Hearing Stories

Posted by Luke Montavon in Santa Fe

“Trust to the inspiration of the moment,” says Aural Historian Jack Loeffler in regards to being a documentarian and adventurer.

Loeffler was a recent guest speaker at Tony O’Brien’s New Media Journalism course.

Loeffler found his lifelong passion and fascination with sound at the age of three while tuning the radio in Parkersburg W. Va.

“Back then most of what we listened to is what is called hillbilly music,” he says. With his early sense of curiosity Loeffler searched for something more. What he found was Devorak’s “New World Symphony.” “It undid me,” he says.

Jack Loeffler visited Tony O’Brien’s New Media Journalism class to offer his insight on the art of recording and storytelling.

Years later, at the age of 10, Loeffler began to play the trumpet and, by the age of 14, he was getting paid to play as a jazz musician; he would continue this path for the next 10 years. It was jazz that fueled his increasing interest in sound.
While on the road with a jazz group, Loeffler was asked to record one of the performances. It was then he realized the power and true potential of recording. However, he didn’t become serious about it until coming to New Mexico in the ‘60s.

“When I got here I found that I was the only jazz player north of Rt. 66 and I needed an alternate gig,” he says “That’s when I got into ethnomusicology and recording big time.”

Then in 1969, Loeffler received a grant that would guide his journey into the Sierra Occidental mountain range of Western Mexico. Loeffler spent a month living amongst the Huichol Indian People, arriving just in time to record their annual “Peyote Fiesta,” in which the people celebrate their creation.
“They’re amazing people, they have incredible music, and they were one of the few people that weren’t conquered by the Spanish,” he says.
This experience taught Loeffler to leave his personal beliefs behind and just submit to as much of their culture they would allow.
A self-described loner, Loeffler says that “what I love most about audio is just being able to take off and do my gig, and it’s taken me all over the place.” And even though he doesn’t travel as much as he used to, Loeffler now has the time to reproduce his audio into other works, such as books and radio programs (he now has six books and more than 300 radio programs independently produced).
“It’s really allowed me to go back to my field work and go back to the moment I was recording,” he says. “I can remember everything in the room, the way it smelled, and the way I felt while I was having a conversation with someone.”
After all, Loeffler doesn’t see aural history as a linear medium, but rather “a big sphere of reference with many components and levels” and “it’s always there.”
For any documentarian, Loeffler emphasizes, “it’s not a meaningless gig, it’s the most meaningful thing ever.”