Here’s a trivia question for readers with long memories: what musicians who are still making commercial records today started recording in the 78 era? Bear in mind that the long-playing record was introduced by Columbia in 1948 and replaced the old-fashioned 78 single shortly thereafter, so it’s been a very long time since anyone last cut a commercial 78.
I haven’t thought it through carefully, but the only people who come immediately to my mind are four jazz musicians, Roy Haynes, Lee Konitz, Marian McPartland, and Sonny Rollins. (Oscar Peterson and Max Roach date from the same era, though their recording careers now appear to be over.)
Presumably there also are some classical performers who qualify–but who?
UPDATE: The ever-alert Ethan Iverson chimes in with three names I should have come up with on my own: Hank Jones, Clark Terry, and (drumroll) Earl Wild.
I just thought of two glaringly obvious omissions: Dave Brubeck and Horace Silver.
Michael Hendry throws another name into the hat: Charlie Louvin, the surviving member of the Louvin Brothers, one of country music’s all-time great duet acts. This in turn caused me to remember that bluegrass giant Ralph Stanley, who began recording in the late Forties, is still very much alive, well, active, and making records.
Walter Biggins says that B.B. King cut his first record in 1947 or 1949, which means it was almost certainly a 78 (though it might well have been recorded on magnetic tape).
Mark Stryker says that Sir Charles Mackerras, the British conductor, “got in under the wire at the end of the 78 era and is still recording.” He also shoots and scores with Gunther Schuller, who played French horn on several of the Miles Davis Nonet’s 78 sides–the “Birth of the Cool” records–and continues to record as a conductor.