Another internet link that
lists Brian Rust's discography's Scott Mckenzies:
red
hot jazz.com
It is a tribute Brian Rust and his endeavor to obtain the most full and complete of Annette in existence. He developed a keen interest in her recordings back in the 1970's and traveled to the United States to find her and talk to her. His story will be covered in more detail in the "Current CD's" section. Suffice it to say he took a special interest in her work and still does.
The Sensation Record project
currently being released is using his record collection and the collection of
others to compile the most complete discography that is obtainable. The
problem with compiling a complete discography is the fact that no "complete"
discography is ever complete. New records are surfacing all the time.
The new "revised" discography that I have seen compiled by Preston Meeks,
Jim Thomas, and Malcolm Rockwell adds even more records than Brian has.
However, with the release of the full discography from Sensation Records
coming up, we will have at least the most current and complete discography
that is available today.
To understand the problems
associated with compiling a complete discography one has to understand
Annette and the times. When Annette started recording, she started
recording for a company that soon would go into receivership and she would
have to change companies and go to Columbia studios. Columbia
had much better standards and we can get a more compete discography from
their records. However, at the time she started working for Columbia
the depression was about to start and record companies would all be affected.
Companies would go out of business, fires would burn down studios and records
would be lost. The main source material usually would be the actual
company that made the record but when that fails, the collector must go
to the main source material itself, the record, the library or newspaper
archives.
One of the beautiful things about the current complete CD set coming up is the networking that took place among collectors. Records were contributed not only from Brian Rust, but from Preston Meeks and Malcolm Rockwell as well, to provide fans the most complete discography available. Here is an email I received from Rick Levinson detailing how the principals got together on the project:
Date: Fri, 10 Sep
1999 17:57:37 -0400
To: mbrooke@warwickgp.com
(Michael Brooke)
From: Rick Levinson
<goonstra@interlog.com>>Subject: Re: annette hanshaw
In-Reply-To: <001001befbc0$8d366f00$c8080dd8@michael.warwickgp.com
Mr. Brooke:
Thanks much for your
response. Believe it or not, Annette Hanshaw has a
following. (The
celebrated discographer who supplied the bulk of the 78s
for transferring,
Brian Rust, has a special fondness for AH).
A brief background
on the Hanshaw project: Jim Thomas, a Maryland-based
78 collector and
Hanshaw fans, connected on a newsgroup about classic
pop/jazz of the
'20s and '30s. Jim and I discussed an Annette Hanshaw
collection, and
Jim suggested contacting Brian Rust and John R. T. Davies
about it. Rust is
a discographer whose work is the bible for classic
pop/jazz American
recordings. Davies may be the best indie classic pop/jazz
audio engineer in
the world. Rust said he'd be delighted to donate his AH
78 collection for
a project and Rust responded that he would be thrilled to
do a comprehensive
collection.
The money
to a project. A minor problem there. Jim and I didn't have the
cash. Davies suggested
Jeff Healey, the renowned Toronto-based blues/rock
guitarist. I thought:
sure, like I'm just going to pick up the phone and
called Jeff. Actually,
Jeff called me: he was interested in doing the
project for a new
label with Warwick.
Liner notes.
Jeff could write them. Rust could write them. But Will
Friedwald, a NYC-based
writer, wrote JAZZ SINGING, which has become a
classic on early
pop/jazz, and SINATRA: THE SONG IS YOU!, which won the
ASCAP Deems Taylor
award for writing on pop music. Jim Thomas to the rescue
again: Jim had Will
Friedwald's e-mail address. I cold-e-mailed Will and he
said he would be
interested in the project. He's writing the liner notes.>
Preston Meeks,
another person contacted through Jim Thomas, is the
custodian of the
most Annette Hanshaw-related items in the US. He came
onboard and provided,
free of charge, much time and energy [not to mention
graphics materials
and recordings] to the project. Preston introduced me to
John Woodruff, who
knew AH well and had biographical information on her
that no one else
had.
We needed
some tracks from Annette Hanshaw's Hawaiian sessions [every
vocalist during
the period had at least a couple of Hawaiian numbers to
cash in on the craze].
Malcolm Rockwell in Hawaii had the tracks and
supplied them to
us. Again: for free.
You're getting
the picture: the right people at the right time came
together and made
the project possible.
A couple of
guys ~ Jim Thomas, John Woodruff, and Preston Meeks ~ were
instrumental in
providing information, materials for graphics, an updated
discography, etc.
As mentioned, Malcolm Rockwell supplied some of the Frank
Ferara Hawaiian
Trio tracks to the project. Jeff may fill you in on some
others who contributed
to the project.
I think some
of the people may contact you by e-mail with promotion
suggestions via
the 'net. So don't be surprised if you get a couple of
e-mails regarding
free promotion opportunities for the releases. And don't
be surprised if
these suggestions turn out to be cost-effective promotional
tools that will
boost the profile of the AH project and the Sensation label.
Again, thanks
for getting back to me and feel free to contact me any time
you want on the
AH project.>> Rick
So
you can see what incredible work has taken place to get this far.
However, that is not the end of the story by any means. Annette did
not make it easy for us collectors. Anette did not like the sound
of her voice and she tired of recording. Starting in the early thirties
she started working on radio programs "because I don't like the sound of
my voice". She worked on the Maxwell House
Showboat series for 18 months and then the Camel Caravan for another
18 months. If you assume she did approximately 5 songs per show that
would be another 390 songs that she sang over the air for each of the radio
shows or a total of 780 songs that could have been recorded. On top
of that she recorded at least one video of the Maxwell House showboat series.
Here is an example of one
of radio broadcasts from WOR in New York:
Also from the same program is a review of the show that night:
Also from the same program
is a list of the songs heard that night: