Harry Weinger, who oversees the reissuing of recordings by James Brown, pictured, for Universal Music, will talk about the role of pop music in American culture. Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
Grammy Award-winning producer Harry Weinger, the vice president for Universal Music Enterprises, will give a free, public talk about managing the back catalogue for the music label on Wednesday, Oct. 29.
The talk, “Mining the Soul Archive,” will feature Weinger in conversation with Mark Anthony Neal, a professor in Duke’s African & African American Studies department. The event will take place at 6:30 p.m. in White Lecture Hall on Duke’s East Campus.
For more than two decades Weinger has produced and overseen the reissues, compilations and DVDs from the Universal Music catalogue, which includes the music of James Brown and Motown.
“The work that Harry does at Universal gets at the heart of issues related to the caretaking of America's pop music legacy,” said Neal, director of Duke’s Center for Arts, Digital Culture and Entrepreneurship (CADCE).
“Harry has often had to take in consideration the kinds of bottom line concerns that record companies have as opposed to projects that give us a greater sense of the artistic value of some music and its connection to contemporary forms,” said Neal, who teaches a course on Michael Jackson and the black performance tradition on Wednesday evenings.
Weinger earned his first Grammy Award in 1991 for the album notes for “Star Time,” a 4-CD box set on the music of James Brown, which became the standard for CD box sets. In 2002 he won a second Grammy for producing the soundtrack for “Standing in the Shadows of Motown,” a documentary on the careers of Motown’s studio band, The Funk Brothers.
Weinger is currently a lecturer at the Tisch School for the Arts at New York University where he has taught courses on James Brown, Motown and, most recently, Prince.
“Harry may have the best job in the world,” Neal said.
The event was made possible by a grant from the David L. Paletz Innovative Course Enhancement Fund at Duke and is co-sponsored by CADCE and the Department of African & African American Studies.