Simpler Format for the Logo

Here is a simpler format for the logo:

...and the version for stickers  to be printed in the next few weeks. 1000, 5x5cm stickers cost 40€ online. I am trying to source them locally as well.

Grassroots Hamburg Music Support

This is a copy of the first draft of the studio description from the business plan. I would value ur feedback on the idea and where it could be extended... if I forgot something from the lists. ..any suggestions? :)

Grassroots Support of local Hamburg Artists

Who do we want to help?

Those who don't have the resources to take thier music to the world. Those short on cash, tied by family financial commitments, stuck in the same practice/street playing cycle. Those who find it hard to get heard and seen. Those who can't get a pratice room, who find it hard to keep a band going due to lack of resources. We simply want to help those people who want a chance to take thier music more seriously or who do already and can't get a foot on the ladder.

What do we want to create?

A budget recording studio to produce demo recordings for hard up musos and street musicians who normally wouldn't have access to these opportunities. Any genre is possible, from blues and soul to singer-songwriters or hip hop, though this is not really suited to say... death metal bands.

How would it work?

1. We set up a first meeting with the prospective artist who shows us the work they want to record, either played for us or recorded on their phone. We don't want to spoon feed people we want to enable them, thus some initiave on their part is necessary.
2. The artist will be asked to cover a Public Domain piece of music in their own style as part of honouring the heritage The Jelly Roll Factory is founded on.
3. Once they have done that we will arrange a studio appointment of 2 to 3 hours. The onus is on the artist to make the most of the time allotted and to be ready and professional.
4. There will be a token charge of xyz€. People take things more seriously when there is even a small amount of money in the game.
5. When the demo of 3, 4 or 5 songs is complete they will be given the master copy on CD rom or on thier USB stick as mp3 files. We will not store back ups unless asked to by the artist.

Where would we do this?

A bunker practice room or other practice space in Hamburg. These generally cost between 150€ and 300€ per month to rent.

The space will be multi-purpose. Giving us both a recording studio and initially a base of operations from which to run The Jelly Roll Factory.

What equipment would we need to record artists?

• PA system and speakers
• various leads
• 2 vocals microphones, leads and stands
• 50 watt guitar amp
• Bass amp
• Computer with CD burmer
• Basic drum kit
• Recording software Audacity Pro

What other furniture would we need?

• Chairs
• Bar stools
• Tea crates
• Table
• Desk
• Book shelves
• Record player, speakers and amp
• Lighting
• Fridge
• White/Notice/Chalk board

These would be sourced through ebay kleinanzeigen, ebay, amazon and donated. Between the founding members of The Jelly Roll Factory we have enough music and music tech savvy to be able to make value for money acqusitions.

New Logo

We have upgraded our logo. This will be taken to a graphic designer for a professional finish :)

The Values of Public Domain

Here is an exerpt I found on the PUBLIC DOMAIN page on Wikipedia about the values of PUBLIC DOMAIN. Here at The Jelly Roll Factory we support these principles.

Pamela Samuelson has identified eight "values" that can arise from information and works in the public domain.^[20]:22
Possible values include:

1. Building blocks for the creation of new knowledge, examples include data, facts, ideas, theories, and scientific principle.
2. Access to cultural heritage through information resources such as ancient Greek texts and Mozart’s symphonies.
3. Promoting education, through the spread of information, ideas, and scientific principles.
4. Enabling follow-on innovation, through for example expired patents and copyright.
5. Enabling low cost access to information without the need to locate the owner or negotiate rights clearance and pay royalties, through for example expired copyrighted works or patents, and non-original data compilation.^[21]
6. Promoting public health and safety, through information and scientific principles.
7. Promoting the democratic process and values, through news, laws, regulation, and judicial opinion.
8. Enabling competitive imitation, through for example expired patents and copyright, or publicly disclosed technologies that do not qualify for patent protection.^[20]:22

I found this useful information on PUBLIC DOMAIN law (especially for our US readers) on the Stanford University websiteso I thought I would share it with you.

Public Domain Stanford University Library

One of the most difficult aspects of our whole project is defining the usage and parameters of the use of PD work in various countries. We still have some way to go on this and we'll keep you updated.

