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Frederic Ramsey audio recordings

Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

Object Details

Shared Stewardship of Collections
The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage acknowledges and respects the right of artists, performers, Folklife Festival participants, community-based scholars, and knowledge-keepers to collaboratively steward representations of themselves and their intangible cultural heritage in media produced, curated, and distributed by the Center. Making this collection accessible to the public is an ongoing process grounded in the Center's commitment to connecting living people and cultures to the materials this collection represents. To view the Center's full shared stewardship policy, which defines our protocols for addressing collections-related inquiries and concerns, please visit https://doi.org/10.25573/data.21771155.
Creator
Ramsey, Frederic, 1915-1995
Place
Southern States -- Music
Topic
Blues (Music)
Music -- African-American
African American musicians
Jazz musicians
Jazz -- Louisiana -- New Orleans
Jazz
Provenance
This collection was donated by Frederic Ramsey's daughter Alida Porter in 1996.
Creator
Ramsey, Frederic, 1915-1995
See more items in
Frederic Ramsey audio recordings
Summary
This collection contains open reel recordings made by noted jazz scholar Frederic Ramsey during his tour of the American South in the 1950s.
Biographical / Historical
Frederic Ramsey Jr. (1915-1995), son of painter Charles Frederic Ramsey, was a jazz scholar and author who worked with a number of musicians in the South and the New York/New Jersey area, notably Lead Belly. After receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1953, Ramsey undertook a tour of the South in order to explore and document the African-American music environment. His goal was to record the speech and music of persons at least sixty years of age or older in an attempt to trace the evolution of the musical genre that would become jazz. Ramsey produced a number of recordings for the Folkways label in the 1950s-1960s. [From Jeff: Frederic Ramsey Jr. (1915-1995) was a jazz critic, scholar, fieldworker and record producer. He was the author of a number of books on jazz, including Jazzmen (with Charles Edward Smith) and the Jazz Record Book. He became one of the main producers for Moses Asch at Asch, Disc, and Folkways Records of jazz and blues. Ramsey was one of the first to deploy an open reel tape recorder using it in New York City in 1949 to record Lead Belly in a set of sessions at his apartment, that were to be Lead Belly's last. What was noteworthy about this is that a reel to reel deck allowed one to record a longer recording than the previous 4 minutes on instantaneous discs. This allowed Led Belly to stretch out and do his extended rhymes and longer songs and to tell stories of his life. It was released by Folkways as a 2 LP 2-records each set. Each side was one track so more material could be fit in. The new LP format allowed for Folkways to create anthologies of music with multiple tracks per side. This allowed Ramsey the ability to create a 11-volume anthology of jazz in the early 1950s. It was the first of many anthologies for Folkways. He also received a Guggenheim fellowship in 1954-56 to go to Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana to record vernacular African American music. This included field hollers, spirituals, and brass bands. It was Ramsey's desire to find the roots of jazz in early African-American music forms. He recorded hundreds of tapes they make up the bulk of Ramsey Tape Collection. A 10 LP set Music from the South was released from these trips. Also, there was a book Been Here and Gone with his magnificent photographs from the trip. Other notable recordings released by Folkways include an interview album of Baby Dodds, a box set of shape-note singing, and recordings of a, then, teenaged Michael Hurley. In 1975, with other grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Ford Foundation, he researched the life of Buddy Bolden. After the death of Frederic Ramsey Jr., folklorist Kip Lornell arranged the donation of Ramsey's tape and record collection to the Smithsonian.]
Extent
8.83 Cubic feet
Date
1945-1959
Archival Repository
Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections
Identifier
CFCH.RAMS
Type
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Citation
Frederic Ramsey audio recordings, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution.
Arrangement
The tapes are organized and shelved by accession number.
Processing Information
Prepared by Jeff Place and revised by Stephanie Smith.
Rights
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
Scope and Contents
The collection includes 400? Open reel audio tapes. They are from Ramsey's fieldwork and various projects, many for Folkways Records. The bulk of the recordings come from Ramsey's fieldwork in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana in 1954-56.
Restrictions
Access to the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections is by appointment only. Visit our website for more information on scheduling a visit or making a digitization request. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies.
Related Materials
Frederic Ramsey's personal papers are available at Rutgers University Institute of Jazz Studies. Ramsey's photograph collection (many from the same field projects) can be found in the collections of the Hogan Jazz Archive at Tulane University.
Related link
Record ID
ebl-1649109300700-1649109308066-0
Metadata Usage
CC0
GUID
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/bk5ebc883ed-96f3-4f1b-9e4b-1b8fde86e4f4

In the Collection

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  • The I Remember You/Breeze and I

