History of CBS Records 30th Street Studio NYC (many pictures)

Not sure what the outboard gear to the right was, but I don't think it was for mics. Columbia's other studios had similar racks, with Pultec EQs and RCA limiters. I think what's in that photo may be modified Altec compressors, but I'm not certain.

This has probably been posted before, but another shot of Monk, apparently from an earlier session:



I say earlier because the dark filter at the top of the control room window isn't present. Presumably they were unhappy from glare from the studio lights in the control room and added it? Depending on the photo I can't tell if it's dark or frosted glass. In Company it looks like the latter. Maybe it was changed at some point? Or is it just the angle of the photo?

 

Great find, thanks for posting it!

I've never heard of Doug Quackenbush and my Google-fu is lacking today because I can't find anything about him, but looking for him found this website

Frank Laico, Teo Macero

devoted to the little people who back up the big people in the entertainment business. I haven't gone through the entire site yet but that linked pic is the one of Frank Laico with a beard and Teo at a Tony Bennett session that might have been lifted and edited from here.

Lots of pictures on that site of people that I've heard of but not seen pictures of, like Don Law and a few Columbia folk, lots of Motown, Chess, and Atlantic people, with the stars in the pictures mentioned kind of on the side.

I was hoping to find some pictures OF Doug Quackenbush, but only find an architect with the same last name plus a lot of pictures taken by other people.

 

Any synthesizer specialists here?

There are a few pictures in the Plaut collection of this or another similar synthesizer, probably from the 60's:



The two left units look about the same except for the upper left section, while the right hand one looks like it has some kind of summing matrix in the middle and must be the master.

Moog? I can't see any names on it, although a few of the Tip-Ring-Sleeve receptacles (I hope that's what they are, the whole thing may be unbalanced in which case they're Tip-Sleeve connections and a lot noisier) are labeled "Multiple", "Filter", "Mixer", "Input", and many more that I can't read.

I love it how each one has a couple of those large paper clip things at the upper corners to hold your notes (pun intended, apparently).

And the upper keyboard looks like it doesn't have keys but is some kind of slider track or something. For pitch glissandos?

 

Moog 3p:



Apparently made from 1969 to 1973.

Moog Synthesizer 1c/2c/3c | Vintage Synth Explorer

Synthmuseum.com - Moog : Modular Moog : 3P

 

And with that ID you can have all the beeps and boops you've always longed for:



More examples in the suggested videos.

 

DMortensen has advised this link doesn't work; try this instead http://percyfaithpages.org/music_and_video/Percy Faith in CBS LA Studio.wmv and it should work; note that .wmv files are insisting on "downloading first then playing" unless you're using Internet Exploder 11, where it streams just fine. I've read a lot about various theories about wmv being deprecated in newer browsers, most notably Firefox and Edge. I just removed Firefox last night (6/18) and don't think Edge brought anything to the table (kind of like Windows 10

 

Your movies, as you know and post on your website PERCY FAITH PAGES , don't stream in Safari, either.

What I did to that video, which I'd downloaded instead of streamed:

-Made a cut in the audio that was already in the video so they lined up for that last song;
-Raised the audio level 12db (it was pretty low in the original transfer, you told me);
-Dipped out some around 5kHz to reduce the annoying hiss;
-Stabilized the jumpy French Horn section just before the sync problem.

It's interesting, I can't view .wmv files with Quicktime, so I have to convert them first with Handbrake. I figured since I was already processing it I'd spend half an hour or so and fix those problems. I sent another version to Bill and turned it from sepia to B&W, added a little sharpening that was subtle at best (I hope), added another 4db volume gain, and took out a splicing pop in the original so everything stayed under 0db.

And I totally agree with you about the fictitious studio audience. In the first shot of Percy where you can see the huge space behind him, there's about two people watching plus a bunch of TV camera cables.

It's fun watching Chappie work and knowing that's how Frank and Fred and everyone else did it, too.

Thanks again for posting it and letting me mess around with it.

