the alan lomax sound archive now online

[alocispepraluger102]

A huge treasure trove of songs and interviews recorded by the legendary folklorist Alan Lomax from the 1940s into the 1990s have been digitized and made available online for free listening. The Association for Cultural Equity, a nonprofit organization founded by Lomax in the 1980s, has posted some 17,000 recordings.

“For the first time,” Cultural Equity Executive Director Don Fleming told NPR’s Joel Rose this week, “everything that we’ve digitized of Alan’s field recording trips are online, on our Web site. It’s every take, all the way through. False takes, interviews, music.”

It’s an amazing resource. For a quick taste, here are a few examples from one of the best-known areas of Lomax’s research, his recordings of traditional African American culture:

“John Henry” sung by prisoners at the Mississippi State Penitentiary, Parchman Farm, in 1947.

“Come Up Horsey,” a children’s lullaby sung in 1948 by Vera Hall, whose mother was a slave.

“In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town” performed by Big Bill Broonzy, 1952.

“Story of a slave who asked the devil to take his master,” told by Bessie Jones in 1961.

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A huge treasure trove of songs and interviews recorded by the legendary folklorist Alan Lomax from the 1940s into the 1990s have been digitized and made available online for free listening. The Association for Cultural Equity, a nonprofit organization founded by Lomax in the 1980s, has posted some 17,000 recordings.

“For the first time,” Cultural Equity Executive Director Don Fleming told NPR’s Joel Rose this week, “everything that we’ve digitized of Alan’s field recording trips are online, on our Web site. It’s every take, all the way through. False takes, interviews, music.”

It’s an amazing resource. For a quick taste, here are a few examples from one of the best-known areas of Lomax’s research, his recordings of traditional African American culture:

“John Henry” sung by prisoners at the Mississippi State Penitentiary, Parchman Farm, in 1947.

“Come Up Horsey,” a children’s lullaby sung in 1948 by Vera Hall, whose mother was a slave.

“In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town” performed by Big Bill Broonzy, 1952.

“Story of a slave who asked the devil to take his master,” told by Bessie Jones in 1961.

Edited October 1, 2012 by alocispepraluger102