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A Fashionable Report on ARC Activities 2011 ARC suggests lifting a glass to welcome in the year of the Water Dragon (the only mythical member of the mythical zodiac, only every 60 years) and a toast to better times ahead. Things are getting better here as we welcome in our newest Board member, journalist and author Carl Bernstein.
It was
an out-of-the-blue bit of luck (only every 60 years) when Mr. Bernstein strolled into our Holiday record sale and we
began to talk. Who knew the man who helped bring down Richard (hated the 60s, really hated the 70s) Nixon was a record
collector and music lover? So we look forward to better written newsletters, searing exposés of the entertainment
industry and well, a bit more fun at Board meetings.
Yep, our sales have value beyond the gaggle of celebs that clog the aisles, and this year's Holiday Record and CD sale
was our most successful ever.
The look however was vastly different from our summer sale as we bid a fond farewell to
the surfin'-Tiki-Hawaiian-luau theme. The real diff was less vinyl and more CDs. Can't be helped. As we cycle through
and sort our collection it becomes harder and harder to come up with third copies of good, older LPs. Luckily (?) the
record companies are closing down their mailrooms, promos now sent electronically, hence, an unusual amount of CDs were
donated in 2011. This of course has led us to speculate, "There is no bottom." Gone are the days when the ambitious lad
would push the mailcart from office to office, learning what everyone did, opening the odd envelope before anyone else,
flirting, till one day, as if by movie magic, he was the head of the company! Where do you start when there is no
bottom?
And maybe THAT explains the army of volunteers and interns here, there and everywhere.
PEOPLE
Plenty of good people donated their time and efforts this year and we accomplished a great deal, cataloging
sorting and scanning. Internship rograms at Pratt and Bennington were especially helpful in 2011. So hats off to:
Alison Young Eun Cho, Allison Termine, Allyson Leggio, Andrew Dixon, Beata Safari, Ben Howe, Calle Covert, Dan Stern,
Denise Chavez, Edward Nunez, Gabe Strauss, Hadley Holdorf, Hillary Repko, Jeremy Schrager, Joe Flynn, John Coakley,
Jonah Flateman, Justin Kau, Justin Lawless, Karlyn Desteno, Kate Garrison, Katherine McCann, Kim Loconto, Lenore Miller,
Madelyn Robertson, Maria Marshal, Matthew Caruso, Megan Aikawa, Megan Margino, Mike Pierry, Nicola Derse, Noelle Ladd,
Sean Balogh, Vonzolia Hall and Youngjae Josephine Bae.
Heading up our scanning project (details below) were Alexis Cavaretta and Quinn Macrorie. We had two volunteers from
Italy this year, Guglielmo Perfetti, who wrote a nice blog on his hometown music scene in Abruzzo and Dr. Isabella
Abbonizio, who created the musical instrument database for Muslim World Music Day (ditto details below). Former and
returning intern Ben (now @ Penn) Bernstein came back to continue his work on cataloging our jazz recordings this
summer. We're up to Miles Davis now and, uh, yearning for the day we hit Bob Zurke And His Delta Rhythm Band.
Volunteers working the sale this summer and winter included many of the above plus Juan Amaya, Tom Watkiss and Dylan
Suher. Nancy Breslow, Patrice George and Pam Meyer (designs our pins) set up the yardsale items. Elise Hall
volunteered in the kitchen and Ken (Hooch) Downing was, for the sixth straight year, our bartender of choice. Thanks to
the dealers and vendors who cleaned us out at the end of our sales - Steve and Gene Gritzan, Fred Shapiro, Jamal from
Village Music World
and Allan Bastos.
Special mention to our friends who donate the food and drink year after year and make the parties so very nice; Mike
Nabors of
Bonnie's Grill
in Brooklyn (beer, soda, hot wings and sliders) and Emanuelle Chiche at the
Bubble Lounge
(champagne, rum, wine). This year we were treated to
Pares Balta Cava,
made by Emanuelle's two sisters-in-law, and it
was mighty nice indeed. Leo, from the end of the road Italian eatery
Petrarca,
sent over a nice platter of antipasto.
