Topic: The 2021 Blues Calendar is here

[jostber]

Available now from Bluesimages.com and later at Frog Records in UK:



https://bluesimages.com/html/product_html/front_page_2021.html

[jostber]

Also available over at Document Records and Bear Family:

https://thedocumentrecordsstore.com/product/2021-blues-calendar
https://www.bear-family.com/kalender-calendar-2021.html

[jharris]

I interviewed John a few weeks back and played a good chunk of the songs on the new CD. You can listen to it hear:

https://sundayblues.org/?p=21622

[Blues Vintage]

Pardon my ignorance but adds Tefteller the photos on top of record ads (for example below, Patton, Papa Charlie, Thomas) or did they came out like this in the 20s and 30s?

[eric]

No, the Patton seated photo was found by John Tefteller fairly recently.

[waxwing]

Harry, IIRC, many of the images which Blues Images publishes in it's calendars came from a pallet of paper that was to be recycled but someone noticed the contents and they ended up with Tefteller, thankfully. I believe there is discussion on WC of these events, but don't have the time to search myself. Most of these are the only known copies of the adverts used by record companies in African American publications, such as The Chicago Defender, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chicago_Defender, and in record store windows, etc.. If BI were to publish these images unadulterated, they would immediately be all over the internet. To protect the value of these images, BI adds the little cameo shot of the artists, as you guessed, in order to be able to claim copyright for the new image, and protecting the unpublished original images from being proliferated.

Having purchased every calendar so far, I am grateful for BI and John Tefteler for providing these images to the community, and don't mind at all that they protect their investment in this way.

Wax

[Blues Vintage]

Thanks Eric and Wax.

[dj]

The story of the images Tefteller uses is told in the first Blues Images calendar, the one for 2004.

The short version, for those who don't have the calendar:  Sometime around 1984, a "Wisconsin newspaper" was sold.  The new owners were cleaning out old, unwanted files.  Two reporters from the paper, who had a "casual" interest in blues music, saw the stack pf photos and adverts sitting on a loading dock waiting to be recycled.  The thought the stuff was mildly interesting, so divided it up and took it home.  In 2002, John Tefteller somehow became aware of this and bought everything that had been saved.  In 2003, he started using it as the basis for an annual calendar, starting with the year 2004 and continuing through 2021.

Thank you, Mr. Tefteller.