National Recording Registry
2003
Table:
Recording or collection

Performer or agent

Year

National
Archives

"The Lord's Prayer" and
"Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"

Emile Berliner

c. 1890

"Honolulu Cake Walk"

Vess Ossman

1898

Victor Releases

Bert Williams and
George Walker

1901

"You're a Grand Old Rag [Flag]"

Billy Murray

1906

Chippewa/Ojibwe Cylinder Collection

Frances Densmore

1907–1910

The Bubble Book
(the first Bubble Book)

1917

Cylinder recordings
of African-American music

Guy B. Johnson

1920s

"Cross of Gold" speech
Speech re-enactment

William Jennings Bryan

1921

"The OKeh Laughing Record"

Lucie Bernardo and Otto Rathke

1922

"Adeste Fideles"

Associated Glee Clubs of America

1925

Cajun-Creole Columbia releases

Amédé Ardoin and
Dennis McGee

1929

"Goodnight, Irene"

Lead Belly

1933

"Every Man a King" speech

Huey P. Long

February 23, 1935

copy

"He's Got the Whole World in His Hands"

Marian Anderson

1936

The Complete Recordings

Robert Johnson

1936–1937

Interviews conducted by Alan Lomax

Jelly Roll Morton, Alan Lomax

1938

Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert

Benny Goodman

1938

Complete day of radio broadcasting, WJSV (Washington, D.C.)

WJSV, Washington, D.C.

September 21, 1939

original

"New San Antonio Rose"

Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys

1940

Porgy and Bess
(George Gershwin)

Original cast

1940, 1942

Looking at the provided table and the textual context listed below.

Answer the following question: What city was the transmitter located of the station that made an audio recording of its entire 19-hour broadcast day ? Output only the correct answer as {"answer": "YOUR ANSWER"}.

