Updates for Issue 1: Allan Evans and the Reverend Gary Davis (with a Digression on a Stolen Strad)

February 16th, 2006

In our first issue, Allan Evans wrote quite movingly of his relationship with the great Reverend Gary Davis. As well as being a fine writer, Evans runs a CD company call Arbiter that mainly specializes in rare recordings of classical musicians such as Paul Hindemith and Bruno Walter as well as curiosities like Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Co., who performed using synthesizer prototypes hand built by Bob Moog himself. Evans also has a subsidiary label called World Arbiter that has issued a wonderful CD of home recordings of Davis’ music that were made between 1955 and 1957. Entitled The Sun of Our Lives, the CD includes some rare blues intrumentals (Davis almost never recorded blues, sticking instead to gospel music) and a long segment of Davis preaching in an intensely hypnotic rhythmic manner. These recording offer a unique insight into the music of one of the greatest guitarists of the last century.

Arbiter also has a few recordings of the violinist Erica Morini, whose violin was stolen from her in 1995 as she lay on her deathbed. The instrument was made by Stradivari and it has never been recovered. The loss of her violin, which was known as the Davidoff after a previous owner, is listed as one of the top ten art thefts by the FBI. It’s likely that the violin made its way into the secret collection of some shady fiddle connoisseur, but there is a very slight chance that the thief didn’t know the instrument’s true value and sold it off cheaply somewhere. So keep checking those fiddle cases. There’s no telling what might turn up.–MJS

Entry Filed under: Uncategorized, FJ Issue 1, Guitar