We’re a not-for-profit music library and research center in TriBeCa.
The Keith Richards’ Blues Collection at the ARC was launched when Mr. Richards joined our Board of Advisors in 1991. The gem of the 10,000 disc collection is the Robert Johnson 78, “Me and The Devil Blues”/”Little Queen of Spades” (Vocalion, 04108,… read more >>
In 2012 ARC created a digital archive of Steve Lacy’s handwritten manuscripts and notebooks containing over 500 published and unpublished compositions. Mr. Lacy (July 23, 1934 – June 4, 2004) was a pioneer of the soprano saxophone, who excelled as a performer… read more >>
As a matter of pride and common conversation point Colombians will tell you, “Colombian accordion players are the best in the world.” It’s 110°, 3 am. People have been drinking very good whiskey for over five hours at a house party in… read more >>
What’s a desk jockey to do? It’s been five sedentary years since my last out-of-office experience (see Colombian stories; Picolandia and Vallenato) — much too long to go without nudging the equator, swizzle-sticking fuzzy drinks and scooping up rare petroleum based audio… read more >>
“See. Up, down…up, down…pick up, pico.” Dago, one of Colombia’s mobile DJs was defining the term “pico.” It’s slang for the tonearm or “pick-up arm” you raise and lower to cue a record, and, by extension, it has come to mean a… read more >>
In a 2010 obituary, Cat Coore, the guitarist and cellist for the seminal reggae band Third World, called Gregory Isaacs “the Frank Sinatra of Jamaica.” It was one of those “it’s a stretch” references, necessary throughout the world to make a foreign… read more >>
The great drummer Art Blakey led The Jazz Messengers from around the mid-fifties up until his death in 1990. The concept for the group originated with a big band called The Seventeen Messengers that was formed in 1947. It is often described… read more >>
Few inventions are as useful or as elegantly simple as the “centering device for phonographic records” or put more plainly, the 45 adaptor. We have upwards of 200,000 45s here at the ARChive, and since people often just left them in their… read more >>