The Lord 's Prayer , also called the Our Father ( Latin , Pater Noster ) , is a venerated Christian prayer which , according to the New Testament , Jesus taught as the way to pray :
Twinkle , Twinkle , Little Star is a popular English lullaby . The lyrics are from an early-19th-century English poem by Jane Taylor , The Star . The poem , which is in couplet form , was first published in 1806 in Rhymes for the Nursery , a collection of poems by Taylor and her sister Ann . It is sung to the tune of the French melody Ah ! vous dirai-je , maman , which was published in 1761 and later arranged by several composers , including Mozart with Twelve Variations on Ah vous dirai-je , Maman . The English lyrics have five stanzas , although only the first is widely known . It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 7666 . This song is usually performed in the key of C major . The song is in the public domain , and has many adaptations around the world .
Emile Berliner ( May 20 , 1851 - August 3 , 1929 ) , originally Emil Berliner , was a German-born American inventor . He is best known for inventing the flat disc record ( called a gramophone record in British and American English ) and the Gramophone . He founded the United States Gramophone Company in 1894 , The Gramophone Company in London , England , in 1897 , Deutsche Grammophon in Hanover , Germany , in 1898 , Berliner Gram-o-phone Company of Canada in Montreal in 1899 ( chartered in 1904 ) , and Victor Talking Machine Company in 1901 with Eldridge Johnson .
Sylvester Louis Vess Ossman ( August 21 , 1868 - December 7 , 1923 ) was a leading five-string banjoist and popular recording artist of the early 20th century .
The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American record company and phonograph manufacturer headquartered in Camden , New Jersey . The company was founded by engineer Eldridge R. Johnson , who had previously made gramophones to play Emile Berliner 's disc records . After a series of legal wranglings between Berliner , Johnson and their former business partners , the two joined to form the Consolidated Talking Machine Co. in order to combine the patents for the record with Johnson 's patents improving its fidelity . Victor Talking Machine Co. was incorporated officially in 1901 shortly before agreeing to allow Columbia Records use of its disc record patent .
Bert Williams ( November 12 , 1874 - March 4 , 1922 ) was a Bahamian-American entertainer , one of the pre-eminent entertainers of the Vaudeville era and one of the most popular comedians for all audiences of his time . He was by far the best-selling black recording artist before 1920 . In 1918 , the New York Dramatic Mirror called Williams one of the great comedians of the world . Williams was a key figure in the development of African-American entertainment . In an age when racial inequality and stereotyping were commonplace , he became the first black American to take a lead role on the Broadway stage , and did much to push back racial barriers during his three-decade-long career . Fellow vaudevillian W. C. Fields , who appeared in productions with Williams , described him as the funniest man I ever saw - and the saddest man I ever knew .
You 're a Grand Old Flag is an American patriotic march . The song , a spirited march written by George M. Cohan , is a tribute to the U.S. flag . In addition to obvious references to the flag , it incorporates snippets of other popular songs , including one of his own . Cohan wrote it in 1906 for his stage musical George Washington , Jr . The chorus is also used ( with the words changed ) as the team song for the Melbourne Football Club .
William Thomas Billy Murray ( May 25 , 1877 - August 17 , 1954 ) was one of the most popular singers in the United States in the early 20th century . While he received star billing in vaudeville , he was best known for his prolific work in the recording studio , making records for almost every record label of the era .
The Ojibwe , Ojibwa , Chippewa , or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people of Canada and the northern Midwestern United States . They are one of the most numerous indigenous peoples north of the Rio Grande . In Canada , they are the second-largest First Nations population , surpassed only by the Cree . In the United States , they have the fifth-largest population among Native American peoples , surpassed in number only by the Navajo , Cherokee , Choctaw and Sioux . The Ojibwe people traditionally speak the Ojibwe language , a branch of the Algonquian language family . They are part of the Council of Three Fires and the Anishinaabeg , which include the Algonquin , Nipissing , Oji-Cree , Odawa and the Potawatomi . Historically , through the Saulteaux branch , they were a part of the Iron Confederacy , joining the Cree , Assiniboine , and Metis . The majority of the Ojibwe people live in the United States . There are 77,940 mainline Ojibwe ; 76,760 Saulteaux ; and 8,770 Mississauga , organized in 125 bands . They live from western Quebec to eastern British Columbia . As of 2010 [ update ] , Ojibwe in the U.S. census population is 170,742 . The Ojibwe are known for their birch bark canoes , birch bark scrolls , mining and trade in copper , as well as their cultivation of wild rice and maple syrup .
Phonograph cylinders are the earliest commercial medium for recording and reproducing sound . Commonly known simply as records in their era of greatest popularity ( c. 1896-1915 ) , these hollow cylindrical objects have an audio recording engraved on the outside surface , which can be reproduced when they are played on a mechanical cylinder phonograph . In the 1910s , the competing disc record system triumphed in the marketplace to become the dominant commercial audio medium .
