“Black Codes (From The Underground)” among 25 additions to National Recording Registry 2023
On Wednesday the Library of Congress announced 25 audio recordings — the oldest dating back to 1908 — that are being inducted to the Registry, a compendium of sound recordings deemed representative of America’s artistic, cultural and historic treasures.
Here’s a complete list of the 2023 selections for the National Recording Registry. They are listed in chronological order by release date.
- The Very First Mariachi Recordings — Cuarteto Coculense (1908-1909)
- “St. Louis Blues” — [W.C.] Handy’s Memphis Blues Band (1922)
- “Sugar Foot Stomp” — Fletcher Henderson (1926)
- Dorothy Thompson: Commentary and Analysis of the European Situation for NBC Radio (Aug. 23-Sept. 6, 1939)
- “Don’t Let Nobody Turn You Around” — The Fairfield Four (1947)
- “Sherry” — The Four Seasons (1962)
- “What the World Needs Now is Love” — Jackie DeShannon (1965)
- “Wang Dang Doodle” — Koko Taylor (1966)
- “Ode to Billie Joe” — Bobbie Gentry (1967)
- Déjà Vu — Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (1970)
- “Take Me Home, Country Roads” — John Denver (1971)
- “Imagine” — John Lennon (1971)
- “Stairway to Heaven” — Led Zeppelin (1971)
- “Margaritaville” — Jimmy Buffett (1977)
- “Flashdance…What a Feeling” — Irene Cara (1983)
- “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” — Eurythmics (1983)
- Synchronicity — The Police (1983)
- Like a Virgin — Madonna (1984)
- Black Codes (From the Underground) — Wynton Marsalis
- Super Mario Bros. theme — Koji Kondo, composer (1986)
- All Hail the Queen — Queen Latifah (1989)
- “All I Want for Christmas is You” — Mariah Carey (1994)
- “Pale Blue Dot” — Carl Sagan (1994)
- “Gasolina” — Daddy Yankee (2004)
- “Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra” — Northwest Chamber Orchestra, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, composer (2012)
——-
The co-founder of Jazz at Lincoln Center, and the first artist to win Grammys for both classical and jazz, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, himself the son of a jazz legend, has been mastering the art form since his youth in New Orleans. “I like pressure. I like that. I like the challenge. I don’t have a problem with it at all. I like the feeling of nervousness. I like the feeling that something counts. And I like to be tested,” he told “60 Minutes” in 2011. “Man, when you’re playing, and you’re playing with other people, it’s such a combination of emotion, it’s so intense. And when you make a tender statement or something’s real sweet and you just caress a note that takes more intensity, it’s powerful.”
One of his most successful recordings, and a winner of two Grammy Awards, “Black Codes (From the Underground)” harks back to the acoustic jazz of the 1950s and ’60s, but with a post-bop feel. Marsalis (who was only 23 at the time) is joined by drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts, Charnett Moffett and Ron Carter (a Miles Davis Quintet alumnus) on bass, pianist Kenny Kirkland, and Wynton’s brother, Branford Marsalis, on saxophone.
Source: Library of Congress
