New book on music collector Alan Lomax

"It still remains for us to learn how we can put our magnificent mass communications technology at the service of each and every branch of the human family." - Alan Lomax


This aim was something that Alan Lomax worked towards his whole life, using technology to make field recordings of grassroots music, dance and song throughout America and abroad.  He founded the Association for Cultural Equity to promote his belief that every culture has the need to express and develop its distinctive heritage. In addition to his position as an ethnographic music collector and then head of the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress Alan Lomax was also well known as an author, folklorist, radio broadcaster, filmmaker, concert and record producer and as a television host.

This book The Man who Recorded the World about Alan Lomax is on my 'to buy' list for this year as I have a feeling it's a book that I'd want to come back to again and browse through.  I have heard a lot about Alan Lomax, originally through my mum and her love of folk music, then I read America over the Water by Shirley Collins in which she travelled to America and worked as an assistant to Alan Lomax in his field recordings.

The Alan Lomax Collection is held at the American Folklife Centre.  There is a huge amount of material from the Archive online on the AlanLomaxArchive YouTube channel.