Frances Theresa Densmore ( May 21 , 1867 - June 5 , 1957 ) was an American anthropologist and ethnographer born in Red Wing , Minnesota . Densmore is known for her studies of Native American music and culture , and in modern terms , she may be described as an ethnomusicologist .
African-American music is an umbrella term covering a diverse range of music and musical genres largely developed by African Americans . Their origins are in musical forms that arose out of the historical condition of slavery that characterized the lives of African Americans prior to the American Civil War . Following the Civil War , black Americans , through employment as musicians playing European music in military bands , developed a new style of music called ragtime which gradually evolved into jazz . In developing this latter musical form , African Americans contributed knowledge of the sophisticated polyrhythmic structure of the dance and folk music of peoples across western and sub-Saharan Africa . These musical forms had a wide-ranging influence on the development of music within the United States and around the world during the 20th century . The modern genres of blues and ragtime were developed during the late 19th century by fusing West African vocalizations - which employed the natural harmonic series , and blue notes . The earliest jazz and blues recordings were made in the 1920s . African-American musicians developed related styles such as rhythm and blues in the 1940s . In the 1960s , soul performers had a major influence on white US and UK singers . In the mid-1960s , Black musicians developed funk and they were many of the leading figures in late 1960s and 1970s genre of jazz-rock fusion . In the 1970s and 1980s , Black artists developed hip-hop , and in the 1980s introduced the disco-infused dance style known as house music . In the 2000s , hip-hop attained significant mainstream popularity .
Guy B. Johnson ( February 28 , 1901 - March 23 , 1991 ) was an American sociologist and social anthropologist . He was a distinguished student of black culture in the rural South and a pioneer advocate of racial equality .
The Cross of Gold speech was delivered by William Jennings Bryan , a former United States Representative from Nebraska , at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on July 9 , 1896 . In the address , Bryan supported bimetallism or free silver , which he believed would bring the nation prosperity . He decried the gold standard , concluding the speech , you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold . Bryan 's address helped catapult him to the Democratic Party 's presidential nomination ; it is considered one of the greatest political speeches in American history . For twenty years , Americans had been bitterly divided over the nation 's monetary standard . The gold standard , which the United States had effectively been on since 1873 , limited the money supply but eased trade with other nations , such as the United Kingdom , whose currency was also based on gold . Many Americans , however , believed that bimetallism ( making both gold and silver legal tender ) was necessary for the nation 's economic health . The financial Panic of 1893 intensified the debates , and when Democratic President Grover Cleveland continued to support the gold standard against the will of much of his party , activists became determined to take over the Democratic Party organization and nominate a silver-supporting candidate in 1896 . Bryan had been a dark horse candidate with little support in the convention . His speech , delivered at the close of the debate on the party platform , electrified the convention and is generally credited with getting him the nomination for president . However , he lost the general election to William McKinley , and the United States formally adopted the gold standard in 1900 .
William Jennings Bryan ( March 19 , 1860 - July 26 , 1925 ) was an American orator and politician from Nebraska . Beginning in 1896 , he emerged as a dominant force in the Democratic Party , running three times as the party 's nominee for President of the United States in the 1896 , 1900 , and 1908 elections . He also served in the United States House of Representatives and as the United States Secretary of State under Woodrow Wilson . Just before his death , he gained national attention for attacking the teaching of evolution in the Scopes Trial . Because of his faith in the wisdom of the common people , he was often called The Great Commoner . Born and raised in Illinois , Bryan moved to Nebraska in the 1880s . He won election to the House of Representatives in the 1890 elections , serving two terms before making an unsuccessful run for the Senate in 1894 . At the 1896 Democratic National Convention , Bryan delivered his Cross of Gold speech which attacked the gold standard and the eastern moneyed interests and crusaded for inflationary policies built around the expanded coinage of silver coins . In a repudiation of incumbent President Grover Cleveland and his conservative Bourbon Democrats , the Democratic convention nominated Bryan for president , making Bryan the youngest major party presidential nominee in U.S. history . Subsequently , Bryan was also nominated for president by the left-wing Populist Party , and many Populists would eventually follow Bryan into the Democratic Party . In the intensely fought 1896 presidential election , Republican nominee William McKinley emerged triumphant . Bryan gained fame as an orator , as he invented the national stumping tour when he reached an audience of 5 million people in 27 states in 1896 .
Okeh Records is an American record label founded by the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corporation , a phonograph supplier established in 1916 , which branched out into phonograph records in 1918 . The name was spelled OkeH from the initials of Otto K. E. Heinemann but later changed to OKeh . Since 1926 , Okeh has been a subsidiary of Columbia Records , a subsidiary of Sony Music . Okeh is a Jazz imprint distributed by Sony Masterworks , a specialty label of Columbia .
