{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/k93125qt3n/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Jazz and Blues on Film: Sound Restoration from a Smaller Archive"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/019/original/ARSC_Full_Logo_RGB_K.jpg?1605438091","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Agent"]},"value":{"en":["Mark Cantor (Presenter)","Dennis D. Rooney (Chair)","Michael Biel (Videographer)","Leah Biel (Videographer)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["2016-05-13 (Created)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["Video","Audio"]}},{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eFilm preservation and restoration can be a challenge for the smaller, independent archive. While many premium technologies are available to larger, well-funded institutions, smaller archives must use the resources that are available at hand. However, using modern computer tools, and more than a little bit of luck, significant progress can be made without an disproportionate impact on the archive’s modest budget. This session focuses on some of recent efforts of the Celluloid Improvisation Music Film Archive, a major collection of jazz, blues, dance and jazz-related music on film. One of the Archive's primary mandates includes a strong effort to preserve films for future generations, and soundtrack restoration is a part of that process. Many problems can affect film soundtracks, including garbled and poor sound quality, balance and clarity issues, low volume, sound-image synchronization, and issues originating from the type of original soundtrack recording. During this presentation we will see how music soundtracks can be enhanced, repaired or replaced, without changing the essence of the original material. On screen examples will include rare performances by such noted jazz and blues artists as Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Josh White, Cal Tjader, Gene Krupa, early washboard bands, and others.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["English"]}},{"label":{"en":["Publisher"]},"value":{"en":["Association for Recorded Sound Collections"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eCopyright Association for Recorded Sound Collections\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Video Editor"]},"value":{"en":["Nathan Georgitis"]}}],"summary":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eFilm preservation and restoration can be a challenge for the smaller, independent archive. While many premium technologies are available to larger, well-funded institutions, smaller archives must use the resources that are available at hand. However, using modern computer tools, and more than a little bit of luck, significant progress can be made without an disproportionate impact on the archive\u0026rsquo;s modest budget. This session focuses on some of recent efforts of the Celluloid Improvisation Music Film Archive, a major collection of jazz, blues, dance and jazz-related music on film. One of the Archive's primary mandates includes a strong effort to preserve films for future generations, and soundtrack restoration is a part of that process. Many problems can affect film soundtracks, including garbled and poor sound quality, balance and clarity issues, low volume, sound-image synchronization, and issues originating from the type of original soundtrack recording. During this presentation we will see how music soundtracks can be enhanced, repaired or replaced, without changing the essence of the original material. On screen examples will include rare performances by such noted jazz and blues artists as Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Josh White, Cal Tjader, Gene Krupa, early washboard bands, and others.\u003c/p\u003e"]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eCopyright Association for Recorded Sound Collections\u003c/p\u003e"]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Association for Recorded Sound Collections"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Association for Recorded Sound Collections"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/019/original/ARSC_Full_Logo_RGB_K.jpg?1605438091","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/097/547/small/open-uri20200922-6764-13ldyk8_1600816456.jpg?1600802077","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1145/collection_resources/29709/file/97547","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 2 - open-uri20200922-6764-13ldyk8.mp4"]},"duration":1689.536,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/097/547/small/open-uri20200922-6764-13ldyk8_1600816456.jpg?1600802077","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1145/collection_resources/29709/file/97547/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1145/collection_resources/29709/file/97547/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-arsc.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/097/547/original/open-uri20200922-6764-13ldyk8.mp4?1600802033","type":"Video","format":"video/mp4","duration":1689.536,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1145/collection_resources/29709/file/97547","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1145/collection_resources/29709/file/97547/transcript/18999","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["AUTO_TRINT_Jazz and Blues on Film: Sound Restoration from a Smaller Archive [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1145/collection_resources/29709/file/97547/transcript/18999/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"We're going to move forward with our third and final presenter for this session, Mark Canter, film archivist and historian. Mr Katter has been active as a researcher, historian and preservationist in the