 |
 |
Greetings fellow listmembers - It is with great pleasure that Malcolm Rockwell announces his collaboration with Charlie Dahan, Professor of Music Industry at Oneonta State College in Oneonta, New York. With the support of The Starr-Gennett Foundation in Richmond, Indiana, we have begun an inclusive discography of Gennett and its related labels. Charlie is a freelance A&R consultant, producer and writer/critic. He has been a part of over 70 commercial releases and has two Grammy nominations. For over 7 years he was the Director of A&R at Shanachie Records. He is a member of NARAS (Grammy voter), MEIEA, The Blues Foundation and the Blues Music Association. Malcolm has been involved in the music business since his early teens. He is currently concluding work on "Hawaiian & Hawaiian Guitar Records 1891 - 1960", a discography of early Hawaiian recording. He is a member of the Association For Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC), The Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association (HSGA) and The Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame. The Starr-Gennett Foundation works to promote and preserve the history of Gennett Records and its parent organization, the Starr Piano Company. The Foundation's objective is to collect as many of the recordings made, released, pressed, or sold by the Starr Piano Company/Gennett Records and to feature in a digital and real archive, which will be housed in the reconstruction of the recording studio they plan on building by 2006. For further info, their web address is http://www.starrgennett.org/ We announce this in hopes that others in the field - researchers, collectors, historians, etc. - will come forth and join us in our efforts. There is much to be done. As far as I have ascertained, ledgers prior to c. 1921 are nonexistent. The ledgers we have copies of were seemingly all purchased at auction by Bill Grauer and the originals currently are housed at Rutgers. This, and some recording cards held by various institutions and collectors, accounts for the bulk of the primary data available at this time. We are seeking record collectors with issues from Ge 4500 to 5577, and any of the 7500, 8500, 10000 & 11000 series to help fill in the gaps. Collectors with multiple issues of the same material on different labels are also sought for aural take differentiation. For instance, Casey Jones by The Harrison Quartet appeared c. June 1928 on Gennett 6670, Champion 15521, Supertone 9026 (Sears), Silvertone 8031 (Sears), [??] 33045. We need to know if more that one take was actually released, as indicated in the ledgers. I am seeking further secondary supporting data on the Sears labels (Silvertone 8000 & Supertone 9000 series), and I am also seeking those who have concentrated on collecting Gennett and/or it's other subsidiary labels. All aid, suggestions and information gratefully accepted. Malcolm Rockwell