Customer Reviews

Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry 1891-1922

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This is not my favorite of my many compilations of early American recordings but it does have some very interesting stuff on it. A better comp in my opinion is Roots N' Blues,The Retrospective(1925-1950). Now thats a great overview of early americana. But still, Lost Sounds has its merits. The songs that have very rough reproduction actually give the CD a haunting quality. If you want to go way back to the dawn of the recording industry like I did then you will not be disappointed but if you want something a little more listenable, then go w/ the Roots CD. Hope that was helpful to somebody...

First of all, congratulations to Archeophone Records and Lost Sounds for winning the 2007 Grammy Award for Best Historical Album. Hopefully this recognition will allow the music and its message to be more widespread.

Again, not much can be added to what has been written; the significance of this CD cannot be overlooked. I've been fortunate to have been exposed to a wide variety of music since childhood, but Lost Sounds is unlike anything I had previously heard. It's a great piece of history that offers a new perspective on music as a whole. I still can't get over the fact that some of these recordings have survived over one hundred years - despite the disposable age we seem to live in.

No matter what your musical tastes, Lost Sounds deserves a listen - especially to the history aficionado.

if like me, you are fascinated with sound, and find it mind-boggling to put on a pair of headphones and hear the voice of someone who was alive in 1891 coming back to life right in your ears, then this 2 disc set is for you. if you are simply looking for a purely rewarding musical experience, then this set is probably not for you. understandably, all the stuff recorded before roughly 1910 has very, very poor sound quality. it is the fascination with the mere existence of these sounds that is the thrill, not the tunes themselves. the post 1910 tracks have basically good sound quality for the most part, and there is a wide variety of styles, all pre-blues, except for the last song of disc 2, w.c. handy's memphis blues band playing their legendary "st louis blues," which is still part marching band, part vaudeville, as much as it is blues. elsewhere you get gospel, singing quartets, folk tunes, classical, opera, orchestras, jazz, and 2 spoken word tracks (one by then heavyweight boxing champion jack johnson, and one by booker t. washington). you also get a lot of novelty tunes (i repeat a lot of novelty tunes), especially on disc one. i don't know if these novelty numbers actually passed for funny back in the day, but they wear pretty thin pretty quick to the modern sensiblity. anyway, fascinating for lovers of history, or collectors of old-time audio, but will not fulfill your wildest musical dreams i am afraid.

Very, very poor sound quality;almost inaudible. Sorry I purchased CD. Do not buy!