‘I envisioned myself recording for Folkways Records. That was the label I wanted to be on. That was the label that put out all the great records.' Bob Dylan
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"At Folkways Records, the art on an album cover was a portal and an invitation, hinting at the audio to be found inside, a tradition we continue today at Smithsonian Folkways. It is a true honor to be treated to Soul Jazz Redords's deep and thoughtful exploration of the iconic album art from one of America's most consequential record labels”
Maureen Loughran, Director and Curator
Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
Smithsonian Institution
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Soul Jazz Records new book 'Folkways Records: A Visual History of Folkways Records Cover Art' is out on Oct 19.
Deluxe new large-format hardback book featuring 100s of striking and beautiful record sleeve designs from Folkways Records, one of the most important and iconic record labels in the world.
Featuring Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, John Cage, Pete Seeger, Nikki Giovanni, Langston Hughes, Mary Lou Williams, Allen Ginsberg, Charles Ives and many more.
208 Pages, 12"x12", Hardback includes extensive introduction and accompanying text.
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The Folkways Records and Service Corporation was founded in 1948 by Moses Asch after Albert Einstein first encouraged him to document the ‘sounds of the world’.
From 1949-1987, Folkways released over 2,000 recordings of jazz, folk, avant-garde, world, sounds of nature, spoken word, electronic modernism, civil rights speeches and more. Folkways stands head and shoulders above all ‘world music’ record labels in its depth of representation of cultural diversity and its understanding of the nature of sound itself .
Asch’s vision of presenting ‘other music’ in all its myriad forms alongside the homegrown indigenous music of the United States of America (jazz, blues, folk and more) showed an unparalleled vision of modern cultural representation.
Much of the success in bringing together such diverse subjects into one cohesive unique and visual identity for Folkways Records is down to the 100s of stunning artwork designs of Ronald Clyne, the primary designer at the record label. Through typeface, colour and design Clyne gave Folkways record covers both an incredibly stylish and unique look and an underlying seriousness of intent and vision, the perfect match to that of founder Moses Asch.
The book focusses on the numerous stunning and striking record designs that feature across Folkways’ vast and idiosyncratic musical landscape – from The Music of Equatorial New Guinea to The Voices of the Civil Rights Movement, from The Songs and Dances of The Flathead Indians to The Sounds of The Tropical Rain Forest in America. Other diverse music you will find here include: Outer Space Music, Chinese Classical Music, Sea Shanties and Loggers Songs, Drums of the Yoruba of Nigeria, Street Games and Songs of The Children of New York City, Experiments in Computer Music and more.
Folkways recorded some of the greatest names in American music across the fields of jazz, folk, poetry, blues and classical music, including Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Nikki Giovanni, Pete Seeger, Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, Mary Lou Williams, Allen Ginsberg, Dizzy Gillespie, John Cage, and Charles Ives, all of whom are featured here.
As a wholly independent record label with a focus purely on music outside of the mainstream, Asch found unique and innovative solutions to keeping his record company alive for almost 40 years, maintaining the vast catalogue of 2,000 recordings always in print.
Smithsonian Folkways when the entire catalogue became part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.