Edit: Whoops, I see I need to do something to the Past Performances one, too. Give me some time, though.

 

It's been written in this thread about Miles Davis album Round About Midnight, recorded 1955-1956 by Frank Laico at 30th Street Studio, if I rember correctly (in mono).

Miles Davis ‘Round Midnight’ | Classic Tracks |

But there's also another version of the title tune, in stereo, also with Coltrane and an orchestra featuring guitar and harp (!). It's on the very nice Legrand Jazz album recorded on 25, 27, and 30 June 1958. The information on the album just says "Recorded in New York", but I wonder if it's not the 30th Street Studio.

Here's some photos from the cd booklet:





A similar photo to the last was also reproduced, I think, in a reissue of Kind of Blue:



Legrand Jazz is quite interesting as it features three different bands. The first with, among others, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans and Phil Woods, the second with Ben Webster and Hank Jones, and the third with Donald Byrd, Art Farmer and Teo Macero (!).

Would be very interesting to know who the recording engineer was (seems Legrand produced, arranged and conducted), maybe the recording dates can help there. It was originally released on Philips in Europe, and (licensed?) by Columbia in the USA.

Legrand and Miles Davis also collaborated 33 years later, in the movie/cd Dingo.

 

Here's the track in question:



Yes, all of those photos are from 30th Street. As is the photo with the trombones on the original Philips LP:

 

Wow, nice find!

As Luke said, that is indeed in 30th St and from the AFM sheets, those are the dates.

On June 25 they recorded Wild Man Blues, Round Midnight, The Jitterbug Waltz, and Django from 6 to 10pm.

On June 27 they did Nuages, Rosetta, Don't Get Around Much Anymore, and Blue and Sentimental from 2:30pm to 6pm.

June 30 was Stompin' at the Savoy, Night in Tunisia, and In A Mist from 7pm to 10pm.

Interestingly (to me), Glenn Gould had a session on the 30th from 2:30pm to 5:30pm. That was the day that Teo was on baritone sax, but Miles and Trane and that group were only there on the 25th. My first thought was to wonder if Miles and Glenn hung out, but not that day.

Nothing in the AFM sheets about recording engineer, alas.

I just ordered a used CD of that album from Amazon. Thanks for the pointer.

LOL, just noticed all that info was on the album jacket Luke posted. Well, they didn't have the times or Gould info....

Wait, that's a Philips album, not CBS!

One of the Amazon reviews said it came about because Michel did an album that sold very well for the label but the particulars of his contract meant he got paid very little. The label wanted to make it up to him by letting him do a project he wanted, and he wanted to essentially redo some albums but with the original players.

Columbia must have rented out the studio to Philips? The AFM reports say the paying company was Columbia Records, no mention of Philips. Was that a budget label of Columbia?

Interesting.

 

I think that was the case. Regardless, I believe Legrand was signed to Philips, but the US release was in fact on Columbia. I just posted the Philips cover because the Columbia cover doesn't have any photos, interestingly enough.

 

A very loose tangent, with no direct 30th Street connection (that I'm aware of), but I just learned about the Fox Newman Scoring Stage, which was built in the 1920s and has been used for scoring since the 1930s. Huge room (100' x 75') and iconic hanging lights. And still in use!



Studio File: Newman Scoring Stage, Los Angeles |
Scoring | 20th Century Fox Studios
The Music Behind the Screen: Scoring Stages: 20th Century Fox

 

The Philips-Columbia connection - and this is based on correspondence about Percy Faith albums, though I do have a few older Legrand Lp's from the CL 500 series- - Philips did a less than ideal job of "bringing the Columbia catalog" to the UK (at least for the 1950's Faith albums) - Philips left out some of the Faith catalog. Some correspondents became aware of Faith albums of the 1950's only because of their being reissued in the early 2000's on CD's (re-mastered by Sony, backed and distributed by Collectables). Many of the albums by Faith brought to England by Philips - did not carry the Columbia cover art.

