Via The Atlantic magazine, here's an excerpt from an interesting article about efforts to preserve original recordings.

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Jack White and the National Recording Preservation Foundation are on a mission to digitally preserve and distribute American music that’s been lost or forgotten:

“Less than 18 percent of commercial music archives are currently available” through iTunes, Spotify and other legal portals, [NRPF executive director Gerald] Seligman says. “We’re concerned with the other 82 percent languishing out there somewhere, that’s culturally important while maybe not commercially viable.” Take Maine country music recorded in the 1920s with a regional Down East accent. “Now most people singing country music affect a kind of southern drawl even if they’re from Canada or Australia,” says ethnomusicologist Clifford Murphy. “People forgot about regional country music recorded before Nashville became the power center of the genre.”

The NRPF is hunting down recordings taken off of local radio stations during the 1960’s civil rights protests, which could offer lost glimpses of that era, Seligman says. In New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, Massenburg helped save recordings from heritage radio station WWOZ, some of which were underwater or in the muck. Those that were not beyond recuperation were baked in a “pie oven” at a low temperature and then could be played back only once. But on that one play many were successfully saved to digital media.

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Full article link:
[www.theatlantic.com]

A worthy endeavor indeed. Props to Jack, he is truly a student of the art form.

His Third Man Records is releasing a sizable chunk of the Paramount catalog--here's the deluxe version, though I'm waiting for the cheapie:

THIRD MAN + REVENANT PARTNER TO RELEASE HISTORIC TWO-VOLUME WONDER-CABINET ‘THE RISE & FALL OF PARAMOUNT RECORDS 1917-1932’

How did a Wisconsin chair company, producing records on the cheap and run by men with little knowledge of their audience or the music business, build one of the greatest musical rosters ever assembled under one roof? The answer lies in ‘The Rise and Fall of Paramount Records 1917-1932,’ an epic, two-volume omnibus of art, words and music housed in a limited-edition, hand-sculpted cabinet-of-wonder, to be jointly released by Jack White’s Third Man Records and John Fahey’s Revenant Records.

‘Volume One,’ which covers the label’s improbable rise from 1917-1927, will be released exclusively through Third Man on October 29, and worldwide on November 19. The project is co-produced by leading Paramount authority Alex van der Tuuk, and ‘Volume 2’ will be released in November 2014.

Paramount Records was founded on a modest proposition: produce records as cheaply as possible, recording whatever talent was available. Over its lifetime, the label would become a “race records” powerhouse, its sound and fortunes directly linked to the Great Migration.

By the time Paramount ceased operations in 1932, it had compiled a dizzying array of performers still unrivaled to this day, spanning early jazz titans (Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller), blues masters (Charley Patton, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Son House, Skip James), American divas (Ma Rainey, Alberta Hunter, Ethel Waters), gospel (Norfolk Jubilee Quartette), vaudeville (Papa Charlie Jackson), and the indefinable “other” (Geeshie Wiley, Elvie Thomas). Paramount would also directly influence the style of Robert Crumb and countless other 20th century artists and illustrators, through a series of hand-drawn ads promoting its releases in the pages of the Chicago Defender.

The ‘Rise and Fall’ wonder-cabinet gives equal status to page-turning narrative and new scholarship; original and newly created graphic art; industrial design; and compelling analog and digital music experiences. ‘Volume One’ contains the following:

* 800 newly-remastered digital tracks, representing 172 artists

* 200+ fully-restored original 1920s ads and images

* 6x 180g vinyl LPs pressed on burled chestnut colored vinyl w/ hand-engraved, blind-embossed gold-leaf labels, housed in a laser-etched white birch LP folio

* 250 page deluxe large-format clothbound hardcover art book

* 360 page encyclopedia-style softcover field guide containing artist portraits and full Paramount discography

* Handcrafted quarter-sawn oak cabinet with lush sage velvet upholstery and custom-forged metal hardware

* First-of-its-kind music and image player app, allowing user mgmt of all tracks and ads, housed on custom-designed USB drive

The Wonder-Cabinet

We're in an interesting era in that everything ever recorded and be digitized and categorized and live forever.