Our event sponsor this year was
krrb,
a sales, swap and social media online startup in our neighborhood. Thanks to
Andrew Wagner for posting info on their site and helping us out.
WORLD MUSIC DAYS
Our big Project this year was launching the first of our music
"Days," Muslim World Music Day
on April 12. It started with a blog and ending with a bang as millions of educators,
scholars, artists, institutions and music fans all chipped in and learned about the music of Islam.
ARC entered data on 10,000 recordings, harvested over 1000 youtube videos and posted nearly 2000 relevant links. The
project initiated three major seminars/symposiums around the world, inspired ten new blogs, and six new academic papers
featuring original research were presented here for the first time. Many organizations and companies, like Smithsonian
Folkways and the Musical Instrument Museum in AZ created webpages just for this event and the project was the focus of
an hour along NPR syndicated Afropop Worldwide radio program. Pretty neat considering this was all happening at the
same time as the "Arab Spring."
The site is still up and running and draws over 2000 visitors a day, 10 months after the event. The goal is to find a
university or gov org who would like to maintain and update the site. Do have a look.
Thanks to all of our partners and donors that helped create our first, and all still with us on our second, World Music
Day: Gracenote including former president Craig Palmer
and current head Stephen White; The Internet Archive, thanks again to Brewster Kahle; Columbia University Jim Neal, head of the Libraries
and, Greg Mosher, heading up the Arts Initiative; Scott San Filippo who built the database; and Scott Stowell, Amit
Weber and Rich Watts at Open Studio, who designed the logo and website.
Kareem Talhouni was our invaluable point man in Amman Jordan who really got the ball rolling on this project. Scouring
the Internet and working on the links were actual librarians Ken Petricig and Will Susich. An actual old friend, Pam
Meyer, helped them out. Ben Howe was the man who single handedly harvested over 2000 videos for our youtube channel.
Volunteer Dr. Isabella Abbonizio put together the instrument database. Interns sponsored by Columbia University / Arts
Initiative included Elizabeth Angell (who also added greatly to building the blog), Amar Teredesai and repeat helper,
Annie Minoff. And here's to the innocents we told that cataloging Arabic cassettes would be easy, Hillary Repko. Jonah
Flateman, Nicola Derse and John Coakley. Thanks to all. They made Muslim World Music Day possible.
We weren't the only ones who thought this was worth doing. ARC was awarded the
"Innovative Use of Archives Award"
by the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York (ART) for the creation of Muslim World Music Day. This award
"recognizes an individual or organization for use of archival material in a meaningful and creative way, making a
significant contribution to a community or body of people, and demonstrating the relevance of archival materials to its
subject."
Our next effort is Brazilian World Music Day
on Sept. 7, 2012.
Should be even larger and more comprehensive as we now have a clear idea as to how to organize and implement this sort
of large initiative, plus we can utilize the existing online structure and templates. Media giant O Globo has started
the ball rolling - here's a link to our blog already in place and a bit of the early press and contributors. The
project director is Beco Dranoff, DJ and producer of Red Hot + Rio and many artists including Bebel Gilberto.
Look for our collection to grow as we add donations from David Byrne and Beco to our existing 5000 Brazilian albums -
already the largest collection of its kind outside of Brazil. Building our collection was another reason for our trip
to Brazil in September, to have a look at the 20,000 LPs that will be coming our way from an anonymous donor. Here's a
glimpse of the boxed and ready to go.
We also gave talks about ARC and the project, visiting artists, venues, friends, record companies, libraries, music
museums and arts organizations to drum up support. In Sao Paulo our presentation host was Carla Poppovic, in the
elegant Nossoestudio. In Rio we gave our talk at Studio X, a Columbia U initiative, part of the Graduate School of
Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Thanks to Malwina Lys-Dobradin here in New York and Pedro Rivera in Rio.
One treat was getting a copy of the rare Bossa Nova E Outras Bossas : A Arte E O Design Das Capas Dos LPS book, given to us
by one of the authors, Charles Gavin.