Barbecue Bob - Yo Yo Blues

Barbecue Bob (aka Robert Hicks) , named Barbecue because he was a grill chef in a barbecue restaurant, was a piedamont blues artist. He was an iconic guitarist and had an amazin blues voice. Sadly he died in 1931 of TB aged 29.

Excerpt from our business plan

Business Idea

What is the purpose of the project?

The Jelly Roll Factory has two main objectives:

• Firstly to create awareness of PUBLIC DOMAIN blues and jazz of the 1920s and 1930s. The artist, their lives and stories and their music. We wish to bring back some of this truly great era of music through releasing 7 inch vinyl versions of the original shellac 78 rpm songs, which have never been released on the later vinyl format. We also wish to see these songs sung by artists and for the history of the music to live on. Breathing life into the memory of the who paved the way for the music world as we know it today.

• The second part is to invest in hard up local artists and street musicians in the greater Hamburg area. Helping those who don't have cash for demo recordings to get their music onto cd so that they can use this to make their own luck to get gigs or sell cds on the street. To this end, we intend to build and run a budget demo recording studio.

• Importantly no style of music is off limits. We want to support artist if they are bluesmen or hip hop artist or singer song-writers of ballads. We ask only that their music is their own and that they cover one public domain track in their own style and make it their own. We believe it is vital that thier is a link between the old and the new and that each musician honours that as part of working with us.

What is special about our idea?

• Music is a driving force in the lives of all involved in the Jelly Roll Factory. We have all gained immense pleasure from playing and we all understand the hardships and pitfalls involved in a life of music.
• We would like to give back to our fellow musicians, bring back the sounds and words of yesteryear's titans and move forward in the fellowship and rewards that playing and networking with the local community can bring.
• The Jelly Roll Factory is about then and now. Looking to fill the cracks where commercial music companies would never go. It it about joining our shared music history and grassroots community support.

What are our short-term goals?

• Release one single of public domain music in a limited edition run of 100 records.
• Website with a live MS Access database of 20s and 30s shellac recordings. At present we have over 14000 titles and 1200 artists in the offline beta version
• Deutsch version
• Set up an event for local musicians to play
• Begin feasability studies for a practice room we can utilise as a budget recording studio.
• Networking with street musicians and other artists to find specific common needs beyond the music.

What are our long-term goals?

• A busy budget recording studio serving the local music community.
• Vinyl cutting – boutique runs (under 50 copies)
• Musical equipment swap shop
• Music history lectures and storytelling
• Quarterly single vinyl releases
• DJ the music
• Regular events for local and visiting artists:
• Interaction between us and local charities eg: Addiction/STD awareness.

Jelly Roll Update

Database - Nick Isserstadt, our resident IT guy, has built a database in MS Access to search around 14000 shellac recordings from the 20s and 30s with:

• Title
• Artist
• Record Label
• Composer 
• Date Recorded
• Matrix number
• Shellac Number

Although this is still in the fledgeling stages the initial results are proving extremely useful. In time and with funding we want to process this online for all of you to research and use.

 Thanks Nick :)

Standing on the shoulders of Giants

I would like to mention Tom Norm Morrison who built juneberry78s.com a website for early American roots music. Sadly Tom passed away last year, but his legacy of a digitalised 78 collection and commitment to public domain music is a mantle we wish to aspire to at The Jelly Roll Factory. Please visit his website and enjoy the listening room with many 78s available on mp3.

Hamburg grassroots music support

After long chats with Jake and Ricky. (The two lads, both passionate and knowledgeable musician, helping make this project a reality.) the focus on grassroots support of musicians has really started to take shape.

A priority project for us would be a budget one stop demo recording studio for talented street and part-time musician without access to a space to record.

The details are being thrashed out and we.ll tell u more as it as it happens but the spirit of the project is to help grassroots musicians get a demo recording of their original material with which they can make their own luck in getting gigs or recording a cd to sell on the street or release

More to follow....

