I presume the photo of The Clancy Brothers And Tommy Makem came from the session(s) that yielded this album from 1961: In mono form, this album was one of many I grew up with and on. Especially loved "The Moonshiner" and "Tim Finnegan's Wake."
A sound clip of the recording of Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream. Jan. 8, 1951 at Columbia's 30th Street Studio
re: Columbia Record; Nice. Al Q certainly has an eclectic photostream. I wonder if there is an archive somewhere of "The Columbia Record" ? So a new floor when the New Control Room went in. And is Studio Attendant Eddie Hassell the fellow we see in some of the other photos? I'll guess that the Security Officer probably just sat inside the front door all day.
Back cover, 30th street studio, Sunday, March 5th, 1961. The follow-up album was live at the Gate of Horn later that year....arguably a stronger performance but a carpeted (i believe) basement venue--sorely lacks the acoustics of the Columbia debut! By the end of the 60s the engineers started getting a little too clever. I like the sound of the debut the best.
It could well have been that session, although it seems odd to include a session from 1961 in the July 1963 CR. I went back from July 1963 to January and there were only a two Clancy Brothers sessions, both on June 18 and one possibly cancelled/definitely with a wavy line through it all, but in Studio D not in C. There were lots of Eydie Gorme sessions during that time, most with George Knuerr, but in Studio A. Also lots of Sing Along sessions with Laico, all in C. Al Q is such a treasure!
I would say that pic from lukpac's post of the Clancys (really cool to see!) has to be from 1961. I don't know of any 1963 studio sessions before December (and there was no audience)--now I am curious! I've read there was an album never released with a jacket printed/catalog number but it was recorded in 1964 at Carnegie Hall (Live and Lusty! The Clancy Brothers Return to Carnegie Hall CS8996).
I’ve loved this thread and have been peering in over the years. I visited the site in December of last year and, of course, it really doesn’t look like anything anymore. I may have taken photos, but, might have been too disappointed to take them.
Really cool thread. I have a set of KLH Speakers from Columbia Nashville that I got from Bill Walker back in my Nashville days. Most likely shipped in from NYC. Also a music stand that was in NYC that was sent to Nashville. Got a ton of stuff from the studio actually. When I get some time I'll load some pics.
Hi Everyone, Hope you’re well. This is an announcement of an event this Saturday (Sept. 10) about 30th St. that should be of interest to people here. If you've read the thread you already know the background, but I'm leaving it in here for completeness' sake. We’re going to celebrate the 100th presentation in our (the Pacific Northwest Section of the Audio Engineering Society) Tea Time Topics series on Zoom, with a reprise of a presentation I gave at the 2018 Convention at Javits showing the life of the studio and the progression of gear in use in it. We’ll see architectural and other technological changes over its life from construction as a Presbyterian church in 1875, though its time as WLIB radio, and then purchase by CBS to be a television studio then quick transition into an audio recording studio before it could be a TV studio. We’ll also look at its last couple weeks before the doors closed. It was demolished within a year. Background: Frank Laico, who was largely the chief Pop music recordist during his time with CBS moved to our Section in 2008 and after we found him was very generous telling us about his life as a recording engineer. We had many meetings with him looking at his work and hearing how he did what he did; for that, and in recognition of his body of work, the AES awarded him the Honorary Member Award in 2011, not long before he passed away. In this thread you're reading now, I and we continued looking into the studio’s history after he passed, and this presentation is the result of what we found. It is extensively illustrated with pictures taken by Frank’s fellow engineer and Columbia Records' Chief Engineer, Fred Plaut, who was also a semi-professional photographer. His photo archive, well over 30,000 pictures, is at Yale University and I have gone though it on several occasions, and with permission took pictures of the relevant pictures to better understand and tell the story of the studio and the people who were in it. This presentation uses the changes of gear and studio over time to show some of who was there using it on the origination and the recording sides. We hope you’d like to join us to celebrate our 100th as well as this studio that is dear to a lot of us. GLouie and Lukpac, who have been instrumental in figuring out the studio, will be with us, too, as color commentators. You can sign up for free Zoom tickets at This is the Eventbrite link to get the Zoom link, which we like to use so we have an idea of how many people will be there. Our Zoom subscription has finite attendance. There’s links to more info there, too, although most of the links are to this thread and the thread "1959 Today in 30th St" that I was able to keep up with for five months in 2019. (There is also a way to donate something for the ticket, but please feel no obligation to do that. We have generated a mighty $165 so far for our Section budget over our last two meetings, thanks to attendee generosity. The money will first be used for Zoom for our Section and then for our monthly Basecamp costs which we use to organize our online organizing. But the tickets are all the same otherwise.) Hope to see some of you Saturday. We open the "doors" at 3pmPDT, and the presentation will start at 3:30. You'll want to be in a comfy chair with food and drink nearby, as we'll go for quite a while. You'll also be able to first ask questions as we go about what's on screen, and later ask anything you want. Note that you'll need to use your real name to stay there, although you don't need to correlate it to your handle here. We like real names. Thanks, Dan
I was reading about Gordon Lightfoot's debut album, Lightfoot!, and found a page claiming that it was recorded at the 30th street studio in December of '64. Has anyone here run across anything that would confirm that this album was indeed recorded at this studio? It is a fantastic sounding album and wouldn't surprise me if it was indeed recorded at this studio. Gordon Lightfoot Chronology It's in the '64 section in December.