It would be a shame to lose the 82% that is still salvagable and not yet digitized so a great program.

Jack White is interesting guy. Definitely marches to his own drummer which is a good thing mostly. Like most of his music & even the misses are interesting. I do miss Meg on drums though!

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crholmstrom
Jack White is interesting guy. Definitely marches to his own drummer which is a good thing mostly. Like most of his music & even the misses are interesting. I do miss Meg on drums though!

I feel very fortunate to have seen the White Strips at the Greek in L.A. in 2005. They didn't last that much longer. It was quite an experience and she was very charismatic. Women loved her. I hope she is somewhere happy.

Well, his 2nd missus has a restraining order out on him, so maybe it's best to just admire him from afar

And maybe there's two sides to every story, neither of which has anything to do with his musical endeavors.

I was at what turned out to be the last Stripes show ever--how I miss them.

if you like the White Stripes you might enjoy the Ghost Wolves..

here they are with B.P. Fallon

Yeah, they're great--BP did a Green Series record for Third Man too, as well as appearing in their videos, etc.

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Claire_M
Well, his 2nd missus has a restraining order out on him, so maybe it's best to just admire him from afar

How bout the third missus? What's she got on him?

Any information on how he's preserving it?

Is he putting it in Mason jars and sealing them? Smoking them perhaps?

Just curing them in a salt bath (can be very effective).

THE RISE & FALL OF PARAMOUNT RECORDS 1917-1932’

....looks very interesting but what's the $$$ damage gonna be on it???



ROCKMAN

$460 for this version--that's why I'm waiting for the regular version!

....ouch!!!!



ROCKMAN

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Munichhilton

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Claire_M
Well, his 2nd missus has a restraining order out on him, so maybe it's best to just admire him from afar

How bout the third missus? What's she got on him?

What the who?! I thought it was #1 Meg and #2 Karen. Who am I missing?

Nobody. It was a joke.

Jack White's heart may be in the right place as far as preserving old music is concerned, but he's a petulant diva brat who needs a good spanking. He left his first show at Radio City Music Hall last year after 55 minutes with no encore because he got miffed at the audience response. When people are paying what concert tickets cost nowadays and traveling great distances to see his shows (my wife and I traveled from DC to NYC for the second show), that's unacceptable.

Besides, Dan Auerbach is way more talented and doesn't overuse his octave pedal.

I was at both RCMH shows (and 11 others on that tour), and I'd traveled from Louisiana. I was disappointed that he ended the show early, but I'm not holding one night out of about 25 overall (White Stripes, Raconteurs, Dead Weather) against him. He did have some justification regarding some offending audience members (not the audience as a whole), and it was an amazing performance up to that point, as always.


Btw I love the Black Keys too, and am sick of this "feud" between them.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-10-10 09:45 by Aquamarine.

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Aquamarine
I was at both RCMH shows (and 11 others on that tour), and I'd traveled from Louisiana. I was disappointed that he ended the show early, but I'm not holding one night out of about 25 overall (White Stripes, Raconteurs, Dead Weather) against him. He did have some justification regarding some offending audience members (not the audience as a whole), and it was an amazing performance up to that point, as always.


Btw I love the Black Keys too, and am sick of this "feud" between them.

Didn't the feud just start?

If by "just," you mean at least 5 years ago.

Edit: Which is why I don't want to pursue it!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-10-11 00:52 by Aquamarine.

Check this out. Seriously rocks!

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Rockman
....ouch!!!!

Does that mean you won't be buying one?

$460 is too much for yours truly. Don't really care about that wooden box, which probably makes up $200+ of the cost.

Does that mean you won't be buying one?

....would love ya own it ... but remember it's also a two-part set ..so there goes a GRAND$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$



ROCKMAN

There'll almost certainly be another cheaper version without all the bells and whistles, there usually is--though, considering you get over 800 songs, it probably still won't actually be cheap . . .

Didn't Revenant issue that amazing Charley Patton box? That was an exquisite package.

Didn't Revenant issue that amazing Charley Patton box? That was an exquisite package

....Yeah out of print now but the Patton set won three Grammy awards ....Wonderful stuff



ROCKMAN