O Come , All Ye Faithful ( originally written in Latin as Adeste Fideles ) is a Christmas carol that has been attributed to various authors , including John Francis Wade ( 1711-1786 ) , John Reading ( 1645-1692 ) , King John IV of Portugal ( 1604-1656 ) , and anonymous Cistercian monks . The earliest printed version is in a book published by Wade , but the earliest manuscript bears the name of King John IV , and is located in the library of the Ducal Palace of Vila Viçosa . A manuscript by Wade , dating to 1751 , is held by Stonyhurst College in Lancashire . The original four verses of the hymn were extended to a total of eight , and these have been translated into many languages . The English translation of O Come , All Ye Faithful by the English Catholic priest Frederick Oakeley , written in 1841 , is widespread in most English-speaking countries .
The Cajuns ( /ˈkeɪdʒən/ ; Louisiana French : les Cadiens ) , also known as Acadians ( Louisiana French : les Acadiens ) , Spanish : el Acadianos ) , are an ethnic group mainly living in the U.S. state of Louisiana , and in the Canadian maritimes provinces as well as Quebec consisting in part of the descendants of the original Acadian exiles - French-speakers from Acadia ( L'Acadie ) in what are now the Maritimes of Eastern Canada . In Louisiana , Acadian and Cajun are often used as broad cultural terms without reference to actual descent from the deported Acadians . Historically , Louisianians of Acadian descent were also considered to be Louisiana Creoles , although Cajun and Creole are often portrayed as separate identities today . The Cajuns make up a significant portion of south Louisiana 's population and have had an enormous impact on the state 's culture . While Lower Louisiana had been settled by French colonists since the late 17th century , the Cajuns trace their roots to the influx of Acadian settlers after the Great Expulsion from their homeland during the French and British hostilities prior to the Seven Years ' War ( 1756 to 1763 ) . The Acadia region to which modern Cajuns trace their origin consisted largely of what are now Nova Scotia , New Brunswick , Prince Edward Island plus parts of eastern Quebec and northern Maine . Since their establishment in Louisiana , the Cajuns have become famous for their unique French dialect , Louisiana French ( also called Cajun French , although the dialect predates the Acadians ' arrival in Louisiana ) , and have developed a vibrant culture including folkways , music , and cuisine . The Acadiana region is heavily associated with them .
Louisiana Creole people ( French : Créoles de la Louisiane , Spanish : Criollos de Luisiana ) , are persons descended from the inhabitants of colonial Louisiana during the period of both French and Spanish rule . Louisiana Creoles share cultural ties such as the traditional use of the French , Spanish and Louisiana Creole languages [ note 1 ] and predominant practice of Catholicism . The term créole was originally used by French settlers to distinguish persons born in Louisiana from those born in the mother country or elsewhere . As in many other colonial societies around the world , creole was a term used to mean those who were native-born , especially native-born Europeans such as the French and Spanish . It also came to be applied to African-descended slaves and Native Americans who were born in Louisiana . The word is not a racial or ethnic label , and people of fully European descent , fully African descent , or of any mixture therein ( including Native American admixture ) may identify as Creoles . Starting with the native-born children of the French Ratatat sauvage , as well as native-born African slaves , 'Creole ' came to be used to describe Louisiana-born people to differentiate them from European immigrants and imported slaves . People of any race or ethnicity can and have identified as Creoles , and it is a misconception that créolité - the quality of being Creole - implies mixed racial origins . In the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries , the class of free people of color in Louisiana became associated with the term Creole , and further identification with mixed race took place during the interwar period in the 20th century . One historian has described this period as the Americanization of Creoles , including an acceptance of the American binary racial system that divided Creoles into those who identified as mostly white and others as mostly black . ( See Creoles of color . ) Créole was used casually as an identity in the 1700s in Louisiana .
Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment , a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America , the North American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony . It was founded in 1887 , evolving from the American Graphophone Company , the successor to the Volta Graphophone Company . Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in the recorded sound business , and the second major company to produce records . From 1961 to 1990 , Columbia recordings were released outside North America under the name CBS Records to avoid confusion with EMI 's Columbia Graphophone Company . Columbia is one of Sony Music 's four flagship record labels , alongside former longtime rival RCA Records , as well as Arista Records and Epic Records . Artists who have recorded for Columbia include AC/DC , Adele , Aerosmith , Louis Armstrong , Gene Autry , Count Basie , Nora Bayes , Bix Beiderbecke , Tony Bennett , Leonard Bernstein , Beyoncé , Blue Öyster Cult , Dave Brubeck , The Byrds , Mariah Carey , Pablo Casals , Johnny Cash , The Clash , The Cleveland Orchestra , Rosemary Clooney , Leonard Cohen , Ornette Coleman , Elvis Costello , Miles Davis , Neil Diamond , Celine Dion , Bob Dylan , Earth , Wind & Fire , Duke Ellington , 50 Cent , Flatt and Scruggs , Erroll Garner , Benny Goodman , Glenn Gould , Adelaide Hall , Herbie Hancock , Lauryn Hill , Billie Holiday , Vladimir Horowitz , Billy Joel , Blind Willie Johnson , Robert Johnson , Al Jolson , Janis Joplin , Andre Kostelanetz , Yo-Yo Ma , Johnny Mathis , John Mayer , George Michael , Mitch Miller , Charles Mingus , Thelonious Monk , Billy Murray , Willie Nelson , The New York Philharmonic , The Philadelphia Orchestra , Pink Floyd , Santana , Frank Sinatra , Simon and Garfunkel , Bessie Smith , John Philip Sousa , Bruce Springsteen , Igor Stravinsky , Barbra Streisand , System of a Down , James Taylor , Bonnie Tyler , Ethel Waters , Weather Report , Paul Whiteman , Andy Williams , Bert Williams , Pharrell Williams , Bob Wills , and Bill Withers .
