Archeophone, the top label in reissuing pre-1920 music, has 23 CDs in their very valuable series of Phonographic Yearbooks. The program consists of two volumes of music from the 1890s along with a CD apiece dedicated to some of the most popular and listenable recordings of 1903-23. Each of these various artists sets includes a comprehensive booklet that not only discusses each selection but events of that particular year.
The most recent release in the series is titled 1903: ’Twas On The Good Ship Cuspidor with the liner notes celebrating the Wright Brothers. Its 26 selections were mostly released that year (some were recorded in 1902) and they give one a good idea as to the recorded music scene of the time. It is fair to say that the world was a very different place 123 years ago. Jazz was an unnamed and regional Southern music that was largely unknown in most of the world. It would be 14 years before it began to be documented. It is a great pity that no record label took recording equipment to New Orleans to record Buddy Bolden, Papa Jack Laine and the other early jazz bands, or to the Midwest to capture a Scott Joplin piano solo.
Many recordings from that time period are not of much interest and some are quite unlistenable due to racist comedy, erratic operatic singers, and technically inferior recording quality. Fortunately that is not true of the performances selected for
