BACKGROUND TO THE RECORDINGS It was record collector Sidney Martin who introduced Jelly Roll Morton to Alan Lomax to discuss details for the famous Library of Congress Recordings. The series of interviews and recordings, totalling about eight hours, began on 23rd May 1938 and concluded with the final session on 14th December 1938.
Alan Lomax was born in Austin, Texas on 31st January 1915. In 1933 he assisted his father, John Avery Lomax, on their first recording field trip which was commissioned by the Library of Congress. From 1933 to 1942 he either worked alone, or accompanied his father, as well as his sister Bess, Zora Neale Hurston, Mary Elizabeth Barnicle, John Work, and others. He died on 19th July 2002.
He went on to record folk and traditional music on behalf of the Library of Congress throughout the Southern United States, as well as in New England, Michigan, Wisconsin, New York, Ohio, Haiti, and the Bahamas. Artists such as Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, Aunt Mollie Jackson, and Muddy Waters made their first recordings during these field trips.
In 1934 he published, with John A. Lomax — “American Ballads and Folksongs.” Later publications with his father include, “Negro Folk Songs as Sung by Leadbelly” (1936), “Cowboy Songs” (1937), “Our Singing Country” (1938), and “Folk Song: USA” (1946). He was appointed assistant in charge to the Archive in 1937. Due to a small congressional appropriation for the support of the Archive, Alan became the first Archive worker to be paid from Library funds.
In 1938 he recorded more than eight hours of Jelly Roll Morton’s singing, playing and spoken recollections for the Library of Congress, documenting the birth of jazz by one of its founders. These recordings became the basis for his book, Mister Jelly Roll (1950).
Alan Lomax used a small portable Presto disk recorder, which had been adapted to operate on batteries for field recordings. The recorder did not always operate at the correct speed and the original Circle records, which were first issued beginning in the fall of 1947, in limited edition albums of 45 twelve-inch records, need to be played back at around 85 r.p.m to enable them to be pitch corrected.
This anomaly with the Circle records may not be entirely due to the fault with Alan Lomax’s recorder. In Storyville magazine issue No. 128, page 69, Michael Bowen writes that Bob Hilbert of Pumpkin Records, had spoken with the Library of Congress staff and gained the impression that when the original copies were run off for Circle Records, Rudi Blesh had messed the Library staff and technicians about to such an extent, that they had run off the dubs without any technical line-ups or checks, just to get rid of him. [C 69]
Kenneth Lloyd Bright, a Circle official, made a trip to San Francisco to contact the executor of the Morton estate, a lawyer named Hugh MacBeth (Macbeth). MacBeth (Macbeth), probably a bit fed up with everybody’s attempts to get their hands on the gold mine left by his late friend Jelly Roll, reportedly told Bright, “If you’re here to talk about the Morton records, the answer is “No.” But after listening to an explanation of Circle’s motives in the matter, MacBeth (Macbeth) finally granted the permission in July 1946, and Circle went about the business of preparing the material for public release. [D]
Previous to the public release there was one set of dubbings made from the originals for a group of collectors, including Bill Russell and the late Hoyte Kline, in 1939, and fifth and sixth re-dubbings from these, bristling with surface noises, were all that were available to be heard. [D]
Well-heeled jazz enthusiasts applied to Circle Sound Inc., 38 East 4th Street, New York, for the “The Saga of Mr. Jelly Lord” and received 45 dark Vinylite twelve-inch records arranged in 12 albums. Beginning August—September 1947 two albums were issued every three months until the set was complete. The albums, which housed the Vinylite records, were designed by artist Jimmy Ernst. [CR]
According to contemporary sources only 250 sets were sold, although Roger Richard, whose set is #224, has reported to me that the highest numbered set known to him is #309. [E] Ate van Delden also reports that his colleague, Alfred Ticoalu, has a partial set with one of the albums numbered #326. [H] Given the original subscription fee of $120.00 and the small number of sets sold, makes them a priceless rarity today.
Rudi Blesh, who owned Circle Records, was disappointed with poor sales of the 78 r.p.m record sets. So, in 1950, he took the decision to enter the twelve-inch micro-groove market. He hoped for better sales with the new format, but this did not materialize as the content of the 12 Circle LPs (L 14001—L 14012) turned out to be a mere copy of the Circle 78 r.p.m. records — including the speed faults.
In 1957, Riverside issued 12 LPs (RLP 9001—RLP 9012) in the twelve-inch micro-groove format. These too, were copies of the Circle 78 r.p.m. records. Reeves Sound Studios undertook the re-mastering work and erased a few ‘plops’ and ‘klonks’ but generally, there was not much of a sound improvement. There was however, a successful attempt to correct the speed faults. [E]
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