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2021 Winners: ARSC Awards for Excellence

The Association for Recorded Sound Collections is pleased to announce the winners of the 2021 ARSC Awards for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research. The awards will be presented at a virtual ceremony at ARSC’s annual conference, which will be hosted in May 2022. Additional information about the ARSC Conference and the ARSC Awards for Excellence may be found on the association's website.

Begun in 1991, the ARSC Awards for Excellence are awarded to authors of books, articles, or recording liner notes to recognize those publishing the very best work today in recorded sound research. In giving these awards, ARSC recognizes the contributions of these individuals, aims to encourage others to emulate their high standards, and hopes to promote readership of their work. Two awards are presented annually in each category, for best history and best discography, and others are acknowledged with Certificates of Merit. Awards are presented to both the authors and publishers of winning publications.

The 2021 Awards for Excellence honor works published in 2020.

Read the full press release here.


Select titles below for links to:    

and other independent publishing sites.

   

 


[ Best Historical Research in Recorded Rock and Soul Music ]

Best History

A New Day Yesterday: UK Progressive Rock & The 1970s
A New Day Yesterday: UK Progressive Rock & The 1970s
by Mike Barnes
(Omnibus Press)

Certificate of Merit

Knock! Knock! Knock! On Wood: My Life in Soul
Knock! Knock! Knock! On Wood: My Life in Soul
by Eddie Floyd and Tony Fletcher
(BMG Books)

Certificate of Merit

Heart Full of Soul: Keith Relf of the Yardbirds
Heart Full of Soul: Keith Relf of the Yardbirds
by David French
(McFarland)

Certificate of Merit

All My Yesterdays: The Autobiography of Steve Howe
All My Yesterdays: The Autobiography of Steve Howe
by Steve Howe
(Omnibus Press)

Certificate of Merit

Black Diamond Queens: African American Women and Rock and Roll
Black Diamond Queens: African American Women and Rock and Roll
by Maureen Mahon
(Duke University Press)

Certificate of Merit

Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy – The Musical Journey of Free and Bad Company
Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy – The Musical Journey of Free and Bad Company
by David Roberts
(This Day In Music Books)

Certificate of Merit

Ted Templeman: A Platinum Producer’s Life in Music
Ted Templeman: A Platinum Producer’s Life in Music
by Ted Templeman, as told to Greg Renoff
(ECW Press)

[ Best Historical Research in Recorded Popular Music ]

Best History

Eubie Blake: Rags, Rhythm, and Race
Eubie Blake: Rags, Rhythm, and Race
by Richard Carlin and Ken Bloom
(Routledge)

Best Discography

The Paul McCartney Catalog: A Complete Annotated Discography of Solo Works, 1967-2019
The Paul McCartney Catalog: A Complete Annotated Discography of Solo Works, 1967-2019
by Ted Montgomery
(McFarland)

Certificate of Merit

God Rock Inc.: The Business of Niche Music
God Rock Inc.: The Business of Niche Music
by Andrew Mall
(University of California Press)

Certificate of Merit

Cornstars: Rube Music in Swing Time: The Rise and Fall of Freddie Fisher and his Schnickelfritz Band, Stan Fritts and his Korn Kobblers and the Hillbilly, Cornball, Novelty Jazz of the 1930s, 40s, 50s
Cornstars: Rube Music in Swing Time: The Rise and Fall of Freddie Fisher and his Schnickelfritz Band, Stan Fritts and his Korn Kobblers and the Hillbilly, Cornball, Novelty Jazz of the 1930s, 40s, 50s
by Jack Norton
(self published)

Certificate of Merit

Nat Brusiloff and His Orchestra: Out of A Clear Blue Sky (1930-1934)
Nat Brusiloff and His Orchestra: Out of A Clear Blue Sky (1930-1934)
by David Sager
(Rivermont Records)

[ Best Historical Research in Recorded Jazz ]

Best History

Heart Full of Rhythm: The Big Band Years of Louis Armstrong
Heart Full of Rhythm: The Big Band Years of Louis Armstrong
by Ricky Riccardi
(Oxford University Press)

Certificate of Merit

Better Days Will Come Again: The Life of Arthur Briggs, Jazz Genius of Harlem, Paris, and a Nazi Prison Camp
Better Days Will Come Again: The Life of Arthur Briggs, Jazz Genius of Harlem, Paris, and a Nazi Prison Camp
by Travis Atria
(Chicago Review Press)

Certificate of Merit

Straighten Up and Fly Right: Life and Music of Nat King Cole
Straighten Up and Fly Right: Life and Music of Nat King Cole
by Will Friedwald
(Oxford University Press)

Certificate of Merit

This is Bop: Jon Hendricks and the Art of Vocal Jazz
This is Bop: Jon Hendricks and the Art of Vocal Jazz
by Peter Jones
(Equinox Publishing Ltd.)