Wiki says this arrangement with Philips and Columbia Records ended in 1961.

Looks like Michel Legrand was with Columbia USA first from 1954 until ?1964 or 1965? and did one magnificent album on MGM (Cinema Legrand, wonderful album dubious pressing) - and his I LOVE PARIS album was one of the few from the 1954 mono era given an entirely new recording (1961?) in real stereo (not the unfortunate "Electronically Re-Channeled For Stereo Sound" that Columbia often did - cheaper than a new recording ! Michel Legrand has a vast catalog of recordings on many different labels over the years.

 

If the Philips Records entry is correct, Columbia distribution of Philips product in the US ended in 1961, but Philips distribution of Columbia product in Europe didn't end until 1964:

"Philips also distributed recordings made by Columbia Records (which at the time was a unit of CBS) in the UK and on the European continent. After the separation of the English Columbia label (owned by EMI) and American Columbia, Philips also started distributing original Columbia recordings on the Philips label in the UK.

The first batch of eight singles releases in 1953 included British artists such as Gilbert Harding, Flanagan & Allen and Gracie Fields, followed by American Columbia recording artists Jo Stafford, Frankie Laine and Johnnie Ray. The first single on the label to chart was Frankie Laine's "I Believe", which reached the No. 1 chart position in the UK that April. Many of the first British recordings on the label were produced by Norman Newell until John Franz was appointed artists and repertoire (A&R) manager in 1954.

In 1958 Philips created a subsidiary label, Fontana Records, which meant that American-Columbia recordings were being issued on both the Philips and Fontana labels. This arrangement lasted until April 1962, when, under pressure from Columbia in America, Philips then created a third label for them, CBS Records (it could not name the label Columbia as the copyright for that name had long been owned by EMI). In late 1964, under the stewardship of U.S. President of Columbia Records Goddard Lieberson, CBS Records formed its own international operations, adopting the name of its then parent CBS. CBS Records set up their UK operation in Theobalds Road in Holborn. Singles and albums on the Philips and Fontana labels by Columbia-owned product were subsequently withdrawn."

"In 1961, after Philips lost its North American distribution deal with Columbia Records, it entered an exchange agreement with Mercury Records.[1] A year later, Philips' US affiliate Consolidated Electronics Industries Corp. (aka Conelco), bought Mercury and its subsidiary labels, such as Smash. Philips classical, jazz and pop records were marketed by Mercury in the US under the Philips label."

Philips Records - Wikipedia

 

This thread is so long now, that I easily forget all that has been covered, so please delete this if it's already been covered!

I just stumbled upon this, which I found interesting ...

 

I find it interesting, too, thanks for posting it.

It is interesting to me not only because I've never seen this video before, but also because I've never heard of Howie Mann, Elliott Richardson, Bob Karch, The Honey Dreamers, or anyone else connected to Howie and Elliott, which by far says more about me than about them. Elliot Lawrence And His Orchestra

I thought I was getting familiar with 30th St people but here's a whole new group who apparently had their own scene. Thank you for the introduction!

 

Dan, my pleasure! Nice to know that I could finally add something worthy to this exceptional, continuing thread on Columbia 30th St. Studios.

 

Elliot Lawrence Orchestra on April 13th, 1949 at 30th Street ...

 

Again, not sure if this footage has been posted before, but it's historical rare footage to be viewed ...

 

Again, delete this if posted here before ...

 

Until 1:50 it appears to be 30th Street, but after that it appears to be a different studio. Exactly where I'm not sure. Doesn't look like 30th Street, nor B at 49 East 52nd.

Note Bob Waller at 1:08 and the custom Ampex machines with 354 electronics. Looks like 30th Street was only using 4-track at the time.

 

Unless there was an era with windows in the studio (seems like we've seen that room before), the pictures aren't at 30th St although the music might have been.

I definitely like the one with Stan Tonkel and many others in it.

Sorry to not be posting more. I'm kind of in the middle of some things but hope to have something interesting soon.