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2018 Winners: ARSC Awards for Excellence

The Association for Recorded Sound Collections is pleased to announce the winners of the 2018 ARSC Awards for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research. The awards will be presented at a ceremony on May 11, 2019, during ARSC’s annual conference in Portland, OR. Additional information about the conference and the ARSC Awards for Excellence can be found at www.arsc-audio.org.

Begun in 1991, the ARSC Awards are given 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 and aims to encourage others to emulate their high standards and to promote readership of their work. Two awards are presented annually in each category, for best history and best discography, and several others are acknowledged with Certificates of Merit. Awards are presented to both the authors and publishers of winning publications.

The 2018 Awards for Excellence honor books published in 2017.


Select titles below for links to:    

and other independent publishing sites.

   

 

[ Best Research in Recorded Rock Music ]

Best History

Prince and the Purple Rain Era Studio Sessions: 1983 and 1984
Prince and the Purple Rain Era Studio Sessions: 1983 and 1984
by Duane Tudahl
(Rowman & Littlefield)

Certificate of Merit

Goodnight, L.A.: The Rise and Fall of Classic Rock - the Untold Stories from Inside the Legendary Recording Studios
Goodnight, L.A.: The Rise and Fall of Classic Rock - the Untold Stories from Inside the Legendary Recording Studios
by Kent Hartman
(Da Capo)

Certificate of Merit

Music Lessons: A Musical Memoir, Volume 1
Music Lessons: A Musical Memoir, Volume 1
by Norbert Putnam
(Thimbleton House Media)

[ Best Research in Recorded Popular Music ]

Best History

Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell
Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell
by David Yaffe
(Sara Crichton Books)

 

Best Discography

Abba: The Complete Recording Sessions: Revised and Expanded Edition
Abba: The Complete Recording Sessions: Revised and Expanded Edition
by Carl Magnus Palm
(Carl Magnus Palm)

Certificate of Merit

Talking Machine West: A History and Catalogue of Tin Pan Alley's Western Recordings, 1902–1918
Talking Machine West: A History and Catalogue of Tin Pan Alley's Western Recordings, 1902–1918
by Michael A. Amundson
(University of Oklahoma Press)

[ Best Historical Research in Recorded Jazz ]

Best History

Queen of Bebop: The Musical Lives of Sarah Vaughan
Queen of Bebop: The Musical Lives of Sarah Vaughan
by Elaine M. Hayes
(Ecco)

Best Discography

The Herbie Mann Picto-Discography
The Herbie Mann Picto-Discography
by Cary Ginell
(lulu.com)

Certificate of Merit

Tatum’s Town: The Story of Jazz in Toledo, Ohio (1915-1985)
Tatum’s Town: The Story of Jazz in Toledo, Ohio (1915-1985)
by Bob Dietsche
(Bobson Press)

Certificate of Merit

New Orleans Remix
New Orleans Remix
by Jack Sullivan
(University Press of Mississippi)

Certificate of Merit

The Godfather of British Jazz:  The Life and Music of Stan Tracey
The Godfather of British Jazz: The Life and Music of Stan Tracey
by Clark Tracey
(Equinox)

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

Best History

So Much Things to Say: The Oral History of Bob Marley
So Much Things to Say: The Oral History of Bob Marley
by Roger Steffens
(W. W. Norton)

Best Discography

Cajun Records 1946-1989
Cajun Records 1946-1989
by Nick Leigh
(self-published)

Certificate of Merit

Welcome to Zamrock!: How Zambia's Liberation Led to a Rock Revolution
Welcome to Zamrock!: How Zambia's Liberation Led to a Rock Revolution
by Eothen Alapatt and Leonard Koloko
(NowAgain Records)

Certificate of Merit

Modal Modernities: Formations of Persian Classical Music and the Recording of a National Tradition
Modal Modernities: Formations of Persian Classical Music and the Recording of a National Tradition
by Mohsen Mohammadi
(CreateSpace)

Certificate of Merit

Chinatown Opera Theater in North America
Chinatown Opera Theater in North America
by Nancy Yunhwa Rao
(University of Illinois Press)

[ Best Historical Research in Recorded Blues, Gospel, Soul or R&B ]

Best History

Otis Redding: An Unfinished Life
Otis Redding: An Unfinished Life
by Jonathan Gould
(Crown Archetype)

Certificate of Merit

The Original Blues: The Emergence of the Blues in African American Vaudeville
The Original Blues: The Emergence of the Blues in African American Vaudeville
by Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff
(University Press of Mississippi)

Certificate of Merit

Got to Be Something Here: The Rise of the Minneapolis Sound
Got to Be Something Here: The Rise of the Minneapolis Sound
by Andrea Swennson
(University of Minnesota Press)

Certificate of Merit

New Paramount Book of the Blues
New Paramount Book of the Blues
by Alex van der Tuuk
(Agram)

[ Best Historical Research in Recorded Classical Music ]

Best History

Toscanini: Musician of Conscience
Toscanini: Musician of Conscience
by Harvey Sachs
(Liveright)

Best Discography

"Cantigas de Santa Maria" Discography
"Cantigas de Santa Maria" Discography [pdf]
by Jerome F. Weber
(Plainsong and Medieval Music Society)

Certificate of Merit

Treatise on Musical Objects: An Essay Across Disciplines
Treatise on Musical Objects: An Essay Across Disciplines
by Pierre Schaeffer, Christine North, and John Dack
(University of California Press)

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

Best History

Edouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, Inventor of Sound Recording: A Bicentennial Tribute
Edouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, Inventor of Sound Recording: A Bicentennial Tribute
by David Giovannoni, Patrick Feaster, and Anne Thiollier
(Archeophone)

Certificate of Merit

Vocalion Records
Vocalion Records
by Frank Andrews
(City of London Phonograph and Gramophone Society)

Certificate of Merit

Democracy of Sound: Music Piracy and the Remaking of American Copyright in the Twentieth Century
Democracy of Sound: Music Piracy and the Remaking of American Copyright in the Twentieth Century
by Alex Sayf Cummings
(The Moravian Library)

Certificate of Merit

Sonic Technologies: Popular music, Digital culture and the Creative Process
Sonic Technologies: Popular music, Digital culture and the Creative Process
by Robert Strachan
(Bloomsbury Academic)

 

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 2018 ARSC Awards Committee consists of the following:

Dan Morgenstern (Jazz Music Judge); Jon Samuels (Classical Music Judge); Matthew Barton (Popular Music Judge and ARSC Presedent); Cary Ginell (Judge-At-Large); Richard Spottswood (Judge-at-Large); James Farrington (Book Review Editor, ARSC Journal); Patrick Feaster (ARSC past President); David N. “Uncle Dave” Lewis (Awards Committee Co-Chair), and Roberta Freund Schwartz (Awards Committee Co-Chair).

 

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