Smithsonian-Folkways Acquires Arhoolie Records

[paul secor]

www.folkways.si.edu/news-and-press/smithsonian-folkways-acquires-arhoolie-records

 

 I guess that it was inevitable, given Chris Strachwitz's age, but I'm sorry to see it happen.

[rostasi]

A very good transition done in a timely manner.
Love both of those labels and I hope the sharing continues.

[medjuck]

I met Chris once a few years ago and IIRC he was planning something like this.  He was worried about what would happen after he died.  Glad he got his wish. 

[clifford_thornton]

Does anyone know the source behind the small clutch of Bay Area jazz records that Arhoolie released? While excellent, they always seemed like catalog outlier to me. 

[paul secor]

Those records never seemed like Chris Strachwitz's thing. Perhaps they resulted from someone connected with him. There are at least three Sonny Simmons Arhoolie records, so there evidently was a connection there with someone at Arhoolie.

[clifford_thornton]

Makes sense. The avant-garde titles consisted of one Simmons, one Smiley Winters 2LP, one Lee Cronbach (Luna), one Jerry Hahn, and Now! which was a small orchestra directed by pianist/percussionist and arranger David Young. I'm glad these albums exist, because I get the feeling that if Arhoolie hadn't documented them, nobody would have.

[JSngry]

I always just assumed that they were a case of local hustlers mutually hustling each other.

[clifford_thornton]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

I always just assumed that they were a case of local hustlers mutually hustling each other.

[paul secor]

13 hours ago, clifford_thornton said:

Makes sense. The avant-garde titles consisted of one Simmons, one Smiley Winters 2LP, one Lee Cronbach (Luna), one Jerry Hahn, and Now! which was a small orchestra directed by pianist/percussionist and arranger David Young. I'm glad these albums exist, because I get the feeling that if Arhoolie hadn't documented them, nobody would have.

There are actually two other Sonny Simmons Arhoolies, though both are on CD - Live in Paris (recording isn't great, but Simmons is on fire) and Reincarnation (1991 recordings with Barbara Donald).

[clifford_thornton]

Ah, I wasn't thinking of the archival stuff. Right.