Amédé Ardoin ( March 11 , 1898 - November 3 , 1942 ) was an American Louisiana Creole musician , known for his high singing voice and virtuosity on the Cajun accordion . He is credited by Louisiana music scholars with laying the groundwork for Creole music in the early 20th century , and wrote several songs now regarded as zydeco standards .
Dennis ( Denus ) McGee ( born January 26 , 1893 , Eunice , Louisiana , USA - October 3 , 1989 ) was one of the earliest recorded Cajun musicians . A fiddle player , he recorded and performed with Creole accordionist and vocalist Amédé Ardoin , with accordionist Angelas LeJeune , and with fiddlers Sady Courville and Ernest Frugé . The recordings with Courville and Frugé are among the few surviving examples of Cajun music as it existed before the influence of the accordion became prominent . McGee 's repertoire included not only the waltz and the two-step common to Cajun music but also such dances as the one-step , polka , mazurka , reel , cotillion , the varsovienne , and others .
Goodnight , Irene or Irene , Goodnight , is a 20th-century American folk standard , written in 3/4 time , first recorded by American blues musician Huddie 'Lead Belly ' Ledbetter in 1933 . The lyrics tell of the singer 's troubled past with his love , Irene , and express his sadness and frustration . Several verses refer explicitly to suicidal fantasies , most famously in the line sometimes I take a great notion to jump in the river and drown , which was the inspiration for the 1964 Ken Kesey novel Sometimes a Great Notion and a song of the same name from John Mellencamp 's 1989 album , Big Daddy , itself strongly informed by traditional American folk music .
Huddie William Ledbetter ( /ˈhjuːdi/ ; January 20 , 1888 - December 6 , 1949 ) , better known by the stage name Lead Belly , was an American folk and blues singer , musician and songwriter notable for his strong vocals , virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar , and the folk standards he introduced , including his renditions of Goodnight , Irene , Midnight Special , Cotton Fields , and Boll Weevil . Lead Belly usually played a twelve-string guitar , but he also played the piano , mandolin , harmonica , violin , and windjammer . In some of his recordings , he sang while clapping his hands or stomping his foot . Lead Belly 's songs covered a wide range of genres and topics including gospel music ; blues about women , liquor , prison life , and racism ; and folk songs about cowboys , prison , work , sailors , cattle herding , and dancing . He also wrote songs about people in the news , such as Franklin D. Roosevelt , Adolf Hitler , Jean Harlow , Jack Johnson , the Scottsboro Boys and Howard Hughes . Lead Belly was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2008 . Though many releases credit him as Leadbelly , he himself wrote it as Lead Belly , which is also the spelling on his tombstone and the spelling used by the Lead Belly Foundation .
Huey Pierce Long Jr. ( August 30 , 1893 - September 10 , 1935 ) , nicknamed The Kingfish , was an American politician who served as the 40th governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and was a member of the United States Senate from 1932 until his assassination in 1935 . As the political leader of Louisiana , he commanded wide networks of supporters and was willing to take forceful and dictatorial action . He established the long-term political dominance and dynasty of the Long family . During Long 's years in power , large expansions were made in infrastructure , education and health care . Long was notable among southern politicians for avoiding race baiting and white supremacy , and he sought to improve the conditions of impoverished blacks as well as impoverished whites . Under Long 's leadership , hospitals and educational institutions were expanded , a system of charity hospitals was set up that provided health care for the poor , and massive highway construction and free bridges brought an end to rural isolation . A Democrat and an outspoken left-leaning populist , Long denounced the wealthy urban Baton Rouge and D.C. elites , oligarchs and the banks . Initially a supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt during his first 100 days in office , Long eventually came to believe that Roosevelt 's New Deal policies were an insufficient compromise and did not do enough to alleviate the issues of the poor or tackle the Depression . As a result , he developed his own solution called the Share Our Wealth program , which would establish a net asset tax , the earnings of which would be redistributed so as to curb the poverty and homelessness epidemic nationwide during the Great Depression . Long 's Share Our Wealth plan was established on February 23 , 1934 , with the motto Every Man a King . To stimulate the economy , Long advocated extensive federal spending on public works , schools and colleges , and old age pensions . Long argued that his plan would enable everyone to have at least a car , a radio , and a home worth $ 5,000 .
