Re: [ARSCLIST] Gospel preservation

[Scott Smith <SDSmith@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Which reminds me...buried somewhere deep in the Disney archives is one of
the last filmed interviews done with Thomas J. Dorsey (the father of gospel
music), which we shot for a documentary called "Chicago on the Good Foot"
back in the early eighties. In addition, the film also contained material
with Willie Dixon (filmed in his studio), Junior Wells, Big Twist, Pinetop
Perkins, Koko Taylor...the list goes on. Would love to get my hands back on
that material again.

I'm sure no one at Disney even knows it exists.


Scott Smith

Chicago Audio Works, Inc.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Matthew Barton" <mbarton@xxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2005 7:58 AM
Subject: [ARSCLIST] Gospel preservation


> From today's New York Times--a familiar tune.
>
> OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
> Gospel's Got the Blues
> By ROBERT DARDEN
>
> Published: February 15, 2005
>
>
> Waco, Tex.
>
> AT the Grammy awards on Sunday, viewers saw the marriage of old-time
gospel
> and new: the classic artists Mavis Staples and the Blind Boys of Alabama
> performed a medley with a young musician, Kanye West, that included Mr.
> West's gospel-tinged hip-hop song, "Jesus Walks."
>
> Blessed with a rock-solid foundation, contemporary gospel is thriving. In
> the past decade, new releases have been selling copies in the millions - a
> major milestone in a musical genre that emerged in the 1930's, when the
> songwriter Thomas Dorsey set the words of Sunday morning to the music of
> Saturday night. But the early gospel may soon be lost forever. Although
> albums by the legendary Mahalia Jackson are easy to find on CD, of the
> thousands of tracks recorded by less known greats like Clara Ward, the
> Sensational Nightingales, the Roberta Martin Singers, Sallie Martin, the
> Georgia Peach and the Spirit of Memphis, only a few are available.
>
> Why is this music so difficult to find, or even hear, today? Although
small
> gospel labels still release classics, and reissue labels like Document
> Records and Collectables have repackaged some Golden Age music, these
> companies don't have the wide distribution of the major labels and mostly
> depend on mail and Internet orders. In fact, catalogs of early gospel
> labels are mostly owned by the large corporations that dominate the music
> industry. For the most part, these companies have released only a few
> classic albums on compact disc.
>
> For an unabashed fan like me, it's a painful situation. I realize that no
> corporation is going to put out albums just to please a few aficionados,
> but they may not realize that many people want to hear this music. Each
> time I do a radio interview and play a classic gospel song, the phone
lines
> immediately light up. The callers need to discuss what this music has
meant
> to them. They invariably ask where they can buy it and most of the time I
> have to tell them they can't.
>
> Classic gospel can experience the same success that major-label reissues
of
> jazz and blues have enjoyed in the last two decades. It was once difficult
> to find the jazz masters, but reissues of John Coltrane, Charlie Parker
and
> dozens of others have brought labels renewed sales, a new audience and
> critical acclaim. These reissues came about because of the aggressive
> lobbying by jazz lovers and the foresight of a few label executives. The
> same can happen with early gospel.
>
> Music historians should also get involved: major record labels can form
> alliances with archivists like the Smithsonian, Rounder Records and the
> Library of Congress. Each day, irreplaceable master tapes deteriorate, get
> lost, or are simply tossed out.
>
> It would be more than a cultural disaster to forever lose this music. It
> would be a sin.
>
>
> Robert Darden, an assistant professor of English at Baylor University, is
> the author of "People Get Ready! A New History of Black Gospel Music."
>