Oldest black group recording sold

The 1893 recording of Mama's Black Baby Boy by the New York-based Unique Quartet was one of only two known copies and sold for 1,100 dollars
24 November 2013

A 120-year-old wax-covered cylinder containing the earliest known recording of a black US vocal group has been sold at auction.

Discovered in a private collection in Portland, Maine, the 1893 recording of Mama's Black Baby Boy by the New York-based Unique Quartet was one of only two known copies and sold for 1,100 dollars (£680). The other is in the Library of Congress.

A second Unique Quartet song, Who Broke the Lock (on the Henhouse Door)? from 1896, sold at the same auction for 1,900 dollars (£1,170). Both pre-date vinyl records.

The recordings were so rare New England auctioneers at Saco River Auction had no idea how much they might fetch. An appraiser had suggested they were each worth 25,000 dollars (£15,400) or more before the auction.

The cylinder recordings were played on an early-style phonograph that had the appearance of a Victrola-style player. But the music was etched in wax on cylinders instead of in the grooves of vinyl records, which were popular throughout the 20th century.

The wax was so fragile that auctioneers did not dare try to play them.

Robert Darden, who is working to save black gospel music by digitising existing vinyl recordings through the Black Music Restoration Project, said all pre-digital black sacred music was at risk, including music on cylinders, vinyl 78s, 45s, and LPs, and cassette recordings.

During the Second World War, for example, many cylinder recordings and vinyl 78s were melted down and recycled to support the war effort, said Mr Darden, a professor at Baylor University.

"As a country, we just don't have a very good track record of recognising, preserving and celebrating this music, this art form," he said.

AP

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