He 's Got the Whole World in His Hands is a traditional African American spiritual , first published in 1927 . It became an international pop hit in 1957-58 in a recording by English singer Laurie London , and has been recorded by many other singers and choirs .
Marian Anderson ( February 27 , 1897 - April 8 , 1993 ) was an American singer of classical music and spirituals . Music critic Alan Blyth said : Her voice was a rich , vibrant contralto of intrinsic beauty . She performed in concert and recital in major music venues and with famous orchestras throughout the United States and Europe between 1925 and 1965 . Although offered roles with many important European opera companies , Anderson declined , as she had no training in acting . She preferred to perform in concert and recital only . She did , however , perform opera arias within her concerts and recitals . She made many recordings that reflected her broad performance repertoire , which ranged from concert literature to lieder to opera to traditional American songs and spirituals . Between 1940 and 1965 the German-American pianist Franz Rupp was her permanent accompanist . Anderson became an important figure in the struggle for black artists to overcome racial prejudice in the United States during the mid-twentieth century . In 1939 , the Daughters of the American Revolution ( DAR ) refused permission for Anderson to sing to an integrated audience in Constitution Hall in Washington , DC . The incident placed Anderson into the spotlight of the international community on a level unusual for a classical musician . With the aid of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and her husband Franklin D. Roosevelt , Anderson performed a critically acclaimed open-air concert on Easter Sunday , April 9 , 1939 , on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in the capital .
The Complete Recordings is a compilation album by American Delta blues musician Robert Johnson . The 41 songs were recorded in two sessions in Dallas and San Antonio , Texas for the American Record Company ( ARC ) during 1936 and 1937 . Most were first released on 78 rpm records in 1937 . The Complete Recordings , released August 28 , 1990 , by Columbia Records , contains every recording Johnson is known to have made , with the exception of an alternate take of Travelling Riverside Blues . The Complete Recordings peaked at number 80 on the Billboard 200 chart . The album sold more than a million copies , and won a Grammy Award in 1991 for Best Historical Album . In 1992 , the Blues Foundation inducted the album into the Blues Hall of Fame . It also was included by the National Recording Preservation Board in the Library of Congress ' National Recording Registry in 2003 . Eric Clapton and Keith Richards contributed to the album liner notes with essays on Johnson 's influence on their music .
Robert Leroy Johnson ( May 8 , 1911 - August 16 , 1938 ) was an American blues singer , songwriter and musician . His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing , guitar skills , and songwriting talent that has influenced later generations of musicians . Johnson 's poorly documented life and death have given rise to much legend . The one most closely associated with his life is that he sold his soul to the devil at a local crossroads to achieve musical success . He is now recognized as a master of the blues , particularly the Delta blues style . As an itinerant performer who played mostly on street corners , in juke joints , and at Saturday night dances , Johnson had little commercial success or public recognition in his lifetime . He participated in only two recording sessions , one in San Antonio in 1936 , and one in Dallas in 1937 , that produced 29 distinct songs ( with 13 surviving alternate takes ) recorded by famed Country Music Hall of Fame producer Don Law . These songs , recorded at low fidelity in improvised studios , were the totality of his recorded output . Most were released as 10-inch , 78 rpm singles from 1937-1938 , with a few released after his death . Other than these recordings , very little was known of him during his life outside of the small musical circuit in the Mississippi Delta where he spent most of his life ; much of his story has been reconstructed after his death by researchers . His music had a small , but influential , following during his life and in the two decades after his death . In late 1938 John Hammond sought him out for a concert at Carnegie Hall , From Spirituals to Swing , only to discover that Johnson had died .
Alan Lomax ( /ˈloʊmæks/ ; January 31 , 1915 - July 19 , 2002 ) was an American ethnomusicologist , best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music of the 20th century . He was also a musician himself , as well as a folklorist , archivist , writer , scholar , political activist , oral historian , and film-maker . Lomax produced recordings , concerts , and radio shows in the US and in England , which played an important role in preserving folk music traditions in both countries , and helped start both the American and British folk revivals of the 1940s , 1950s and early 1960s . He collected material first with his father , folklorist and collector John A. Lomax , and later alone and with others , Lomax recorded thousands of songs and interviews for the Archive of American Folk Song , of which he was the director , at the Library of Congress on aluminum and acetate discs . After 1942 , when Congress cut off the Library of Congress 's funding for folk song collecting , Lomax continued to collect independently in Britain , Ireland , the Caribbean , Italy , and Spain , as well as the United States , using the latest recording technology , assembling an enormous collection of American and international culture . In March 2004 the material captured