week 9

final thoughts:
I want to buy music the correct way, to benefit the artist and not necessarily the music companies in equal measure. All I know to do is buy my music as I am. I most enjoyed learning different perspectives on what can be done to better the situation. I have always been a "solutions" kind of girl. I can see the problem, tell me what might fix it.
I already do not and have never downloaded illigally, so I do not need to promise to change my ways.
I enjoyed the musicology textbook very much. I did not care much for the other one as I found it too dry and full of jargon and acronyms.
I enjoyed the different websites but did not feel that I knew enough of what I was looking for to distinguish them all.
I really enjoyed being exposed to the "cd baby" and new artists that I am now trying (have already found some new ones that I am really liking- thank you very much!).
Our collections this week. These were fun, I tried mostly to see who had what that was different, etc. Several of these places are dear to my heart, so I was curious to see what they had to offer and what their sites looked like. Here they are:
1) UCLA Jazz Archival Collections
They have journals, additional sound recordings. The core of the collection is 1150 books (works) which are (understandably) non-circulating.
They have collections of business papers which I find interesting as it would give students a chance to study that aspect of the profession and how it has changed, etc. Could be interesting.
2) USC Ray Herbeck LA Swing Band Collection
How big is this- it doesn't say. It also doesn't tell you what is in the collection, you just have to contact these people. This collection seems to just be Ray Herbeck's music, not sure.
It says it may have restricted access? Not that that in itself surprises me, but what about the material that is not restricted access?
3) DC District of Columbia Library of Congress Archive of Folk Culture
This was created back in 1976. I love how they break down the contents of the collection. The collection is available in their reading room (makes sense).
4) The Smithsonian Insstitution National Museum of American History Archives
They store their stuff (at least partly) at off site locations. They are the only ones that have mentioned that. Hours are very limited. Instructions are nicely detailed however.
I thought this was interesting, they allow laptops and cameras, but no notebooks.
copies are $.25 a page. That's a little steep. But they don't mention not wanting you to photocopy their material, like some places do.
I looked at women in jazz, very nice!
5) University of Georgia Johnny Mercer papers
I am from Savannah, of course I picked this one! I clicked on their Johnny Mercer bio and it took me back to ask.com (what I happened to be using at the time). I don't like that.
I LOVE the microphone on/off switch. Is this only for a year? It looks that way- that can't be right can it? I can't access the photos (unless it is my computer not letting me).
I also like that it tells you how to site. That's being pro-active.
6) Southern Illinois University Lovejoy Library National Ragtime and Jazz Archive
These are jazz musicians from the St. Louis area (it says). I love the fact that they have a faculty band "The Old Guys" that play and do benefits to benefit the archive. I love that!
You can click on interviews with 17 musicians. Awesome!
This is great oral history
The recordings page is under construction so I did not get a look/listen to that.
7) Louisiana State Museum Jazz Collection
This was formed in 1948. The history is well written and entertaining. They say that they have the largest collection of instruments owned and played by important figures in jazz. They even have pictures of all the instruments.
They have over 10,000 photographs with another well written description of the collection.
They have a huge number of recordings in tons of formats, including piano rolls.
Lots of film donated by a local cameraman and a collection of artwork.
How wonderful! I was really, really impressed with this site. I loved the writeups and they have an awesome collection.
8) Tulane University Hogan Archive of New Orleans Jazz
They also have a faculty band "The Louisiana Repertory Jazz Ensemble" and a newsletter (first one of those that I've seen). They have an introduction to New Orleans jazz, it's ok, rather dry. Too brief and I bet #7 would have done a great job with something like that, why don't they have one? All in all, I was much, much more impressed with #7 and I find that very dissapointing. I expect more of Tulane.
9) University of Michigan Jazz Oral Histories
150 interviews. Almost all conducted by one person. Not sure if that's really good or not. You can read the interviews. Awesome! This is something that even I, a nonmusical person can relate to. So I read a few. Here are my brief thoughts:
Ray Charles. Very casually spoken. He talks about basically being forced to play classical music as he was learning to play. But the interview is incomplete.
Frustrating! OK, let's try one more
Ella Fitzgerald. Now this one starts in mid-interview. That's almost just as frustrating!!
She says she's not a musician (interesting). This one is full of more casual talk and less musical. She seeems like a very down to earth easy spoken person.
But I am not happy with either one of these. I am sure that this kind of thing just goes with the territory but how very frustrating that would be to a researcher. I think it probably would go down better if they warned you before you clicked on it that the interviews were incomplete.
10) University of Mississippi Center for the Study of Southern Culture
I wanted this degree SO BAD. But I will NOT move to Mississippi. Sorry, no. Not in this lifetime. But the minute they do a PHD online, I am there!!
I went to the archives (I was not sure where to go, your links were not working for me, so I probably did not start from the correct site) So, I started at archives and went to the blues archive. They have a great breakdown of the numbers in their collection and the types of materials. The inventories were very incomplete. You would almost have to contact them for information- which you have to do anyway. Everything inventoried seems to be CD's. It does have a really good page of links attached.
so that's it. I really enjoyed it.