Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry 1891-1922 [Explicit Lyrics]

Various Artists (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 11, 2005)
• Original Release Date: October 11, 2005
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Explicit Lyrics
• Label: Archeophone Records
• ASIN: B000BPDF4C
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #39,525 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #19 in Music > Jazz > Traditional Jazz & Ragtime > Ragtime

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Mamma's Black Baby Boy (Unique Quartette, 1893)

2. Keep Movin' (Standard Quartette, 1894)

3. Who Broke the Lock (Unique Quartette, c.1895)

4. Brother Michael, Won't You Hand Down that Rope (Oriole Quartette, c.1895)

5. Poor Mourner (Cousins and DeMoss, 1898)

6. Who Broke the Lock (Cousins and DeMoss, 1898)

7. Down on the Old Camp Ground (Dinwiddie Colored Quartet, 1902)

8. Jerusalem Mornin' (Polk Miller and His Old South Quartet, 1909)

9. Little David / Shout All Over God's Heaven (Fisk University Jubilee Quartet, 1909)

10. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (Apollo Jubilee Quartet, 1912)

See all 29 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Atlanta Exposition Speech (Booker T. Washington, 1908)

2. Old Black Joe (Thomas Craig, 1898)

3. Old Dog Tray (Carroll Clark, 1910)

4. I Surrender All (Daisy Tapley and Carroll Clark, 1910)

5. Swing Along (Afro-American Folk Song Singers, 1914)

6. The Rain Song (Afro-American Folk Song Singers, 1914)

7. Exhortation (Right Quintette, 1915)

8. Vesti la Giubba (Roland Hayes, 1918)

9. Go Down Moses (Harry T. Burleigh, 1919)

10. Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child (Edward H. S. Boatner, 1919)

See all 25 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Review

"a must for anyone [with] an interest in the social structure of America.... It's educational, enlightening and thought provoking." --Steve Ramm, In the Groove, November 2005

Product Description

If you believe Robert Johnson was the first to play rock ’n’ roll, listen up. Records made by African-American artists in the 1890s anticipated by decades the essentials of jazz, rhythm and blues, rock ’n’ roll—and yes, even Robert Johnson. Unlike the pioneer blues and jazzmen of the 1920s—whose contributions to American music are duly documented and appreciated today—the achievements of their forgotten predecessors are all but erased from history: the sound too limited, the grooves too noisy, the words too painful. Tim Brooks brought the Lost Sounds of these pioneer black performers to our notice with the publication of his groundbreaking book. Archeophone brings these Lost Sounds to life with the release of this CD. And none too soon, as the precious few sounds that have survived a century of neglect are fading fast. Those experienced with pioneer recordings are in for some surprises, as most are reissued here for the first time. And those who are not . . . you’ve not heard anything like them before. Many are not easy to listen to. But they are worth the effort, as they let us hear—as close to first hand as possible—the forgotten black artists who contributed so significantly to American music and culture. Your view of history is about to be rocked.

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Priceless documents in context, January 4, 2006

By 

James L. (Virginia, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry 1891-1922 (Audio CD)

I read Tim Brooks' book Lost Sounds soon after it came out. Both early recordings and pre-jazz African-American music have been interests of mine for a while now, and Brooks' book is an invaluable work on both. This companion double CD set, used either as aural illustration for the book or by itself, is equally invaluable.

As Brooks readily admits, many of these sounds were forgotten and nearly extinguished because of their discomforting nature. Many of the black performers before 1922 engaged in one sort of "tomming" or another. The recording industry was a whites-only business, and only those artists who appealed to whites in some way got recorded at this time. Thus these recordings can't be taken as representative of the music African-Americans made for their own enjoyment.

The variety of styles and approaches in the black music recorded in the 90's, aughts, and teens reflects the variety of ideas and approaches to black self-representation in these times. From dignified gospel styles to minstrel songs, from sentimental ballads to the startling proto-jazz of Jim Europe, Ford Dabney and Wilbur Sweatman, every expression of black artists was necessarily related to political or social ideals and realities. The CDs not only present this wide variety of material, but the 58-page notes help draw out the social significance of each type of recording.

Rather than proceeding chronologically, the contents are divided roughly into four sections, Vocal Harmonies, Minstrel and Vaudelville Traditions, Aspirational Motives, and Dance Rhythms. Except for the last section which focuses on later instrumentals, there is a good deal of overlap between the sections, but this only helps illustrate the overlaps in the traditions.