and produced without Library of Congress funding was acquired by the Library , which brings the entire seventy years of Alan Lomax 's work together under one roof at the Library of Congress , where it has found a permanent home . With the start of the Cold War , Lomax continued to speak out for a public role for folklore , even as academic folklorists turned inward . He devoted much of the latter part of his life to advocating what he called Cultural Equity , which he sought to put on a solid theoretical foundation through to his Cantometrics research ( which included a prototype Cantometrics-based educational program , the Global Jukebox ) . In the 1970s and 1980s Lomax advised the Smithsonian Institution 's Folklife Festival and produced a series of films about folk music , American Patchwork , which aired on PBS in 1991 . In his late seventies , Lomax completed a long-deferred memoir , The Land Where the Blues Began ( 1995 ) , linking the birth of the blues to debt peonage , segregation , and forced labor in the American South . Lomax 's greatest legacy is in preserving and publishing recordings of musicians in many folk and blues traditions around the US and Europe . Among the artists Lomax is credited with discovering and bringing to a wider audience include blues guitarist Robert Johnson , protest singer Woody Guthrie , folk artist Pete Seeger , country musician Burl Ives , and country blues singer Lead Belly , among many others .
Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe ( October 20 , 1890 - July 10 , 1941 ) , known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton , was an American ragtime and early jazz pianist , bandleader and composer who started his career in New Orleans , Louisiana . Widely recognized as a pivotal figure in early jazz , Morton was jazz 's first arranger , proving that a genre rooted in improvisation could retain its essential spirit and characteristics when notated . His composition Jelly Roll Blues , published in 1915 , was the first published jazz composition . Morton also wrote the standards King Porter Stomp , Wolverine Blues , Black Bottom Stomp , and I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say , the last a tribute to New Orleans musicians from the turn of the 20th century . Morton 's claim to have invented jazz in 1902 aroused resentment . The jazz historian , musician , and composer Gunther Schuller says of Morton 's hyperbolic assertions that there is no proof to the contrary and that Morton 's considerable accomplishments in themselves provide reasonable substantiation . Alan Lomax , who recorded extensive biographical interviews of Morton at the Library of Congress in 1938 , did not agree that Morton was an egotist :
The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert by Benny Goodman , Columbia Records catalogue item SL-160 , is a two-disc LP of swing and jazz music recorded at Carnegie Hall in New York City on January 16 , 1938 . First issued in 1950 , the landmark recording captured the premiere performance given by a big band in the famed concert venue . The event has been described as the single most important jazz or popular music concert in history : jazz 's 'coming out ' party to the world of 'respectable ' music . Both critical and public reception of the performances was outstanding . The title , mastered from preserved acetates , [ c ] was among jazz 's first double albums , first live recordings , and first to sell over a million copies . One of the earliest records of Benny Goodman music issued on the new long-playing format , the concert recording was also sold in a set of nine 45 rpm records in 1950 by Columbia . The subsequent discovery of the aluminum studio masters made from the original recording resulted in several high-quality CD reissues beginning in 1998 . [ d ]
Benjamin David Goodman ( May 30 , 1909 - June 13 , 1986 ) was an American jazz clarinetist and bandleader known as the King of Swing . In the mid-1930s , Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in the United States . His concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City on January 16 , 1938 is described by critic Bruce Eder as the single most important jazz or popular music concert in history : jazz 's 'coming out ' party to the world of 'respectable ' music . Goodman 's bands started the careers of many jazz musicians . During an era of racial segregation , he led one of the first integrated jazz groups . He performed nearly to the end of his life while exploring an interest in classical music .
On September 21 , 1939 radio station WJSV in Washington , D.C. made an audio recording of its entire 19-hour broadcast day . This undertaking was a collaboration between the station and the National Archives , and it was the first time that such a comprehensive recording of a radio broadcast had been made . The station then donated its original set of recording discs to the National Archives , giving it a rare and complete artifact from an era frequently called the Golden Age of Radio . Due to their historical significance , the United States Library of Congress has since added these sound recordings to its National Recording Registry .
WJSV is a student-run radio station in Morristown , New Jersey . WJSV is run by students of Morristown High School and owned by the Morris School District . WJSV , first bought by the Morris School District in 1971 , generally broadcasts Monday through Friday from 7:30 am to 8:30 pm while school is in session . WJSV 's main transmitter is located at Mountain Way School in Morris Plains , New Jersey . Currently , the station is completely run by members and an executive staff composed totally of students . The executive staff is mainly an emulation of the above the line positions at a commercial radio station , including Program Director , Music Director , News Director , and obviously , Station Manager . Usually the station is supervised only by two staff members , one being the Station Advisor , currently Michael Butler ; the other is the Chief Engineer , formerly Steven Woodruff . Before the station was bought by the Morris School District , Morristown High School had already had a TV station , which upon purchasing WJSV , was renamed JSV-TV . For many years it was used for a weekly show named Colonial Corner . However , in the 2013-2014 school year , Colonial Corner moved to an online-only format , with episodes hosted on YouTube .
