This site is a personal project of Michael Aylward. Mr Aylward is a freelance translator
specialising in insurance. His non-insurance
translation work includes:
Horst J.P. Bergmeier;
Ejal Jakob Eisler; Rainer E. Lotz; Vorbei - Beyond
Recall : A Record of Jewish Musical Life in Nazi
Berlin
1933-1938 (Bear Family Records, 2000)
In addition to discographical research, his hobbies include gardening, foraging for
nuts and berries and curling up and sleeping most of the winter.
He loathes spring and summer and fears that he has recently
become a grumpy old man.
Thanks to Joel Bresler for appointing himself my webmaster. I
would have been incapable of doing this website myself and without
Joel's assistance it simply would not exist.
Over the years I have been helped by countless hundreds of
individuals. There are simply too many to list here, but special
thanks must go to:
- Janet Topp-Fargion and Jane Harvell of the National Sound
Archive in London;
- Ruth Edge and her staff at the EMI Sound Archive;
- Ewa Krysiak and Pani Wróblewska at the Biblioteka Narodowa
in Warsaw;
- Józef Gelston, Valeria Ieseanu, Dina Levias, Silvia Paveggio
and Helen Winkler for procuring otherwise unattainable source
material for me;
- Joel Rubin and Rita Ottens for their continuing generous
support and advice and invaluable technical information on
Jewish music and recordings; and
Alan Kelly, David Anderson, Arthur Badrock, Roger Beardsley,
Blanche Belfer, Stephen Berr, Ilan Biber, John Bolig, Joel Bresler, Paul Cleary,
Bill Dean-Myatt, John DeMetrick, Julian Futter, Norman Field, Misha
Gavrilovich, Pekka Gronow, Michael Gunrem, Alex Hartov, Gilbert
Humbert, Tony Langford, Karsten Lehl, Tomasz Lerski, Dr Rainer Lotz,
Alain Mitzmacher, Peter Nahon, Dr Risto Pekka Pennanen, Mike
Richter, Dick Spottswood, Hugo Strötbaum, Nathan Tinanoff, Paul
Vernon, Bret Werb, Kurtis Williams and Jeffrey Wollock for much
discographical information and advice.
Dedication
This site is dedicated to my long-suffering mother and late
father who for so many years tolerated and continue to endure my
obsessions and the chaos that trails in their wake.
I also wish to dedicate the site to two outstanding personalities
- the English discographer Alan Kelly and Leonard Prager, doyen of
Yiddish studies.
The overwhelming generosity and assistance I received from Alan
in the early days gave my project the impetus it needed to truly get
off the ground. Everything I know about the work of the discographer
I learnt from him.
As for Leonard Prager, words fail me. Leonard died a few days ago
(11 December 2008) after a lifetime spent rescuing Yiddish from near
oblivion. He was greatly interested in this project and I was
looking forward so much to presenting him with this website.
Both men are supreme examples of the enormous difference a
single individual can make to the world.
Posted 22 December 2008.
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