The Treasures Await You at the Marr Sound Archives

Jazz and other American music have rich histories. Indeed,
a thorough study of jazz over its life would also touch
much of the story of this country- war, politics, social
trends, technological advances, education, cultural
changes. The music was created from the people who lived
during the amazing events that have occurred in the last century, and responded
to what was around them.

The musical world leaves behind artifacts that allow us to dig into the history
and help us process how we traveled to today. There are recordings, writings, photographs,
film, musical scores, and oral histories that preserve sounds and memories.
As long as there have been musicians, there have been people who believe that their
work and lives are worth chronicling and preserving. Not just some of their work
– ALL of it. The reasons for doing this could be personal satisfaction or a belief
that recording the history is just incredibly important and must be done.
A library, by definition, collects and documents these efforts so that others can
study and learn from it. The Marr Sound Archives is a case in point. More than
a part of a library, it is a musical museum.
It is a Kansas City treasure. No, it’s more than that: it is a world treasure. It’s the
soup with all the beans. It’s a Cole Porter “list” song, one with infinite choruses.
I was aware of the Marr Sound Archives since arriving in Kansas City a decade
ago, but the afternoon that I spent there with Chuck Haddix was my first. Chuck
has been with the Archives since it was established in 1987 through a gift from
Gaylord Marr, who taught History of Media at UMKC. Marr’s collection was close
to 30,000 recordings, much used in his courses. “When we started, this was a huge
empty room”, shared Haddix on our tour of the archives. Now the collection numbers
300,000 recordings. “The core of the collection is jazz, but we also have pop, rock
and roll, blues, country western, bluegrass, opera, and classical.”
Everything is arranged by type of record and label and catalog number. “This
tends to group like items together,” says Haddix. Much of the collection is the familiar
twelve inch LP record, but there are also formidable collections of ten inch LPs
and 78s. The latter includes, for example, many original Charlie Parker classics. We
listened to a very clean copy of “Yardbird Suite” which included Lucky Thompson and
Miles Davis. The presence of the sound was astonishing. “The reissues lose something
from the originals. The Warner Brothers reissue of the Dial recordings sound flat. On
this you can really hear the nuances in Bird’s playing.” It was like Parker was in the room
playing.
Many of these are rare, but how about the 30,000 sixteen inch records, most of which
were old radio programs. “Much of this is from Dave Golden’s collection, which was
incredible.”
Non-commercial recordings are also included. These are one of a kind treasures: a
collection of Raymond Scott recordings (“he made cartoons swing”), cassettes from drummer
Mel Lewis, including his evolution of the drums, vast recordings of jam sessions by
Milt Abel, recordings by Warren Durrett, and a new collection of music by Leigh Stevens,
best known for composing the music for The Wild Ones.
The Kansas City Jazz Festival recordings are here, from 1965 through 1971 (“recorded direct from the board”), including rare performances from Count Basie, Woody
Herman, Frank Smith, Arch Martin, Marilyn Maye,and many others.
“One of the key acquisitions was the oral histories done by Frank Driggs,” said Haddix as we headed down another long row of stacks. “He did interviews starting in 1957, including Andy Kirk, Ed Lewis, and so many others. It’s an incredible and important work,
often used for research. Right now, PBS is doing a documentary of jazz in Europe. Frank had interviews with musicians who played with James Reese Europe
the leader of the 369th Infantry (Hellfighters) Jazz Band who introduced the sounds of American Ragtime to Europeans during WWI. You just can’t find this kind
of information anywhere.” There are listening stations available for anyone’s
use. Just ask for an item, and they’ll pull it for you and set you up.

The recordings alone make for one of the world’s
largest collections, and would make the Marr Sound
Archives a landmark. But it is just the beginning.

