CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
EN/FR
Search
Menu
Research dossier · Arts & Letters

What It Be Like? Ed Blackwell Project Vol. 2

1994 live album by Ed Blackwell

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 21, 2025
Entity authorityQ111169390 ↗
Source-derived summary

What It Be Like? Ed Blackwell Project Vol. 2 is a live album by drummer Ed Blackwell. It was recorded in August 1992 at Yoshi's in Oakland, California, and was released by Enja Records in 1994. On the album, Blackwell is joined by saxophonist and flutist Carlos Ward, cornetist Graham Haynes, and bassist Mark Helias. Trumpeter Don Cherry also appears on one track. The album, which is the companion to What It Is? Ed Blackwell Project Vol. 1, is one of Blackwell's last recordings; he died in October 1992.

Reception

In a review for AllMusic, the editors wrote that Blackwell's "distinctive approach to timekeeping, which highlights tribal rhythms and New Orleans marching band cadences, is on excellent display on What It Be Like?...

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “What It Be Like? Ed Blackwell Project Vol. 2” is 1994 live album by Ed Blackwell. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through What, Like and Blackwell, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1992, 1994—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1994. For this dossier, What, Like and Blackwell is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “1994 live album by Ed Blackwell” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 21, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q111169390. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1992 and 1994.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “What It Be Like? Ed Blackwell Project Vol. 2”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow What It Be Like? Ed Blackwell Project Vol. 2 primary sources, What It Be Like? Ed Blackwell Project Vol. 2 archive and What research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “What It Be Like? Ed Blackwell Project Vol. 2”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “What It Be Like? Ed Blackwell Project Vol. 2” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.