The Edison Party was great fun! More than thirty people, nearly all antique phonograph owners, attended including Dr. Clay Shorkey founder of the Texas Music Museum & his friend Rudy Martinez, Chris & Martin Theophilus founders of the Texas Museum of Magnetic Tape Recording & local antique phonograph repairman Jeff Cecil & his wife Nancy. We ate smoked turkey sandwiches, baked beans, potato salad, pasta salad & English trifle, the latter brought by my cousin Dave Edwards & his wife Carla.
Bob & Cindy Sieberg brought their replica of an 1878 tinfoil phonograph based on a design originally sold in Europe after Edison himself had abandoned perfecting the phonograph to concentrate on electrical lighting which made for great "show & tell." Tim & Myra Knapp brought a wonderful electrically recorded diamond disc by the Golden Gate Orchestra (California Ramblers on other labels). Colin Hancock brought an original Gennet 78by the Wolverines (w. Bix Beiderbeck) which sounded great on the upright bombe Brunswick, giving me "goose bumps!" In the Music Room , I demonstrated my just-constructed "electrophone" pieced together using the motor & mandrel of an Amberola 30 & circa 1960s-1970s hi-fi gear plus new cartridges & styli by my helper John Cox & myself to play cylinder records (both 2 & 4 minute) electronically with the Sousa's Band Blue Amberol cylinder of "Stars and Stripes Forever" which sounded truly amazing & impressed everyone. Guests then played other cylinders on the "electrophone." (In a later post I shall give a more detailed description of the "electrophone" including its components & construction.) Nancy & Jeff had brought a cake decorated with an Edison phonograph & in the Music Room we sang "Happy Birthday" to Mr. Edison's photo adorned with a party hat, drank a champagne toast to Mr. Edison & ate his birthday cake. Then the fun began with four of Austin's finest professional jazz musicians (Jon Doyle, David "Jelly" Jellema, Lyon Graulty & Westen Borghesi) joined by equally talented high school senior Colin Hancock an antique phonograph collector who has done a good bit of wax cylinder recording & who is also an excellent musician, denoting themselves for this occasion as "Edison's Ramblers" in the announcements at the beginning of the cylinders. I had set up a raised platform about a foot high on which were placed two tall chairs for the banjoist & clarinetist so their instruments would be at the proper height. The bass saxophone was placed to one side of the original circa 1890s approximately 32" long conical recording horn loaned by Jeff connected to my Edison Triumph Model B Phonograph. The cornets were also to one side & the trombone was behind the bass saxophone. We used Colin's Edison Recorder since it has been rebuilt & upon first test neither of mine worked well, perhaps because the shaved down cylinder was too thin & my Recorders wanted adjustment. As per Phono-L instructions (Thanks!), an incandescent lamp warmed the cylinders before & during recording. After each cylinder was recorded it was allowed to cool & then reproduced on the "electrophone." All the instruments were audible & the volume was good but, as was to be expected, both low & high frequency responses were less than achieved in the Edison studio. This was a remarkable experience. Many "smart 'phones" were brought out during the recording so I expect portions of the party will appear on "social media" (I only have dialup so can't upload such large files) so those of you who are computer savy can probably share in the experience. I only wish that more Phono-L collectors lived in the Central Texas area so that they might have joined us. This year's Edison Party will be difficult to top in future but a collector is getting an EMG with large outside horn so next year's "show & tell" ought to be interesting. Jim Cartwright IMMORTAL PERFORMANCES, INC "Austin's Eclectic Used Record Store Since 1971" 1404 West 30th Street Austin, Texas 78703-1402 USA (512) 478-9954 E-mail: [email protected]
