[ARSCLIST] The Gennett Project

[Malcolm Rockwell <malcolm@xxxxxxxx>]

Greetings fellow listmembers -
It is with great pleasure that Malcolm Rockwell announces his
collaboration with Charlie Dahan, Professor of Music Industry at Oneonta

State College in Oneonta, New York. With the support of The
Starr-Gennett Foundation in Richmond, Indiana, we have begun an
inclusive discography of Gennett and its related labels.

Charlie is a freelance A&R consultant, producer and writer/critic. He
has been a part of over 70 commercial releases and has two Grammy
nominations. For over 7 years he was the Director of A&R at Shanachie
Records. He is a member of NARAS (Grammy voter), MEIEA, The Blues
Foundation and the Blues Music Association.

Malcolm has been involved in the music business since his early teens.
He is currently concluding work on  "Hawaiian & Hawaiian Guitar Records
1891 - 1960", a discography of early Hawaiian recording. He is a member
of the Association For Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC), The Hawaiian
Steel Guitar Association (HSGA) and The Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame.

The Starr-Gennett Foundation works to promote and preserve the history
of Gennett Records and its parent organization, the Starr Piano Company.

The Foundation's objective is to collect as many of the recordings made,

released, pressed, or sold by the Starr Piano Company/Gennett Records
and to feature in a digital and real archive, which will be housed in
the reconstruction of the recording studio they plan on building by
2006. For further info, their web address is
http://www.starrgennett.org/

We announce this in hopes that others in the field - researchers,
collectors, historians, etc. - will come forth and join us in our
efforts.

There is much to be done.

As far as I have ascertained, ledgers prior to c. 1921 are nonexistent.
The ledgers we have copies of  were seemingly all purchased at auction
by Bill Grauer and the originals currently are housed at Rutgers. This,
and some recording cards held by various institutions and collectors,
accounts for the bulk of the primary data available at this time.

We are seeking record collectors with issues from Ge 4500 to 5577, and
any of the 7500, 8500, 10000 & 11000 series to help fill in the gaps.
Collectors with multiple issues of the same material on different labels

are also sought for aural take differentiation.

For instance, Casey Jones by The Harrison Quartet appeared c. June 1928
on Gennett 6670, Champion 15521, Supertone  9026 (Sears), Silvertone
8031 (Sears), [??] 33045. We need to know if more that one take was
actually released, as indicated in the ledgers.

I am seeking further secondary supporting data on the Sears labels
(Silvertone 8000 & Supertone 9000 series), and I am also seeking those
who have concentrated on collecting Gennett and/or it's other subsidiary

labels.

All aid, suggestions and information gratefully accepted.
Malcolm Rockwell