Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded the WorldThe remarkable life and times of the man who popularized American folk music and created the science of song Folklorist, archivist, anthropologist, singer, political activist, talent scout, ethnomusicologist, filmmaker, concert and record producer, Alan Lomax is best remembered as the man who introduced folk music to the masses. Lomax began his career making field recordings of rural music for the Library of Congress and by the late 1930s brought his discoveries to radio, including Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and Burl Ives. By the 1940s he was producing concerts that brought white and black performers together, and in the 1950s he set out to record the whole world. Lomax was also a controversial figure. When he worked for the U. S. government he was tracked by the FBI, and when he worked in Britain, MI5 continued the surveillance. In his last years he turned to digital media and developed technology that anticipated today's breakthroughs. Featuring a cast of characters including Eleanor Roosevelt, Leadbelly, Carl Sandburg, Carl Sagan, Jelly Roll Morton, Muddy Waters, and Bob Dylan, Szwed's fascinating biography memorably captures Lomax and provides a definitive account of an era as seen through the life of one extraordinary man. |
Contents
Road Scholars | |
The Saga of Lead Belly | |
CHAPTER 4Travels with Zora Neale Hurston and Mary Elizabeth Barnicle | |
Honeymoon in Haiti | |
Doctor Jazz | |
Bohemian Folklorist | |
Living on the Black List | |
The Grand Tour | |
From Folk to | |
The American Campaign Resumed | |
The Science of Folk Song | |
To Hear the World in a Grain of Sand | |
The Culture | |
Got the World in a Jug the Stopper in My Hand | |
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Common terms and phrases
African American Alan Lomax Alan wrote Alan’s albums American Folk Song archive asked audience ballads band Barnicle began Belly’s Bess blues broadcast called cantometrics Charles Seeger children’s collecting collectors Columbia commercial recordings concert culture dance Decca developed Elizabeth Ewan MacColl father festival film folk songs folklore folklorist folksingers guitar Haiti Harold Spivacke Harvard hear heard Hurston Ibid idea interviewed jazz Jelly Roll Morton John Lomax knew later Lead Belly learned letters Library of Congress listened living Lomax to John Mississippi musicians Nat Hentoff National Negro never night Orleans People’s Songs performers Pete Seeger plans played political popular prison record companies sang script singers singing social song style South southern story sung talk Texas thought tradition trip turned University wanted Washington Woody Guthrie writing York City Zora Neale Hurston