...from a WNYC (NY Public Radio) e-mail today:
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We all know the extraordinary work of Sara Fishko - from The Fishko Files
to her hour-long specials to her music hosting. Now add The Jazz Loft.
Celebrated photographer Eugene Smith lived and worked in a loft in the
Flower District (6th Avenue and the 20s) in the late 50s. While the
photographs Smith made during that period are well known it was not until
well after his death that Sam Stephenson, a writer and Smith specialist
based at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, discovered
that Smith had wired the loft with microphones and tape recorders. The
result was 4000 hours of open reel recordings...uncatalogued but featuring
the musicians, artists, and thinkers who spent time and worked in the loft.
Among those working in the Loft were Thelonious Monk, Zoot Sims, Bill
Evans, Teddy Charles, Phil Woods and a hundred others at least. The tapes
include primary source recordings of Thelonious Monk working out the
arrangements for the famous Town Hall Concert in 1959 -- a huge
historical/musical discovery. Smith also recorded everyday life in the
loft: traffic outside, cats meowing, long, searching conversations among
it's inhabitants, encounters with local cops. The quality of the material is
remarkably good. The Jazz Loft archive is still being digitized at Duke
University in North Carolina. This archive makes possible an unprecedented,
candid acquaintance with a particular kind of urban life in mid-century. It
comes as no surprise to any of us that when Sam Stephenson thought about who
would make radio and other media out of this, he contacted Sara Fishko. And
that is how the Jazz Loft became a WNYC project.
WNYC is joining CDS and other cultural institutions in making a major
project out of this discovery, which is of interest to general audiences and
jazz scholars alike. Sam Stephenson is writing the Jazz Loft book, to be
published by Knopf in late'09 or early 10; 175 Eugene Smith photos from
inside and outside the Loft go on exhibition at the Lincoln Center Library
for the Performing Arts in Feb. of '10; and the Jazz Loft Radio Series -- 10
segments and 2 or 3 stand-alone programs -- start airing during that period
to coincide with the other elements of the project. The series will be the
first hearing of any amount of this tape by the general public and will
focus on some of the remarkable revelations of the archive, much of which
has remained unopened since Smith stopped taping in the mid-1960's. Sara
has the cooperation of CDS; many of the stellar jazz players who jammed at
the Loft and who are still with us with memories in tact; as well as some of
America's leading jazz scholars and cultural thinkers. Sara will be juggling
the Jazz Loft project with some number of Fishko Files for the next many
months, along with her associate producer Noel Black. Julie Burstein is
working as Sara's Editor; Limor Tomer is working on the February concerts;
and Noreen O'Loughlin and Chris McKenna are dreaming big digitial dreams for
the content.
Jazz Loft is now in production and as its realization gets closer we'll be
playing audio samples and making visual material available for you to enjoy.
We intend for you to meet Sam Stephenson, see Smith's photos, and hear the
story of the tapes in the coming months.