The sound quality, while never hi-fi, is amazing considering the sources. Some of the best people in the early-sound restoration field contributed their efforts and it shows. I know from experience just how difficult it is to get all the sound out of an early recording. All involved deserve a big hand.

My one complaint with the package is the inclusion at the beginning of the Minstrel notes of a noxious quote from Stanley Crouch dismissing all rap music as new minstrelsy aimed at white audiences. Brooks is aware that the politics of self-representation among early 20th Century African-Americans were extremely complex. How he could fail to see that they still are complex, and how he could miss the blinding upper-class bias of Crouch, is beyond me. It's possible the quote was supposed to be a demonstration of the continuing complexity of these politics, but it appears to be just an endorsement of Crouch's ignorance.

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars equal parts fascination and revulsion, July 6, 2006

By 

Josh Z. Bonder "a sound painter" (Toronto) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry 1891-1922 (Audio CD)

There's not too much I can say that hasn't already been mentioned in the previous review, but I felt a need to add to (or help start) the chorus of praise for this collection.
As a fan of country blues and songster material (often predating country blues) this collection has been a real eye-opener. While I've heard some minstrel material from Jim Jackson, Pink Anderson, and some early blues players, this collection shows just how much more disturbing the minstrel tradition could be.
I suppose this album is best described as bittersweet; it contains some breathtaking music in a variety of genres, (the earliest examples I've ever heard of blues, jazz, gospel, minstrelsy, and the astounding vocal groups). However, it is in some of the self-effacing subject matter where the abhorant racism of the times left its audible mark the most (sometimes making songs difficult to listen to). That said, I truly believe that this is material to be embraced and understood; so as to both appreciate the artistry of it, and to ensure that such horrendous persecution does not occur again; if approached in this light, "Lost Sounds" is a true landmark for which listeners owe Archeophone records their sincerest thanks (and/or dollars). I honestly believe that any person with interests in black music created in the U.S. over the past century, or modern history for that matter, should not be without this collection.
It never ceases to astound me how something so beautiful can be quite so disturbing at the same time, but I'm so thankful I have had the chance to be disturbed at all.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Lost Sounds" no more, December 28, 2011

By 

Matthew G. Sherwin (last seen screaming at Amazon customer service) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry 1891-1922 (Audio CD)

This incredible 2 CD set contains some of the rarest and earliest recordings made by African-Americans when cylinders competed with disc records and white people firmly controlled the recording industry. True, there is disturbing, self-disparaging and downright racist language in this set of recordings, but this highlights the harsh reality that in order for blacks to become recording artists at that time they had to please white people by singing lyrics that are completely unacceptable in today's world (well, almost all of today's world...sigh). Archeophone Records could have edited out the offensive language; but in doing so they would have been pretending that these racist attitudes never existed and not only would that be a lie, it would also do a disservice to the historical quality of these recordings. I would suppose, however, that when black people wrote and performed music purely for their own enjoyment the racist language was certainly not prevalent.

In addition, there is a 58 page booklet that comes with these CDs; it boasts an introduction by Tim Brooks and explains that the recordings are presented in 4 categories: "Vocal Harmonies;" "Minstrel & Vaudeville Traditions;" "Aspirational Motives" and "Dance Rhythms." There is some overlap in how the tracks are presented but this is understandable since music (or a genre of music) can fit into more than one category.

The quality of the sound ranges from rather poor to really pretty good; the recordings that are hard to listen to suffer from poor sound were generally recorded during the very early years of the recording industry and as another reviewer notes they were almost never properly stored. (Trust me; I have a few records to prove it!) It also amazed me just how much work went into the restoration of some of these cylinder records; in the booklet that comes with this 2 CD set we see a photo of a cylinder painstakingly put back together again so we can hear it on CD.

There is so much material here; just a brief look at what we get clearly proves the importance of these recordings: there is a very rare recording by the "Dinwiddie Colored Quartet" ("Down on the Old Camp Ground"); and there is an early recording by Williams and Walker entitled "My Little Zulu Babe." Jack Johnson talks about his prize fight and there is another spoken word track by Booker T. Washington entitled "Atlanta Exposition Speech" from 1908. The 2 CD set concludes with "St. Louis Blues" as performed by W. C. Handy's Memphis Blues Band in 1922.

The artists and the spoken word tracks presented here will be of interest to anyone who truly appreciates the history of early recorded sound; indeed, people who want to study the history of sound in general will find this 2 CD set to be an absolute necessity for their collections.