Opening Reception January 13th at 6 pm. Free.
Jan 15-Mar 15 Wed-Sun, 10am-6pm, (and one hour before shows in the Harvey Theater)
Recording sessions 10am -1pm (Wed -Sun) and 2pm -5pm (Wed -Fri)
New York-based conceptual artist and musician Ted Riederer makes his BAM artistic debut by exploring the social significance of record shops, vinyl lathe cuts, and recording studios with his site-specific project, Never Records. With a nod to Fluxus, Alan Kaprow’s happenings, Alan Lomax, Harry Smith, and the collectivism of 80s and 90s DC punk scene, Never Records embodies Riederer’s mission to build and galvanize communities based on the act of listening, and the visualization of sound.

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ハリー・スミスは語る　音楽／映画／人類学／魔術, translated by Kenji Yuda. (Tokorozawa: Companysha Ltd., 2020) is a fully translated version of Think of Self Speaking: Harry Smith Selected Interviews. Seattle: Elbow Press/Cityful Press, 1999.

This publication contains over 280 new footnotes by translator, commentary by publisher Haruka Kudo, and over 25 color and black & white photographs of Harry Smith’s works.
Translator Kenji Yuda was born in Tokyo and grew up in Sendai, Japan. After receiving a B.A. in Japanese language teaching and Phonetics, Kenji attended University of Colorado Language Center to learn English and was drawn to the poetry scene at Naropa Institute where he eventually studied translation with Anselm Hollo and prose with Bobbie Louise Hawkins, receiving his B.A in 1996. His other translations include Dylan on Dylan: Interviews and Encounters (ed. Jeff Burger. Tokyo: DU BOOKS, 2019). He is currently living in Nakano, Tokyo with his wife Hisae and son Akio.

Acclaimed music producer Hal Willner has died due to complications from Covid19. Impossible to sum up his contributions, Willner was best known for his tribute albums featuring an eclectic array of musical styles and sounds including Amarcord Nino Rota (1981), Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill (1985), Allen Ginsberg’s Holy Soul Jelly Roll : Poems and Songs 1949 – 1993, and others. Willner was music coordinator on Saturday Night Live since 1980.

Master ringleader of the Harry Smith Project concerts held in London (1999) New York (2000) and Los Angeles (2001) which culminated in Shout! Factory’s four CD/DVD Harry Smith Project (2006).  The concerts, some running over five hours, featured an all-star line-up of musicians radically interpreting Smith’s music and film output. Willner’s offbeat humor, openness and cutting=edge sensibility functioned more like a magician or chemist; he brought people together and created something edgy, out there and new. Board member of the Harry Smith Archives since 2014, his visionary insight on all matters will be sorely missed.

Poem for Hal Willner by Ed Sanders

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/arts/music/hal-willner-dead.html

Longtime Harry Smith Archives board member Nicholas Amster Jay Fishelson  passed away at his home in Wooster, Ohio from heart disease. Musician and film aficionado Nick Amster first met Harry Smith when he ran away to New York City as a teenager in 1965. That meeting was the beginning of a long friendship that lasted until the end of Smith’s life when in 1991 Nick Amster accompanied Harry Smith to the stage of Grammy Award Ceremony where he received his Lifetime Achievement award. See it here. https://youtu.be/TgY9pAAXu1A

Nick’s support both financial and otherwise enabled several Harry Smith projects to come to fruition. The cloth cover on Smithsonian Folkways 1997 re-release of the Anthology of American Folk Music, the professional film, video and audio capture of the Harry Smith Project concerts and the documentary film The Old, Weird America all owe their existence in parts large and small to Nick’s careful attention to detail and appreciation for exquisite audio and visual presentation. Yours in Music. . . .

Nick Amster, notable supporter of music and arts in Cleveland, has died (Cleveland.com)

Poet, activist, musician Ed Sanders of The Fugs has penned a remembrance: Poem for Nick Amster Ed Sander

Canadian film distributor Films We Like has re-released The Harry Smith Project and The Old, Weird America! THE OLD, WEIRD AMERICA: HARRY SMITH’S ANTHOLOGY OF AMERICAN FOLK MUSIC 
2006 / 90 min / Dir. Rani Singh

Prepare for an eclectic musical journey through The Old, Weird America. The documentary film tracks the history of Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music from its initial compilation of 78 records from rural Americana to its release on Folkways Records in 1952. Instrumental in helping inspire the urban folk revival of the 1960s, the Anthology continues to influence modern music. Rare archival footage and intimate interviews with legendary performers reveal the lasting impact of the Anthology and the remarkable personality of Harry Smith. The film includes performances, and interviews with Elvis Costello, Beck, Sonic Youth, Beth Orton, Philip Glass, David Johansen, John Cohen, Greil Marcus, and more. Join us for a wild ride through a remarkable musical landscape.

Box set containing the flip side of 78-rpm records that Harry Smith included on the Anthology of American Folk Music. Sequenced in the identical order that Smith created, this new box set offers the flip-side of 78-rpm records that he selected for the original Anthology. Featuring archival images, original artwork by Harry Smith, and essays by John Cohen, Lance Ledbetter, and Eli Smith.

A visual history of Western astrological practices. Astrology is the second volume of The Library of Esoterica, a series exploring how artists have reimagined timeless mystical traditions, translating the arcane into enduring, visionary works of art.

Edited by Jessica Hundley, Published by Taschen