For fun I ate fruit that grew out of tree trunk bark
(Jabuticaba), spent 3 hours on a beach one morning, spent many days
shopping for records, visited favelas and samba schools and went to Rock in Rio. Now I have only been to two large
outdoor music concerts in my life, Woodstock and Rock in Rio. So how do you deal with rain at an outdoor concert in a
very modern country like Brazil? Why just astoturf the entire 200 acres! You can see tons more pictures and stories
about our trip on our Brazil blog. Wanna help? Give us a call.
BOOK SCANNING PROJECT
Our other massive start-up in 2011 was the scanning of 25,000 music books here in the library. This is a
joint project with the Internet Archive in San Francisco. They save the Internet, along with a host of other amazing
activities and services, like the Wayback Machine. Their Scribe II book digitizing machine is book-friendly, the tome
lovingly cradled, unlike some nameless systems (Google) that destroy the book to save it. That means that the Elvis
Presley pop-up book will never loose it's pop. We'll be adding a large flatbed scanner this year to handle oversize and
tabloid sized materials and posters. Our goal is to open up the ARC to researchers so that the books can be accessed
using OCR software and search capabilities without worrying about the damage that can occur from handling. Thanks to
Brewster Kahle, Robert Miller and the resident techie most of the year, Paul Nguyen.
ENTERTAINMENT is US
There were no giant music industry projects in 2011. We're looking hard at the reasons, but think
mostly the economy and that the internet is diminishing the need for any real fact checking or high res work. Who says
close doesn't count?
We did do a meeting with Google up at their megafortress in Chelsea, and who knows where that will lead. Fred Patterson
was on a panel at the Experience Music Pop Conference in LA in Feb. addressing
"Box Sets and Specialty Reissues in the Digital Era." A family illness prevented me from presenting my talk at the
ARSC (Association for Recorded Sound Collections) get together in that same city in May. ARC hosted an Archivists Round
Table lecture in Feb featuring Nico Thom of the Eisenach [Germany] International Archives for Jazz and Popular Music and
Woody Guthrie Archivist Tiffany Colanino (please note - few of our interns knew who WG was!). Late in the year I was in
Copenhagen to attend Womex and visited London for a series of meetings talking up Brazilian World Music Day.
One fun morning in NYC was spent talking with Keith Richards about Blues and R&B recordings for his Q Magazine
interview. Mr. Richards endows a blues collection here at ARC and wanted to refresh his memory by seeing the covers of
some of his favorite LPs. We're working hard to clean up the metadata on the recordings in the
Keith Richards' Blues Collection
and posting the info online. Projects like the NYMIA (New York Musicians Index and Archive) and the World
Music Days have given us strong models for how to create and present massive databases. Hopefully by mid-year.
Our newest sponsored collection is the Bill Adler Holiday Music Collection. Bill is an old pal from Ann Arbor and
annual donor of hundreds of straight and askew Christmas recordings. Over the years his donations have grown to over a
thousand recordings, so we thought we would combine them with our existing 5000 Holiday LPs to create this special
collection. ARC contributed choice Christmas LP covers to an article in Complex Magazine
to complement Bill's Christmas Jollies playlist and stream - both silly, savory and sweet audio gems
celebrating the season.
Don't forget you can donate or endow a collection to the ARC anytime. Online monetary donations can be made via our NYcharities.org page
(best for matching funds) or through paypal using the button below. Paper people can always post a check.
