Autograph Records | |
---|---|
Parent company | Marsh Laboratories |
Founded | 1920s |
Founder | Orlando R. Marsh |
Status | Defunct |
Genre | Jazz |
Country of origin | U.S. |
Location | Chicago, Illinois |
Autograph Records was an American record label in the 1920s owned by Marsh Laboratories of Chicago, Illinois, which was owned by Orlando R. Marsh, an electrical engineer.
Marsh made recordings by his own experimental methods. Autograph was the first U.S. record label to release recordings made electrically with microphones, as opposed to the acoustical or mechanical method that was more commonly used. [1] According to author Brian Rust, Marsh's first electrical records were made in 1924. [2]
It was reported in Time on April 28, 1923, that a device invented by Marsh was successfully used to make a recording of organ music, until then considered impossible. The article stated that Pietro Yon from New York City played his organ composition "Jesu Bambino" in Marsh's Chicago laboratory, and that the reproduction was described as excellent. The article went on to say that this accomplishment appeared to open a new area for the phonograph. [3]
Brian Rust also reported that there was a note in the Talking Machine Journal for October 1924 indicating that "Orlando B. Marsh" had just moved to 78 East Jackson Boulevard. [2] Marsh Laboratories became established on the seventh floor of the Lyon & Healy Building. This location attracted customers. Lyon & Healy sold sheet music, records, and musical instruments. [4]
Autograph is best known for some of the fine jazz by artists in Chicago which was recorded on the label. The most famous of all are the duets by King Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton. Autograph's bestselling records, however, were the series of pipe organ solos by Jesse Crawford. Marsh's electrical process was the first to be able to capture an approximation of the range of the organ, but it lacked bass in the tone mix. [4] [5]
About the time that the Autograph records of Crawford were made, Jesse Crawford accepted an offer to be organist at the Paramount Theatre in New York City. Once there, the Victor became interested in having Crawford make recordings for them, first by the acoustical process. Later, Victor recorded Crawford by the Western Electric-licensed process first used by them in 1925. [4]
Milton Charles succeeded Jesse Crawford as organist at the Chicago Theatre and also as the organist used by Orlando Marsh. Charles was recorded by Marsh Laboratories at the Tivoli Theatre (Chicago) with releases on Paramount Records. The Paramount recordings were technically superior to those made at the Chicago Theatre. [4]
The last Autograph records seem to have been recorded in 1926.
Although no longer releasing sides under his own label, Marsh continued to make recordings in Chicago for other labels (including Paramount, Gennett, and Black Patti) through the end of the 1920s.
Amos 'n' Andy was the first radio program to be distributed by recorded syndication, and Marsh Laboratories played a role in this. Elizabeth McLeod indicated in an e-mail of December 27, 2002, that recordings by Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll were made in advance of the live airing of the Amos 'n' Andy radio shows on WMAQ (AM), Chicago, in the 1928–1929 period at Marsh Laboratories. These were pressed for distribution to other radio stations as 12" shellac 78 rpm discs. She indicated that a speed around 80 rpm was sometimes more accurate. On April 29, 1929, the recording contract went to Brunswick-Balke-Collender (Brunswick Corporation) and the audio quality of the discs improved substantially. [6]
Paramount Records was an American record label known for its recordings of jazz and blues in the 1920s and early 1930s, including such artists as Ma Rainey, Tommy Johnson and Blind Lemon Jefferson.
The Leslie speaker is a combined amplifier and loudspeaker that projects the signal from an electric or electronic instrument and modifies the sound by rotating a baffle chamber ("drum") in front of the loudspeakers. A similar effect is provided by a rotating system of horns in front of the treble driver. It is most commonly associated with the Hammond organ, though it was later used for the electric guitar and other instruments. A typical Leslie speaker contains an amplifier, a treble horn and a bass speaker—though specific components depend upon the model. A musician controls the Leslie speaker by either an external switch or pedal that alternates between a slow and fast speed setting, known as "chorale" and "tremolo".
