David Giovannoni has been playing old records ever since he could climb a box and peer into a Victrola. His interest in sound led to a career in radio and a modest and fluid collection of 78s and cylinders currently numbering over 20,000 selections — each compulsively catalogued, cleaned, and shelved. His focus is on the earliest discs and cylinders, home recordings, recordings of historical interest, hot dance and jazz through the 1920s, and rock 'n' roll at 78 rpm. He buys, sells, and trades with an eye toward creating an accessible archive of significance for researchers and producers.

Compact Disc Productions

• Debate '08: Taft and Bryan Campaign on the Edison Phonograph.  Archeophone Records; 2008.
  Press release.
  Featured in the Wall Street Journal — October 11, 2008.
• Actionable Offenses: Indecent Phonograph Recordings from the 1890s.  Archeophone Records; 2007.
  Press release.
  Nominated for two Grammys: Best Historical Album and Best Album Notes.
  Featured in the New York Times, Arts & Leisure — July 8, 2007.
  Featured on NPR's Weekend Edition — June 16, 2007.
• Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1891-1922.  Archeophone Records; 2005.
  
  Press release.
  Grammy Winner for Best Historical Album. Also nominated for Best Album Notes.

Giovannoni has contributed recordings, images, and research to numerous CD reissues, most recently:

• The Phonographic Yearbook: 1906 - When Things Was Lookin' Bright.  Archeophone Records; 2009.
• Ain't Gonna Settle Down: The Pioneering Blues of Mary Stafford and Edith Wilson.  Archeophone Records; 2008.
• Before Radio.  Archeophone Records; 2008.
• Nat M. Wills: The Famous Tramp Comedian.  Archeophone Records; 2007.
• The Great War: An American Musical Fantasy.  Archeophone Records; 2007.
• You Ain't Talkin' To Me: Charlie Poole and the Roots of Country Music.  Columbia Legacy (Sony); 2005.
  
  Nominated for three Grammys: Best Historical Album, Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package, and Best Album Notes.
• Henry Burr, Anthology: The Original King of Pop.  Archeophone Records; 2005.
• Bert Williams: The Early Years, 1901-1909.  Archeophone Records; 2004.  The Williams and Walker cakewalk postcards co-released with this CD are from the originals in the Giovannoni collection.
• Eddie Morton: The Sound of Vaudeville, Volume 1.  Archeophone Records; 2003.
• Stomp and Swerve: American Music Gets Hot.  Archeophone Records; 2003.

His audio restoration work can be heard on:

• Goodnight Ladies and Gents: The Creole Music of Lionel Belasco.  Rounder Records; 1999.
  See Linton Corbie's review in the Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange.
  See Stacy Phillips's review in Roots World.
• Peter Was A Fisherman: The 1939 Trinidad Field Recordings of Melville and Frances Herskovits, Volume 1. Rounder Records; 1998.
• Calypso Calaloo: Early Carnival Music in Trinidad.  Rounder Records; 1993.
  Together with the book of the same name, winner of the 1994 Chicago Folklore Prize.

Other Audio Activities

Giovannoni's audio archives are available to select researchers and producers. Notable productions on which he's been consulted include:

• Leonard Bernstein: An American Life  (WFMT, 2004),
• A World in Your Ear  (BBC Radio 4, 2001),
• Marcus Garvey: Look For Me in the Whirlwind  The American Experience (PBS, 2001),
• America 1900  The American Experience (PBS, 1999),
• I'll Make Me a World: A Century of African-American Arts  (PBS, 1999),
• and NPR’s Lost and Found Sound: A Radio Anthology for the Millennium  (NPR, 1999-2001).

Requests for specific recordings or information will be considered.

• Giovannoni is a founder of the First Sounds initiative.
• Since 2007 he has served on the board of The Association for Recorded Sound Collections.
• He is a voting member of The Recording Academy.
• The preservation work of the Smolian-Giovannoni Foundation continues at the Library of Congress.