ARSC Awards for Excellence

At its annual meetings since 1991, ARSC has recognized outstanding writing and research about recorded sound. A blue-ribbon Awards Committee of the membership typically examines more than 100 books, articles, and liner notes published during the previous calendar year. The winners, as well as the categories, are indicative of the wide-ranging interests of the membership.

For more information about these awards, contact either Roberta Freund or
Robert Iannapollo of the Eastman School of Music.

Below is the roster of winners of the ARSC Awards for Excellence, organized chronologically, with the most recent award-winners presented first. For a list of recent finalists, please click on the appropriate year (note that the winners are listed below).

2007 ARSC Awards

Best Research in Recorded Blues, Rhythm & Blues, or Soul Music

Best Discography
Blues Discography, 1943–1970 comp. Les Fancourt; prod. by Bob McGrath (Eyeball Productions)

Best History
Encyclopedia of the Blues ed. by Edward Komara (Routledge)

Certificate of Merit
Presence and Pleasure: The Funk Grooves of James Brown and Parliament by Anne Danielsen (Wesleyan University Press)

Best Research in Recorded Classical Music

Best Discography
New York Philharmonic: The Authorized Recordings, 1917–2005, A Discography by James H. North (Scarecrow Press)

Best History
Lionel Tertis: The First Great Virtuoso of the Viola by John White (Boydell Press)

Certificate of Merit
Women Composers and Music Technology in the United States: Crossing the Line by Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner (Ashgate)

Best Research in Recorded Country Music

Best Discography
Old Shep: The Red Foley Recordings, 1933–1950 liner notes by Cary Ginell (Bear Family)

Best History
How Nashville Became Music City USA: 50 Years of Music Row by Michael Kosser (Hal Leonard)

Certificate of Merit
No One To Cry To: A Long, Hard Ride Into the Sunset with Foy Willing of the Riders of the Purple Sage by Sharon Lee Willing (Wheatmark)

Best Recorded Folk, Ethnic, or World Music

Best Discography
West Indian Rhythm discography by John Cowley, Donald R. Hill, Dick Spottswood (Bear Family)

Best History
The Dawn of Indian Music in the West by Peter Lavezzoli (Continuum)

Certificates of Merit
Arsenio Rodríguez and the Transnational Flows of Latin Popular Music by David F. García (Temple University Press)
Texas Zydeco by Roger Wood; photography by James Fraher (University of Texas Press)
America's Polka King: The Real Story of Frankie Yankovic and His Music by Bob Dolgan (Gray & Co.)

Best Research in General History of Recorded Sound

A Shot in the Dark: Making Records in Nashville, 1945-1955 by Martin Hawkins (Vanderbilt University Press/Country Music Foundation)

Certificate of Merit
Making Easy Listening: Material Culture and Post-War American Recording by Tim J. Anderson (University of Minnesota Press)

Best Research in Record Labels

Best Discography
The Plaza-ARC Discography, vol. 1 (1922-1931) by Billie W. Thomas and Allan Sutton (Mainspring Press)

Best History
The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records by Ashley Kahn (W.W. Norton)

Certificate of Merit
Rough Trade by Rob Young (Black Dog)

Best Research in Recorded Jazz Music

Best Discography
Bags’ Grooves: A Discography of Milt Jackson by Chris Sheridan (Names & Numbers)

Best History
Rhythm Is Our Business: Jimmie Lunceford and the Harlem Express by Eddy Determeyer (University of Michigan Press)

Certificates of Merit
Fats Waller on the Air: The Radio Broadcasts and Discography by Stephen Taylor (Scarecrow Press)
All of Me: The Complete Discography of Louis Armstrong by Jos Willems (Scarecrow Press)
Someone To Watch Over Me: The Life and Music of Ben Webster by Frank Büchmann-Møller (University of Michigan Press)
City of Gabriels: The History of Jazz in St. Louis, 1895–1973 by Dennis Owsley (Reedy Press)
The Dark Tree: Jazz and the Community Arts in Los Angeles by Steven Louis Isoardi (University of California Press)

Best Research in Recorded Popular Music

Best Discography
The Incredible Band of John Philip Sousa by Paul Bierley (University of Illinois Press)

Best History
George Gershwin: His Life and Work by Howard Pollack (University of California Press)

Certificates of Merit
Unlocking the Groove: Rhythm, Meter and Musical Design in Electronic Dance Music by Mark J. Butler (Indiana University Press)
Fire in the Water, Earth in the Air: Legends of West Texas Music by Christopher J. Oglesby (University of Texas Press)

Best Research in Recorded Rock Music

Best Discography
The Unreleased Beatles: Music & Film by Richie Unterberger (Backbeat Books)

Best History
Endless Enigma: A Musical Biography of Emerson, Lake and Palmer by Edward Macan (Open Court)

Certificates of Merit
The Words and Music of Frank Zappa by Kelly Fisher Lowe (Praeger)
Blue Monday: Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock’n’ Roll by Rick Coleman (Da Capo Press)

