Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Florida Folklife Collection, State Archives of Florida, Announces the Release of Florida Blues Recordings


#JazzBluesFlorida #jazz #blues #Florida #Concerts #Festivals #Clubs #JazzClubs #BluesClubs

Division of Library and Information Services
presents
 “Where the Palm Trees Shake at Night”


TALLAHASSEE – Secretary of State Kurt S. Browning and the Florida Department of State’s Division of Library and Information Services today announced the release of Where the Palm Trees Shake at Night, a selection of Blues music from the Florida Folklife Collection in the State Archives of Florida. The release is the latest in a series of compilations produced by the Division of Library and Information Services’ Florida Memory Project.

“The Florida Department of State is proud to support the legacy of Florida musicians and their influence on a genre as prolific in American history as the blues,” said Secretary Browning. “With the help of fans, folklorists and archivists, Florida Blues music will continue to be treasured and enjoyed.”

The music presented on Where the Palm Trees Shake at Night was selected from hundreds of hours of Florida Folk Festival performances and field recordings spanning 25 years, from 1977 to 2002. In addition to the down-home folk traditions of Emmett Murray, Richard Williams and Moses Williams, the recordings feature performances of standard Blues by Albert “Buck” Thompson, Charles Atkins and Martin “Tampa Blue” Locklear. The Piedmont finger-picking style of North Carolina guitarist Etta Baker was also captured at the Florida Folk Festival and is included in the release, as is the renowned Washington, D.C. duo Cephas and Wiggins’ more modernized interpretation of Piedmont Blues.

Other performances from the Florida Folk Festival on the release include renditions of classic Blues forms on piano with powerful and colorful vocal performances by Ida Goodson, Mary McClain, Marie Buggs and Alex McBride. Additionally, Florida Folk Heritage Award winner William “Washboard Bill” Cooke’s unique combination of Blues, street performance and folk art illustrates the musician’s love for his home state. Songs by Roy Book Binder, Johnny Brown, Sammy Lee Williams and Johnny Shines also exhibit masterful talents with traditional Blues forms through their performances of original material.

The Blues has enjoyed a rich and varied tradition in Florida. Folklorists such as Zora Neale Hurston, Alan Lomax and Stetson Kennedy documented Florida Blues from the late 1920s until the early 1940s. Blues musicians also received widespread attention during the 1960s Blues and Folk music revivals. In 1978, the North Florida Folklife Project began to reexamine and document performances by Blues musicians throughout the state.

For a complimentary copy of Where the Palm Trees Shake at Night, contact the State Archives of Florida at archives@dos.state.fl.us or go to www.floridamemory.com/Collections/folklife/audio.cfm for a free download.

About the Florida Memory Project
Florida Memory provides online access to more than 550,000 photographs, textual records, sound recordings and moving images from the collections of the State Library and Archives of Florida, Division of Library and Information Services. The program and this CD are funded under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, administered by the Florida Department of State, Division of Library and Information Services.

Posted by: Jazz & Blues Florida
http://www.jazzbluesflorida.com/
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