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An exceptional memoir, and should be published in one of the ARSC publications. As a writer, i wish I could write as well all those I met and worked with in the first 5 years of ARSC; all wonderful and dedicated people; Don Leavitt, Kurtz Myers, Phil Miller, Archie Green, have left us, but Joe Hickerson is still with us in Portland, OR. ;-) Paul T. Jackson Trescott Research Steilacoom, WA 98338 [log in to unmask] trescottresearch.com On Tue, Jan 8, 2019, 12:57 PM David Giovannoni <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > > Longtime ARSC member, Dr. Donald R. Hill, has passed away at the age of 79. > > > > Don was a mentor and friend to many, recognized by all as an esteemed > scholar, unwavering humanist, and gentleman collector. Don taught through > example that the purpose of collecting was to make some-thing of it-a book, > a reissue, an archive worthy of institutional accession. He believed that > focus, quality, and depth determined the value of a collection-the finest > being only as large as it must be. And he showed us all that relation-ships > among collectors are more important than the artifacts we seek. > > > > We met in the 80s while riffling side by side through shellac. Pulling > discs > from crates he'd note to this beginning collector the records worth having, > their trade values, and most importantly, the intrinsic and essential > values > of the re-cord-ings themselves. He guided and accelerated my discoveries, > and pro-foundly shaped an enduring ethos of what a collection and collector > should be. > > > > Commercial recordings comprised only one of Don's collecting interests. As > a > trained ethnographer he had collected in Cuba, Carriacou, Trinidad, Jim > Crow's South and New York City. "When people ask what instrument I play, I > tell them 'the tape recorder'" he'd quip. For Don, acquisition was a > gratifying, necessary, yet insufficient component of collecting. Getting > the > songs and stories heard was his ultimate goal. He took pride in his > insti-tutional deposits, taking care to find the right homes for his unique > contribu-tions. And when clearing shelves to make room for his treasured > "musica Africana", Don assessed the appropriateness of private collections > with the same resolve. While others scrambled for his pre-war blues and > country, Don entrusted to my curation his wax cylinder recordings made by > people in their homes-the squalls of newborns, Grandma's earnest rendition > of hymns, Junior's jokes, the first words spoken in the year 1900 and more. > At that time, in the 90s, early home recordings were neither valued by > collectors nor appreciated by institutions as the ethnographic documents > they are. But thanks to Don's prescient salvaging, these "vernacular" > recordings-now under the care of UCSB's Special Collections-have been > recognized as "culturally, historically or aesthetically important" by the > Library of Congress' National Recording Preser-vation Board and placed on > the National Recording Registry. > > > > Don's various collections have informed myriad articles, books, > documentaries, LP and CD reissues, presentations, and lectures. The > humanities are richer for them. > > > > Don instilled in me the aspiration of making private collections available > to every-one. Towards this end we worked on three reissues for Rounder > Records in the 90s. We spoke at ARSC about the emerging digital tech-niques > we were using to restore seminal field record-ings. And as distribution > networks and institutions caught up with our visions of universal access, > we > began in earnest to find partners to make this happen. The passing of every > important collector reminds us of the symbiosis between indi-viduals and > the > institutions that outlive them. It certainly reignites my own resolve. > > > > A few years ago, while packing his ultimate wall of 78s for transfer to > UCSB, we paused to play Lionel Belasco's 1929 Gennett recording of > "Vene-zuela". Don noted to David Seubert that this was one of only three or > four copies known. But far more important than its rarity is its beauty. > Terry Zwigoff famously featured it in "Ghost World" in 2001, and Don and I > had restored it a couple years earlier for "Good-night Ladies and Gents-The > Creole Music of Lionel Belasco". Don wrote in the notes: > > > > The Venezuelan waltzes.typify this CD more than the other songs. For > die-hearted lovers of music of the African Diaspora like myself, your > non-West Indian run-of-the-mill waltz is really boring (even Strauss should > be per-formed sparingly!). But just listen to these Caribbean waltzes; they > seem to define charm in its purest form. > > > > "Venezuela" would have been a strong opening track on the CD. But Don made > it the last. He wanted to close his carefully-sequenced 90-minute tour of > Belasco's Caribbean with a sense of sailing from port, the islands > disappearing below the waves while "Venezuela" beat six-against-four from > shore, fading with distance into the tropical sea breeze. I believe, and I > think Don would agree, it's a fitting soundtrack with which to reflect on > what compels us to set the recorded past adrift into the future, and to > retell tales of retired captains who maneuvered us into this intemperate > current. > > > > http://www.dgio.net/av/Gennett_20356-B__Venezuela__Lionel_Belasco.mp3 > > >