2007 Lifetime Achievement Award to Alan Kelly

The Lifetime Achievement Award is presented annually to an individual in recognition of his or her life’s work in published recorded sound research. Alan Kelly is recognized as one of the world’s foremost discographers. He has dedicated the best part of fifty years to creating detailed discographies of the recordings produced by The Gramophone Company (whose main labels were His Master’s Voice and Zonophone), from its foundation in the United Kingdom in 1898 to its merger with the Columbia Graphophone Company to form Electric and Musical Industries (EMI) in 1931. Kelly worked for many years within the EMI Archives, copying out and then arranging material from the company ledgers to form discographies based on the language or geographical area, and on the technical origin of each record. To date he has completed the Russian, French, Italian and Dutch catalogues of The Gramophone Company, together with ten volumes of the HMV Matrix series. The sheer scale both of the Company’s activities and therefore of Kelly’s task only becomes clear when one surveys the vast amount of information in this colossal discography, preserved and disseminated by Kelly on CD-ROM.

2007 Award for Distinguished Service to Historical Recordings to Gerald Gibson

The Award for Distinguished Service to Historical Recordings is presented annually to an individual who has made contributions of outstanding significance to the field of historical recordings in forms other than published works or discographic research. Gerald D. Gibson is recognized for his many curatorial, preservation, and research-related contributions to recorded sound. In successive positions at the Library of Congress as sound recording cataloger, Assistant Head of the Music Division Recorded Sound Section, Head of the Curatorial Section of the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, and Preservation Specialist, Gibson made lasting contributions to recorded sound scholarship and preservation. He compiled bibliographies which remain essential reference works, devised housings and shelving for sound recordings which are still serve as models for the field, developed the sound recording and moving image collections of the Library of Congress to a quality appropriate to a national library, and worked to lay the foundations for digital preservation of sound recordings. Curatorial practices introduced under his tenures have become recognized as best practices in recorded sound conservation.

Gibson served as editor of the ARSC Journal, president of ARSC, president of the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA), and was a founding member of the ARSC Associated Audio Archives Committee, which created the Rigler and Deutsch Record Index, Rules for Cataloging of Sound Recordings, and Audio Preservation: A Planning Study.

2006 ARSC Awards

Best Research in Recorded Blues, Rhythm & Blues, or Soul Music

Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke by Peter Guralnick (Little, Brown)

Certificate of Merit
Dewey and Elvis: The Life and Times of a Rock 'n' Roll Deejay by Louis Cantor (University of Illinois Press)

Best Research in Recorded Classical Music

Best Discography
While Spring and Summer Sang: Thomas Beecham and the Music of Frederick Delius by Lyndon Jenkins (Ashgate)

Best History
Rachmaninoff: Life, Works, Recordings by Max Harrison (Continuum)

Best Research in Recorded Country Music

King of the Cowboys, Queen of the West: Roy Rogers and Dale Evans by Ray White (University of Wisconsin Press)

Best Recorded Folk, Ethnic, or World Music

Bob Marley and the Wailers: The Definitive Discography by Roger Steffens and Leroy Jodie Pierson (Rounder Books)

Certificate of Merit
The Encyclopedia of Native Music: More than a Century of Recordings from Wax Cylinder to the Internet by Brian Wright-McLeod (University of Arizona Press)

Best Research in Recorded Rap or Hip-Hop Music

Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation by Jeff Chang. (St. Martin’s Press)

Best Research in Recorded Rock Music

Grit, Noise, and Revolution: The Birth of Detroit Rock 'n' Roll by David Carson. (University of Michigan Press)

Certificates of Merit
Soft Machine: Out-bloody-rageous by Graham Bennett (SAF)

Dream a Little Dream of Me: The Life of "Mama" Cass Elliot by Eddi Fiegel (Chicago Review Press, U.S.; Sidgwick & Jackson)

Best Research in Recorded Jazz Music

Best Discography
Stan Getz: An Annotated Bibliography and Filmography with Song and Session Information for Albums by Nicholas Churchill. (McFarland)

Best History
Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond by Doug Ramsey and Paul Caulfield (Discography) (Parkside Publications)

Certificates of Merit
Pioneers of Jazz: The Story of the Creole Band by Lawrence Gushee (Oxford niversity Press)
Bix: The Definitive Biography of a Jazz Legend: Leon 'Bix' Beiderbecke (1903-1931) by Jean Pierre Lion (Continuum)
The Uncrowned King of Swing: Fletcher Henderson and Big Band Jazz by Jeffrey Magee (Oxford University Press)

Best Research in Record Labels and General History

Best History
Echo and Reverb: Fabricating Space in Popular Music Recording, 1900-1960 by Peter Doyle (Wesleyan University Press)

Best Discography
Edison Blue Amberol Cylinders by Allan Sutton (Mainspring Press)