area of music on film. For the past 50 years, during that time, he has assembled one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of popular music on 16 millimeter film existing anywhere in the world. His collection, The Celluloid improvizations Music Film Archive, is the only one that places a primary emphasis on information about the performances, along with the preservation of the film itself. Although the collection focuses on jazz and blues performance, it also includes such related musical forms as folk music, Ragtime Swing or Big Band, nightclub and cabaret, vaudeville, vernacular, jazz, dance, ethnic Latin country, Western Western swing, rhythm and blues. Rock and roll and pop. What did we leave out here? You said it was interest range from the earliest to ragtime forms as first recorded late in the 19th century to the most contemporary expressions of the art form. This afternoon, Mark will speak about jazz and blues on film sound restoration from a smaller archive. Please welcome Mark. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. And yes, as someone in the audience pointed out, the archive does not deal with a lot of classical film that does not reflect any lack of appreciation and love of classical music on my part. The presentation today is going to focus on some of the efforts of a smaller archive in terms of sound preservation and restoration. Although I must very, very freely admit that after our visit to the facility yesterday afternoon, I gave some very serious thought to awakening before the sun, finding a West bound Greyhound bus and just escaping and before the embarrassment of any comparison between what's happening here and what I can accomplish.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1145/collection_resources/29709/file/97547#t=12.74,163.57"},{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1145/collection_resources/29709/file/97547/transcript/18999/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Just a little bit of background information like like so many of you, I started off as a collector, rocks Superman, comic books, dodger baseball cards, later 78 R.P.M. Records and finally 16 millimeter sound film. And the collection started as just that, a collector going out and finding music performance on film. But over the years, it grew. And after a while, my archive began accepting other archives. I integrated into my collection the films of Bobby Troop, of Charlie Barnett, of Finally Michael and David Chertok, which more or less doubled the size of the archive. Over a period of just a couple of minutes. So the problem is this. It is perhaps the largest collection of 16 millimeter music film excluding classical music can be found worldwide. On the other hand, in private hands. In private hands. On the other hand, it's just me. I don't have any government support. I don't have any corporate support. And so any work in the archive, ranging from the purchase of archival film cans to the restoration of films, just depends on what little income can be garnered from occasional clip presentations or sales of film clips to duck documentary filmmakers. So I am quite, quite limited. Having said that, there are things that the individual archivist can do, and I'd like to share four or five examples with you. First of all, Panorama's soundings jukebox shorts made in the 1940s, insert a dime and watch a music video for three minutes featuring a well-known or a totally unknown performer. It was MTV for the 1940s. These were produced on 35 millimeter film. But in the reduction to 16 millimeter release prints, very often the sound quality suffered even more so with five Sound D featuring Duke Ellington and his orchestra.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1145/collection_resources/29709/file/97547#t=164.53,299.98"},{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1145/collection_resources/29709/file/97547/transcript/18999/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Even in 1941, Duke was a very, very, very savvy businessman and his contract limited the films to the initial release. They could not be reissued. So after a period of close to 75 years, it's next to impossible to find original prints of Duke's sounds. The sound was rather muffled to begin with. So what to do? A case of serendipity. At the time of the production, many, many Saudis were also recorded on acetate, and these acetates would be given to performers who had to take the record home and then practice their second because the Saudis were prerecorded and then filmed to playback. And for one of the sounds, it just so happens that Duke has to speak the name of one of his soloists, Ben Webster. And for that particular phrase, he needed to have his own reporting so he knew when to come in and how to speak the two words. Well, the recording just actually made its way to my collection. So in this wonderful age of digital digital prison preservation, I was able to have this professionally transferred strip, the original soundtrack from the film, and then place the new soundtrack back on the film copy. So the sound is improved. I think it's identical, of course, to what was originally there. And what I'd like to do is share with you the final product put together with a bit of saliva and some chewing gum and band aids. My if I had my bass. Well, had I would be tipping it to the last two presenters, because what they do is amazing. I'd like to share one example of something from a private archive. We're going to see these two discs here around 15 seconds of the original transfer and then the new sound track.