The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hello everyone,

I am pleased to announce that 100 out of the 110 original Black Patti releases are now available for free, easy-to-access online listening via my YouTube channel! As one might expect, a task of this magnitude has taken me over a year of diligent Web sleuthing, and also resulted in frustrating dead ends for some sides (ten sides are still unavailable digitally due to strict copyrights or the records themselves have never been found). However, I don't think 100 uploaded recordings out of the 110 original releases are bad - it's a 91% success rate overall!

On this, the last day of Black History Month 2022 (and at a time when so many Black people are sadly still experiencing similar atrocities now as they did 95 years ago), I hope you will share my enthusiasm over the first-round completion of this playlist. I also have to give credit to Rich at Archeophone for being the one who persuaded me to fulfill this task in the first place, and to Joe Bussard for supplying me with his taped copy of "Mama You Don't Know How" when I visited him at his home last summer.

I will add more sides if/when they become available, but for now, you can listen to them all at youtube.com/playlist?list=PLASBIFY_FdRyPC5thCLaQFb1O2-t6h4lc (you will need to copy and paste this link in your browser since the Forum's YouTube link tool does not seem to work for playlist URLs)

Thanks for your attention and happy listening!

PS: I am still missing the following Black Patti titles! If you have any of the following titles (or at least could put me in touch with someone who does and is willing to send me a digital audio file of them), please PM me as soon as possible! (Note that Black Pattis #8022, #8042 and #8053 have never been found per Issue 11 of the 78 Quarterly)

1. "There is Room Enough in Heaven for us All" by Pace Jubilee Singers (8011-A)

2. "The Old Ship of Zion" by Pace Jubilee Singers (8022-A)

3. "Sing, Sing, Ethiopia Sing"/"Mammy's Chile" by Pace Jubilee Singers (8032)

4. "Um Ta Da Da" by Parham's Black Patti Band/"By the Waters of Minnetonka" by George Osborn & His Orchestra (8038)

5. "Hell Bound Train" by Pace Jubilee Singers/"Hark From The Tomb" by Pace Jubilee Congregation [w/Evangelist M.A. Cobb] (8042)

6. "Stompin' Fool"/"Razor Edge" by The Blackbirds of Paradise (8053)

Wow, thanks for uploading all of these to YouTube.

If I saw a Black Patti record in the wild I'd grab it even if it had a large chunk out of it!edisonplayer.