I have been wanting to add more coverage of non-white mandolinists to Wikipedia for a while. I started by writing the article for Seth Weeks (which really needs more information). Today I started inserting names of blues mandolinists that I found online into the main Mandolin article. I am coming here, because this is where people are interested in everything mandolin, and this discussion group because it looks like it's pointed the same direction I am trying to take. I need to gather more information before going further on Wikipedia, but I think that there will need to be a section in the article which deals with the problems of racism during the period of the mandolin's rise (18802-1920s) and beyond. To my eye, it looks like a lot of blues music that could have been recorded was lost, and ragtime and early jazz have been similarly squashed. I think that if done right, it would improve general knowledge of race in mandolin music. Anyone want to collaborate? I am willing to do the writing if no one else wants to. What I need is people pointing and saying, "But...", or, "You forgot...", or, "How about adding this...." In other words, conversation to get the creative juices flowing. Oh, by the way, my name is Jack. Good to meet you!
Well, this is serendipitous. Hi Jack, I just dropped back in to the Café after a lengthy absence, and decided to check the various groups while I was here. I see you posted back in October, so about 8 months ago now. Hope you haven't gotten discouraged; sometimes things move v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y in the groups. I happen to have an interest in the history of ragtime, and particularly non-piano ragtime. You are correct: when it comes to popular music between the 1880s-1920s a great deal of that history has either been lost, or -- I'm hoping -- it's just that it's never been well studied. Outside of the mainstream (piano, vocals, and tin-pan alley) a great deal of blues, early jazz, and folk ragtime just slipped through the cracks. Much of this stuff didn't get recorded, because a lot of the music was being done in places where the recording equipment of the day either couldn't travel, or because people never considered that there might be something worth moving the equipment to record. With the exception of a few fanatical archivists like Alan Lomax, little of this music made it to disk. And not a lot was written about the music, because it wasn't sold as sheet music in stores. The legacy was aural: people were playing them music for each other at parties, birthdays, weddings, funerals, etc., and they were too busy living the music to bother with analyzing it or writing commentary on it. The history of this music lies in ephemera like old vaudeville and minstrel show bills; the Lomax recordings (much of them still uncatalogued), and newspapers and handbills of the day. You've got your work cut out for you. I say my dropping in just now is serendipitous, because as it happens I've just discovered some of the very few works on this subject that are out there in print. I've not read them yet -- just ordered the lot from Amazon. But these might have some of the information you're seeking, and maybe some hints or bibliographies to help unearth more information: http://www.amazon.com/Out-Sight-Afri...watch_0&sr=1-1 http://www.amazon.com/Ragged-but-Rig...dp/1617036455/ http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Sounds-Re.../dp/025207307X I've also heard that Mike Compton did a symposium about ten years ago, on black mandolinists of that era, though I know nothing about it. You might try contacting him: http://mikecompton.net/ Don't know if I'm up for a full-on collaboration just now; busy busy busy... But I am interested in your project, and if I come across anything else that looks relevant, I'll be happy to bring it to your attention here. And if you come across any actual early ragtime guitar or mandolin music (NOT transcriptions of piano music for mandolin or guitar), I'd love to hear about it. Maybe if enough people keep poking at this gap in music history, it will eventually be filled with useful information. Good luck!
Received the "Lost Sounds" volume (massive!) this weekend. It looks to be an excellent book, meticulously researched (for nearly 30 years, according to the preface). I've just skipped around and read a few sections so far, but I am already impressed, and have learned things I never knew. Recommended.
I've read the Wikipedia entry. If you can find the approximate dates of his movements, and the cities Weeks travelled to for performances or teaching, then the next thing would be to search the newspapers in those cities on those dates. Yes, it could be a dead end. But I'd start with a "smallish" city - Salt Lake City - and see if there are any entries. If there's a paragraph or two in a newspaper about Weeks, it could include a little bio. Which leads me to question. . .why Salt Lake City? Why not straight to Frisco? Mormon connection mebbe?
I just got the other books yesterday, and I have to say, I think this is the one you're looking for: http://www.amazon.com/Out-Sight-Afri...watch_0&sr=1-1 Amazing wealth of documentation here: newspaper articles from the period; playbills; music business publications; records from local county historical archives -- these authors know what to look for and where to find it. There looks to be a lot in here about mandolins and mandolin ensembles as well, plus ragtime history, musical theater, minstrel shows, gospel and jubilee singers. I think you'll find plenty in here to flesh out the Wiki article, and if not, this book has plenty of links to original sources, should you want to put the work in to run them down. I really had no idea so much work had been done on this topic in recent years. Hopefully Jack's going to wander back here eventually and check out some of these leads...
Glad to see the interest in this subject. Some great resources have been shared. There are some more. African American old-time string band music: a selective discography, an academic paper by Prof. Chris Durman of the Univ. of Tennessee. He discusses only the old-timey players, but he may well be knowledgeable about others. Durman discusses a number of recent collections of early African-American string bands. (A number of these can be found on Allmusic.com). There's probably a wealth of information in a collection of essays edited by Diane Pecknold, Hidden in the Mix: The African American Presence in Country Music The cartoonist and 20s and 30s music enthusiast Robert Crumb devoted (at least) one of his "Sweet Shallac" radio shows to black string bands of the 1920s and 1930s.
Wow... I had no idea that "Mr. Natural" was interested in such things. (Always wondered what R. Crumb thought about Edward Gorey.) Some good sources you cite there. When I get through the stack I just ordered, I'll have to start in on those. Seems like Alan Lomax (or his father) must have done some work here. But I guess a lot of their recordings are still uncatalogued.
