Worlds of Sound: The Story of Smithsonian Folkways

by Richard Carlin

A man, a microphone, and a dream When he opened his tiny recording studio in New York in 1940, Moses Asch had a larger-than-life To document and record all the sounds of his time. He created Folkways Records to achieve his goal, not just a record label but a statement that all sounds are equal and every voice deserves to be heard. The Folkways catalog grew to include a myriad of voices, from world- and roots-music to political speeches; the voices of contemporary poets and steam engines; folk singers Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie and jazz pianists Mary Lou Williams and James P. Johnson; Haitian vodoun singers and Javanese court musicians; deep-sea sounds and sounds from the outer ring of Earth's atmosphere. Until his death in 1986, Asch—with the help of collaborators ranging from the eccentric visionary Harry Smith to academic musicologists—created more than 2000 albums, a sound-scape of the contemporary world still unequalled in breadth and scope. Worlds of Sound documents this improbable journey. Along the way you'll A young Pete Seeger, revolutionizing the world with his five-string banjo
The amazing vocal ensembles of the Ituri Pygmies
North American tree frogs
Ella Jenkins's children's music
Lead Belly singing "The Midnight Special"
The nueva canción of Suni Paz. Folkways became a part of the Smithsonian Institution's collections shortly after Asch's death. Today Smithsonian Folkways continues to make the "worlds of sound" Moe Asch first dreamed of 60 years ago available to all. The Folkways vision is expansive and all-inclusive, and Worlds of Sound advances its rich and lively spirit.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, History

304 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2008

Reviews

[Milford Public Library Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone interested in music history in general or the folk revival in the 50s & 60s in particular, will find something to like in this great history of a record company (i.e. Folkways Records/Smithsonian Folkways.)

Moses “Moe” Asch had a vision. The Polish-American recording engineer and record executive wanted to assemble and release all the sounds of his time, including “the entire range of the world’s music and oral traditions.” He began Folkways Records in 1948, and ran it until his death in 1986. Folkways, as its name implies, was influential in bringing folk music to the masses, and into the cultural mainstream of America, and was instrumental in the folk music revival of the 1940s-60s.

Asch is best-remembered for recording such folk and blues greats as: Woody Guthrie, Cisco Houston, Leadbelly, Pete Seeger, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee. He was also a pioneer in the collection, recording and release of music from all over the world: Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, as well as the Caribbean. He also documented a wide range of African-American culture, from jazz to poetry to children’s songs and spoken word albums.

Asch had a unique policy for his record company, which was unheard of then or today: he never deleted a single title from his Folkways catalog. Regardless of their sales, all of his recordings were always available for purchase. Following his death, and in accordance with his will, this policy was upheld by the Smithsonian Institution following their acquisition of his entire catalog of recordings in 1986. In addition to Asch’s 2,168 recordings that are still available for purchase, Smithsonian Folkways has added some 300 new titles to this catalog since, with new titles being added every year.

Smithsonian Folkways recordings have something for everyone, and run the gamut of: African-American, bluegrass, blues, children's, classical, country, documentary, Gospel, holiday, humor, jazz, ragtime, language instruction, music instruction, Native American, old time, oral history, poetry, prose, psychology/health, sacred, science & nature, sounds, soundtracks, spoken word, struggle & protest, and a wide array of world music (including: Cajun, Caribbean, Celtic, Central Asia, Hawaiian, India, Islamic, Judaic, etc.)

[Andrew]

Think this one was recently remaindered, worth picking up just to get an overview of the, to put it mildly, eclectic range of music and sounds commercially issued by Folkways.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great overview of an important, eclectic record label.