Session in Dutch! Admittance is free of charge but seats are limited. You can register via reservationshuis23@abconcerts.be (making mention of ‘Paramount Records’ in the subject title).

Jack White never misses a chance to shout about his musical heroes and bring attention to them posthumously. So, over recent years, he has released historic recordings by blues gods like Charley Patton, Blind Willie Mc Tell and The Mississippi Sheiks via his own label Third Man Records.
At the end of ’13 he certainly released the most eye-catching compilation box of recent years: ‘The Rise & Fall of Paramount Records’. A remarkable artefact that weighs no less than 10 kilos, looks like a 78 rpm record player, and is entitled ‘The Cabinet of Wonder’. This historic box tells the remarkable story of a factory that manufactured chairs and just happened to – partly at the request of Thomas Edison – become a record company.

Paramount Records didn't have an ounce of experience in the music business and they pressed their 78 rpm records on inferior shellac. In other words: the vinyl of those days. Their only goal was to sell a more profitable product that was then conquering the American market: the 78 rpm record player. Yet the recordings of Paramount Records – which existed from 1917 until 1932 – read like the history of black music. Think: Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Charley Patton, Son House and Blind Lemon Jefferson.

For the associated book, Jack White's eye fell upon Dutchman Alex van der Tuuk who wrote his life’s work about Paramount Records in '03: ‘Paramount’s Rise and Fall. The Roots and History of Paramount Records’.

Kurt Overbergh (AB's Artistic Director and big Jack White fan) converses with Alex van de Tuuk about his book, his encounter with Jack White and his preparations for Volume II (which is to be released at the end of ’14) whilst browsing through a series of historic recordings (partly on original 78 rpm records).

This session also takes place on Sunday 23 March at 3:00pm at record store Tune Up (www.tuneuprecords.com), Melkmarkt 17 in Antwerp, but then without Alex van der Tuuk.


Admittance is free of charge but seats are limited. You can register via reservationshuis23@abconcerts.be (making mention of ‘Paramount Records’ in the subject title).