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A pioneering effort to create a digital archive of interviews with Detroit singers and musicians is drawing attention from thenational Recording Academy, the Los Angeles organization behind the Grammy Awards.
In an article on its website, L.A. journalist Bruce Britt calls the local nonprofit group's work "a commendable task."
The Detroit Sound Conservancy Oral History Project will provide an online archive dedicated to Motor City musicians that is expected to launch by the end of November. Through its recent Kickstarter campaign, the conservancy raised more than $8,500 — a hefty surplus from the initial $5,000 goal. . . .
With more than 100 hours of tapes in its possession, including interviews with the Stooges' Ron Asheton, techno pioneer Ken Collier, blues musician Bobo Jenkins, and the late producer J Dilla, the conservancy hopes to become the gold standard of digital archiving.
"The Oral History Project is a way of starting the reset button, instead of just assuming that we already know what the story is," says music scholar Carleton Gholz, founder of the Detroit Sound Conservancy.
Britt speaks with Detroit journalist Larry Gabriel, a Grammy Foundation senior vice president and conservancy founder Carleton Gholz, a former Detroit teacher and Metro Times music freelancer who calls himself a "sound activist." Here's some of what he tells the writer for Grammy.com:
"Detroit is sort of a victim of its own success. Because we've been so successful globally, people think things are taken care of historically, which is not true.
"Most people know the Berry Gordy Motown story or the Eminem '8 Mile' story, but they alone don't encompass the diversity, the bizarreness, or the wonderfulness of Detroit music. The Oral History Project is a way of starting the reset button, instead of just assuming that we already know what the story is."
At the Grammy Foundation, senior vice president Kristen Madsen tells Britt the Detroit project dovetails with its Living Histories program.
"The Detroit Sound Conservancy Oral History Project is poised to capitalize on music's unique power to define our culture, in this particular case as influenced by the unique characteristics of one of our most iconic cities," says Madsen. "It has the potential to reflect the cultural milestones, political markers, social evolutions and technological innovations as they were manifest during the period by the musicians of Detroit."
At the conservancy's Facebook page, Gholz reacts to the high-profile attention by posting: "We are honored that . . . the Grammy Foundation has noticed our work so far. We look forward to sharing our journey with the Foundation's audience."
