Chris Strachwitz
Christian Alexander Maria Graf Strachwitz von Groß-Zauche und Camminetz (/ˈstrɑːkwɪts/;[1] July 1, 1931 – May 5, 2023) was a German-born American record label executive and record producer. He was the founder and president of Arhoolie Records, which he established in 1960 and which became one of the leading labels recording and issuing blues, Cajun, norteño, and other forms of roots music from the United States and elsewhere in the world. Strachwitz despised most commercial music as mouse music.[2]
Chris Strachwitz
Christian Alexander Maria, Graf Strachwitz von Groß-Zauche und Camminetz
July 1, 1931
Berlin, Germany
May 5, 2023 (aged 91)
San Rafael, California, U.S.
Record company executive, record producer
1952–2023
Awards and legacy[edit]
In 1993, Strachwitz received a lifetime achievement award from the Blues Symposium for his role in preserving the blues,[15] and in 1999 was inducted as a non-performing member of the Blues Hall of Fame.[16]
In 1995 he formed the Arhoolie Foundation "to document, preserve, present and disseminate authentic traditional and regional vernacular music."[5] The Foundation owns the Chris Strachwitz Frontera Collection, comprising about 44,000 commercially issued phonograph records of Mexican-American and Mexican vernacular material, issued between around 1906 and the 1990s, which are now in the process of being digitized.[17] In 2009, the collection was opened to the public at the Chicano Studies Research Center of the University of California, Los Angeles.[6]
Strachwitz was a recipient of a 2000 National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States' highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.[18]
In February 2016, he was awarded the Grammy Trustees Award by The Recording Academy at the 2016 Grammys in recognition of his contributions in areas of recording other than performance.[19]