DONATIONS
Speaking of donations here's the roundup of folks who kindly donated materials in 2011É J Ackerman - (2
books); Billy Adler - (182 CDs, 187 LPs, 40 seven-inch 45s, 4 ten-inch 45s, 1 ten-inch 78, 8 books, 1 DVD); Michele
Adler - (131 CDs, 18 LPs, 12 DVDs, 4 Books); Bruce Alexander - (28 CDs, 29 magazines, 26 press kits, 2 LPs, 1 DVD, 30
liner sleeves, 1 book, 6 badges); Marcos Sueiro Bal - (9 cassettes), Steve Bartels + Helen Demoz - (3968 CDs, 14 LPs, 16
DVDs, 1 twelve-inch single); Dennis Bell - (667 LPs, 2 CDs, 5 seven-inch 45s); Alan J. Bernstein - (246 LPs, 56 CDs);
Maurice Bernstein/Giant Steps - (1572 CDs, 115 LPs, 22 45s, 9 posters, 2 promo booklets); David Bither - (124 CDs); Ken
Braun - (1720 CDs, 8 LPs, 25 twelve-inch singles); Frederick Cohen - (1450 LPs, 60 45s, 128 ten-inch LPs); Lucas Cooper
- (233 CDs, 39 LPs, 4 45s); George Cuttingham - (70 CDs, 63 tapes, 20 LPs); Anita Daly - (806 CDs, 120 DVDs, 3 VHS, 3
Books, 3 cassettes); Michael Diamond - (9 CDs); Dennis Dittrich - (37 LPs); Tom Donohue - (107 CDs); Candice Dorsey -
(77 CDs); Beco Dranoff - (1 double LP); Douglass Dunn - (187 CDs, 265 cassettes, 2 45s, 1 book, 1 turntable); Dominick
Duran - (208 LPs, 6 45s, 1 CD, 185 twelve-inch singles, 1 Laser Disc, 18 Flex Discs); Isaac Eida - (14 LPs, 1 turntable,
1 tuner, 1 CD Player, 1 dual cassette deck, 1 equalizer, 1 amplifier, 1 stereo rack, 2 Carwin Vega speakers, 1 singles
rack); Jim Eigo - (958 magazines, 488 CDs, 235 press kits, big box o' clippings/press kits); Marcia Elliott - (58 45s,
26 CDs, 21 LPs, 5 music stamps, 4 books); Mark Epstein - (205 LPs, 56 CDs); Barbara Favorite - (10 CDs); Patrice Fehlen
- (38 CDs); Joe Flynn - (36 LPs, 16 45s); Mark Fotiadas/Mute - (450 CDs); Cliff Furnald - (234 LPs, 10 ten-inch LPs, 339
magazines, 65 transcription discs); Dawn Gallagher - (52 DVDs, 79 Laser Discs); Lisa Garrett - (79 CDs. 2 bags, 1
computer); Gee Records - (1456 LPs); Brian Gerosa - (744 CDs, 103 LPs); Lisa Gim - (21 CDs, 5 LPs, 2 books, 1 book on
Tape, 2 videos); Richard Glovin - (22 45s, 1 LP); Lynn Goldsmith - (500 posters, 20 cassettes, 2 videos); Tom Gould -
(136 LPs, 100 CDs, 9 78s, 1 single); Gene Gritzan - (106 CDs); Jon Hafter - (258 CDs, 2 DVDs, assorted ephemera); George
Hajek - (2 Classical LP Box Sets, 3 CDs, 1 Samsung DVD player, 24 cassettes, 14 Blank cassettes, 1 cassette recorder);
Walter Heitner - (30 sheet music, 4 songbooks, 7 folk music books); David Hinckley - (335 CDs, 20 books, 10 DVDs. 40
slides, 2 Pink Floyd box sets, assorted memorabilia); Gil Holland - (15 CDs); Erick & Jennifer Johnson - (1 Warner box
set); Herb Jue - (7 LPs, 3 T-shirts, 5 books, 3 fanzines, 1 luggage bag, 1 VHS); Craig Kallman - (32 CDs); Peter &
Kathleen Kapp - (77 LPs, 25 CDs, 9 books); Francois Kevorkian - (1600 twelve-inch LPs); Nora Killoran - (122 LPs, 32