2006 Lifetime Achievement Award to Allen Koenigsberg

The Lifetime Achievement Award is presented annually to an individual in recognition of his or her life’s work in published recorded sound research. The 2006 Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Allen Koenigsberg for his pioneering work in documenting the first 50 years of recorded music. Koenigsberg was the founder, editor and publisher of The Antique Phonograph Monthly (1973-1993) and is the author of two books: Edison Cylinder Records, 1889-1912, which catalogs and dates over 10,000 songs and artists from the period; and The Patent History of the Phonograph, 1877-1912, which contains listings of 2,118 U.S. sound recording patents issued to 1,013 inventors and a detailed commentary on 101 of the most significant patents and designs. His articles for the The Antique Phonograph Monthly and other publications have been on subjects as varied as the 1889 introduction of the phonograph into Russia, Lambert cylinders (discography), the origin of the telephone greeting "hello," and debunking the phony "Walt Whitman cylinder.” He has also contributed generously to the works of many other authors, and has issued numerous reprints of early literature on phonograph machines and recordings.

2006 Award for Distinguished Service to Historical Recordings to Franz Lechleitner

The Award for Distinguished Service to Historic Recordings is presented annually to an individual who has made contributions of outstanding significance to the field of historic recordings in forms other than published works or discographic research. The 2006 ARSC Distinguished Service Award was presented to Franz Lechleitner who, until his retirement in 2004, served as Chief Audio Engineer of the Vienna Phonogrammarchiv. During his 31 year tenure at the Phonogrammarchiv, he concentrated on the replay of the historical recordings of the Archive, amongst them the "Archiv-Phonogramme", a special Viennese development employing the vertical cylinder modulation on discs. The transfer routines devised by him form the basis of one of the major projects of the Vienna Phonogrammarchiv: the edition of the Complete Historical Collections 1899-1950 on CDs, begun on the 100th anniversary of the Archive in 1999.

Lechleitner has made a number of significant contributions to historic recordings, including: the development of playback techniques for the reproduction of historical sound carriers; the design and development of an archival cylinder playback machine; and the transfer of many important historical collections located in archives throughout Europe and Asia, including over 2000 instantaneously recorded cylinders. Lechleitner also served as a member of the Audio Engineering Society (AES) and its SC-03-02 standards subcommittee (preservation and restoration of audio recording/transfer technologies), has been a member of the IASA Technical Committee since 1977, and has published numerous technical documents and discographies. He remains active in the transfer of the historical holdings, and as a consultant to the Vienna Archive and beyond.

2005 ARSC Awards

Best Research in Recorded Blues

Moanin’ at Midnight: The Life and Times of Howlin’ Wolf by James Segrest and Mark Hoffman (Pantheon).

Certificate of Merit
Robert Johnson: Mythmaking and Contemporary American Culture by Patricia R. Schroeder (University of Illinois Press)

Best Research in Recorded Classical Music

Best Discography
Leroy Anderson: A Bio-Bibliography by Burgess Speed, Eleanor Anderson, and Steve Metcalf (Praeger).

Best History
Performing Music in the Age of Recording by Robert Philip (Yale University Press)

Best Research in Recorded Folk or Country Music

Country Music Records: A Discography, 1921-1942 by Tony Russell (Oxford University Press)

Best Recorded World Music

Git Zaman Gel Zaman by Cemal Ünlü (Pan Yayincilik).

Certificate of Merit
Albanian Urban Lyric Song in the 1930s by Eno Koco (Scarecrow Press)

Best Research in General History of Recorded Sound

Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry 1890-1919 by Tim Brooks (University of Illinois Press)

Certificate of Merit
Capturing Sound: How Technology Has Changed Music by Mark Katz (University of California Press)

Best Research in Recorded Jazz

Albert Ayler: Holy Ghost by Ben Young, editor (Revenant Records)

Certificates of Merit
Tom Talbert: His Life and Times by Bruce Talbot (Scarecrow Press)
Queen: The Life and Music of Dinah Washington by Nadine Cohodas (Pantheon)
The Complete Columbia Recordings of Woody Herman, 1945-1947 by Loren Schoenberg (Mosaic Records)

Best Research in Record Labels

Discography of OKeh Records, 1918-1934 by Ross Laird and Brian Rust (Praeger)

Certificates of Merit
Fonotipia Recordings: A Centennial Survey by Michael E. Henstock (published by author)
Syrena Record: Poland’s First Recording Company, 1904-1939 by Tomasz Lerski (Editions Karin)
Victor Red Seal Discography: Volume I: Single-Sided Series (1903-1925) by John R. Bolig (Mainspring Press)

Best Research in Recorded Popular Music

That Moaning Saxophone: The Six Brown Brothers and the Dawning of a Musical Craze by Bruce Vermazen (Oxford University Press)

Best Research in Recorded Rhythm & Blues, Soul, or Gospel Music

People Get Ready: A New History of Black Gospel Music by Robert Darden (Continuum)

Certificate of merit
House on Fire: The Rise and Fall of Philadelphia Soul by John A. Jackson (Oxford University Press)

Best Research in Recorded Rock or Rap Music

Freddy Fresh Presents the Rap Records by Freddy Fresh (Nerby Publishing)

Certificate of merit
Nirvana: The Complete Recording Sessions by Rob Jovanovich (Firefly)

2005 Lifetime Achievement Award to Chris Strachwitz

This award is presented to an individual, in recognition of a life’s work in research and publication. The winner of the 2005 Lifetime Achievement Award is Chris Strachwitz for his pioneering work in researching traditional musics in the Americas.

