Music & Musical Instruments

This award was presented to Ramon "Mongo" Santamaría by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), in 1977. It has a brown stained wood base, with a metal cast gramophone. There is an engraved plate:

NATIONAL ACADEMY OF RECORDING ARTS & SCIENCES
MONGO SANTAMARIA
BEST LATIN RECORDING – 1977
"Dawn”

Ramon "Mongo" Santamaría received this Grammy for his recording Dawn (Amanecer) on Vaya Records, released in 1977.

Ramón "Mongo" Santamaría Rodríguez (1917–2003) was a Cuban percussionist and bandleader who spent most of his career in the United States. Primarily a conga drummer, Santamaría was a leading figure in the pachanga and boogaloo dance crazes of the 1960s. From the 1970s, he recorded mainly salsa and Latin jazz, before retiring in the late 1990s. Santamaria made several recordings as a leader of his own group, as well as a sideman with Fania All-Stars, Tito Puente, Dizzy Gillespie, and Ray Charles.

This button is from the Queen Mary Jazz Festival in Long Beach, California, in 1977. It is made of red paper with black ink covered with a clear film, on a two-piece metal button with a pin back. The button is printed:

UNITED
JAZZ CLUBS
OF SO. CALIF.
2nd ANNUAL
JAZZ FESTIVAL
ON THE
QUEEN MARY
OCT. 30, 1977

Floyd Levin (1922-2007) was a Los Angeles textile manufacturer who turned his passion for jazz into a second career as an influential jazz journalist and historian. His numerous reviews, profiles, and articles were published in magazines such as Down Beat, Jazz Journal International, Metronome, and American Rag. He also authored Classic Jazz: A Personal View of the Music and the Musicians. Items in this collection (2011.3086) were acquired from Levin’s attendance at Jazz Festivals, conferences, and other music events.

This violin was made by the Kiso Suzuki Violin Company Ltd. in Fukushima, Kiso, Japan in 1973. The earliest makers of violins in Japan were Sadajiro Matunaga and Masakichi Suzuki (b.1859–d.1944). Both were trained as shamisen makers and began making violins based on instruments brought to Japan toward the end of the 19th century from Western sources, using Japanese pine and maple and sometimes sycamore. In 1880, proceeding with a Westernization policy, the Japanese government had instituted teacher training programs for lessons in piano, organ, and violin. There is a printed label inside the instrument:

Kiso Suzuki Violin Co., Ltd
Copy of Antonius Stradivarus 1720
Anno 1973 ¾ No.7 Japan
[Kiso Suzuki Trademark]

Masakichi Suzuki established the Suzuki violin manufacturing firm in Nagoya in 1887, adding guitars and mandolins to the firm's production in 1903. The firm received an award at the Japan-British Exhibition in London in 1910, and Masakichi was further cited in 1917 by the Japanese government with a Medal of Honor for his accomplishments in the violin industry. At this time his company was producing thousands of violins each year.

The “S” logo is employed in the label of this ¾ violin with semi-transparent, dark reddish-brown varnish and ink representation of purfling. The fittings are of dark hardwood, with the fingerboard also stained black to give the appearance of ebony. The spruce and maple are probably local Japanese woods, with interior linings and blocks of a light material similar to basswood.

This cymbal was made by Avedis Zildjian Company in Norwell, Massachusetts, 1970s. It is a Crash Cymbal, made of brass. The cymbal is marked:

AVEDIS
ZILDJIAN Co
GENUINE
TURKISH CYMBALS
MADE IN THE U.S.A.

This crash cymbal is from a drumset used by American jazz drummer, singer, and bandleader Ray McKinley around 1969-1980. Ray McKinley (1910-1995) made his first recordings with Red Nichols, where he worked with Glenn Miller and Jimmy Dorsey, in 1931. McKinley continued to work mostly with Miller and the Dorsey Brothers (Jimmy and Tommy) through 1939. He then was a member of Will Bradley’s band through 1942. After enlisting in the Army in 1942, McKinley joined Glenn Miller’s American Band of The Allied Expeditionary Forces (AEF). After Miller’s disappearance in 1944, McKinley co-led the band with Jerry Gray.

After the war, McKinley formed his own band and worked as a freelance musician. In 1956 he was commissioned by the widow of Glenn Miller to organize a new band under Miller’s name using the original library and style. This band made a successful tour of Iron Curtain countries in 1957 and continued to tour the United States until 1966. McKinley played drums while Buddy DeFranco fronted the band from 1966-1974. McKinley continued to perform through the 1980s.

This Appalachian dulcimer was made by Homer Ledford in Winchester, Kentucky, in 1973. It is a double-bout dulcimer with a yellow poplar top and walnut sides, fingerboard, and back. It has four strings (one melody string and three drone strings), wood nut and bridge, 14 metal frets, 4 heart-shaped sound holes, 4 dark wood friction pegs, carved out pegbox, and rounded head. Inside of the dulcimer there is a printed label:

HANDMADE
BY
HOMER C. LEDFORD
WINCHESTER, KY
Guaranteed No. 2297

(and handwritten on this label):

YELLOW
POPLAR TOP FROM BEREA
COLLEGE
HOWARD HALL
DORMITORY
(1867)
MODEL YP-1900
Homer C. Ledford

This award was presented to Ella Fitzgerald by The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS), in 1979. It is a medium-brown stained wood base with a gold-tone gramophone on top and engraved metal plate. Jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald received this Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, for the album, Fine and Mellow. The metal plate is engraved:

NATIONAL ACADEMY OF RECORDING ARTS & SCIENCES
ELLA FITZGERALD
BEST JAZZ VOCAL PERFORMANCE – 1979
”FINE AND MELLOW”