Not a mistake.
I'm talking about the old 78 rpm record label "Rythme", not the Gershwin standard "I Got Rhythm" that became the basic chord changes to a lot of Be-Bop classics from "Anthropology" to "Moose The Mooche".
Among other artists who put out discs on this label, for a time it was the home to one of the most amazing musicians ever, and a personal favorite, Django Rheinhardt.
A few years back, I got an old hand-cranked Victor Victrola record player at the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena.
It was an impulse purchase, as I walked past the dealer and heard the scratchy, nostalgic tones of Glen Miller's "Moonlight Serenade" coming out of the antique horn. But as it turned out, it opened a door to me to the world of vintage 78 rpm recordings.
Popular back-list music will get repackaged and rereleased forever in whatever new music formats arrive on the scene, from Hi-Fi to LP to 8-Track to Cassette to CD to digital MP3 and beyond to infinity.
But so much of what was recorded then has been lost to the shifting vagaries of popular taste and the sands of time. 78 rpm discs are a window back on a trove of small label, regional, international and vernacular music of every style and genre, from spoken word to comedy to vaudeville to early Jazz.
Like everything, there is a passionate community of devoted afficianados who buy, trade and preserve the discs and the music. The King of American 78 rpm collectors is this wild guy Joe Bussard, who has something like 25,00 records, including several one-of-a-kind only known copy discs such as a recording of the classic "Stag-o-Lee Blues" on the defunct Chicago-based Black Swan record label.
My particular obsessions have been European Pre-War recordings by Django Rheinhardt, with the Quintet of the Hot Club of France ("QHCF") or other French or Belgium bands of the era.
And Cuban music of the 30's, 40's and 50's from groups like Ernesto Lecuona's "Cuban Boys' or various groups that played the Danzon or Guaguanco or Son or Mambo or Rumba music that was alive all over the island and recorded on Panart and other local labels.
In future posts, I'll try to load and link to mp3's of some of these records that have been converted to digital files.
They are lost treasures, and it is a pleasure to spread the word and keep the music alive.
william
I find this interesting, I have a some collections of 78's from when my father was a child in Norway, some in german and some in english. I also have a wind up portable record player that acually works. Not sure what I want to do with them yet. I have had them for about 15 years now. Tried to find info on them and after awhile I just gave up.
Posted by: davek | August 26, 2011 at 11:15 PM
I was a king-hell 78 collector in my twenties - my specialties were jazz & dance band music of the 20s and 30s. I stopped because it was taking over my life.
Happily, I fell in with a clutch of New Yorkers who circulated the stuff on CD-R and, latterly, private websites. The tunes spin on. And I still have my 78s.
Posted by: Paul Lindemeyer | October 22, 2011 at 11:52 AM