ Experts like Stephen P. Winick baya.'" His education secretary, c that hardly anyone seems to Nashville who is an expert in } of the Library of Congress say Arne Duncan, said last month, know or to honor. Only within negative campaigning. "And that that it is likely that the song trav­ "I'm a big believer in less of sing­ black church circles can one, to ridicule is the latest manifesta­ eled to Africa with missionaries, ing 'Kumbaya' together and go­ this day, still hear "Come By tion of the polarization that the as many other spirituals did, but ing on retreats than in rolling up Here" with the profundity that country is dealing with." that no scholar has ever found an our sleeves and doing work to­ Mr. Gordon did almost a century Far from compromise, "Come indigenous word "kumbaya" gether." The activist filmmaker ago. By Here" in its original hands ap­ with a relevant meaning. More Michael Moore said of President "I find it troubling, but not sur­ pealed for divine intervention on likely, experts suggest, is that in Obama's appeal for bipartisan­ prising," said Glenn Hinson, a behalf of the oppressed. The peo­ the Gullah patois of blacks on the ship after the Democrats' "shel­ professor of folklore at the Uni­ ple who were "crying, my Lord" Georgia coast, "Come By Here" lacking" in the midterm elec­ versity of North Carolina at were blacks suffering under the sounded like "Kumbaya" to white tions, "You don't respond with Chapel Hill who has studied the Jim Crow regime of lynch mobs ears. 'Kumbaya.'" song. "Yet again, a product of Af­ and sharecropping. While the So a nonsense word with In the civil rights era, "Come rican-American spirituality has song may have originated in the vaguely African connotations re­ By Here" was a call to action. In been turned into a term of joking Georgia Sea Islands, by the late placed a specific, prayerful ap­ the cynical present, essentially and derision. It's a distortion, and 1930s, folklorists had made re­ peal. And, thanks to songbooks, the same song has become a dis­ it's a sad reversal." cordings as far afield as Lubbock, records and the hootenanny paragement of action. The current political landscape Tex., and the Florida women's boom, the black Christian peti­ "If you say someone's engaged - Red State, Blue State, Tea Par­ penitentiary. tion for balm and righteousness in 'kumbaya,' you're saying that ty, MoveOn.org, Congressional With the emergence of the civil became supplanted by a campfire person isn't serious,'' said Thom­ gridlock - only adds to the in­ rights movement in the 1950s, paean to brotherhood. as S. De Luca, a political scientist sult 's appeal. "Come By Here" went from being "The song in white hands was at Fordham University in New "'Kumbaya' lets you ridicule an implicit .expression of black never grounded in faith,'' Profes­ York who studies political rheto­ the whole idea of compromise,'' liberation theology to an explicit sor Hinson said. "Its words were ric. "It's designed to disempower one. The Folkways album "Free­ simplistic; its tune was breezy. someone who's trying to do E-mail: [email protected] dom Songs" contains an emblem- And it was simplistically dis- something." History of Phonograph Record Technology- "Electrically" Recorded Discs 5/31/10 8:35 AM

History of Phonograph Record Technology­ " Electrically" Recorded Discs

Technical. change was afoot. During World War I, radio technology was greatly accelerated in part by military sponsorship. By the end of the war, the vacuum tube was commercially available for use in low­ cost radios as well as radio transmitters and all sorts of other devices. It was not long before various inventors returned to the idea of using an electrical signal from a microphone to drive an electromagnetic disc recording device. With the addition of the vacuum tube, the microphone's weak signal could be stepped up to drive the cutter. While there were numerous proposals to do this, the technical problems were considerable.

Edison (who was one of the first to experiment with electrical recording technology, lagged behind his competitors but eventually introduced this electrical recording system for studio use.

The Western Electric Company (whose research activities were soon to be taken over by the Bell Telephone Laboratories) developed an electronically amplified, electromagnetic disc cutter of high quality in the early 1920s ,as well as a conventional-looking but improved acoustic phonograph on which to play the resulting records. The new device was marketed to phonograph and record manufacturers (and also became the basis of talking films and "transcription" recorders used in radio stations).

In October, 1924, Columbia Phonograph Company experimented with this new "electrical" recording equipment developed by Western Electric. The new records sounded different than those recorded by the acoustic process, and consumers responded well to them. The trade-name "Orthophonic" was attached to both the recording process and the record player.

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Victor released its last phonograph discs made by the original acoustic process in 1925.

Edison meanwhile had announced a long-playing, 12 inch disc capable of holding 20 minutes of music per side. While this format did not become a commercial success, the next year the company marketed its first electrically-recorded "diamond" discs. Struggling, Edison in 1927 offered a phonograph capable of reproducing either Edison vertical cut discs or his competitors' more popular lateral cut discs. Finally, in 1929 Edison ceased production of records and pulled out of the home phonograph business.

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History of Phonograph Record Technology- The 78 RPM disc

During the 1930s and 1940s, there were all sorts of experiments with the phonograph. Western Electric's "electrical" recording technology briefly became the basis of talking pictures in the late 1920s before finding a place in radio stations, where it was called the transcription recorder. Columbia in 1931 introduced the first "long playing" record. Resembling the later LP, these 12-inch diameter discs had finely spaced grooves and turned at just 33 1/3 rpm. There were even experiments with stereo. But through all this, the standard 10- and 12-inch, shellac-based discs remained the top sellers.

It was not until after Wor]d War II that new technologies displaced the old. A new disc introduced by RCA in the late 1940s began selling well. This 45-rpm disc doomed the older records, which were now known, like the '45' by their speed of rotation-- 78 rpm. Many people hung on to their record collections, and most record players had a '78' setting until the 1980s. However, sales of 78-rpm discs fell off during the 1950s, and the last records were issued by about 1960.

The date of the very last 78-rpm record is not known, although some claim that the last one issued in the U.S. was Chuck Berry's "Too Pooped to Pop" (Chess 1747), released in February 1960. There were almost · certainly later released on small labels, and there are documented cases of 78 discs released as late as 1961 in Finland. According to one source, 78s were deleted from the EMI catalogs in 1962.

It's worth mentioning that Moby Grape's 1968 LP, Wow, featured a song that was recorded at 78 rpm.

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