650 Jazz-Tapes mit 637 GB zum Download

David W. Niven war früher High-School-Lehrer in New Jersey. Nebenbei nahm er immer Kassetten mit Jazz und kam zu Beginn der 90er auf immerhin 650 Tapes, die mit Jazz aus den Jahren 1921-1991 bespielt waren. Viel zu schade, um die in die ewigen akustischen Jagdwegen einziehen zu lassen, hat er wohl gedacht und alle diese Tapes dann auf Archive.org geladen, wo sie jeder kostenlos runterladen kann: The David W. Niven Collection of Early Jazz Legends, 1921-1991. Über 1000 Stunden bei 637 Gigabyte. Dazu gibt es dann jeweils ein handbeschriftetes Inlay mit den Setlisten und Notizen. Das wird hier wohl ein jazzlastiges Wochenende, was der Frau des Hauses gar nicht gefallen dürfte.

650 tapes · 1,000 hours · 1,378 WAV files · 637 GB · 691 JPEG scans of cassette liner cards & literature. Meticulously Collected, Compiled, and Narrated by David W. Niven.

Hier ein Duke Ellington Mitschnitt aus dem Jahre 1959.

My 20-year-old cousin introduced me to jazz when I was 10. It was a 10” 78 RPM OK recording of “My Heart” made in Chicago on November 12, 1925, by Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five with Kid Ory, trombone; Johnny Dodds, clarinet; Lil Armstrong, piano; and Johnny St. Cyr, banjo. On the reverse was “Cornet Chop Suey.”

My hip cousin then advised me to get some recordings by another cornetist, Bix Beiderbecke, who started recording for OK the same year (1925). I dug, again, into my newspaper route money (35 cents) and bought the October 5, 1927, recording of “At the Jazz Band Ball,” backed by “Jazz Me Blues” by “Bix and his Gang”: Bix on cornet; Bill Rank, trombone; Don Murray, clarinet; Adrian Rollini, bass sax; Frank Signorelli, piano; and Chauncey Morehouse, drums. Over the next few years, I acquired every record Bix made prior to his early death in 1931.

Encouraged by my interest in jazz recordings, my cousin came up with a third suggestion for my collection: Duke Ellington. One year prior to Louis‘ and Bix’s first recording, Duke and his six piece band “The Washingtonians” with Bubber Miley, cornet; Charlie Irvis, trombone; Otto Hardwicke, sax; Fred Guy, banjo; Sonny Greer, drums; and Duke, piano, had their initial commercial recording date in November 1924. I became the proud owner of every recording up to the start of WWII and some 75% of his recordings until his death in 1974, some 180 hours of the recorded Duke Ellington.

(via Electronic Beats)