New Deposits
-The Dick Crum Collection (Collection 2007.01), Eastern Europe
-The CC Smith Collection (Collection 2006.12), Los Angeles World-Music Public Radio Broadcasts
-The Mark Humphrey Collection (Collection 2006.10), Kyrgyzstan
The Dick Crum Collection (Collection 2007.01)
The Dick Crum Collection of Recorded Folk Music
written by
By Larry Weiner & Bob Leibman
On December 12, 2005, the folk dance and music community lost its most beloved and respected friend, teacher, mentor and role model. Richard “Dick” Crum, of German-Irish descent, was born on December 8, 1928 in a Romanian neighborhood in St. Paul, Minnesota, and he passed away in his home in Santa Monica, California, a few days after his 77th birthday.
Dick grew up speaking Romanian with the neighborhood youngsters and took part in their festivities at the church hall across the street from his home. It was in this environment that the seeds were planted for Dick’s two most important lifelong interests: foreign languages and folk dance. He pursued his interest in languages academically, first at the University of Minnesota, then at the University of Pittsburgh, where he received a Bachelor's degree in Romance languages in 1958; two years later he received his Master's degree in Slavic languages and literature with focus on Slavic folklore, from Harvard University.
In 1951, at age 23, Dick won a dance scholarship to Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, and in 1952 toured Yugoslavia with the Duquesne University Tamburitzans.That tour marked a turning point in his life, for Dick discovered an immense variety of traditional dances not part of immigrant communities’ repertoire in North America: his dance interest, which at the time had been focused on Latin America, shifted to the Balkans. In 1953, Dick taught his first recreational workshops in Balkan dance at Maine Folk Dance Camp, Oglebay Institute, and the Croatian Summer School in Gary, Indiana, and thus began his 50-year career as the preeminent teacher of Balkan dance in the U.S.
From 1955 into the late 1960s, Dick was choreographer and technical advisor for the Duquesne University Tamburitzans. A translator by profession, Dick’s work eventually took him to Santa Monica, and soon thereafter he became choreographer and consultant for the AMAN Folk Ensemble.
However, none of this gives any clues about the magic of Dick. A workshop with Dick was never a “work” shop, but rather a big, happy family reunion. More interested in conveying feeling and context than simply steps, he could verbally paint a scene that had everyone visualizing the original setting of the dance; he made people feel they were actually part of a native dancer’s social life. Dick’s classes were so full of background, culture and wit that one could learn the same dance repeatedly and always feel that they’d learned something new. The depth of his knowledge about “folk” dance, language and culture of the people from the Balkans was unparalleled. If ever a question was asked, Dick always had a good answer. On many levels, we miss him dearly.
As a teacher of dance, music was an extremely important element in Dick’s presentations. Over the years, he had accumulated several thousand phonograph recordings (78, 33 and 45 rpm records), cassette tapes, some reel-to-reel tapes, and CDs from all over the world, but principally from Southeastern Europe and Latin America. While most of these recordings were “commercial” rather than “field” recordings, they nevertheless represent an important aspect of the traditional music landscape, particularly in the Balkans. Dick, ever the teacher and educator, had always expressed the hope that others might enjoy and learn from the music and dance he had experienced and loved.
With the donation of Dick’s audio recordings to the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive, we know that this part of Dick’s legacy has found a good home.
CC Smith Radio Archives (Collection 2006.12)
You might recognize this name from listening to such radio shows such as KPFK’s Global Village or KCRW’s African Beat. CC Smith is also editor and publisher of The Beat magazine, which she began, and continues to produce, out of her own backyard.
This rich collection is comprised primarily of local public radio programs hosted by CC Smith from 1982-2002. CC Smith is a key figure in bringing world music and, more specifically, music of Africa to the Los Angeles community. Though the collection consists upwards of 1,100 cassettes and CDs of radio programs, personal interviews, field recordings, and original research documents, the research value is priceless. The Archive and the Department are very excited and thankful to receive this gift.
Mark Humphrey Collection (2006.10)
Through a serendipitous string of events, Mark Humphrey discovered the music and culture of Kyrgyzstan. His initial contact with Kyrgyz music occurred during a trip to a local second-hand music store where he purchased his first Kyrgyz album on a whim. Enchanted by the sounds he heard, Mark began to research the culture and build his music collection. However, as he began to seek out more Kyrgyz albums he discovered a shortage of music from that region.
Prompted by the scarcity of Kyrgyz-related materials, Mark began making annual trips to Kyrgyzstan in 1999 to document its musical and cultural heritage. The Mark Humphrey Collection represents Mark’s past and continuing efforts to share Kyrgyz culture with the western world. Through audio recordings, videos, and papers, both commercial and personal, Mark is able to share Kyrgyzstan’s cultural legacy with our community.
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Archive Presentations
In October of this year, Ethnomusicology staffer David Martinelli was on tour in Mexico performing with the Oscar Award-winning Yuval Ron Ensemble, at the 2nd Festival Internacional Chihuahua. The Archive hosted David during one of our video hours where he showed videos of his group’s performances, provided background information on the Festival, and related anecdotes of life on the road in Mexico.
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