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1145/collection_resources/29709/file/97547#t=300.88,429.29"},{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1145/collection_resources/29709/file/97547/transcript/18999/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And hopefully you will hear a difference in what we have to see in hear. Been. I think you will agree with me with even in that restored version, the sounds pretty dismal. Correct. And in part, it's because Duke did allow for the reissue of his films. And in part because, remember, this film was made for a one week exhibition on the machine after which it was to be turned into landfill. And so there wasn't a great deal of quality control on some of the Saudis and other Saudis work. The sound is just terrific. Not so the Duke Ellington films. OK, on to a second example. In 1941, Thomas Brand decided to form a film company. He was a documentary maker. He was a left winger. He might have been a socialist. He probably was a communist. And the intention was to create a series of one real film shorts that would spotlight the plight of the working man in America. At the time, they had intended an entire series of films, but apparently only one short subject was produced and released. It was directed by a gentleman named Willard Van Dike, a documentarian who I think later became the head of the music or rather the film department at the Museum of Modern Art. So this film is a fascinating document because it shows full integration on screen of performance, but little more than that. And this was, I guess, a starting point for this left wing movement back in 1941. A copy of the film came to mean many, many decades ago someone before it came to the decade. The archive had placed it on a flat surface where there was moisture film accepted. The moisture in the soundtrack was water damaged, and except for the last part, it was totally unusable.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1145/collection_resources/29709/file/97547#t=429.82,788.72"},{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1145/collection_resources/29709/file/97547/transcript/18999/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"So the film sat on the shelf unwatched because the sound was so damaged. But then a couple of years later, I received a another copy of the film. But the visual portion was scratched, the huge white emulsion scratch. But the soundtrack was fine. The problem was the film was involved in what was called or what is called vinegar's syndrome acetate, the composition. And I knew that it was not long for this world. So I took the film. I gave it a bath and a chemical solution that relax the film and allowed for one pass through a transfer machine where we were able to get a clean audio transfer. But as so often happens, the film after that point accelerated in terms of the vinegar syndrome curled and finally it was unwatchable. It had to be thrown away. But now we had the good audio portion from one film and the good video from another. And they could be married for a restoration. I'd like to share just one number from the film Tall Tales. It features a black folk singer named Josh White, accompanied vocally by Burl Ives and will hear. And this is probably one to be probably the earliest example of authentic folk music to be found on film. It's a traditional piece that I think you're all familiar with called John Henry. But guess what? He was over that man. Come on, I'm saying it. Come on, Tom. No, I can't. Well, would think it would be, you know, they wouldn't be able to join in because women you don't think will stop. Think a little bit, go. When John Henry, me baby mamas and. Well, that is a group of people is going to be the only thing that John Henry said to his cabin.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1145/collection_resources/29709/file/97547#t=789.92,966.05"},{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1145/collection_resources/29709/file/97547/transcript/18999/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"What about a man named Ivan? We do me down we down 12 million by one day. Herman. Why don't you pray on that tomorrow? Better be there. Well, John Henry, they are saying, why don't you say nine pounds from my hips? Listen to the calls. Do you agree? Well, don't lose you. Well, the cabin to John Henry and Lee Martin, again in John Henry that as captain then said up and put my hand up in November. Well, they have done him the radio. And never more to come roaring back to this man. No, no. Not bad. Well, they took him to the brink. Men never knock on border control and the losers haven't. Bam, bam, bam, bam. Third, we're going to turn to the example of what was or what is called a black cast film back in the time it was called a race film. It's not a pejorative. That was a term used both in the black and the white press to describe African-Americans and films that were made and distributed to theaters catering to African-American audiences. Now, one of the problems with this whole genre of films is that they were under funded to the extreme. In a number of cases, the film was produced and the budget was so stress stressed that at the end of production, only one or two prints could be made of the film, and these prints would be taken from theater to theater by the producer. So it is not a not a surprise at all that many of these films are lost with only one or two released prints, or that we have lost the original 35 millimeter element. And now we're just stuck with Dupee 16 millimeter prints. So I'd like to share one effort in sound preservation or rather restoration from one of these films.