Rocker Jack White will join music industry professionals and scholars at prestigious Yale University next week to discuss the history of Paramount Records.
In case you forgot, White and his label Third Man Records collaborated with Revenant Records last year to release an exhaustive reissue of songs by Paramount artists titled The Rise & Fall of Paramount Records, Volume One (1917-1932). As White continues to ready the second installment, he has become a notable expert on the label, which put out early jazz and blues "race records" by the likes of Ma Rainey, Fats Waller and Jelly Roll Morton. White will join in a discussion, "Exploring the Rise and Fall of Paramount Records," Oct. 28, with music journalist Greil Marcus, Dean and Scott Blackwood of Revenant Records, musician Adia Victoria and Yale's Daphne Brooks.
According to the event's website, Paramount "was founded on a modest proposition: Produce records as cheaply as possible, recording whatever talent was available."
"The Rise and Fall of Paramount Records" features 800 remastered tracks converted to digital form, more than 200 advertisements and images from the 1920s, six vinyl LPs, a hardcover book and an encyclopedia to Paramount's roster of artists.
"What is best about America is in this box," Jack White said about the package. Pitchfork gave the set a "Best New Reissue" stamp, writing, "Wondrous. These recordings are no less than a blueprint of what has become American music. At once, it is a history lesson, a dance hall, a bandstand and a smoky blues parlor, all tucked neatly into one sturdy box. This is the Cabinet of Wonder, indeed."
The second volume is slated for a Nov. 18 release.