Strachwitz founded Arhoolie Records in 1960 and over the decades amassed a catalog containing hundreds of great sets, most of them produced by Chris himself. In 1995 he established the not-for-profit Arhoolie Foundation to preserve the rarest portions of his collection of commercial recordings, including the Frontera Collection of 30,000 plus Mexican and Mexican-American recordings, which is currently being cataloged and digitized for on-line display through the UCLA library system with financial assistance provided by the Los Tigres Del Norte Foundation.

2005 Award for Distinguished Service to Historical Recordings to John R. T. Davies

This award honors a person who has made outstanding contributions to the field, outside of published works or discographic research. The 2005 Distinguished Service Award was presented posthumously to John R. T. Davies (1927-2004) for his meticulous transfers of classic recordings of jazz and blues.

Davies’ transfers of King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, the great big bands of the 1920s and 1930s, and blues singers were universally applauded for presenting the music in the best possible sound. He worked for Doug Dobell’s 77 Records label, formed his own Ristic label, and was the driving force behind Retrieval records. His work also appeared on other small jazz labels including Frog, Hep, JSP, Timeless, Cygnet, and Jazz Oracle.

2004 ARSC Awards

Best Research in Recorded Popular Music

Best Discography.
Paul Whiteman: Pioneer in American Music, 1890-1930 by Don Rayno (Scarecrow Press).

Best History.
Sondheim on Music: Minor Details and Major Decisions by Mark Eden Horowitz and Stephen Sondheim (Scarecrow Press).

Best Research in Recorded Classical Music

Performing Brahms: Early Evidence of Performing Style by Michael Musgrave (ed.) and Bernard D. Sherman (ed.) (Cambridge University Press).

Best Research in Recorded Rock, Rhythm & Blues or Soul
(two winners; a tie)

The Holy Profane: Religion in Black Popular Music by Teresa L. Reed (University Press of Kentucky).

Swinging the Machine: Modernity, Technology and African-American Culture Between the World Wars by Joel Dinerstein (University of Massachusetts Press).

Best Research in Recorded Jazz Music

Best History.
Good Vibes: A Life in Jazz by Terry Gibbs and Cary Ginell (Rowman & Littlefield).

Best Discography.
Jean “Django” Reinhardt: A Contextual Bio-Discography, 1910-1953 by Paul Vernon (Ashgate).

Best Research in Recorded Blues and Gospel Music

Great God A’Mighty! The Dixie Hummingbirds: Celebrating the Rise of Soul Gospel Music by Jerome Zolten (Oxford University Press).

Best Research in Record Labels or Manufacturers

Folkways Records: Moses Asch and his Encyclopedia of Sound by Anthony Olmsted (Routledge).

ARSC Lifetime Achievement Award

This award is presented to an individual, in recognition of a life’s work in research and publication. The winner of the 2004 Lifetime Achievement Award is Tim Brooks.

Mr. Brooks currently serves as the Executive Vice President of Research at Lifetime Television. He is the author of the recently published Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919 and co-author of the Columbia Master Book Discography, Volumes I-IV. Mr. Brooks has written many articles for the ARSC Journal, the New Amberola Graphic and other scholarly publications.

ARSC Award for Distinguished Service to Historical Recordings

This award honors a person who has made outstanding contributions to the field, outside of published works or discographic research. The winner of the 2004 Distinguished Service Award is Jack Towers.

Mr. Towers recorded the now-famous Duke [Ellington] at Fargo 1940 concert, which was released in 2000, in a special 60th anniversary CD edition.

In 1941, Mr. Towers handled radio broadcasting at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He retired from federal service in 1974. Since then, he has used his skill in disc and tape recording, to restore historical recordings for many record producers including the Smithsonian Institution, Columbia Records, the Book of the Month, Musicraft and Delmark.

The winners, whose research was published in 2002, are listed below. There may be one winner or multiple winners (Tie) in each category. Also Certificates of Merit are issued in cases where the publication was not a winner but deserved special recognition.

Lifetime Achievement Award given to Richard K. ("Dick") Spottswood

The new ARSC Award for Distinguished Service to Historical Recordings was awarded to: David Hall

Best Research in Recorded Popular Music

Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music, by Mark Allan Powell (Hendrickson Publishers)

Best Research in Recorded Folk or Ethnic Music

Reggae & Caribbean Music, by Dave Thompson (Backbeat Books)

CERTIFICATE OF MERIT: Sam Manning: the Complete Output, 1924-1930, vols. 1 & 2, by John Cowley and Steve Shapiro (notes to Jazz Oracle CD set)

Best Research in Recorded Country Music

Will You Miss Me When I m Gone?:the Carter Family and Their Legacy in American Music, by Mark Zwonitzer and Charles Hirshberg (Simon & Schuster)

Tied With

 

Country Music Sources: A Biblio-Discography of Commercially Recorded Traditional Music, by Guthrie T. Meade, Richard K. Spottswood, and Douglas S. Meade (Southern Folklife Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries in Association with the John Edwards Memorial Forum)

Best Research in Recorded Classical Music

George Crumb: a Bio-Bibliography, by David Cohen (Greenwood Press)

Tied With

 

Emanuel Feuermann, by Annette Morreau (Yale University Press)

Best Research in Rock, Rhythm & Blues, or Soul

Every Sound There Is: the Beatles' Revolver and the Transformation of Rock and Roll, by Russell Reising (Ashgate)

Tied With

 

Brown Eyed Handsome Man: The Life and Hard Times of Chuck Berry, by Bruce Pegg (Routledge)

Best Research in Recorded Jazz

Rat Race Blues: the Musical Life of Gigi Gryce, by Noal Cohen and Michael Fitzgerald (Berkeley Hills Books)

 

Tied With

 

Something to Live For: the Music of Billy Strayhorn, by Walter van de Leur (Oxford University Press)

 

 

CERTIFICATES OF MERIT: A Love Supreme: the Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album, by Ashley Kahn (Viking)

Charlie Barnet: An Illustrated Biography and Discography of the Swing Era Big Band Leader, by Dan Mather (McFarland)

Best Research in Recorded Blues and Gospel Music

Blues with a Feeling: the Little Walter Story, by Tony Glover, Scott Dirks, and Ward Gaines (Routledge)

 

 

CERTIFICATES OF MERIT: Can't be Satisfied: the Life and Times of Muddy Waters, by Robert Gordon (Little Brown)

The Pilgrim Jubilees, by Alan Young (University Press of Mississippi)

Best Research in General Discography and History of Recorded Sound

Music Inspired By Art: A Guide to Recordings, by Gary Evans (Scarecrow Press and the Music Library Association)

Best Research in Record Labels or Manufacturers

Motown: Music, Money, Sex, and Power, by Gerald L. Posner (Random House)

 

Lifetime Achievement Award given to Pekka Gronow

Pekka Gronow, the manager of the radio archives of the Finnish Broadcasting Company and an Adjunct Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Helsinki, has been researching records and writing about them for almost 40 years. Dr. Gronow has published several books on music and recordings in Finnish, English, and other languages, including An International History of the Recording Industry (with Ilpo Saunio, 1998); produced numerous reissues of historical Finnish recordings; and has contributed to the ARSC Journal, IASA Journal, Ethnomusicology, JEMF Quarterly, and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, among others. One of the founders of Suomen Äänitearkisto, the Finnish Institute of Recorded Sound, he has also supervised the publication of the 25-volume Catalogue of Finnish Recordings. Overall, Dr. Gronow's publications have been instrumental in documenting the history of Scandinavian recordings.

Best Research in Recorded General Popular Music

Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams—the Early Years, 1903-1940, by Gary Giddins (Little, Brown & Company)

Best Research in Recorded Folk or Ethnic Music

Yellow Music: Media Culture and Colonial Modernity in Chinese Jazz Age, by Andrew F. Jones (Duke University Press)

Best Research in Recorded Country Music

Discography of Western Swing and Hot String Bands, 1928-1942, by Cary Ginell and Kevin Coffey (Greenwood Press)

Best Research in Recorded Classical Music

Best Discography. Witold Lutoslawski: A Bio-Bibliography, by Stanislaw Bedkowski and Stinislaw Hrabia (Greenwood Press)

Best History. Sviatoslav Richter: Notebooks and Conversations, by Bruno Monsaingeon; translated by Stewart Spencer (Princeton University Press)

Certificate of Merit. Pietro Mascagni: A Bio-Bibliography, by Roger Flury (Greenwood Press)

Best Research in Recorded Rock, Rhythm & Blues, or Soul

Orbison, by Colin Escott; discography by Richard Weize (notes to Bear Family CD set)

Best Research in Recorded Jazz

Best History. The Miller Companion to Jazz in Canada: and Canadians in Jazz, by Mark Miller (Mercury Press)

Best Discography. Brilliant Corners: A Bio-Discography of Thelonious Monk, compiled by Chris Sheridan (Greenwood Press)

Certificate of Merit. Before Motown: A History of Jazz in Detroit, 1920-1960, by Lars Bjorn with Jim Gallert (University of Michigan Press)

Best Research in Recorded Blues

Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues: The Worlds of Charley Patton, by David Evans, John Fahey, Edward Komara, and Dick Spottswood (notes to Revenant CD set)

Best General Research in Recorded Sound

Beyond Recall: A Record of Jewish Musical Life in Nazi Berlin, 1933-1938, by Rainer E. Lotz, Horst J. P. Bergmeier, and Ejal Jakob Eisler (notes to Bear Family CD set)

Certificate of Merit. Aural History: Essays on Recorded Sound, ed. by Andy Linehan (British Library, National Sound Archives)

Best Research in Record Labels or Manufacturers

Brunswick Records: A Discography of Recordings, 1916-1931 [in 4 volumes], by Ross Laird (Greenwood Press)

Certificate of Merit. Okeh Race Records: The 8000 "Race" Series, by Laurie Wright (Self-published)

Best Research in the Preservation or Reproduction of Recorded Sound

Broadcast Transcription Discs, by James R. Powell, Jr. (Gramophone Adventures)

Phonographs With Flair: A Century of Style in Sound Reproduction, by Timothy C. Fabrizio and George F. Paul (Schiffer Publishing Ltd.)

Lifetime Achievement: Leonard Kunstadt (1926-1996)

Leonard Kunstadt was the founder and editor of Record Research magazine from 1955-1995. Many of his own articles and discographies on jazz and popular music were published in Record Research in the 1950s and 1960s, some co-authored with Bob Colton. He was also cited on a number of other articles as "coordinating" or "assisting" with the research. Though many of these are short, they include pioneering discographies or rollographies of early jazz and blues artists. Probably the most substantial of Kunstadt's publications are his discographies of the Black Swan label (Record Research, 1955-58) and Wilbur Sweatman (with Colton, The Discophile, 1955-57). He is also credited as co-author (with Sam Charters) of the notable book Jazz: A History of the New York Scene (1962), for which he did the research.

Best Research in Recorded General Popular Music-

Popular American Recording Pioneers: 1895-1925, by Tim Gracyk and Frank Hoffmann (Haworth Press) Certificate of Merit: Mel Torme: A Chronicle of His Recordings, Books and Films, by George Hulme (McFarland & Co.)

Best Research in Recorded Folk or Ethnic Music

Romancing the Folk: Public Memory and American Roots Music, by Benjamin Filene (University of North Carolina Press)

Certificate of Merit: Can't You Hear Me Callin': The Life of Bill Monroe, Father of Bluegrass, by Richard D. Smith (Little Brown & Co.)

Best Research in Recorded Classical Music

Best Discography. Tristan und Isolde on Record: A Comprehensive Discography of Wagner's Music Drama with a Critical Introduction to the Recordings, by Jonathan Brown (Greenwood Press)

 

Best History. Meilensteine der Bach-Interpretation 1750-2000: Eine Werkgeschichte im Wandel, by Martin Elste (Metzler/Bärenreiter)

 

Best Research in Recorded Rock, Rhythm & Blues, or Soul

The Who on Record: A Critical History, 1963-1998, by John Atkins (McFarland & Co.)

 

Certificate of Merit. Race, Rock, and Elvis, by Michael T. Bertrand (University of Illinois Press)

 

Best Research in Recorded Jazz or Blues

Best History. Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece, by Ashley Kahn (DaCapo Press)

 

Best Discography/History. Artie Shaw: A Musical Biography and Discography, by Vladimir Simosko (Scarecrow Press)

 

Certificate of Merit. An Unsung Cat: The Life and Music of Warne Marsh, by Safford Chamberlain (Scarecrow Press)

 

Certificate of Merit. The Half Ain't Been Told: An Otis Spann Career Discography, by Bill Rowe; revised and updated by Chris Smith and Howard Rye. (Micography)

 

Best Research the General History of Recorded Sound

Off the Record: The Technology and Culture of Sound Recording in America, by David Morton (Rutgers University Press)

 

Best Research in Record Labels or Manufacturers

Best Discography. The R & B Indies, by Bob McGrath (Eyeball Productions)

 

Best History. Spinning the Blues into Gold: The Chess Brothers and the Lengendary Chess Records, by Nadine Cohodas (St. Martin's Press)

 

Certificate of Merit. American Record Labels and Companies: An Encyclopedia (1891-1943), by Allan Sutton and Kurt Nauck (Mainspring Press)

 

Certificate of Merit. Suomalaitsen äänilevyjen luettelo, 1901-1945, by Rainer Strommer (Helsinki: Suomen äänitearkisto ry. Yleisradio-äänilevystö)

 

Best Research in Phonographs

Discovering Antique Phonographs, by Timothy C. Fabrizio and George F. Paul (Schiffer)

 

Lifetime Achievement: Charles K. Wolfe

A member of the English faculty of Middle Tennessee State University, Charles Wolfe has been writing about country music and artists and records for over twenty-five years. The author of more than 100 articles and liner notes and over fifteen books, Dr. Wolfe serves as editor of the Tennessee Folklore Society Quarterly and co-editor of Studies in Country Music. Among his liner notes, the following have been ARSC Award finalists: "Bill Monroe Blue Grass: 1959-1969" (1991, with Neil V. Rosenberg), "Lefty Fizzell: Life's Like Poetry" (1992), and "The Louvin Brothers" (1992). "I have piled up something over 1,000 interviews . . . the core of many of my books and liner notes and articles. It's not the most efficient way to do discographical research, but it is fascinating and I've gotten over the years to meet some wonderful people, and hear some great stories."

Recorded General Popular Music -

Sessions with Sinatra: Frank Sinatra and the Art of Recording, by Charles L. Granata (A Capella Books, 1999)

Certificate of Merit: Marigold: The Music of Billy Mayerl, by Peter Dickinson (Oxford University Press)

More EJS: A Discography of the Edward J. Smith Recordings, by William Shaman and William J. Collins (Greenwood Press, 1999)

Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley, by Peter Guralnick (Little Brown, 1999)

Certificate of Merit: The Great Alternative Rock and Indie Discography, by Martin Strong (Canongate Books Ltd., 1999)

Groovin' High: the Life of Dizzy Gillespie, by Alyn Shipton (Oxford University Press, 1999)
and

Jimmy Dorsey: A Study in Contrasts, by Robert L. Stockdale (Scarecrow Press, 1999)

A Blues Life, by Henry Townsend as told to Bill Greensmith (University of Illinois Press, 1999)

Klezmer: Jewish Music from the Old World to the New World, by Henry Sapoznik (Schirmer, 1999)

A Spiral Way: How the Phonograph Changed Ethnography, by Erika Brady (University Press of Mississippi, 1999)

The Columbia Master Book Discography (4 vols.), by Tim Brooks and Brian Rust (Greenwood Press, 1999)

Certificate of Merit: Little Wonder Records: A History and Discography, ed. by Tim Brooks (New Amberola, 1999)

Antique Phonograph Gadgets, Gizmos, and Gimmicks, by Timothy Fabrizio and George Paul (Schiffer Publishing, 1999)

Lifetime Achievement: Colin Escott

"As I don't depend on writing for a living, I don't hesitate to write only about the subjects that interest me." So Colin Escott writes--extensively on Rock, Rhythm & Blues, Country Music, and much more. The author and co-author of over a dozen books and many more liner notes, Mr. Escott has published ground-breaking research on Sun Records, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Hank Williams, and others. ARSC has previously recognized his work with two Awards for Excellence in record research and discography, in 1991 and 1992. His most recent book is All Roads Lead to Rock: Legends of Early Rock 'n' Roll, A Bear Family Reader (Schirmer Books, 1999).

Recorded General Popular Music -

"Lotte Lenya: A Centenary Tribute," by Richard Weize, Rainer E. Lotz, et al., notes to Bear Family CDs (1998)

"Budapest String Quartet", discography by Phil Hart in the ARSC Journal: Part 1 1924-1940, in vol. 28/2 (1997), Part 2 1941-1954, in vol.29/1 (1998), Part 3 1955-1966, in vol. 29/2 (1998)

Elvis Presley: A Life in Music: The Complete Recording Sessions, by Ernst Jorgensen (St. Martin's Press, 1998)

Certificate of Merit: The Deadhead's Taping Compendium, Vol. 1: 1959-1974, by Michael M. Getz and John R. Dwork (Henry Holt and Company, 1998)

John Coltrane: His Life and Music, by Lewis Porter (University of Michigan Press, 1998)

Certificate of Merit: Dixonia: A Bio-Discography of Bill Dixon, compiled by Ben Young (Greenwood Press, 1998)

The Encyclopedia of Country Music, edited by Paul Kingsbury (Oxford University Press, 1998)

Music of Hindu Trinidad, by Helen Myers (University of Chicago Press, 1998)

Making People's Music: Moe Asch and Folkways Records, by Peter D. Goldsmith (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998)

Lifetime Achievement: Rainer E. Lotz

Among other occupations, Rainer E. Lotz is an economist, engineer, publisher, and university lecturer. Currently he works for the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development and is also the editor of the German National Discography. He has produced numerous recordings and written books (he is co-author of one of this year's award winners) and articles on ragtime, jazz, radio broadcasting, black history, and individual musicians. In response to this award, Dr. Lotz wrote (in part): "I can say by good rights that all my work was done after hours. Each single book, each single essay, each single record I have ever published have been a source of fun and pleasure for me. It is my firm intention to continue to pursue my interests--which are also ARSC's interests--for as long as possible. So consider this a warning: in my shelves and cupboards material is lurking still for at least another hundred ventures."

