Re: [ARSCLIST] Gennett Project update

[Don Cox <doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 14/10/07, Malcolm Rockwell wrote:

> Hello folks -
> 
> A couple of things:
> 
> 1) I've now been through all the Gennett recording cards I've been
> able to locate. They physically exist at Rutgers and at the Indiana
> Historical Society. I now have jpg and bmp files of all the cards at
> Rutgers, thanks to the aid of Dan Morgenstern and the patience and
> camera of my co-compiler Charlie Dahan, as well as my own hand written
> notes of all the cards archived in Indianapolis. These are the covered
> dates:
> 
> NYC:  
> May, 1921 - June 1928
> 
> Richmond:
> August 1921 - January 1922
> January 1923 - December 1923
> January 1927 - April 1929
> 
> If anyone knows of any more cards in public collections or private
> hands I would surely like to know about them. I also still seek any
> information on recordings made in Richmond for the US Starr label
> pre-1919. I have quite a bit, but there are some major gaps yet to
> fill.
> 
> My favorite find? It was the discovery of microphone/musician
> placement diagrams on the backs of some of the cards from Richmond,
> 1926, when Gennett was first engineering recordings electrically. I
> was stunned and pleased, to say the least!

That is immensely interesting. I hope we will be able to see these soon.

> 
> 2) One of the cards at Rutgers is a puzzler (just one?).It's mx 8289,
> recorded in NYC at 9 E. 37th Street on June 15, 1920. But, you say, mx
> 8289 would be for a recording date on March 21, 1923 - and so it is.
> But it's not the same title or artist and the card gives the 1920
> recording date, backed up by a copper master shipping date (to
> Richmond) of June 19, 1920. The title on the card is is "Underneath
> The Moon (Waltz)" and the artist shows only as "Orchestra." I have
> found no release of this title anywhere in the Gennett catalog. Can
> anyone explain the anomaly?
> 
> Mal Rockwell
Regards
-- 
Don Cox
doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx