[Dixielandjazz] Who to leave my recordings to?

[Patrick Cooke]

I have thought about this for some time now...no one in my family will
appreciate my recordings...most of them don't like jazz....giving them the
records won't change that...they wouldn't even play them.
    Willing them to family members who don't appreciate them is a total
waste.  They would probably sell them to a used records dealer for pennies.
    The Raeburn jazz archive at Tulane University sounds like a good idea,
but I don't know any local musicians who have ever been there to check out a
record...I've never been there myself.
     The Smithsonian is a good place for them to get lost.  I was there just
3 years ago, and about 18 years previous to that.  The American museum had
the same music exhibits both times...an exhibit devoted to Ella Fitzgerald,
and a little thing for Duke Ellington.  You could choose any of about a
dozen tunes to listen to on a very cheap sound device.  (one person at a
time could do this).  By far the largest exhibit for anything musical was
devoted to Woody Guthrie...a writer/singer of folk music who gave us such
gems as "I don't care if it rains or freezes, 'long as I got my plat Jesus,
stuck up on the dash board of my car....."
      Only about 5% of the stuff the Smithsonian has is on display...the
rest is all in warehouses somewhere.  The art museum sometimes has traveling
exhibits, but other than that, there doesn't seem to be much (make that
ANY)rotation.  It seems anything you donate to them would be lost forever.
      I still don't have an answer for what to do with the records.  I have
CDs purchased 6 months ago that still have the plastic wrap on them.  I
can't even keep track of them myself.
      For the Library of Congress...They have to print a truckload of stuff
every day that Congress is in session.  Every word that is spoken....every
volume that is even mentioned or referenced..is printed in full, cataloged,
and stored somewhere in the bowels of Washington.  You think they have time
(or the inclination) to worry about jazz recordings???
       I still don't have an answer.....but I have recordings I haven't
listened to for years, as I'm sure many of you also have.  'What to do with
them?'... is a question I just don't have an answer for yet.
      Pat Cooke

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dan Augustine" <ds.augustine@mail.utexas.edu>
To: "DJML" <dixielandjazz@ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Monday, November 25, 2002 11:25 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Who to leave my recordings to?


> Folks--
>      Intimations of mortality: just wondering what i'm going to do
> with all my recordings when i die (hopefully not for a couple of
> decades yet).  I don't have very many, compared with some/most of
> you, but still. Guess i could just will them to my brother's kids
> (i'm single), but they don't know anything about this kind of music,
> probably don't like it.
>      The other option is to give them to a university music school--in
> my case, either University of Nevada at Reno, or here at UT Austin.
>      But wouldn't it be nice with there were other options?  What
> about giving my collection to an American Dixieland Library (not yet
> created), along with other folks' collections, so that a great
> incredible history of recorded OKOM would be available for fans,
> kids, scholars, musicians.  Digitize them for posterity.
>      Or, if that's not possible, how about donating them somewhere,
> but then creating a world-wide database of dixieland collections at
> libraries and such from all over the world.  That might be even
> better.
>      I just hate to see libraries and music schools get these great
> recordings and not care about them and not use them and make them
> available, nor have any way for fans and scholars to know they're
> available.
>      Just pre-midnight lucubrations and nattering on....
>
> Dan
> --
> **--------------------------------------------------------------------**
> **  Dan Augustine     Austin, Texas     ds.augustine@mail.utexas.edu  **
> **    "Most people wouldn't know music if it came up and bit them     **
> **     on the ass."  --  Frank Zappa                                  **
> **--------------------------------------------------------------------**
>
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