Recorded General Popular Music -

Hitler's Airwaves: The Inside Story of Nazi Radio Broadcasting and Propaganda Swing, by Horst J. P. Bergmeier and Rainer E. Lotz (Yale University Press, 1997)

The Orchestra on Record, 1896-1926: An Encyclopedia of Orchestral Recordings Made By the Acoustical Process, by Claude Arnold (Greenwood Press, 1997)

Certificate of Merit: The London Philharmonic Discography, by Philip Stuart (Greenwood Press, 1997)

American Bandstand: Dick Clark and the Making of a Rock 'n' Roll Empire, by John A. Jackson (Oxford University Press, 1997)

The Birth of Bebop: A Social and Musical History, by Scott DeVeaux (University of California, 1997)

Certificate of Merit: Space Is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra, by John F. Szwed (Pantheon Books, 1997)

Roosevelt's Blues: African-American Blues and Gospel Songs on FDR, by Guido van Rijn (University Press of Mississippi, 1997)

Certificate of Merit: Woke Me Up This Morning: Black Gospel Singers and the Gospel Life, by Alan Young (University Press of Mississippi, 1997)

Ramblin' Rose: The Life and Career of Rose Maddox, by Jonny Whiteside (Vanderbilt University Press & Country Music Foundation, 1997)

Certificate of Merit: "Cliff Bruner and His Texas Wanderers," notes by Kevin Coffey to the 5-CD set (Bear Family Records [BCD 15932] 1997)

Certificate of Merit: The Statler Brothers Discography, compiled by Alice Y. Holtin (Greenwood Press, 1997)

A Day For the Hunter, A Day For the Prey: Popular Music and Power in Haiti, by Gage Averill (University of Chicago Press, 1997)

Soulsville U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records, by Rob Bowman (Schirmer Books, 1997)

The Talking Machine: An Illustrated Compendium, by Timothy C. Fabrizio and George F. Paul (Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 1997)

Lifetime Achievement: Frank Andrews

Frank Andrews is an English collector and writer who, since the late 1960s, has written extensively about acoustic-era labels and general phonograph history, especially in the United Kingdom. Most of his work has been for the Hillandale News and The Talking Machine Review. He has authored more than 100 articles, including detailed, multi-part corporate histories of English labels including Aeolian-Vocalion, Edison Bell, Imperial, Zonophone, and Homophone, as well as many small independent and "store" labels of the early 1900s.

"Friedrich Hollander", notes by Viktor Rotthaler for the CD release by Bear Family Records (1996)

Otto Klemperer: His Life and Times, by Peter Heyworth, discography by Michael Gray (2 volumes: Cambridge University Press, 1966)

Doowop: The Chicago Scene, by Robert Pruter (University of Illinois Press, 1996)

Stan Getz: A Life in Jazz, by Donald L. Maggin (William Morrow & Co., 1996)

Ernest Tubb: The Texas Troubadour, by Ronnie Pugh (Duke University Press, 1996)

"Songs for Political Action: Folk Music, Topical Songs and the American Left, 1926-1953," notes by Ronald D. Cohen and Dave Samuelson for the CD set issued by Bear Family Records (1996)

Stage to Studio: Musicians and the Sound Revolution, 1890-1950, by James P. Kraft (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996)

Columbia Phonograph Companion, vol.2, by Robert W. Baumbach (Woodland Hills, CA: Staionery X-Press, 1996)

Lifetime Achievement: Harold Barnes

Harold Barnes was an American music-and-opera lover who settled in Paris after World War 2, where he worked for many years for UNESCO. He is perhaps best known for the pioneering, authoritative discography Vertical Cut Cylinders and Discs, co-authored with Victor Girard (1964). Beginning in the 1940s he wrote--alone and with others--numerous singer discographies, many of which were published in Recorded Sound and The Record Collector. One of his last major projects was the 15-CD set "Singers of Imperial Russia" for Pearl Records. Mr. Barnes died in 1994; several discographies will be published posthumously.

Tommy Dorsey: On the Side, by Robert L. Stockdale (Scarecrow Press, 1995)

Guillaume de Machaut, a Guide to Research, by Lawrence Earp (Garland Publishing, 1995)

A Life in Ragtime: Jim Europe, by Reid Badger (Oxford University Press, 1995)

Rock Mr. Blues: The Life and Music of Wynonie Harris, by Tony Collins (New Hampshire: Big Nickel Publications, 1995)

The Waylon Jennings Discography, compiled by John L. Smith (Greenwood Press, 1995)

Ethnic and Vernacular Music, 1898-1960: A Resource and Guide to Recordings, by Paul Vernon (Greenwood Press, 1995)

Berliner Gramophone Records: American Issues, 1892-1900, by compiled by Paul Charosh (Greenwood Press, 1995)

Lifetime Achievement: Michel Ruppli

Michel Ruppli is a retired electronics engineer living in the south of France, who has spent the last 25 years compiling some of the most detailed label discographies ever published in the field of postwar jazz and popular music; his discography of the Mercury label (with Ed Novitsky) was an award-winner in 1994. He has also published label and artist discographies in various jazz publications, including Jazz Hot. At the time of the award, Mr. Ruppli had just completed a 6,000-page discogra