Discography is the study and cataloging of published sound recordings, often by specified artists or within identified music genres. The exact information included varies depending on the type and scope of the discography, but a discography entry for a specific recording will often list such details as the names of the artists involved, the time and place of the recording, the title of the piece performed, release dates, chart positions, and sales figures.
Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical, mechanical, electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording.
Art Gillham was an American songwriter, who was among the first crooners as a pioneer radio artist and a recording artist for Columbia Records.
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The Paramount Theatre was a 3,664-seat movie palace located at 43rd Street and Broadway on Times Square in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Opened in 1926, it was a showcase theatre and the New York headquarters of Paramount Pictures. Adolph Zukor, founder of Paramount predecessor Famous Players Film Company, maintained an office in the building until his death in 1976. The Paramount Theatre eventually became a popular live performance venue. The theater was closed in 1964 and its space converted to office and retail use. The tower which housed it, known as the Paramount Building at 1501 Broadway, is in commercial use as an office building and is still home to Paramount Pictures offices.
Jesse Crawford was an American pianist and organist. He was well known in the 1920s as a theatre organist for silent films and as a popular recording artist. In the 1930s, he switched to the Hammond organ and became a freelancer. In the 1940s, he authored instruction books on organ and taught organ lessons.
The Paramount Theatre is a concert venue in Denver, Colorado, located on Glenarm Place, near Denver's famous 16th Street Mall. The venue has a seating capacity of 1,870 but is a popular destination for large acts looking for a smaller concert setting. With spelling as Paramount Theater, the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Gaylord Carter was an American organist and the composer of many film scores that were added to silent movies released on video tape or disks. He died from Parkinson's disease.
Orlando R. Marsh was an electrical engineer raised in Wilmette, Illinois. In early 1920s Chicago, Illinois he pioneered electrical recording of phonograph discs with microphones when acoustic recording with horns was commonplace. His firm Marsh Laboratories, Inc., founded in 1922, at one time was located on the seventh floor of the Lyon & Healy Building near the corner of Wabash and Jackson in Chicago. The Marsh firm no longer exists but the building still stands and is part of DePaul University.(1)
The Tivoli Theatre was a movie palace at 6323 South Cottage Grove Avenue, at East 63rd Street, in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago's South Side. It was the first of the "big three" movie palaces built by the Balaban & Katz theatre chain run by brothers A. J. Balaban, Barney Balaban and their partner Sam Katz, who were also owners of the Rivera Theater and the Central Park Theater, that opened on 16 February 1921.
Al Melgard was the best-known organist for the Chicago Stadium, from 1930 until retirement in 1974, at age 84.
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Electrical transcriptions are special phonograph recordings made exclusively for radio broadcasting, which were widely used during the "Golden Age of Radio". They provided material—from station-identification jingles and commercials to full-length programs—for use by local stations, which were affiliates of one of the radio networks.
Electric music technology refers to musical instruments and recording devices that use electrical circuits, which are often combined with mechanical technologies. Examples of electric musical instruments include the electro-mechanical electric piano, the electric guitar, the electro-mechanical Hammond organ and the electric bass. All of these electric instruments do not produce a sound that is audible by the performer or audience in a performance setting unless they are connected to instrument amplifiers and loudspeaker cabinets, which made them sound loud enough for performers and the audience to hear. Amplifiers and loudspeakers are separate from the instrument in the case of the electric guitar, electric bass and some electric organs and most electric pianos. Some electric organs and electric pianos include the amplifier and speaker cabinet within the main housing for the instrument.
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Lorin J. Whitney was an American organist and recording artist who played on Christian radio programs such as the Haven of Rest in the 1930s–1950s. His organ music programs were heard on the CBS Radio and NBC Blue Networks in the 1930s. He founded the Whitney Recording Studio in Glendale, California, in 1957, where he had a pipe organ installed. His studio organ was used for recordings by Whitney and other organists, along with furnishing accompaniment for singers. The studio accommodated large orchestras and was widely used by various entertainers to record secular music albums in the 1960s–1990s. After the studio was acquired by MCA in 1978, the MCA Whitney studio was used largely for popular music recordings.
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