There is the printed music. All of Warren Durrett’s
charts are here, including arrangements by Bob Brookmeyer
when he played in the band. Buck Clayton’s
charts are here. There are stacks of “stock” arrangements
from the 1930s and 1940s. There are 40,000
pieces of sheet music.
There are stacks of books and music periodicals,
including the history of DownBeat and Metronome from
their beginnings. These have been microfilmed, but
the originals are here, too.
The Marr collection of photographs is outstanding.
There are tens of thousands, including the Buck
Clayton collection (he was a photographer and also collected).
Dave Dexter’s photography collection is here.
All of the Mutual Musicians Foundation photographs
are here. All of the photos have been digitized, but
they also have the originals. They have made it easy
to peruse – the digitized photos are all in binders by
collection, and alphabetical by subject. Want to see
great pictures of Count Basie on 52nd Street? Or Chris
Connor hanging out at Peacock Alley in St. Louis? Or
shots Buck took on the steamships to the Orient that he
played on? It’s here. As Chuck says, “it’s an incredible,
rich collection.” Again, it is major museum quality.
“Digital projects are a showcase for the collection”,
Chuck added. Like much of the collection, there is a
Kansas City emphasis here. There is the “Brush Creek
Follies”, which covers the twenty years of the radio show
from KBMC, a project on the Mutual Musicians Foundation,
and “Kansas City: Paris of the Plains – The Jazz
Age of Kansas City 1920-1940”, among others. They
are excellent studies of not just the past in Kansas City,
but of the American experience. These can be accessed
from the Marr Web site.
Haddix seems the perfect person to lead the Marr
mission. “I fell in love with this stuff when I was in my
early twenties. I had a jazz radio show from ten until
two daily. I met a lot of the musicians, and heard their
stories.”
He has assured that the collection is most useful
through the detailed catalogs that are maintained
online. Every recording in the collection has full data
entered into the system: leader, musicians, tunes, composers,
even the length of the track. The online catalog
is available on the Web site. Search Duke Ellington and
you get 1,187 hits. And it’s not just the recordings; it is
also interviews and books. Want to get a list of all of
the recordings of “Caravan”? There are 561 hits. How
about Bob Brookmeyer? 130 hits, including his compositions
done by others. Click on one of the albums
and you get all of the details – tracks, personnel, and
times. “Other collections don’t have this. It makes us
unique and more usable.” This is a researcher’s and
fan’s dream.
This is obviously a time-consuming effort, and
Chuck is blessed with a dedicated staff to make it happen.
There are three full time archivists and another
seven students who work part time. While I was there,
Information Specialist Charlie Stout was cataloging the
late Bill Fogarty’s collection, readying them for inclusion
in the stacks. Charlie has been on the team for five
years. Kelley Martin is another Information Specialist
and has been on the staff for three years. New to the
staff is Stuart Hinds, who came from the Kansas City
Public Library, where at one time he microfilmed The
Call for their collection. Stuart is the head of Special
Collections.
You see, Chuck is a historian, a man who follows in
the footsteps of those whose personal collections were
a major part of their life’s work. And it was natural for
him to co-author (with Frank Driggs) the outstanding
Kansas City Jazz: From Ragtime to Bebop. And he continues
to collect information on our rich jazz history. “I
started keeping this vertical clipping file for the book,
and have kept it up. As I find articles and other items
on musicians and clubs, I just drop them in. I therefore
have a ready reference whenever the need arises.” There
are files on Carmell Jones, Speedy Huggins, various
clubs, 18th and Vine, Jay McShann, and so on.
He made a timeline for his book, from 1919 to 1943,
by month. He used The Call and the Journal-Post to
determine who played in the clubs and when. “The
Journal-Post was a great source; they really covered the
clubs closely. Dave Dexter did the club notes.”
He has old City Directories. Want to know every
establishment on the 1600 block of Vine in 1926? It’s
there.
The data he has collected has been very useful for
his current project for the Mid America Art Alliance,
a traveling exhibit called “The Fine Art of Kansas City
Jazz”. He is doing biographies that accompany each
of the fifty Dan White photographs of Kansas City
musicians. The exhibit is scheduled to hit the road in
January.
I am embarrassed that this was my first visit to the
Marr Sound Archives. I am somewhat a jazz historian,
an avid record collector, and want to listen to everything,
see every picture, read every interview. So what
took me so long to see what it was all about? I don’t
know.
The collection should appeal to everyone with an
interest in the music. In music, period (remember,
it’s so much more than jazz). The casual listener will
enjoy sampling some musicians of interest. Folks who
like delving into history will like wandering, looking at
the pictures on the wall and other exhibits the way one
would wander through a museum. Serious researchers
and listeners will find things of interest for a lifetime.
I’d recommend the treasure-filled Marr Sound
Archives as a destination spot for jazz fans. A week of
clubbing in New York or a jazz cruise or a European
festival are great jazz vacations, but I suggest a different
kind of jazz vacation that will match these. Come to
Kansas City, stay in one of our fine, affordable hotels, and
spend your weekdays at the Marr Sound Archives. Free
of charge. Take your time. Follow your main interests,
but take it all in. Like the Smithsonian, you can’t do it
in a day. Then you have the nights to enjoy some of the
finest musicians on the planet, eat some short ends and
maybe a steak. There is still time on the weekend to
see the museums on the Vine. Plan it right and maybe
there will be a concert at the Folly or the Gem. Finish
it with a late night at the Foundation. Then try to tell
me that Kansas City isn’t a jazz town.

- Roger Atkinson

The Marr Sound Archives is located in the lower
lever of the Miller Nichols Library on the campus of
the University of Missouri Kansas City, at 5100
Rockhill Road. They are open weekdays from 9:00
until 4:30. You can drop in, but if you have more
extensive research it is wise to make an appointment.
Extensive information about the collection, digital
projects, and the MERLIN search capabilities are
located on their Web site, www.library.umkc.edu/marr