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1145/collection_resources/29709/file/97547#t=966.58,1143.05"},{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1145/collection_resources/29709/file/97547/transcript/18999/annotation/7","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"The film is called Scandals of 1933. It includes a great deal of music at the beginning, a an example of an actual amateur contest on stage featuring a washboard band. This is 1933 in a strongly early example of this type of music. For those of you who are into jazz and popular music, I would suggest that as you're listening to the harmonica player try at various points to take that sound of the harmonica, replace it with a trumpet, and you come very close to Louis Armstrong. It shows you the pervasive influence of Mr. Armstrong in all forms of music. So we're going to start with an announcement by the M.C. onstage from the original film. I pulled the track off and there was nothing I could do with it. I gave it to a sound engineer and he returned something that I think you'll find is much improved over the original. Still not at the quality of Mr. Horowitz's productions. But, you know, we use what we the tools we have available. So the song I think most of you are familiar with is Dyna. Ladies and gentlemen, you are about to witness the great advantage you can have never been held in ADIC feet, and I want you to get every one of these models of the great big man, Bob. Ladies and gentlemen, you are about to witness the great event was a concert never been held, an attic seat, and I want you to give each and every one of these marvelous performers a great big. For my last example this afternoon, I'd like to move into the world of live television. Now, before the advent of videotape, of course, the only way that live television could be preserved was either filming it live on 16 or 35 millimeter film or creating a kinescope after the fact.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1145/collection_resources/29709/file/97547#t=1143.32,1404.49"},{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1145/collection_resources/29709/file/97547/transcript/18999/annotation/8","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"1956 through 1958 found an amazing series of jazz performances on television produced in Los Angeles and shared mostly in Los Angeles. Then nationwide in 1958, called Stars of Jazz. It was hosted by Bobby Troup, and it is truly a remarkable set of films. Although of the two and a half years of productions, we only have around 30 or 35 kinescopes. And some of them, sad to say, have sound that is so badly muffled, so distorted that they are almost values, values valueless. But I say almost because at the same time that these kinescopes were being made no attention to quality control, probably just a check for the network or the sponsors. The Armed Forces Radio and television network were broadcasting and later televising some of these programs. So we have clean replacement tracks available. And I'd like to share with you right now one example of what can be done taking one of these replacement tracks and putting it on top of the video image where the previously recorded track, the original track, was totally unusable. I have two examples, but I'm going to skip the first one just so we remain on schedule. If you happen to be a major khaliji or completist, just catch me at sometime during the conference and I will pull up the computer and share that clip with you. So I'm going to try and just fast forward through to the second performance. It's a song called Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone. As presented by Miss Billie Holiday. Can. It's been. No, no, no. His name is Lefty. Well, thank you. Thank you very much. I'll be around for the rest of the conference if you have any questions about the archive. Jazz on film, music on film in general.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1145/collection_resources/29709/file/97547#t=1405.68,1663.53"},{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1145/collection_resources/29709/file/97547/transcript/18999/annotation/9","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And so I excuse you now to coffee and hopefully some high sugar powered treat and then the next session and a half hour. Thank you.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1145/collection_resources/29709/file/97547#t=1664.67,1673.43"}]},{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1145/collection_resources/29709/file/97547/transcript/18999","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["English [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1145/collection_resources/29709/file/97547/transcript/18999/annotation/10","type":"Annotation","motivation":"subtitling","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/file_transcripts/associated_files/000/018/999/original/open-uri20200924-1397-1x0xub0?1600952983","format":"text/vtt","language":"en"},"target":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/file_transcripts/associated_files/000/018/999/original/open-uri20200924-1397-1x0xub0?1600952983"}]}]},{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1145/collection_resources/29709/file/255750","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 2 of 2 - ARSC_conf_2016_Cantor_audio.mp3"]},"duration":1666.59413,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/public/images/audio-default.png","type":"Image","format":"image/png"}],"items":[{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1145/collection_resources/29709/file/255750/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1145/collection_resources/29709/file/255750/content/2/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-arsc.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/255/750/original/ARSC_conf_2016_Cantor_audio.mp3?1730750103","type":"Audio","format":"audio/mpeg","duration":1666.59413,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1145/collection_resources/29709/file/255750","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[]}]}