New San Antonio Rose ( originally and often referred to as just San Antonio Rose ) was the signature song of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys . San Antonio Rose was an instrumental song written by Bob Wills , who first recorded it with the Playboys on November 28 , 1938 . Band members added lyrics and it was retitled New San Antonio Rose . A fresh recording was made on April 16 , 1940 ( Okeh 05694 ) with a vocal by Tommy Duncan . The song opens with the refrain :
James Robert Wills ( March 6 , 1905 - May 13 , 1975 ) was an American Western swing musician , songwriter , and bandleader . Considered by music authorities as the co-founder of Western swing , he was known widely as the King of Western Swing ( although Spade Cooley self-promoted the moniker King of Western Swing from 1942 to 1969 ) . Wills formed several bands and played radio stations around the South and West until he formed the Texas Playboys in 1934 with Wills on fiddle , Tommy Duncan on piano and vocals , rhythm guitarist June Whalin , tenor banjoist Johnnie Lee Wills , and Kermit Whalin , who played steel guitar and bass . The band played regularly on Tulsa , Oklahoma radio station KVOO and added Leon McAuliffe on steel guitar , pianist Al Stricklin , drummer Smokey Dacus , and a horn section that expanded the band 's sound . Wills favored jazz-like arrangements and the band found national popularity into the 1940s with such hits as Steel Guitar Rag , New San Antonio Rose , Smoke On The Water , Stars And Stripes On Iwo Jima , and New Spanish Two Step . Wills and the Texas Playboys recorded with several publishers and companies , including Vocalion , Okeh , Columbia , and MGM , frequently moving . In 1950 , he had two top 10 hits , Ida Red Likes the Boogie and Faded Love , which were his last hits for a decade . Throughout the 1950s , he struggled with poor health and tenuous finances , but continued to perform frequently despite the decline in popularity of his earlier music as rock and roll took over . Wills had a heart attack in 1962 and a second one the next year , which forced him to disband the Playboys , although Wills continued to perform solo . The Country Music Hall of Fame inducted Wills in 1968 and the Texas State Legislature honored him for his contribution to American music . In 1972 , Wills accepted a citation from the American Society of Composers , Authors and Publishers in Nashville . He was recording an album with fan Merle Haggard in 1973 when a stroke left him comatose until his death in 1975 .
Porgy and Bess ( /ˈpɔːrɡi/ ) is an English-language opera by the American composer George Gershwin , with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin . It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward 's play Porgy , itself an adaptation of DuBose Heyward 's 1925 novel of the same name . Porgy and Bess was first performed in Boston on September 30 , 1935 , before it moved to Broadway in New York City . It featured a cast of classically trained African-American singers - a daring artistic choice at the time . After an initially unpopular public reception , a 1976 Houston Grand Opera production gained it new popularity , and it is now one of the best-known and most frequently performed operas . The libretto of Porgy and Bess tells the story of Porgy , a disabled black street-beggar living in the slums of Charleston . It deals with his attempts to rescue Bess from the clutches of Crown , her violent and possessive lover , and Sportin ' Life , her drug dealer . The opera plot generally follows the stage play . In the years following Gershwin 's death , Porgy and Bess was adapted for smaller scale performances . It was adapted as a film in 1959 . Some of the songs in the opera , such as Summertime , became popular and are frequently recorded . In the late 20th and early 21st centuries , the trend has been toward productions with greater fidelity to Gershwin 's original intentions .
George Gershwin ( /ˈɡɜːrʃ.wɪn/ ; born Jacob Bruskin Gershowitz , September 26 , 1898 - July 11 , 1937 ) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned both popular and classical genres . Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions Rhapsody in Blue ( 1924 ) and An American in Paris ( 1928 ) , the songs Swanee ( 1919 ) and Fascinating Rhythm ( 1924 ) , the jazz standard I Got Rhythm ( 1930 ) , and the opera Porgy and Bess ( 1935 ) which spawned the hit Summertime . Gershwin studied piano under Charles Hambitzer and composition with Rubin Goldmark , Henry Cowell , and Joseph Brody . He began his career as a song plugger but soon started composing Broadway theater works with his brother Ira Gershwin and with Buddy DeSylva . He moved to Paris intending to study with Nadia Boulanger , but she refused him . He subsequently composed An American in Paris , returned to New York City and wrote Porgy and Bess with Ira and DuBose Heyward . Initially a commercial failure , it came to be considered one of the most important American operas of the twentieth century and an American cultural classic . Gershwin moved to Hollywood and composed numerous film scores . He died in 1937 of a malignant brain tumor . His compositions have been adapted for use in film and television , with several becoming jazz standards recorded and covered in many variations .