Help finding someone to type a short manuscript written in cursive
My stepfather-in-law, Art Woodbury, has written a short but excellent how-to book on jazz improvisation.1 The problem? It’s written in pencil. In shaky cursive. With many alterations, erasures, and insertions. Plus a mix of photocopied and hand-drawn musical notations. Some pages are easy to read, others, well, not so much.
Here are a few sample photos to give you an idea:
It occurred to me that perhaps those who work in archival curation might know some people who—for a reasonable fee—might be willing to turn these handwritten pages into editable, digital text. It’s hard to estimate the length but I’d be surprised if it were over 20,000 words, and I’d guess closer to 12,000.
This is the work of Art’s heart—and mind, and expertise—and he would dearly like to see it published. Time is not on his side (he’s 95). So if anyone has any ideas about where to look so we can get this initial part of the process rolling I’d be most grateful.
Here’s the thing, it’s not just that I would like to please my stepfather-in-law but I genuinely believe this handbook would be a useful manual. So, again, I’d really be grateful for any suggestions anyone has. Please leave a comment below or reach out via the contact form.
And thank you!
He knows whereof he speaks—he’s toured with the Harry James Band; done a lot of studio session work (he’s a saxophonist); taught musical practise, and theory, and improv at various universities. He was the first person, I think, to use the Stanford mainframe to compose—one of the first people to work on artificial intelligence there. He edited the first incarnation of Source magazine. He even played with Blue Cheer once at the Fillmore. ↩︎#arthurNWoodbury #avantGarde #blueCheer #fillmoreAuditorium #harryJamesOrchestra #improv #jazz #sourceMagazine #transcription
concretedog
Nicola Griffith
teledyn 𓂀