The music makers of Gennett Records
(DVD)

Sponsors: A production of WTIU/Indiana University Television, with support of Earlham College, IU Jacobs School of Music, city of Richmond, Indiana and Al Cobine recognition endowment fund.

Not rated.

Produced for WTIU/Indiana University Television, by Susanne Schwibs. Original music by Alexander Blank ; Director of Educational & Production Services: Rob Anderson ; Executive in Charge: Perry Metz.

Features interviews with musical performers, composers and music executives, including Wytnon Marsalis, Ricky Skaggs, Michael Feinstein, Dr. Bobby Jones and others.

"During the early 20th century, one tiny recording studio in Richmond, Indiana, had a big impact on the soundtrack of the Jazz Age...where many of the greatest artists in American jazz, blues, country, and gospel music first recorded. The documentary traces the careers of early Gennett musicians, including Louis Armstrong, Bix Biederbecke, Hoagy Carmichael, Duke Ellington, the singing cowboy Gene Autry, among other popular artists of the era, and features several of their rare 1920s recordings...Despite the racial segregation and influence of the Ku Klux Klan at the time, the staff of Gennett Studios was remarkably progressive in allowing many cultural minorities to record American roots music at their studio. Gennett provided an outlet for non-mainstream music and artists when the major recording studios in New York refused to record much more than classical, Eurocentric compositions."--Back cover.

DVD, widescreen, stereo sound.

In English.

DVD