Archeophone Records

11/12/2024

Day 10 of our 12 Days: Get "Real Ragtime" and "Stomp and Swerve" for $25. Grab today's deal: https://www.archeophone.com/store/releases/327-day-10

10/12/2024

Day 9 of our 12 Days: Pick two comedians for $24. Featured artists include Nat M. Wills, Cal Stewart, and Joe Weber & Lew Fields; all three volumes include substantial notes and research. Get the deal here: https://www.archeophone.com/store/home/326-day-9

09/12/2024

Day 8 of our 12 Days: Two acclaimed releases featuring musical innovators. Both were projects with our esteemed collaborator Colin Hancock, who wrote album notes for "The Missing Link,"co-produced "The Moaninest Moan," and co-wrote the notes for "Moaninest" with Mark Berresford. Both are great reads and listens and make a fantastic gift for lovers of early jazz. Get the deal here: https://www.archeophone.com/store/releases/321-day-8

08/12/2024

Day 7 of our 12 Days: Save $10 on two releases featuring three performers with unforgettable presence. Get today's deal: https://www.archeophone.com/store/releases/320-day-7

07/12/2024

Day 6 of our 12 Days: Save $10 on "The Great War," our acclaimed 2-CD compilation focused on World War I recordings. Get the deal here: https://www.archeophone.com/store/releases/318-day-6

06/12/2024

Day 5 of our 12 Days: Our Anthology series presents single-disc career retrospectives of some of the most significant artists of the early industry, packed full of notes and new research, and today's special lets you pick two for $26. Get the deal here: https://www.archeophone.com/store/releases/303-day-5

05/12/2024

Day 4 of our 12 Days: Two releases featuring Eddie Morton or the Six Brown Brothers for $25--your choice. Get the deal here: https://www.archeophone.com/store/releases/317-day-4

04/12/2024

Day 3 of our 12 Days: Discover three jazz and blues pioneers for $33. Get the deal here: https://www.archeophone.com/store/releases/304-day-3

03/12/2024

Day 2 of our 12 Days: Save $16 on "Happy" by Isham Jones and "Songs of the Night" by Joseph C. Smith--two acclaimed double-disc sets filled with sounds you can dance to. Get the deal here: https://www.archeophone.com/store/releases/301-day-2

03/12/2024

We were on NPR - All Things Considered tonight! Talking about Louis Vasnier and the oldest recording in existence from NOLA. And possibly the earliest "country" record still surviving?

https://www.npr.org/2024/12/02/nx-s1-5213322/a-record-label-is-reissuing-the-oldest-country-record-in-existence

A small record label is reissuing what it calls the first country record. The music was first released in 1891 on a wax cylinder. And the singer on the album was a Black man from New Orleans.

02/12/2024

Our 12 Days of Christmas are back! Day 1: Save $15 on our GRAMMY-nominated compilation "Waxing the Gospel." Get the deal here: https://www.archeophone.com/store/releases/308-day-1

30/11/2024

From the Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024, print edition of The Washington Post, here's an article by Geoff Edgers about our new vinyl release of Louis Vasnier, "Genius of the Seventh Ward." Thanks to Geoff and Rhiannon Giddens for their time and energy in discussing this invaluable addition to our understanding of recorded history!

A new release of an 1891 song by Louis Vasnier deepens what we know about the genre’s origins.

22/11/2024

This morning we appeared on The 21st Show on C-U's WILL-AM 580 to talk about "Centennial," "After Midnight," the art of audio restoration, and our most recent Recording Academy / GRAMMYs nominations. Thanks to host Brian Mackey, producer Christine Hatfield, engineer Jerry Morefield, and all the other good folks at Illinois Public Media. Click through below if you want to hear the interview, which lasts about 23 minutes.

Champaign record label nominated for three Grammy awards November 22, 2024 Produced by Christine Hatfield   Meagan Hennessey and Richard Martin, co-founders and co-owners of Archeophone Records in Champaign Christine Hatfield/IPM News Listen Download Archeophone Records, based out of Champaign, spe...

20/11/2024

Philadelphia jazz and classical radio station WRTI has just published its 2024 Gift Guide, which features our box set "Centennial." Nate Chinen remarks: "It’s hard to overstate the care exhibited in this revelatory package, which deservedly racked up two Grammy nods, for Best Album Notes and Best Historical Album."

Why don't you pick up a copy for a loved one's (oversized) Christmas stocking? It's on sale for $109.95 now at archeophone.com.

Many thanks to Nate Chinen and Josh Jackson of WRTI (and photographer Joseph V. Labolito)!

https://www.wrti.org/wrti-spotlight/2024-11-20/2024-gift-guide-boxes-books-and-more-for-the-jazz-and-classical-fan

In search of the perfect gift for the music obsessive in your life — or looking to drop a few hints for family and friends? Here are our picks for the standout books, boxed sets and apparel, for jazz and classical music fans of every taste.

19/11/2024

No photo of Louis Vasnier has surfaced, but here is one of his associates, a magician named Zanzic (or Zan Zig), from an 1899 lithograph by Strobridge & Co. (Library of Congress). On May 1, 1895, Prof. Zanzic and his company staged a performance at Francs Amis Hall in New Orleans for the benefit of Louis Vasnier, whose family had been ravaged by tuberculosis. Louis lost his mother and his wife to TB, and he too would succumb to the disease seven years later. But let's celebrate the kindness of his fellow actors in Louis' time of need! (New Orleans Times Picayune, May 1, 1895, p. 8)

15/11/2024

It's release day for Archeophone's 89th title, "Genius of the Seventh Ward," by Louis Vasnier. Check out this amazing review by Joe Bebco of The Syncopated Times. Joe seems to understand--maybe better than most others--why we do this crazy thing of putting out two tracks on a vinyl 45 . . . .with a 16-page large booklet! He writes: "I prize [Archeophone's 7- and 10-inch vinyl] releases in a way I do not with digital files of similar 1890s content. When I place the needle down I listen more fully than I would to a CD or MP3 playing in one of eight open windows on my laptop. The medium is the message."

Further down, Joe says: "Historic albums like this do not fall out of the air, several human lifetimes developing esoteric skills went into the preservation, research and presentation of this record. A blog with a YouTube embed can’t match it, and could never financially produce it. So yes, buying an album like this one does encourage the creation of more of them. But you also get your money’s worth."

Thanks Joe!

To my knowledge, their new King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band boxed set, Centennial, is the first time Archeophone has included full size LPs in a collection.

13/11/2024

The first pre-orders of "Genius of the Seventh Ward" by Louis Vasnier have shipped out, and some customers are already receiving their copies ahead of the official release day, this Friday, November 15th! Get your copy and save a little today at https://www.archeophone.com/catalogue/louis-vasnier-genius-of-the-seventh-ward/

Have you seen the videos? Check them out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yWSHMbTE2E (Rich Martin talks about the life of Louis Vasnier)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUgfhU8Tt0s (hear an extended audio clip of "Thompson's Old Gray Mule")

08/11/2024

We are so honored to have "Centennial" nominated for Best Historical Album at the 67th Annual Recording Academy / GRAMMYs. Big thanks to Ricky Riccardi for his excellent scholarship and storytelling--and for his advice above and beyond. Thanks also to Colin Hancock and Mark Berresford for all their help along the way. To the record collectors who gave so selflessly, profound thanks.

Big congrats to our friends Andreas K. Meyer, Nancy Conforti, and Robert Russ for their work on the Robeson set, and to Bernie Grundman and all the other producers and engineers whom we hope we'll get to meet in February 2025.

This is number 10 in Historical for us. We are humbled!