[78-L] Paramount matrix book

[Malcolm Rockwell]

This was posted to another list but is too important to just leave it there.
Malcolm

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The New York Recording Laboratories Matrix Series is the most complete and
up-to-date discography of NYRL recordings produced in Chicago, Illinois and
Grafton, Wisconsin. Documenting of these recordings was started half a
century ago by Max Ernst Vreede of the Netherlands (1927-1991). When Vreede
fell ill in 1986, I helped him update the discography. In 1995, the L matrix
series was published in issue 9 of Pete Whelan's magazine, 78 Quarterly.
Now, sixteen years later, the Paramount and Broadway matrix lists have been
updated by me and Alex van der Tuuk. These discographies differ from earlier
listings such as Vreede's Paramount 12000/13000 Series (1971) and Laurie
Wright's OKeh Race Records 8000 Series (2001), which list the issued records
in numerical order. The Agram series of Paramount and Broadway discographies
lists all matrices in numerical order, making information available on
issued and unissued recordings.
Volume One lists the L matrix series, which ran from number 1 in about
September 1929 to number 1637 in July 1932. Where known, all take numbers of
each matrix are listed. All original issues on 78 rpm records and reissues -
or issues - on LP and CD are given, and where known, variations in the
titles on different issues are shown. Acknowledged discographers have been
consulted to verify information.
In the listing, the heading of each block of matrix numbers shows the
location and the date of the recordings. Each block has five columns:

1. The matrix number of the recording. Unknown matrix numbers are marked as
"?".

2. The take number. A separate line is used for each take. Unknown take
numbers are marked as "-''.

3. The artist credit.

4. The title.

5. Details of the issued record or test recording. Reissues, whether on 78
rpm, long-playing album or CD, are printed in italics.

Label variations of the artist's name and title are shown in bold.
Additional remarks about the records are listed as footnotes. We have used
one line for each matrix number, so discographers can make notes when new
information is discovered. Extra pages have been added at the end of the
discography, allowing more space for additions.
Our research has established a chronology that differs from the one in the
fourth edition of Blues&  Gospel Records by Dixon, Godrich&  Rye (1997).
This new chronology is explained in the Introduction.
Illustrations on left hand pages relate to recordings listed on the facing
right hand pages. After the Wall Street crash in 1929, Paramount stopped
advertising in the major African-American newspapers. However,
advertisements continued to appear in more obscure papers, and in catalogues
and leaflets. Many of the illustrations we traced for the L matrix series
are so rare that they have seldom or never been seen by collectors. We spent
a great deal of time on the restoration of these illustrations, as their
original conditions ranged from poor to very poor indeed.
In the 1995 78 Quarterly publication, 39% of the NYRL L matrices had been
traced. Our research has raised the percentage to 52%.
The book is 30 euros, please contact me about postage.

Guido van Rijn
  <mailto:rijn8194%40planet.nl>  rijn8194 at planet.nl
  <http://home.tiscali.nl/guido/>  http://home.tiscali.nl/guido/