Certificate of Merit

Keith Jarrett: A Biography
"Playing for the King: Ziggy Elman, Benny Goodman, and 1930s Klezmer Swing,” Jazz and Culture 3/1 (2020): 22-44
by Sarah Caissie Provost

Certificate of Merit

Keith Jarrett: A Biography
Keith Jarrett: A Biography
by Wolfgang Sandner, trans. Chris Jarrett
(Equinox Publishing Ltd.)

Certificate of Merit

Sun Ra's Chicago: Afrofuturism and the City
Sun Ra's Chicago: Afrofuturism and the City
by William Sites
(University of Chcago Press)

[ Best Historical Research in Recorded Country or Roots Music ]

Best History

The Music of The Statler Brothers: An Anthology
The Music of The Statler Brothers: An Anthology
by Don Reid
(Mercer University Press)

Certificate of Merit

Capital Bluegrass: Hillbilly Music Meets Washington, DC
Capital Bluegrass: Hillbilly Music Meets Washington, DC
by Kip Lornell
(Oxford University Press)

Certificate of Merit

Nashville Cats: Record Production in Music City
Nashville Cats: Record Production in Music City
by Travis D. Stimeling
(Oxford University Press)

[ Best Historical Research in Recorded Blues, Folk, or World Music ]

Best History

Eastern Mediterranean Judeo-Spanish Songs from The EMI Archive Trust
Eastern Mediterranean Judeo-Spanish Songs from The EMI Archive Trust, 1907-1912
by Rivka Havassy and Edwin Seroussi
(Jewish Music Research Centre, Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

Best Discography

The Texas Blues of Smokey Hogg
The Texas Blues of Smokey Hogg
by Guido van Rijn
(Agram Books)

Certificate of Merit

Joan Baez: The Last Leaf
Joan Baez: The Last Leaf
by Elizabeth Thomson and Arthur Levy
(Palazzo Editions)

[ Best Historical Research in Recorded Classical Music ]

Best History

Listening to Charles Ives: Variations on His America
Listening to Charles Ives: Variations on His America
by J. Peter Burkholder
(Amadeus Press)

Certificate of Merit

Music and Letters
The Changing Aesthetics of Vocal Registration in the Age Of ‘Verismo,’” Music & Letters, vol. 102, no. 1, pp. 54-79
by Barbara Gentili

Certificate of Merit

Les Grands Quatuors a Cordes du XX Siecle
Les Grands Quatuors a Cordes du XX Siecle
by Jean-Michel Molkhou
(Buchet Chastel)

Certificate of Merit

Music by Max Steiner: The Epic Life of Hollywood's Most Influential Composer
Music by Max Steiner: The Epic Life of Hollywood's Most Influential Composer
by Steven C. Smith
(Oxford University Press)

[ Best Historical Research on Record Labels and General Recording Topics ]

Best History

Record Cultures: The Transformation of the U.S. Recording Industry
Record Cultures: The Transformation of the U.S. Recording Industry
by Kyle Barnett
(University of Michigan Press)

Best Discography

The Changing Aesthetics of Vocal Registration in the Age Of Verismo
Columbia, Regal & Phoenix: 10-inch Masters Issued in the UK
by Bill Dean-Myatt and Mike Langridge
(City of London Phonograph and Gramophone Society)

Certificate of Merit

Kick It: A Social History of the Drum Kit
Kick It: A Social History of the Drum Kit
by Matt Brennan
(Oxford University Press)

Certificate of Merit

Mind Over Matter: The Myths and Mysteries of Detroit's Fortune Records
Mind Over Matter: The Myths and Mysteries of Detroit's Fortune Records
by Billy Miller and Michael Hurtt
(Kicks Books)

Certificate of Merit

Making Sense of Recordings: How Cognitive Processing of Recorded Sound Works
Making Sense of Recordings: How Cognitive Processing of Recorded Sound Works
by Mads Walther-Hansen
(Oxford University Press)

Certificate of Merit

Excavated Shellac: An Alternate History of the World’s Music (1907-1967)
Excavated Shellac: An Alternate History of the World’s Music (1907-1967)
by Jonathan Ward
(Dust to Digital)

 

For more information, please contact Roberta Freund Schwartz (University of Kansas).

Winners are chosen by a committee consisting of three elected judges representing specific fields of study, two judges-at-large, the review editor of the ARSC Journal and the President or past President of ARSC. The 2021 ARSC Awards Committee consists of the following:

Rob Bamberger (Jazz Music Judge); John Haley (Classical Music Judge); Matthew Barton (Popular Music Judge and ARSC President); Cary Ginell (Judge-At-Large); Richard Spottswood (Judge-at-Large); James Farrington (Book Review Editor, ARSC Journal); Patrick Feaster (ARSC Past President); and Roberta Freund Schwartz (Awards Committee Chair).

 

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