45s, 130 twelve-inch singles); Lach - (350 CDs, 90 LPs); Rich Lamb - (8 CDs); Sarah Lazin - (339 music books); Anne
Leighton - (82 magazines, 35 CDs, 19 books, 13 press kits, 3 VHS); David Levine - (2,,072 CDs, 4 cassettes); Limewire -
(8 T-shirts, 78 Cds,); Kenny Margolis - (264 LPs); Ryan Martin - (3 CDs); Tim Masick - (228 CDs, 92 LPs, 54 twelve-inch
singles, 8 45s, 1 VHS, 1 laser disc); Cheryl McEnaney - (117 CDs); Gerry & Tori Michalak - (22 CDs); Robert Molnar - (
134 Lps, 10 seven-inch singles, 50 CDs, 8 magazines, 1 book, 1 poster); Artie Moorhead - (405 CDs, 12 DVDs); Gerald Moss
- (60 CDs); Michael Negrelli - (24 VHS, 23 CDs); Peggy & Giles Nicholson - 72 LPs; Nate Oberstein / Eagle Rock
Entertainment- (2,136 DVDs, 891 CDs, 11 VHS); Michelle Oliver - (20 CDs); Freddie Patterson - (77 LPs, 37 CDs, 21 45s,
26 seven-inch singles, 24 magazines, 4 books, 4 posters, 29 music memorabilia); Al Pearlman - (1,046 LPs, 60 ten-inch
LPs, 25 ten-inch 78's, 67 magazines); Jeremy Phillips / CMJ - (3,469 CDs, 13 books, 2 LPs, 1 45s, 1 ten-inch EP); Steve
Powers - (223 LPs); Doug Pressman - (530 LPs); Cory Robbins - (169 CDs, 1 DVD); Nile Rodgers - (175 CDs); Fred Schneider
- (292 LPs, 19 seven-inch 45s, 3 VHS, 123 CDs, 3 DVDs, 1 Beta, 12 books, 4 magazines, 1 Poster, 1 ten-inch LP); Andy
Schwartz - (42 magazines, 13 LPs, 40 press kits, 5 CDs, 1 seventy-eight, 9 books); Fred Shapiro - (1515 CDs, 194 DVDs,
30 twelve-inch singles, 7 video games, 2 LPs, 1 VHS, 2 cassettes); Robert Singerman - (17 seven-inch 45s, 15 DVDs, 377
fliers, 270 CDs, 18 LPs, 27 press kits, 3 VHS, 15 posters, 5 flexi discs, 84 Billboard Bulletins, 90 music magazines, 6
catalogs, 1,000 SanDisk CF cards, 200 SanDisk PC CF Card readers); Leida Snow - (3 books, 33 CDs, 30 cassettes + case, 7
LPs, 2 ten-inch LPs); Andrew Sterman - (431 LPs, 1 cartridge alignment system); Scott Stowell - (2 Imac computers +
accessories); Jeffrey Tamarkin - (214 CDs, 1 LP); Grazia Della Terza - (8 CDs, 30 tapes); Chris Thieke - (2069 CDs, 3
DVDs, 5 LPs, 1 shirt, 3 books); Jamel Thomas - (120 LPs); Glenn Turell - (3447 CDs); Ray Velasquez - (81 CDs singles, 3
CDs); Ian Vollmer - (327 CDs, 2 box speakers); Chris Wangro - (108 LPs, 17 45s, 1 78, 1 flexi-disc); David Withers - (67
LPs, 12 twelve-inch singles); WKCR / Ben Young - (550 Cds, 30 LPs); Peter Wright - (682 CDs, 13 LPs, 27 twelve-inch
singles, 18 ten-inch singles, 6 DVDs).
One complete stereo system donation, in a wheeled glass fronted case, came with the original Crazy Eddie receipt from
1986. This pre-remote control ensemble cost $1223.17, but you could have bought it at our sale for a hundred bucks!
Whata deal.
Two of our Boardmembers continue to make large contributions above and beyond their monetary support - Nile Rogers, with
the help of Sooze over at Nile Rodgers Entertainment + Sumptin Distribution, and Fred Schneider who contributed his
usual bag after paper bag of vintage LPs.
