The Rise and Fall of Paramount Records

At the end of the "An Englishman, a midwest furniture company, and a pioneering record label" article below, there is a reference to a subsequent article titled, "The Rise and Fall of Paramount Records".  The article, written by Sarah Filzen, was first published in the Winter 1998–99 issue (Volume 82) of the Wisconsin Magazine of History.

You can either read it as a .pdf or .php.  The image below is from the article.

Submitted by Peter Jones, Host of Leftover Biscuits

An Englishman, a midwest furniture company, and a pioneering record label

A fascinating account about Arthur Satherly, the Wisconsin Chair company, and Paramount Records can be found here.

The Acoustics of World Instruments

The BBC World Service (The BBC's International Radio Station heard on WTJU from 3-6 am six nights a week) has a number of wonderful programs on its schedule; including one called Discovery.

The emphasis of the program is to explore today's most significant scientific discoveries and talk to the scientists behind them.  How does this apply to folk music?  Well, they recently did a three part series on the "Acoustics of World Instruments".

Episode 1: The Human Voice

• From Mongolian throat singing to the grand opera houses of Europe and folk singing in the fields of Bulgaria, Trevor Cox examines how the human voice makes sound.
• He hears of a study in Australia that suggests Wagner may have chosen specific vowel sounds to help female singers battle against vast orchestral forces. And how Mongolian throat singers took inspiration from the multiple sounds they heard in the wind.

Episode 2: Wind Instruments

• What makes the sound of a clarinet different to an oboe or a recorder? Trevor Cox - acoustic engineer and saxophone player - examines the science of wind instruments.
•  He learns how playing the didgeridoo could help the best jazz saxophonists. And discovers the shared science between simple squeeze boxes and Asian free reed instruments.

Episode 3: Percussion and String Instruments

• Trevor Cox explores how percussion and string instruments make their own particular sounds.
• He finds surprising scientific connections between a Stradivarius violin, singing bowls of Tibet and playing a saw used for cutting wood.
• And he learns how the rise of the oil industry in World War II gave birth to the hand crafting of Steel Pans in the Caribbean - a skill that is attracting scientific analysis today.

Each program is approximately 27 minutes, and can either be streamed or downloaded as a podcast.  You can listen to them all, or pick and choose.


Submitted by Peter Jones, Host of  Leftover Biscuits

Virginia Folklife Director Visits Tell Us A Tale

Virginia Folklife Director
Jon Lohman
Visits Tell Us A Tale
Sunday January 16, 2011 Noon-2pm

Virginia Folklife Director Jon Lohman will stop by Tell Us A Tale during the first hour this Sunday to discuss the upcoming  Flory Jagoda and Susan Gaeta concert of Sephardic music and culture on Saturday evening, January 22.

Flory Jagoda, a 2002-2003 Master Artist in the Virginia Folklife Apprentice Program, was a 2002 recipient of the National Heritage Award, the highest honor given to a traditional artist in the United States. Susan Gaeta served as her apprentice and is herself a gifted singer and performer. The concert is a fundraiser for the Flory Jagoda Sephardic Music Fund at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, established by Susan Gaeta in Flory’s honor to preserve, support, and perpetuate the Sephardic musical tradition.

Flory was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia, a member of the musical Altaras family within the Sephardic Jewish community. From her grandmother, Jagoda learned songs that had been passed down in her family in the generations since Sephardic Jews were forced into exile from Spain and Portugal in the 15th century, sung in Ladino, or “Judezmo”, the traditional language of the Jews of the Ottoman Empire.
Escaping with her parents from the destruction of most of Bosnia’s Jewish community during World War II, Flory is now recognized as the “keeper of the flame” of the Sephardic musical tradition in the United States and internationally, as well as for her new compositions and arrangements of traditional Sephardic songs. Flory has passed this legacy along to her children, musicians themselves, and has worked with many students now performing Ladino music. Together, Flory Jagoda and Susan Gaeta will present an entertaining and enlightening evening of Sephardic song and story.

