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Lost & Found Sound

Lost & Found Sound: Downloading the Repertoire

In this week's installment of Lost and Found Sound, "Quest for Sound" Curator Jay Allison introduces David Greenberger. Greenberger made a strange tape recording back in 1981 of a man who sang 129 songs in 45-minutes. The singer was a gentleman named Jack Murdurian, who renders popular music items one after another in the same careless, toneless cadences. The recording and Jack's memory are both "lost and found."

Lost & Found Sound: Downloading the Repertoire

Only Available in Archive Formats.

Lost & Found Sound

Lost and Found Sound: 20th Century Cylinders

Lost and Found Sound presents a story about present-day uses of the most ancient of recording technologies: the wax cylinder. On the occasion of this month's release by trumpeter Wynton Marsalis's album of wax cylinder recordings, we hear what it is about wax that appeals to some. For Marsalis it's the authentic sound, which reminds him of the jazz greats of the past. Also featured: Les Paul and the band They Might be Giants. John Flansburgh of the "Giants" learns that to get recorded, he has to stick his head into a brass cone and sing in a very pronounced way.

Lost and Found Sound: 20th Century Cylinders

Only Available in Archive Formats.

Lost & Found Sound

Lost & Found Sound: The Sounds of Silents

Today in our continuing series, "Lost and Found Sound," we have two stories about the era of silent movies. Jay Allison, the curator of our Quest for Sound phone line introduces us to listener Bob Borgen, who has discovered tape of silent film star Buster Keaton at a party in 1962. The tape originally belonged to Keaton's wife. Keaton was a child star of Vaudeville with his family--on the tape Keaton sings songs and tells stories from those days. Our second story comes from our movie reviewer Bob Mondello, who pays tribute to the "silence" of early films. He remembers the time when movies were a purely visual medium---the introduction of sound took away some of the grace of what was taken place on the screen--this was most true for the silent film comedy stars.

Lost & Found Sound: The Sounds of Silents

Only Available in Archive Formats.

Lost & Found Sound

LOST & FOUND SOUND: CIGAR STORIES -- Actor Andy Garcia narrates

7.} {LOST & FOUND SOUND: CIGAR STORIES -- Actor Andy Garcia narrates a story about the "readers" who made life in cigar factories tolerate. This story, produced by The Kitchen Sisters -- Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva -- in collaboration with Laura Folger and Tina Pacheco, tells the story of the men who were paid to read aloud to men and women rolling cigars in Tampa and Ybor City, Florida at the beginning of the century and into the 30s. These "Lectors" would read from classics, revolutionary tracts and labor union magazines to keep the worker's informed and amused. LOST AND FOUND SOUND learned about this profession as the result of a phone call to its QUEST FOR SOUND line (202-408-0300) from a man in Florida who had 78 r.p.m. records of his father, who was a Lector. After a labor dispute the job of Lector was eliminated. The radio came to take the place of the reader. We trace the origins of the practice of readers, which started in Spain. The readers would often read all the way through a novel -- a little bit each day. People would gather outside the factory windows to listen in. LOST & FOUND SOUND executive producers are The Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, and Jay Allison. Production help from Kate Volkman, Viki Russell, Darcy Bacon and Sandra Wong. NPR coordinating producer is Art Silverman. FORMAT BREAKER {22:00}

LOST & FOUND SOUND: CIGAR STORIES -- Actor Andy Garcia narrates

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Lost & Found Sound

Lost & Found Sound: Boys To Men

As part of our year-long Friday feature collaboration between NPR and independent producers highlighting this century's recordings, we present two anniversaries that fall on this date. Quest for Sound Curator Jay Allison tells us about Derby, Connecticut, Boy Scout Troop 3. Every year for 75 years the troop has performed a "Gang Show" on this date. We hear excerpts from the recordings the Boy Scouts there made. Today is also the 54th anniversary of the day Germany surrendered to Allied Forces in W.W.II. We hear Winston Churchill and a home recording of a woman reflecting on the end of the war.

Lost & Found Sound: Boys To Men

Only Available in Archive Formats.

Lost & Found Sound

Lost & Found Sound: Portrait of an Artist Through an Answering Machine

Our year-long Friday series listens to the voices of one mans answering machine, painting a picture of him as mirrored in the voices of his friends and acquaintances. We hear pleas from friends for help, offers from agents, and messages from mom. In a century of recording advances, phone mail now is one of the most direct records of how we lead our lives - in this case how a professional performer leads his life in Los Angeles.

Lost & Found Sound: Portrait of an Artist Through an Answering Machine

Only Available in Archive Formats.