Dean Taucher over at CBS TV once again ambushed the stars and got them to sign recordings for ARC. This year's
triumvirate of LPs are Brideshead signed by Jeremy Irons, Prince of the City signed by Treat Williams and Blue Funk
signed by the late Heavy D. Other nice signed things that came our way this year include the first Sonic Youth LP
(Neutral Records, N one, 1982) signed by the entire Sonic crew and "Cooky Puss" (Ratcage Records, MOTR 26, 1983) from
Mike D.
One important donations in 2011 include a fairly complete run of mint/unplayed Decca and Coral recordings donated by the
Lauda family, grandkids of one of the company's engineers (1396 LPs, 6173 forty-fives, 2643 seventy-eights, including a
trove of 78 rpm test pressings). We also got our final LP installment from the Eric Schmuckler Collection (950
records), and 20 boxes of broadcast quality world music videotapes from a relocating, Westcoastin' Link TV. Another
nice surprise was a clean-out up at Columbia's WKCR of over 1000 Cantonese LPs when the Chinese pop music show stopped
broadcasting. Lastly, tens of thousands of LPs and CDs came in anonymously, and every now and then we bought a few
things at a flea market or garage sale.
We wish also to thank Columbia University, Gracenote and the foundations and donors who helped us get through the year,
foremost of which is the Jaharis Family Foundation. Of course we really appreciate all of you out there who have joined
ARC and purchased a membership.
REMEMBERED
We lost another Board Members last August, lyricist and producer Jerry Leiber. (4/25/1933 - 8/22/2011). Jerry
and partner Mike Stoller actually qualify as legendary, penning some of the most enduring classic rock songs, in a
partnership that lasted 61 years. I visited with Jerry and Mike a few years ago in LA, and hoped to get them to give a
talk up at Columbia. Sadly, it was not to be. They were among the first people to recognize the value of what the ARC
was trying to do and have been loyal and valued supporters. Jerry's lyrics are a fitting legacy, and will last as long
as the culture they defined - "Hound Dog," "Is That All There Is?" "Jailhouse Rock," "Yakety Yak," "Kansas City,"
"Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots," (covered by Edith Piaf as "L'Homme a la Moto") "Charlie Brown," "Love
Potion No. 9," "Smokey Joe's Cafe," "Drip Drop," "Stand By Me," "I'm a Woman," "Chapel of Love," "Leader of the Pack,"
"On Broadway," "Searchin'," "Poison Ivy," and "Spanish Harlem."
ARC unexpectedly lost another longtime supporter, ex-Trustee and good friend this year, Dave Sanjeck. Dave got his
position at the BMI archive through a connection he made at one of our parties, and he was settling into the academic job of his
dreams as professor of popular music at Salford University, Manchester. In the UK he was
finishing up longtime book projects, lecturing, seeing too many movies and plays - and glad to be doing it all. He will be
missed.
Keep in touch. B. George, Director, The ARChive of Contemporary Music
By the way, who does all the work around here? Archivists Fred Patterson and Will Susich.
And how about a guiding principal for the new year from some old lyrics, sung by Elvis, written by Mac Davis and Billy Strange for the 1968 film, Live a Little, Love a Little.
A little less conversation, a little more action please
All this aggravation aint satisfactioning me
A little more bite and a little less bark
A little less fight and a little more spark
Close your mouth and open up your heart and baby satisfy me
Satisfy me baby
ARC is a not-for-profit archive, music library and research center located in New York City. The ARChive collects
preserves and provides information on the popular music of all cultures throughout the world. Since 1985 our holdings
have grown to over two million sound recordings, making the ARChive the largest popular music collection in the World.
Members of the Board of Advisors are: David Bowie, Jellybean Benitez, Jonathan Demme, Ellie Greenwich, Jerry Leiber,
Youssou N'Dour, Lou Reed, Keith Richards, Nile Rodgers, Todd Rundgren, Fred Schneider, Martin Scorsese, Paul Simon, Mike
Stoller and Jerry Wexler
Our office is at 54 White Street, Tribeca, New York City, 10013 You can stay in touch by sending an e-mail info@arcmusic.org or calling us at : 212-226-6967
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