Re: [ARSCLIST] National Recorded Sound Preservation Study

[David Lewis <davlew@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Probably not. When CBS re-issued a Cliff Edwards track, originally released
on Pathe, on their "The Original Sound of the 20s" LP set in the 1960s, it
clearly came from a shellac disc. In the 70s, New World Records licensed
some James Reese Europe "Hell Fighters" Band tracks through CBS for its
Shuffle Along LP, probably just to be on the safe side. But these were
likewise taken from shellac. The two CD collections of Hell Fighters tracks,
issued on IAJRC and Memphis Archives respectively, pay no lip service to
Sony. The only Cameos I've seen reissued were on TOM LPs.
The vault on Cameo/Pathe probably ceased to exist when the companies were
folded into ARC. As Pathe masters were mostly made to giant cylinders and
then dubbed off to discs, such arcane technology would have been useless in
the electrical era. If CBS retained even a single master recording from this
family of companies, they have never used one. Even the Domino of "Shanghai
Shuffle," made by Plaza in 1924, on Fletcher Henderson: A Study in
Frustration, came from a shellac pressing. 

David N. Lewis
Assistant Classical Editor, All Music Guide

"Music expresses what one cannot say, but about which one cannot remain
silent." - Victor Hugo

-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Roger and Allison Kulp
Sent: Sunday, November 26, 2006 3:39 PM
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] National Recorded Sound Preservation Study

The question is Does Sony/BMG still have any of the Cameo/Pathe stuff?


"Steven C. Barr(x)" <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: 

All true...but none of it addresses the actual problem at hand!

In the USA today...and quite possibly elsewhere, as the record
industry promotes the US idea of "eternal copyright for sound
recordings"...the interested portion (admittedly tiny) of the
public is blocked from legally accessing the ENTIRE known history
of sound recording...except for whatever tiny fraction the
copyright owners (various mega-corporations, for pre-1942 items
as well as many later items insofar as they exist...) consider
to be monetarily worth re-issuing.

If I want to hear a 1917 recording made by the Pathe firm and
issued on a "sapphire-cut" record in the same year...I am at
the mercy of CBS-Sony, who inherited the rights to the Pathe
catalog by virtue of Pathe's merge with Cameo, and the
subsequent merger of that firm with Plaza and Regal to create
the American Record Corporation which evolved into CBS-Columbia
c. 1939.

The likelihood of this multinational, multimillion dollar corporation
reissuing this track, with a potential sale of me and a handful of
others...or even making this track, along with the rest of the
historic recordings which the own, available on the Internet
(even on a pay-to-listen basis?) is somewhere very close to
zero...if not lower!

And therein lies our problem (given our interest in our musical
past...!)

Steven C. Barr


 	
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