Not only is Lohman the Virginia Folklife Director, but also the official Virginia state folklorist. Jon and Peter will discuss the difference between Klezmer and Sephardic, and play music samples of both; including from Flory Jagoda of course. The concert itself will be held at Congregation Beth Israel in downtown Charlottesville.

Alex Caton & Pete Winne on Sunset Road 1/7/11

Alex Caton & Pete Winne stopped by Sunset Road to talk about their upcoming recording project, their recent trip to France and their upcoming gig(thurs Jan 13th at Mockingbird in Staunton VA).

Sunset Road Playlist 1/7/11

Fri, Jan 07, 2011: "Sunset Road" [17:06 - 19:00, Pete Marshall]

Big tunes + live appearance by Alex Caton & Pete Winne

1. "Pete's tune" - Extended Play Boys - Extended Playboys [Beet]
   theme tune
2. "Big Country" - Mike Marshall;Edgar Meyer;Béla Fleck - Uncommon Ritual [Sony: 1997]
   Big tunes today folks!
3. "Trumpeter Landfrey's Charge of the Light Brigade" - Martin Landfreid - Internet Archive [Public Domain: 1890]
   Recording date: August 2, 1890
   Location: London, England
   Record format: Edison brown wax cylinder (unissued)
   NPS object catalog number: EDIS 39848
   ** Historical note: Landfrey was a bugler in the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaklava, October 25, 1854, of the Crimean War. On this recording Landfrey plays a trumpet that was used at the Battle of Waterloo, June 18, 1815, of the Napoleonic Wars
4. "Waist deep in the big muddy" - Pete Seeger - Headlines & footnotes [Smithsonian folkways: 1999]
5. "Something In The Air But Not On The Airways" - Chris Chandler - American Storyteller [We Still Call 'em Records: 2005]
6. "Black & White Rag" - Alex Caton & Pete Winne - Live in the studio
   Alex & Pete will be appearing at Mockingbird in Staunton this coming thursday
7. "When I stop dreaming" - Alex Caton & Pete Winne - Live in the studio
8. "If I lose" - Alex Caton & Pete Winne - Live in the studio
9. "When my time comes to go" - Alex Caton - The sinners and the saved [Self: 2009]
10. "Big Hoedown" - Matt Brown, Paul Brown & Beverly Smith - Lone Prairie [2006]
11. "Big Mon" - Tony Rice - The Bluegrass Guitar Collection [Rounder: 1977]
12. "Big Hook" - Alex Hargreaves - Prelude [Adventure Music: 2009]
13. "Jake's got a belly ache" - James Leva - Memory theater [Copper Creek: 2001]
    by request
14. "Big Love" - Carrie Rodriguez - Love and Circumstance [2010]
15. "Big Yellow Taxi" - Joni Mitchell - Shine [2007]
16. "Old Virginia Block" - Devon Sproule - Keep your silver shined [Waterbug: 2007]
    Devon Sproule & Wes Swing double cd release concert at the Jefferson Theater, Charlottesville, tonight!
17. "Big Monk" - Psychograss (Marshall, Anger, Trischka, Phillips, Grier) - Like Minds [Sugar Hill: 1996]
18. "The Big Mistake" - Sharon Shannon - Out The Gap [Green linnet: 1995]
19. "Big Shoe" - Bill Frisell - The Willies [Nonesuch: 2002]
20. "The Big Sneak" - Paul Glasse - One More Night - Volume 1 [DOS: 1991]
21. "Big gravel" - Psychograss (Marshall, Anger, Trischka, Phillips, Grier) - Like Minds [Sugar Hill: 1996]
22. "Gravel Shore" - Natalie MacMaster - Blueprint [Rounder: 2003]
23. "Replaceitall" - Darol Anger & Mike Marshall - Woodshop [Adventure Music: 2007]
    Named after the 1970's story of The Stones' Keith Richards, then addicted to heroin, going to Switzerland to have all his blood replaced.
24. "National Ransom" - Elvis Costello - National Ransom [Hear Music: 2010]
25. "Big Country" - Mike Marshall/Hamliton De Holanda - New Words (Novas Palavras) [Adventure Music: 2006]