Don't forget that we're effectively talking of two different music scenes here. Musicians like Morton, Bechet, Armstrong, Dodds etc., had become based in Chicago and were playing nightclubs, speakeasies etc. The musicians who were discovered by the NO revival were, eg Bunk Johnson, George Lewis etc., still lived in New Orleans and were virtually unknown anywhere else.

The RHP records were certainly available, and the Chicago based New Orleanians were an important catalyst in that it was they who told researchers about the existence of old jazz musicians back home.

The Red Hot Pepper records were certainly part of that catalyst. My doubts lie as to whether the progenitors of the NO revival knew about or had heard the Morton Library of Congress recordings when they first started. Don't forget that enthusiasts and collectors had nothing like the network of contacts we've got now. I'd have thought it more than possible that Frederick Ramsey and Bill Russell began doing their thing with surviving New Orleans musicians in complete ignorance of what Lomax was doing with Morton.