Thanks to Kat Bolas and WVIA for promoting the Allan Jaffe Marker and the PHMC Historical Marker program! You can read/listen here.
PA Historical Marker for Allan Jaffe
I’m happy to announce that my application for a Pennsylvania Historical Marker dedicated to Allan Jaffe (Preservation Hall) has been approved! The marker will be installed in Pottsville, PA sometime next year.
Offbeat Magazine in New Orleans published a short article I wrote about how this project came to be. You can read it here.
Look Ma, I’m published!
Since 2018, I’ve been a member of the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA). I recently submitted an article for consideration to be published in their bi-annual, online journal. Happily, it was selected for IASA Journal No. 52 and is now available! Learn more about the work I’ve been doing at the Jazz & Heritage Archive and pay especially close attention if you know a repository starting its own digital preservation program. Here is a link to my article only. Enjoy!
Jazz Fest 2022
Today officially starts the 2022 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, the first since 2019. As usual, I’ll be out in one of the WWOZ broadcast trucks mixing the acts at both the Blues and Economy Hall tents.
There has been a flurry of activity at the Archive over the past few months including a great story by Offbeat Magazine included in their 2022 Jazz Fest Bible. You can check out the article here, though you may need a subscription.
Happy Festing!
Irma Thomas Documentary
Recently, I had the great privilege of working on a new documentary about the life of famed vocalist, Irma Thomas. Irma: My Life in Music was produced by Michael Murphy Productions and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation.
Much of the documentary’s archival material came from the Jazz & Heritage Archive. I also performed audio clean-up on a few of the live Jazz Fest numbers.
Irma: My Life in Music premiered on October 4, 2021 on WYES in New Orleans.
Jazz & Heritage Archive in the Press!
Exciting news! I was recently featured in an article by Keith Spera of NOLA.com that highlights the Jazz & Heritage Foundation’s history as well as some of the more recent work we’ve been doing! You can read the article here!
Photo by Brett Duke, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate
New Job Alert!
Today, I am very excited to announce my new role as Digital Systems Lead for the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation Archive! It is going to be a huge challenge, but one that I’ve been preparing for a long time now. I look forward to meeting it head on!
Among my many responsibilities will be establishing and implementing an effective and sustainable digital storage and preservation program, evaluating and implementing digital preservation systems, software, and storage solutions, and assisting with capacity planning and risk management.
This is such an exciting opportunity and one that I’ve been nudging my career towards, particularly after completing my MLIS in 2018.
With that being said, it is bittersweet to leave my family over at the New Orleans Jazz Museum where I have worked for the past eight years.
I began working at “The Mint” (before it was the Jazz Museum!) as an intern and contract engineer back in 2012 and had an amazing run. I made lifelong friends and had the great privilege and fortune of working alongside my partner-in-crime, Danny Kadar. Together, we recorded the best musicians in New Orleans and some legit legends. I also had the pleasure of working closely with the great folks at New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park. It definitely feels like the end of an era and I will always have a soft spot for the corner of Esplanade and Decatur.
So it’s onto a new chapter. I am thrilled to be a part of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation and honored to support the important work they do!
An exciting week!
After a bit of a hiatus (about a year!) in posting, I’ve had a particularly eventful week. In addition to officially becoming a member of the Recording Academy (Memphis Chapter), I was asked to participate in a campaign to welcome Lebanon Valley College’s new president, Dr. James M. MacLaren.
Additionally, the most recent Association for Recorded Sound Collections newsletter released today features an article I wrote about Professor Longhair’s recording session for the Mardi Gras anthem, “Big Chief.” I also finished mixing and mastering a record featuring the Down on their Luck Orchestra (or “DotLO”), who served as the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park’s house band at the New Orleans Jazz Museum from roughly 2015-2018.
Finally, I received some exciting news regarding a career change I’ll be revealing shortly!
New Album from Richard “Piano” Scott!
Congratulations to Richard “Piano” Scott on his new album Port of New Orleans! I had a great time recording/mixing the record. It was a great pleasure working with Richard and the world-class musicians he carefully selected for this project. The album coincides with his new gig as band leader of the Twisty River Band on the steamboat, City of New Orleans. Check out Richard’s website here and his new site for Richard Scott’s Twisty River Band here!
2018 AES Conference for Audio Archiving, Preservation, & Restoration
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending the Audio Engineering Society’s first International Conferences on Audio Archiving, Preservation, & Restoration at the Library of Congress’s National Audio Visual Conservation Center (NAVCC) Packard Campus in Culpeper, VA.
The conference presented a unique opportunity to tour the LOC’s amazing, state of the art facility, listen to some great presentations by experts in both the audio and archival fields, as well as chat with a lot of folks who are amazing at what they do!
Read more about the conference here.