3rd Ear Music Website Message to all members & contributors - 01 January 2004
(*Thanks to Rick Andrew for the editing; to Mike Westcott for his Trust / Section 21 suggestions and ideas and to Dr.Ingrid Byerly of Duke University, USA, for the reference.)

3rd Ear Music wishes you all a creative and productive 2004. We resolve to keep the Hidden Years Music Archive active and alive with a renewed sense of hope and humour.

On a personal note - and this could impact on the future of the Hidden Years Music Archive project - David Marks has been offered the comfort of a possible permanent teaching post in 2004 / 2005. There is also the prospect of a few Festival Productions that should see 3rd Ear Music through the next 5 years. And although this sounds comfortably safe and tempting, we cannot help but wonder what will happen to this Hidden Years collection - the hidden history archive - if David and Fran Marks are called away to other work.

Please consider:
The battle for funding to finish cataloguing and compiling the Hidden Years Archive and the Textbooks (that the Education Department will eventually need) has become a huge distraction for 3rd Ear. And although we have a catalogue with a few name acts that could do extremely well for us, the same diversions apply; text books and the Hidden Years Story are now priorities for 2004; we are just not geared to market, manufacture, distribute and pack the CDs.
Mike Westcott's Trust / Section 21 suggestions >>

What we need is a partner; the music will speak for itself – Hugh Masekela, Spirits Rejoice, Jeremy Taylor, Malombo, Stephan Grappelli, Rod McKuen, Mungo Jerry, Laurika Rauch etc. (See the legends list for completed masters and the archive catalogue)

However, aside from the obvious commercial potential, if this Archive collection – spanning some 40 years - is as important as some people claim (re: the references and testimonials from local and international Universities and artists - >> read the quote from Dr Ingrid Byerly of Duke University, USA) then perhaps we should try and form this Hidden Years Archive Trust; we’ve been talking about it for some time now.
... read more >>

Donation - Dr. Jan Hofmeyr
3rd Ear Music would like to thank Dr. Jan Hofmeyr for his generous donation to the Hidden Years Music Archive Project. As many of you may know, Jannie Hofmeyr was one of the most brilliant singer-songwriters, guitarist-poets in the 1970's.
... read more >>

> Darius Brubeck and David Marks - at the annual Cathy and Darius Centre For Jazz Festive Supper.

> Steph Hotel
David Marks lined up a recording studio in Hillbrow that would give us a discount on after hours sessions, so we took it and started recording my album 'Born guilty'.
... read more >>

Sketch by David Marks ©(p) 3rd Ear Music 1985.

We would also like to acknowledge and thank all those who have contributed in the past, most notably The National Arts Council of South Africa, The Bartle Arts Trust, Terry Rosenberg, Rick Barber (Australia) and The National Lotteries Board. Funds for the HYMAProject have also been generated through 3rd Ear Music's Festivals, Concerts & Clubs & by the re-issuing of limited edition Hidden Years recordings - and of course by courtesy of Master Jack. We are working on the research & scripting of a TV Documentary and a proposed series of syndicated Radio Programmes; so any stories, photographs, anecdotes that you think we could add to our hidden history - Please drop us an eLine.