In 2000, Congress passed the National Recording Preservation Act, a law "to
establish the National Recording Registry in the Library of Congress to maintain
and preserve sound recordings and collections of sound recordings that are
culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, and for other purposes."
The first 50 recordings chosen for selection in the National Recording Registry
were announced last week, and they represent an audio soundscape of the late
19th and 20th centuries. Included are such landmark broadcasts as President
Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Fireside Chats," Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater's "War of the Worlds," the radio debut of Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First?" routine, Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, and seminal recordings such as Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" and Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land." New Orleans' reputation as the birthplace of jazz is validated by the inclusion of Louis Armstrong's Hot 5s and Hot 7s recordings, and the Original Dixieland Jazz Band's "Tiger
Rag."
But who would have ever thought that a live performance of tortured New Orleans
piano genius James Booker at Tipitina's also would be included? Or an interview
with the late Doc Cheatham from the Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage at Jazz
Fest? Those are just two of the segments included in an archive that the National
Recording Registry has entered as the "Crescent City Living Legends Collection." The
title's obviously a misnomer, but it doesn't diminish this unexpected recognition
of New Orleans music and culture -- and puts it on par with the legacies of
Miles Davis and the Grand Ole Opry.
Credit for this honor goes to WWOZ 90.7 FM and the Jazz & Heritage Foundation.
The New Orleans broadcasts included in the National Registry Collection are
a combination of interviews and live broadcasts culled from early interviews
and performances at Jazz Fest (beginning in 1973), and live broadcasts and
interviews from WWOZ through 1990.
The recordings are recommended and voted on by a 34-member board that includes representatives from diverse entities such as the American Folklore Society, BMI, the Country Music Foundation, and at-large members such as Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart. The list of board members doesn't yield any names with direct New Orleans ties, which begs the question: How did the board know these WWOZ and Jazz Fest recordings existed?
That credit goes to an unlikely source: a former Science and Engineering
Fellow to the White House Economic Council from 1993-94. Elizabeth Cohen formerly
held that position, and currently serves the National Recording Registry board
as a member of the Audio Engineering Society. "I'm an amateur ethnomusicologist, and I've always loved the music of New Orleans," says Cohen by phone from California, where she currently teaches at Stanford and UCLA. "I'm
a firm believer that there's now evidence of how the arts empower communities,
and the arts are good business for communities.
"I was always aware of WWOZ, but my awareness of them really grew back in '93, because we were doing a lot of Internet outreach and showing how various communities could communicate with other communities and the Internet could help develop them as an economic engine for their communities." Cohen
helped WWOZ get online at the time, making the station one of the first public
radio stations on the Internet.
"WWOZ is public radio at its best, and I've been following them for over a decade," says Cohen. "The
music speaks for itself. This is the voice of the city, and a broad cross-section
of music. Each of the DJs has such unique personalities and areas of expertise,
and that is reflective of New Orleans. Radio is an area these days of tremendous
conglomeration, and WWOZ is one of the few places left that is preserving the
cultural heritage of their community. The librarians (at the Library of Congress)
really recognized that."
The Library of Congress designation for these WWOZ and Jazz Fest tapes also
serves a more pressing need, as many of the recordings are older reel-to-reel
tapes. "These recordings are more in need of immediate preservation than some of these commercially released recordings like Louis Armstrong," says Mary Bucknum, curator of Sound Recordings at the Library of Congress. "There
is also funding to help with preservation with those recordings."
In the case of the Jazz & Heritage Foundation and WWOZ, that funding will
help facilitate their own preservation efforts, as well as aid their ability
to create research copies for outside organizations. With more than 2,500 recordings
currently held by the Foundation -- including approximately 1,500 recordings
from the Music, African, Folk, and Food Heritage stages at Jazz Fest -- this
Library of Congress recognition can help spread the gospel of Louisiana culture
not just locally and in Washington, D.C., but throughout the world.