Trixe Smith - My Daddy Rocks Me

Trixie Smith (1895 - 1943) Released in 1922, it is credited as the first song to mention Rock and Roll. It was composed by J. Berni Barbour, who passed in 1936. This makes this a very exciting work to consider for public domain use. This is a slightly later version than the original 1922 release, but what an amazing piece of music

The Rule of Shorter Term - Copyright Law

Now to highlight some of the difficulties understandng the copyright situation of works that are out of copyright in other countries, but still under copyright in Germany. Germany decided to reject the rule of shorter term. This means that in most countries when a piece of work is out of copyright in it's country of origin it is out of copyright in the other country, even if that country has a longer copyright law. However Germany opted out of this law in most situation, especially pertaining to other EU works and US works. In German there is a blanket copyright law for 70 years p.m.a (after the person's death)

Here is an excerpt from the wikipedia page on the Rule of Shorter Term:

Situation in the European Union

In the European Union, copyrights have been harmonized amongst the member states by the EU directive 93/98/EEC on harmonising the term of copyright protection. This binding directive, which became effective on July 1, 1995, has raised the duration of copyrights throughout the union to 70 years p.m.a. It also includes in its article 7 a mandatory rule of the shorter term for works from non-EU countries. Within the EU, no comparison of terms is applied, and—as in the Berne Convention or in the UCC—existing international obligations (such as bilateral treaties) may override this rule of the shorter term. Directive 93/98/EEC was repealed and replaced by Directive 2006/116/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 on the term of protection of copyright and certain related rights.^[19]
Germany extends the non-applicability of the rule of the shorter term to all members of the European Economic Area in §120 of its Urheberrechtsgesetz.^[20] It also does not apply the comparison of terms to U.S. works. In a case decided on October 7, 2003 by the Oberlandesgericht of Hesse in Frankfurt am Main, the court ruled that a U.S. work that had fallen in the public domain in the U.S. was still copyrighted in Germany. The court considered the rule of the shorter term inapplicable because of the bilateral copyright treaty between Germany and the United States, which had become effective on January 15, 1892 and which was still in effect. That treaty did not contain a rule of the shorter term, but just stated that works of either country were copyrighted in the other country by the other country's laws.^[18]
The EU member states implemented Directive 93/98/EEC^[21] and Directive 2006/116/EC^[22] in their national law; however, it is not guaranteed that such national implementations are either "comprehensive or in conformity" with the Directives.

EU case law

Even before article 7 of directive 93/98/EC explicitly prohibited the application of the rule of the shorter term amongst EU countries, the comparison of terms within the EU was not allowed. The Treaty instituting the European Community, which in its original version became effective in 1958, defined in article 7, paragraph 1, that within the union, any discrimination on grounds of nationality was prohibited. (Since 2002, when the treaty was amended by the Treaty of Maastricht, this is article 12, paragraph 1.) Application of the rule of the shorter term is such a discrimination, as it results in granting domestic authors longer copyright terms for their works than foreign authors from other EU countries.
This issue was settled decisively in 1993 (i.e., two years before directive 93/98/EC became effective) by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in what became known as the Phil Collins decision. In that case, Phil Collins sued a German phonogram distributor who was marketing records of a concert Collins had given in the U.S. German law of that time granted German performers full neighbouring rights, and in particular the right to prohibit the distribution of recordings made without their consent, regardless of the place the performance had occurred. At the same time, German law granted the same right to foreign performers only for their performances that had occurred in Germany. The ECJ decided on October 20, 1993 that this was a violation of the non-discrimination clause of article 7 of the EC treaty. It also clarified that the non-discrimination clause was indeed applicable to copyright.^[23]
The court stated that

In prohibiting "any discrimination on the grounds of nationality" Article 7 requires each Member State to ensure that persons in a situation governed by Community law be placed on a completely equal footing with its own nationals and therefore precludes a Member State from making the grant of an exclusive right subject to the requirement that the person concerned be a national of that State.^[24]

Boweavil Blues - Bessie Smith

Boweavil Blues - Bessie Smith on youtube
Recorded 7th April 1924 by Columbia Records

"Bessie Smith (Columbia) 1924 was believed to be first performed by Charly Patton as "Mississippi Boll Weevil Blues" in 1909 and was covered by a number of early blues artists including Gertrude "Ma" Rainey. It tells the story of the impact of the Boll Weevil on the southern cotton crop at the turn of the twentieth century which along with southern racism, Jim Crow laws, employment vacancies created by WWI led to the first Great Migration of African Americans from the rural south to the urban South and North."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIskE8wE18M

The pitfalls of public domain music

So if we take my experience today with Bessie Smith tracks we can easily see some of the pitfalls of trying to desipher the copyrighted and public domain material.

