I love stories like the one I saw on History Detectives earlier. The detective went on a fact searching mission tracing back a KKK song from the early 1920s.
It eventually brought him to the company that recorded the song The Starr Piano Company of which Gennett Recording* was a subsidiary.
The Gennett Recording Company, turns out, was established by the Gannette's who were born in America with Italian ancestry. The company was the "cradle of recorded jazz" (as the link to Starr Piano discusses) having recorded King Oliver (I own a K.O. record - for the record) and one Louis Armstrong as History Detectives discovered.
As for the KKK song, it was a rip-off from a Protestant spiritual hymn.
Great little story. Actually, the entire episode was fantastic; loved watching musicians Dennis Coffey and James Jamerson jr and all the rich Motown history that came with it.
Question: If you owned a cultural and historical antique or relic of significance but discovered it had been stolen originally, would you return it to its rightful owners?
I know I would.
*Though I could have sworn the spelling on the abandoned building was 'Gennette' it's spelled Genett.
If they could be traced, yes.
ReplyDelete