78 Quarterly Volume 1 - No. 6 (1991)

I recently learned that my all-time favorite magazine, 78 Quarterly, has officially run its course and is no longer in circulation. At the ripe old age of 80, editor-publisher Pete Whelan apparently just doesn't have it in him to keep it going. Considering what a great resource his periodical is to fans of vintage American music - blues especially - and how much time and attention he obviously put into each issue, his retirement from this labor of love is well-deserved. There is so much fascinating information collectively contained in the pages of its dozen installments that it would take a lifetime for someone to absorb all of the specifics contained therein. With today's post being an overview of Volume One, No. 6, that means we're halfway finished with making all 12 issues available in PDF format for research purposes.

TONY MOSTROM'S ARTISTRY PERFECTLY COMPLEMENTS
HIS ESOTERIC SENSE OF HUMOR - CLICK TO ENLARGE

As usual, things get started with the best "Letters to the Editor" section ever to be featured in a magazine. That is, if you're obsessively into prewar blues and related styles. Then there is an auction list with a list of 78s that I can only dream about. Following that, the real writing begins...

ORPHEUS MYRON MCADOO, "SINGER AND IMPRESARIO OF THE
VIRGINIA JUBILEE SINGERS," ONE OF MANY FORGOTTEN
MUSICAL PIONEERS MENTIONED IN "100 YEARS FROM TODAY"

Several of the articles are continuations of multi-part series that began in previous issues. Stephen Calt and Gayle Dean Wardlow's fourth chapter in their gripping history of Paramount Records covers the time during which Arthur Laibly was sales manager and recording director for the label, an era when it "became a dumping-ground for uncommercial 'race' talent." Additionally, their piece presents some fascinating details on Mayo Williams's departure from the company and the important role that Birmingham talent scout Harry Charles played in recording prewar blues artists from Alabama such as Bo Weavil Jackson, Ed Bell, Buddy Boy Hawkins, Cow Cow Davenport, and many others. The second part of William Howard "Louie Bluie" Armstrong's autobiography as told to Terry Zwigoff is a must-read for anyone who found the first part in No. 5 as absorbing as I did.

MORE OF TONY MOSTROM'S ARTISTIC HUMOR WITH A VERY
SPECIFIC TARGET AUDIENCE IN MIND - CLICK TO ENLARGE

Going back to records that are strictly the stuff of fantasy, "78 Presents the Rarest 78s" provides a roll call for super-rare shellac by artists with names beginning with the letters H, I, and Ja. An interesting exercise would be to determine the total monetary value of all the discs included in the list. The subtitle of the second appearance of "100 Years from Today," which for the next few issues would be a regularly-featured section in the magazine, pretty much tells you everything that you need to know: "A Survey of Afro-American Music in 1890 as Recorded in the Black Community Press." Reading these contemporary accounts is kind of like being an archaeologist stumbling upon historical documents from a lost civilization. Part four of Tom Tsotsi's history of Gennett Records perfectly complements its aforementioned counterpart in the Paramount series as it discusses the company's relationship with Mayo Williams and his celebrated but short-lived Black Patti label among other things.


Of course, the excellent roots music journalism that defines 78 also manifests itself with a couple of stand-alone articles. "The Myth of Rock and Roll" by Stephen Calt is one of the most thought-provoking things ever written about a genre that resists being easily defined to this very day. Read this extremely persuasive and impeccably-researched piece, and you will understand why. Cal Stephens supplies a transcription of Booker "Bukka" White's recollections of Alabamian harmonica player George "Bullet" Williams, which is about the only biographical information that we have on this elusive harp blower. And finally, for good measure, this issue includes a couple of hilarious cartoons (well, at least I think they are) by Tony Mostrom and a handful of book reviews.

Mandatory summer reading for the Yazoo-Document-Mamlish-Origin Jazz Library-Old Hat Records, etc., etc. crowd.