Exploring The Rise and Fall of Paramount Records

Exploring The Rise and Fall of Paramount Records: Featuring Jack White, Dean and Scott Blackwood, Daphne A. Brooks, and Greil Marcus

*Doors will open at 6 p.m. for program attendees to view a special exhibition of materials from The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts' Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound curated specifically for this event.

Paramount Records was founded on a modest proposition: produce records as cheaply as possible, recording whatever talent was available. Over its lifetime (1917-1932), the label compiled a dizzying array of performers still unrivaled to this day, spanning early jazz titans (Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller), blues masters (Charley Patton, Skip James), American divas (Ma Rainey, Ethel Waters), gospel, vaudeville, hillbilly, and more. But how did a Wisconsin chair company, run by men with little knowledge of their audience or the music business, build one of the greatest musical rosters ever assembled under one roof? How and why were its fortunes directly linked to the Great Migration, and what is Paramount's legacy today?

LIVE from the NYPL presents an evening of musical exploration and conversation, unpacking the label's rich history and celebrating the first volume of The Rise and Fall of Paramount Records 1917-1932 , an epic omnibus jointly released by Jack White's Third Man Records and Revenant Records. The program features a discussion with White, Revenant's Dean Blackwood, and Princeton professor and author Daphne A. Brooks, and close examinations of recordings from Paramount's catalogue by authors Greil Marcus and Scott Blackwood. Plus a special exhibition of artifacts from The New York Public Library's Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound curated specifically for this occasion will be on display before and after the event, exclusively for attendees.

By purchasing tickets to this LIVE from the NYPL event, attendees will receive a free 78 RPM record specially pressed for the event from Third Man and Revenant Records featuring two fiery sermons from the Paramount catalog. Ticket purchasers will also automatically be entered into a raffle to win the first volume of The Rise and Fall of Paramount Records 1917-1932.

LIVE from the NYPL is made possible with generous support from Celeste Bartos, Mahnaz Ispahani Bartos and Adam Bartos, and the Margaret and Herman Sokol Public Education Endowment Fund.

A note to our patrons: LIVE from the NYPL programs begin promptly at 7p.m. We recommend arriving twenty minutes before the scheduled start time to get to your seats. In order to minimize disturbances to other audience members, we are unable to provide late seating.

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