Hi folks -- working on a paper for a session at the spring, 2018 Popular Culture Association meeting, to be held in Indianapolis.
Here is a draft abstract:
Here is a draft abstract:
Bill Grauer and
Riverside Records: A Jazz Label Captures
the Sounds of Sports and Race Cars, 1956-1962
John A. Heitmann
University of Dayton
For an automotive enthusiast, car sounds are often important
signifiers and of considerable interest. For example, every late October for
the past seven years the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart opens its door to the
public on “Sound Night” so that distinctive vehicles’ engines can be exhibited
live. Screaming Porsches, thundering Ferraris , and even quiet Camrys possess
carefully engineered sounds, the result of extensive sound room studies.
To date, automotive historians have only focused on sounds
coming from sound systems or radios. This
presentation, however, explores a pioneering and popular series of 24 sports
and race car sounds captured on LP records released between 1956 and 1962. At Riverside Records In NYC, Bill Grauer
tapped into rising interests among the white middle classes for both sports cars
and jazz. Far better known for a jazz series the included performances
from Thelonious Monk, Cannonball
Adderly, Bill Evans and Wes Mongomery, Riverside pioneered the market for non-musical
sounds that later included aids for meditation and relaxation.
The cover jackets of the “Sports Car Special” series are
works of art. I plan to discuss how
radiators, engines, and wire wheels have an inescapable intrinsic beauty. I
also will focus on recorded content from these historical sources, reflective
of a transitional time in automotive history. By the mid-to-late 1950s sports
cars emerged as a niche market for consumers eager to find identity and
difference along with excitement and status.
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