[78-L] Mucca Pazza to Record on Wax Cylinder Phonograph at Thomas Edison NHP on June 15

[Gerald_Fabris at nps.gov]

Thomas Edison NHP News Release

Mucca Pazza to Record on Wax Cylinder Phonograph at Thomas Edison NHP on
June 15

WEST ORANGE, NJ – On June 15, visitors to Thomas Edison National Historical
Park will have the opportunity to watch a unique band as they step back in
time. Mucca Pazza, a brass band from Chicago, will be the featured artist
at a wax cylinder phonograph recording taking place on Friday, June 15 from
1:00 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. The entrance fee is $7.00. Children under age 16 are
free. There is no additional fee for the program.

Described as a marching band that thinks it's a rock 'n roll band, Mucca
Pazza will be recording onto a wax cylinder in the same way it was done in
Edison's time over a century ago. The method of capturing sound is
non-electric. Like the artists who recorded for Edison at the turn of the
20th century, Mucca Pazza will play in front of a large horn that will
serve as their microphone.

“Even now with all the technology and various mediums in which recorded
music is delivered, if you step back from the dazzle of modern gadgetry,
it’s hard not to be amazed at a recording process developed over a hundred
years ago”, said Jim Thomson, owner of the group’s recording label,
Electric Cowbell Records, “I like to think that a little bit of magic is
going to happen on June 15 with Mucca Pazza”.

Mucca Pazza play everything from the accordion and the violin to trumpets,
sousaphones and Middle Eastern hand drums. “We look like a marching band
and occasionally behave like a marching band, but we don’t sound like one,”
explains mandolin player Gary Kalar. Twenty-nine members of the band will
be at the park on June 15 to march in formation, rip through drum cadences
and maybe even incite mass dance outbreaks.

Thomas Edison National Historical Park is a National Park Service site
dedicated to promoting an international understanding and appreciation of
the life and extraordinary achievements of Thomas Alva Edison by
preserving, protecting, and interpreting the Park’s extensive historic
artifact and archive collections at the Edison Laboratory Complex and
Glenmont, the Edison family estate. The entrance fee is $7.00. Children
under age 16 are free. The Visitor Center is located at 211 Main Street in
West Orange, New Jersey. For more information or directions call
973-736-0550 ext. 11 or visit: www.nps.gov/edis

National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior
Thomas Edison
National Historical Park
211 Main Street
West Orange, NJ 07052
973 736-0550 phone
973 736-6567 fax

- NPS -