  • Music from the South, MAY 08 1954

  • World Library of Folk and Primitive Music: Bulgaria

  • I've Been Working on the Railroad: A Farewell to Steam

  • Ramsey Recordings: Mike Hurley, First Songs

  • Music from the South, Horace Sprott

  • What is This Thing Called Love?/Goofin' with a Ghost

  • My Sin/Doubtful Blues

  • Giants of Jazz

  • Put Yourself in My Place, Baby/The Wildest Gal in Town

  • Ramsey Recordings: AJR, Rags

  • The Folksinger's Guitar Guide

  • Greek disc

  • Music from the South, Small

  • Landowska from WNYC, FEB 11 1951

  • Music from the South, Small High Society

  • What a Little Moonlight Can Do/If You Were Mine

  • Fasola, Sacred Harp Singing

  • Talkin' About My Time

  • Music from the South, St. Matthew Baptist Church

  • Sing, Sing, Sing, pts. 1 & 2

  • Music from the South, Elder David Ross

  • Belgian Congo Records

  • Spanish-Mexican Folk Music of New Mexico

  • The Sound of Africa Series: Chopi, Mozambique

  • Jackson Blues, 1928-1938

  • Darktown Strutter's Ball/My Last Affair

  • Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight/Oh Didn't He Ramble

  • Duke Ellington

  • Henry Brown Blues/Twenty-First Street Stomp

  • Harlem Holiday/Don't Want That Man Around

  • In a Little Cafe/Your Red Lips

  • Lead Belly Last Sessions, OCT 15 1948 (CDR copy, also CDR 302/303/304)

  • Music from the South, Eureka Brass Band (CDR copy)

  • Special Delivery Stomp/Keepin' Myself for You

  • Music from the South, Horace Sprott

  • Beginning, The, Vol. 2

  • Bugle Call Rag/Dee Blues 1930

  • Songs of the West

  • Minnie the Moocher's Wedding Day/Heat Waves

  • Rhodes - Comics

  • Music from the South, Horace Sprott

  • Ramsey Recordings: Sterling Brown

  • My Eyes Have Seen...

  • Music from the South, Jake Field Cabin

  • Music from the South, Horace Sprott APR 21 1954 (CDR copy)

  • Swing Era, The: Music of 1937-1938

  • Sounds of Four Seasons, APR 26 1953

  • St. Louis Blues March/Cherokee Canyon

  • Stardust/Curry in a Hurry

  • Sounds of Four Seasons - Winter and Spring

  • Mississippi Portrait transcription, NBC News, APR 12 1965

  • Music from the South, Dave Butler, JUN 23 1954 (CDR copy)

  • Laughing at You/I Can't Believe

  • Music from the South, Rev. Lewis Jackson JUN 25 1954 (CDR copy)

  • Music from the South, Dave Butler

  • Music from the South, Vol. 4: Horace Sprott, 3, side 1 (CDR copy)

  • Native Brazilian Music, Vol. 2

  • I Want a Little Girl/Joseph and His Brudders

  • Misc., including Jelly Roll Morton (CDR copy)

  • Springtime in the Tyrols: Austrian Folk Songs, Dancing Songs and Yodels

  • Baby, Don't You Cry/Blazer's Boogie

  • Brahms Clarinet Quintet with Kell and Bus, DEC 16 1948

  • Ramsey Recordings: Odyssey Show

  • (I Got a Woman, Crazy For Me) She's Funny That Way/Improvasation for the March of Time

  • I Never Knew/Tickle-Toe

  • For My Country/Flower of One Day

  • Music from the South, Scott Dunbar JUN 24 1954 (CDR copy)

  • e.e. cummings, FEB 02 1975

  • Music from the South, APR 17 1954 (CDR copy)

  • Mississippi Blues, 1927-1936

  • Music from the South, Elder David Ross

  • from R. Remaily , 1967

  • Souvenir of Austria

  • Music from the South, Horace Sprott, MAY 05 1954 (CDR copy)

  • Music from the South, Horace Sprott

  • Fasola, Sacred Harp Singing

  • Yancey's Blues/That Funny Feeling

  • Boogie Woogie Boy/Tiger Rag

  • Low Down Dog/Bewildered

  • Siobhan McKenna Reads Irish Fairy Tales

  • Steel Band

  • Jean Ritchie (CDR copy)

  • I Can Hear it Now, 1933-1945

  • Music from the South

  • Drowsy Dempsey/Sounds From Home

  • I Ain't Got Nothing But the Blues/As Long as I Live

  • Mississippi Portrait transcription, NBC News, 1965

  • Fasola, Sacred Harp Singing

  • Ramsey Recordings: Steve Weber

  • Song Was Born, A/Before Long

  • More Hank Snow Souvenirs 1964

  • Impact at Basin Street East- Recorded Live

  • Pelican Stomp/Boogie Woogie

  • Tex-Arkana-Louisiana Country

  • Hey, Daddy-O/Slow Burn

  • ????

  • Sweet Hawaiian Moonlight Waltz/Hilo

  • Say It Simple (So I Can Understand)/I'm Lazy, That's All

  • Music from the South, Horace Sprott

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Studs Terkel's Weekly Almanac on Folk Music
There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page .
International media Interoperability Framework
IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.
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