Lets take these three tracks from a database of recording I found at www.78discograohy.com

Track one:

Bessie Smith - Columbia Records - 14000D - Mainstream Daddy - a-side- Composed by Porter Grainger and Bob Ricketts.

This is most likely still under copyright, even though Bessie Smith died in 1937 Porter Grainger died in 1955. Thus this is still under copyright.

Track two:

Bessie Smith and piano L. Johns - 14018D - Columbia Records - Moonshine Blues - b-side -  Composed by Gertrude (Ma) Rainey (d. 1929)

Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith died over 70 years ago. However, it may be copyrighted with L. Johns, whose date of death I haven't managed to assertain yet.

Track three:

Bessie Smith - Columbia Records - 14018D - Boweaveel Blues - a-side - composed by Gertrude (Ma) Rainey

This track may well be in the public domain. Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith both died before 1946.

Sadly this is not the end of the search. The track also needs to be checked to see if the copyright was renewed or extended.

Track three is a candidate for checking the status of public domain. This is one of nearly thirty tracks of Bessie Smith's I have found which meet this criteria.

Getting the word out

A little advertising to use locally amongst the music community here in Hamburg. Advertising in German and a mirror page in German are on the to do list. Anyone who would like to help please drop me a line. My main email address is phildalton101hotmail.com (not the gmail one here).

A List of Possible Blues and Jazz Artist in the Public Domain

So here is a preliminary list of artist that may well be out of copyright in the EU. Each of these artists died before 1946. That is 70 years ago or more. And when you scan the list you can see many of the true early blues greats.

If anyone know a reason why these artists would still be copyrighted I would be very interested to hear your feedback :)

Mattie Delaney unknown

Pearl Dixon unknown

Bo Weavel Jackson unknown Aka: James Butler

Bessie Smith 1929 Columbia

Ma Rainey 1929 Paramount

Barbeque Bob 1931 Columbia

Blind Blake 1932 Paramount

Charly Patton 1934 Paramount Vocalion

Blind Lemon Jefferson 1934 Paramount Okeh

Leroy Carr 1935 Columbia

Clara Smith 1935 Columbia

Robert Johnson 1938 Vocalion Perfect Conquerer

Papa Charlie Jackson 1938 Paramount Okeh

Lena Wilson 1939 unknown (copyright my still be held by other parties)

Peetie Wheatstraw 1941 Vocalion Decca

Blind Boy Fuller 1941 ARC Decca

Jelly Roll Morton 1942

Trixie Smith 1943

Rmblin Thomas 1945

Eddie Mapp 1945

Blind Willie Johnson 1945 Columbia

Jelly Roll Blues 1915

Jelly Roll Blues by Fred Morton. 1915
Published by Will Rossiter. Picture in the public domain and available on wikipedia :)

What is in the public domain?

Copyright law is a complete minefield. In simple term in most of the European Union, most artist who died before 1946 would be eligible as PUBLIC DOMAIN recordings. That includes many great blues and jazz men and women of the 1920s and 30s. However, it doesn't seem to be as simple as just that. On youtube, many of these artist works are still blocked by GEMA. There are no comprehesive list of publc domain material. There is still such cloak and dagger when it comes to getting straight answers out of record companies. It is time we know either way whether or not certain artist and their music is free for us to use and enjoy, celebrate and introduce to a whole new generation of music lovers and musician alike.

This blog is going to document my step-by-step journey of creatng a non-profits organisation which can clearly define audio recordings that are in the public domain in the EU. I am looking to carefully document each artist the 78s (shellacks) they recorded, who is still under copyright and who is not. I will take ths dossier to well-know IP lawyers here in Hamburg. Once I recieve clearance to use the music I am hoping to the release some of this on limited run vinyl singles (7") and sell it to sponsor the next release. mp3 of all release will be made available for free. This would then lead to other local Hamburg music project and focus on building up blues men and women struggling to be heard. Eventually, I would like to have an open and frank conversation with record companies and GEMA to clarify what is rightfully protected and what lies in the public domain.

Other aspect being considered are events, workshop in blues and jazz for local musicians. Helping band to release their first EP. Database of shellack in the public domain. A historical collection of early 20s and 30s blues on shellack to then be engineered and made available for free online. The sky is the limit, I hope you can join me on this adventure :)

More to follow...