Report: “One of the World’s Largest Private Collections of Latin American Music Just Hit the Web”
From Remezcla:
Over the last 30 years, Alejandra Fierro Eleta — also known as Gladys Palmera — has amassed the world’s largest private collection of rare Latin American recordings. The archive includes more than 50,000 albums, photographs, and other ephemera, focusing largely on Afro-Cuban music from the 1950s.
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But [recently], the collection crack[ed] open wider than ever before: Colección Gladys Palmera comes to international audiences through a new website and online database that features artwork, curated playlists, podcasts, and a series of articles written by music specialists, letting fans go deep into Palmera’s stunning treasure trove. The website launches with 5,000 important recordings that illustrate the tastes and inclinations that led Palmera to build her collection out “according to my own needs,” the way that Robinson Crusoe designed his own home, as she often jokes. While individual songs and albums will not be available to stream, listeners can access many of the tracks through the archive’s curated playlists. Over time, Palmera will work with her team to add more of the collection online.
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About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.