Review: The Rise and Fall of Paramount Records, vol 1

The Wisconsin Chair Company, decided to start a recording company, Paramount Records, to help sell phonographs they were marketing.  If this sounds familiar, this is not entirely unlike Apple launching iTunes in order to sell their iPods over a decade ago.  From 1917 until 1932, they were recording and releasing a lot of inexpensive records, but they were most famous for the so-called "Race Records" - which was early Jazz and Blues performed by African-Americans.  They may have recorded 100,000 78's by the time they stopped, and most of the artists are obscure, though Louis Armstrong, "Jelly Roll" Morton, and others got their starts with the label.  The recording quality, even for 78's, was never high, but the rarity and the excellent music make them a bit of a holy grail for people who collected 78's.

A few years ago, a few collectors, including Jack White (of White Stripes fame, and currently the head of Third Man Records) decided to put together a 2 part box set documenting the rise and fall of this record label.  We had heard of the record label, but after a review on NPR, we decided to take the plunge and shell out to purchase volume 1 (just released, vol. 2 to be released next year).  Some interesting links about this set are in the New York Times, in Rolling Stone and at Jack White's Label, Third Man Records.

 They said, the set has 6 LP's and 800 ripped songs on a thumb drive. What they did NOT describe was the quarter-sawn oak case, with brass fixings, velvet lining, wood portfolio for the LP's, the brass thumb-drive that looked kind of like an old timey stylus assembly, 2 books (one documentary book with pictures of the ads, one catalog of Paramount Records) and a envelope filled with Paramount brochure reproductions. All of it was put together with such loving care, that for the princely sum of $400, they cannot be making much money, if any on this. It is too much a labor of love.  To get a feel for the presentation of the set, below is a sequential unboxing of our set:

800 songs are on this with brochures and a player!

Web based player included in the thumb drive
- easy scrolling through Ads and Music

We spent a few nights listening to some of the ripped songs and a couple of the 6 LP's. You have 2 options with the thumb drive, you can play the MP3's directly as you would any MP3, but you can also use the player that will run on any web browser.  The advantage of the browser, is that the indexing has a lot more information to more easily navigate through the various performers.  We did it both ways - and eventually preferred sending it directly through our Logitech Squeezebox rather on our computer (for those with a computer directly feeding a DAC, may prefer it the other way 'round).

While the recording quality was definitely not modern - pure 1920's, and taken from old 78's - the music - oh the music! The heartfelt emotion and power of it shone right through. At that moment we got it - why do some people go nuts over those old shellac 78's? It was for this reason!  After our listening session, we switched back to a modern LP, while the sound was head and shoulders better, I can't honestly tell you which was more enjoyable since the music we had heard was so powerful on the Paramount set.

While we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly, and It feels like unearthing a time capsule and hearing what your great, great grandparents were up to, we have to ask ourselves who would be interested in this collection?

We'd say that someone who was a 78 junkie, on the constant hunt for new 78's might be someone who likes it - given the relative rarity of Paramount 78's this might be the only way they can hear some of them.  But if they are "purists" who love the medium, they might steer clear. (It is a little like in the comic book world, there are some that want to collect individual issues, and there are some that aren't worried about buying the graphic novel).  It also occurs to us that this could also be a "gateway drug" for someone who might end up a 78 junkie, too. 

A Blues and Jazz fan - they would love these.  Jazz and Blues were just coming into the popular imagination, and Paramount was the center of the universe.  The music is so strong that it would likely be a mind blowing experience to hear the artists that influenced the ones that would become the Jazz greats in the 1940's 50's and 60's.

A note about price:  Now, this box set isn't cheap at $400, but it is one of those values that pops up once in awhile that is hard to ignore.  How can it be a value, you ask?  When you break down what you get in music:  800 songs and 6 LP's - if bought piecemeal from iTunes (if it were available from iTunes, which it isn't) and standard record pricing from a record store for the LP's (which you wouldn't be able to do)- you would talk about an outlay approaching $950 (assuming $1 a song, and $20 per LP).  Since given the grade of the box and books would easily be another $500+ if taken on their own (the box being high grade furniture, as in "you can't afford this furntiure" high grade).  So a nice round $1400 or so of value for ... $400?  Alternatively you could go and get a 78 record player (with the right kind of needle) and set about collecting 400 Paramount 78's ... or 400 78's of any kind - it would run you in cash outlay several times the asking price at minimum, I can't even imagine the final expense, or even if you could get the 78's in the collection.

Not bad for a furniture factory in Wisconsin that from 1917 - 1932 decided to record records to sell phonographs!  They may not have understood the significance of what they were doing, but they sure brough both Blues and Jazz into popular music!

Oh, and They are making this a "limited edition" of 5000.  Ours was ordered a few days after it was released and was marked at nearly "2000/5000" so if you think you might want this hurry or it may be gone! (At the time of publishing [November 23rd] the set is still available)