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Re: [ARSCLIST] Concertapes -- what became of it?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Doug Henkle" <henkle@xxxxxxxxx>
At 11:01 PM 10-12-2007 -0400, you wrote:
However, as a semi-pro discographer, I'll give you advance warning of
possible disappointments when
trying to research recordings of the post-WWII era.
Hi Steven,
Sorry, your advice comes 16 years too late. I have been doing
exactly that since 1991, searching for every post-1948 non-Pop/Rock
Wisconsin recording ever released. I have had more than my share of
disappointments and frustrations in this research, but as I am not aware
of any other discographer doing post-1948 research in any Wisconsin
non-Pop/Rock genre, I will continue on because I think it is important to
do so.
Sadly, although in most cases the artists, as well as
the "principals" of the labels, are still alive...most ledgers and other
related documents have long since
been dispatched to landfills or other similar fates...! The best resources
are: (1) backfiles of related
and/or local publications...looking for both "feature" stories and
advertisements (especially those
announcing "new releases!")...(2) mentions in "hi-fi" or audio-related
journals...or (3) City directories,
when/if such exist, which will mention the occupants of a given address,
as well as providing an
alphabetic list of "occupants" (people, companies, usw.) of the city in
question...!
In another life, if I were a young semi-pro or professional
specialist discographer trying to write a discography for only one or a
selected number of artists, I would conduct extensive research in all the
areas you list. However, I am a 66 year old amateur generalist
discographer. I know of over 5,500 current and former Wisconsin resident
artists and groups. Except for the maybe 1/3 which are Pop/Rock and have
had their recordings listed in books before, I am trying to document
everyone else who has never been fully documented in books, and most of
whom have never even been mentioned in any book anywhere. So, attempting
roughly 3,000+ Classical. Jazz, Country, Folk, Bluegrass, Barbershop,
Church Choirs, Grade School, High School and College Choirs, Bands and
Orchestras, etc. discographies, it takes all the time I have just to
document the information that appears on the recordings themselves, with
no time left over to pursue the other resources you mention used by
professionals. I doubt I have enough life left to ever do otherwise.
Sadly, your list of eligible recordings...particularly the last line
thereof...suggests that
you may INDEED have set out upon an impossible quest...! During the fifties
and
onward, it was common for small record companies to increase their business
by
making custom recordings of such groups, in quantities of a hundred or
multiples
thereof, which were then sold as fund-raising projects...!
In fact, what I would recommend would be you contacting a fairly major
newspaper
(say, the Milwaukee Journal...?!) and trying to interest them in doing a
"Local Interest
Feature" (usually published in week-end editions...!) on your "Identify
EVERY Wisconsin-
based sound recording...!" project...?! The readers might (one hopes) be
inspired to
look in the backs of closets and find a copy of "The Mukwanago Junior High
School
Concert Band"...? (which MAY have sold all of 88 copies, with the other 12
thrown
away...?!)!
Steven C. Barr