[78-L] Stephen Fassett of Hobbies magazine (last post for me)

[Donna Halper]

One last article from the Boston Globe, 17 June 1990, says "...The 
publication of these recordings [by Roland Hayes] is the partial 
realization of a long dream. Stephen B. Fassett, a Boston-based 
recording engineer, taped most of Hayes' recital appearances during the 
last years of his career and worked carefully with Hayes to get the best 
sound out of his earlier recordings. Fassett's hope was to prepare a 
three-disc set on LP. The first record would have been a collection of 
the early Hayes recordings, which document the development of the 
singer's art from immature imitation of Caruso and McCormack into the 
inimitable Roland Hayes. A second disc would be art songs from the live 
concerts, the third a collection of spirituals.

After Fassett's death, his widow, Kitty, devotedly carried the project 
forward. One record company agreed to the project -- and then went out 
of business the same week the first disc of spirituals was issued, 
thereby making it a great rarity. Another company also worked on the 
project, but ran into difficulties of its own. Now, 35 years after 
Fassett had the foresight to record Hayes, the Smithsonian has issued 
the CD."