Maureen Russell's blog

Highlights from the Ethnomusicology Archive: the Charlotte Heth collection

Charlotte Heth has a long and distinguished history at UCLA.  In 1973, she began teaching a survey course on American Indian music.  In 1975 she completed her disseration in Ethnomusicology, "Stomp dance music of the Oklahoma Cherokee: a study of contemporary practice with special reference to the Illinois District Council Ground."  Heth was director of UCLA's

A Don Ellis Portrait: Strawberry Soup

It all began as an assignment for Ethnomusicology 205.  The two archivists (Aaron and Maureen) suggested archival collections to research that might specifically interest each student in the class.  For Marc Bolin, we could think of no better choice than the

Highlights from the Ethnomusicology Archive: the Don Ellis collection

Don Ellis (1934-1978) was a jazz trumpeter, composer and bandleader.  Ellis won a Grammy in 1972 for Best Instrumental Arrangement for the Theme From The French Connection.  He is probably best known for his extensive musical experimentation.  Ellis’ rhythmic innovations came as a direct result of his studies in non-Western music

Highlights from UCLA's collections: the James Arkatov Photograph Collection

James Arkatov was born in 1920 in Odessa, Russia and raised in San Francisco, where his father, Alexander Arkatov, owned a photography salon.  In 1938, he was invited by Fritz Feiner to join the Pittsburgh Symphony.  Later, he joined the San Francisco Symphony with Pierre Monteux, and went on to be principal cellist of the

Highlights from the Ethnomusicology Archive: Mantle Hood collection

As probably everyone knows, Mantle Hood (1918-2005) was the Founder and DIrector of the UCLA Institute of Ethnomusicology.  Hood was on the UCLA Faculty from 1956 to 1975.  As Chris Waterman said to the LA Times in 2005, "Mantle Ho

Highlights from the Ethnomusicology Archive: Music of Persia ensemble

The Music of Persia Performance Group was founded in 1959-1960, under the direction of Hormoz Farhat (now Emeritus Professor of Music, Trinity College, University of Dublin).  Professor Farhat is perhaps best known for his book, The Dastgah Concept in Persian Music (Cambridge University Press, 2004), now available on Google Boo

British Pathé releases 85,000 films on YouTube

Newsreel archive British Pathé has uploaded its entire collection of 85,000 historic films, in high resolution, to its YouTube channel.  This unprecedented release of vintage news reports and cinemagazines is part of a drive to make the archive more accessible to viewers all over the world.

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