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National Recording Registry Adds 50 Sound RecordingsLibrarian of Congress James H. Billington announced April 11 the latest group of 50 recordings for the National Recording Registry. Created by Congress through the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, the registry is dedicated to preserving classic American recordings of music, speeches, and readings that are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.“The National Recording Registry represents a stunning array of the diversity, humanity, and creativity found in our sound heritage, nothing less than a flood of noise and sound pulsating into the American bloodstream,” Billington said. The National Recording Preservation Board, comprised of 20 leaders in the music and preservation fields, accepts nominations from the public and makes recommendations of their own. Recordings must be at least 10 years old to be considered for selection. LC will retain a digital copy of all recordings selected for the registry, which is modeled after the library’s National Film Registry. Among this year’s selections are: a 1903 recording of “Canzone del Porter” from Friedrich von Flotow’s opera Martha; the 1925 inaugural address of President Calvin Coolidge; a 1932 recording of selections from Show Boat by Helen Morgan, Paul Robeson, and others; Roy Acuff’s 1936 “Wabash Cannonball”; a radio broadcast of Joe Louis’s first-round knockout of Max Schmeling in 1938; Fats Domino’s 1956 “Blueberry Hill”; 1967’s Are You Experienced? by the Jimi Hendrix Experience; and Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth from 1988. The library also announced the discovery of a rare 1940 jam session featuring tenor saxophonist Lester Young among a collection of 10-inch lacquer records donated to LC. Loren Schoenberg, executive director of the Jazz Museum in Harlem, compared the find to a new Shakespearean sonnet, Chopin nocturne, or Hemingway short story, adding, “This was Lester’s absolute zenith and there is precious little extant from this period.” Posted April 14, 2006. |
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