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8 posts tagged john szwed
This interactive element was part of a bigger article on Lomax’s Global Jukebox in yesterday’s Times.
An interview with John Szwed, the author of Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded the World
On Sunday, March 6th, 2011 Professor Szwed discussed his biography of Alan Lomax and answered questions about this important figure in the history of the world’s music. This is one of four segments from that talk, focusing on the social dynamics of the South, Lomax’s relationship with Zora Neale Hurston, and why Lomax is remembered among those recording in the field more than others.
On Sunday, March 6th, 2011 Professor Szwed visited Jalopy Theatre to discuss his biography, Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded the World. This is the second of four segments from that talk, focusing on Lomax’s contribution to the record sent into space on the Voyager probe, his singular focus on the grand task he had set himself, and his theory of choreometrics.
Texas Monthly, NPR, The Wall Street Journal and London’sTelegraph rarely agree on much. But each has recommended John Szwed’s new biography, Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded The World. Lomax, the intrepid collector of folk music, was called a ‘missionary’ by Bob Dylan for his work, and among many other accomplishments launched the careers of giants like Muddy Waters, Leadbelly, and Woody Guthrie.
On Sunday, March 6th, 2011 Professor Szwed departed the hallowed halls of Columbia University, where he is a member of the Department of Music, to visit Brooklyn’s Columbia Street. There, at New York’s greatest old-time folk music venue, Jalopy Theatre, he read from his biography and answered questions about this important figure in the history of the world’s music.
This is the first of four segments from his talk.
National Public Radio - Alan Lomax: Recording the World
Alan Lomax: Recording the World on NPR’s All Things Considered. This 9 minute, 24 second segment includes an interview with John Szwed, author of the new biography, Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded The World.
Szwed will read from his new book at Brooklyn’s Jalopy on March 6th at 7 pm. More information on the reading and live music performance is here.
0 Plays
John Szwed to read from his biography, Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded The World @ Jalopy, March 6th at 7 pm
Live music and a book signing will follow
Free copies of the book for the first ten in attendance, sponsored by Bluegrass in New York
Admission is free; the hat will pass for music from Brotherhood of the Jug Band Blues and the Whiskey Spitters at 8 pm
Texas Monthly, NPR, The Wall Street Journal and London’sTelegraph rarely agree on much. But each has recommended John Szwed’s new biography, Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded The World.
Lomax, the intrepid collector of folk music, was called a ‘missionary’ by Bob Dylan for his work, and among many other accomplishments launched the careers of giants like Muddy Waters, Leadbelly, and Woody Guthrie.
On Sunday, March 6th Professor Szwed will depart the hallowed halls of Columbia University, where he is a member of the Department of Music, to Brooklyn’s Columbia Street. There, at New York’s greatest old-time folk music venue, Jalopy Theatre, he will read from his biography and answer questions about this important figure in the history of the world’s music.
The reading will be followed by live music from the Brotherhood of the Jug Band Blues and the Whiskey Spitters.
About John Szwed
John Szwed is an anthropologist and jazz scholar, whose publications range from anthropological studies of Newfoundland and the West Indies to record liner notes and jazz journalism. In addition to Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded The World (Viking), he has published books including Space is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra (1997), Jazz 101 (2000), and So What: The Life of Miles Davis (2002). Doctor Jazz, a book included with the CD set, Jelly Roll Morton: The Complete Library of Congress Recordings by Alan Lomax, was awarded a Grammy in 2005.
About Jalopy Theatre
Set up in a Red Hook storefront near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway at 315 Columbia Street at Woodhull in Brooklyn, Jalopy Theatre is a community arts center, a music school, an instrument repair shop, a theater, a café, and a recording label. It is a place where people play and learn music together in the tradition of community and “…things that are human”.
From the reviews of Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded The World
The Wall Street Journal: “(Lomax’s) travels took him from his native American South to remote outposts of the Caribbean and across the ocean to the British Isles and the fishing villages of Italy and the mountains of Spanish Basque country. His work spanned six decades, from the Depression all the way to the 1990s… He began his career gathering songs with a 300-pound disc-cutter in the back of a Model A and ended it using hand-held video cameras for backwoods documentaries. No matter what the gear, Lomax never wavered from his mission—to find evidence that the world’s poorest places offered some of the richest cultural treasures.”
Texas Monthly: “But for the most part, Alan, whom Bob Dylan called a “missionary” for his work collecting folk songs, hasn’t been given his full historical due. This was a man, after all, who pretty much jump-started the recording careers of Muddy Waters, Leadbelly, and Woody Guthrie; recorded some of the first “world music”; and inspired the sixties folk music revival. Now, with the publication of Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded the World, this intellectual deficit has been rectified.”
The Financial Times: John Szwed “…records Lomax’s life much as Lomax recorded musicians on field trips, taking care to present the man and his achievements in their social, political and intellectual context. In this the book succeeds magnificently.”
Vera Hall (1902-1964)
Born in 1902 in Payneville, Alabama, just outside of Livingston in Sumter County, Vera Hall grew up to establish one of the most stunning bodies of American folk music on record. In 1948, with the help of Alan Lomax, Hall traveled to New York and performed on May 15 at the American Music Festival at Columbia University. During the course of this trip, Lomax interviewed Hall on several occasions. In 1959, these interviews would be transformed into Rainbow Sign, a thinly- guised biography of Hall.
Today, her work still garners attention. In 1999, techno-artist, Moby (Richard Melville Hall), included her voice and song Troubled So Hard in his multi-platinum album Play, thus introducing Halls voice to a whole new generation of listeners. Prized by scholars and folksong enthusiasts, Halls recordings include examples of early blues and folk songs that are found nowhere else. Her masterful renditions of traditional songs and stories are a defining part of Southern Black culture and the Black Belt region.
Learn more about Lomax and his career on March 6th at Jalopy. At 7 pm, John Szwed will read from his new biography of Lomax, Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded the World. Information is here.