Interesting. Since I may be the only person in the world who can fairly easily answer this, I looked through the whole month of December 1964 and don't see Lightfoot named in the schedule. However, that doesn't mean he wasn't there. There are a LOT of sessions ID'd only by the label name (in the case of an outside label), so it could have been one of those. In the Lightfoot Chronology here is that entry that you cite: "- In December, he records the tracks for his debut album for United Artists in New York's Columbia Studio on 30th Street, where Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday among many others have recorded." Ah, so it's on United Artists. Looking through December again, there are no United Artists sessions at all, at any of the Columbia NYC Studios. There WAS a United Artists session scheduled in Studio A on November 30, from 7-10pm in Studio A with "Grant" as the producer (I don't know one named "Grant") and Frank Laico and Fred Catero as engineer and tape op respectively. Number 161913 And there was another one that happened on January 5, 1965, with Laico and Pete Dauria number 164194 that did happen, from 2:30-5:30pm. No more UA sessions before Jan. 18. Could he have done the whole album in one session? An aside: I thought that Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel had not recorded in 30th St., only some overdubs or something. I see on December 8, from 7-10pm, 30th St. had Tom Wilson, with Roy Halee as Engineer and Ted Brosnan as Tape Op, doing a session for Dylan project 92344. Anybody have an idea what that was? Sorry if I don't remember if it's come up before in here, years ago. Dylan, Wilson, Halee, and Fred Catero for the first one and Pete Dauria for the second two start a string of sessions in Studio A on January 13-14-15, 1965, on project 92478/92483/92489. Those must be session numbers, not project numbers... Since Dylan was maybe never in 30th St again, was that the session they decided it didn't work for him, maybe for his electric stuff? And wasn't the S&G "Sounds of Silence" redone in 30th to add all the drums and stuff? By Wilson?? Probably around that same time?? Also, in that two month period there were a number of Brothers Four and New Christy Minstrel sessions, mostly in 30th St although I didn't specifically look at that. So there were folk singers around. Hey, everybody, come to my talk the day after tomorrow. We'll go over almost none of this but lots about the studio.
During his UA days, Lightfoot's sessions were produced by John Court of Groscourt Productions (in partnership with Albert Grossman, Dylan's manager) - could it be the writing on that sheet made "Court" look like "Grant"? I know of only one UA single of the '60's that used actual Columbia lacquers from by then 52nd Street - a one-off Mitch Miller single from early 1968.
The Dylan session was electric overdubs on his early material, without him present: Bob Dylan: The Recording Sessions (part 1) The Sound of Silence was overdubbed July 22 in Studio A: The Sound of Silence: a timeline S&G did some string overdubs in 30th Street (namely So Long Frank Lloyd Wright in 1969), but I doubt they did any actual recording there. A, then B in NY, A in Nashville, and A in Hollywood.
No, in this era things were typed not written, although there were many handwritten changes. This wasn't one of them. Can you join us on Saturday in Zoom? It'd be nice to see you...
I'd love to, but alas although my laptop had Zoom added, I don't know if I'll be able to participate (and almost a year ago I moved several blocks north in NYC, so I don't know if it's even working). I do wish y'all the best of luck, though, and thanks for that explanation. But at least you now know who was Lightfoot's producer in those days, so if his name were to somehow come up . . .
I'm always happy to help people with Zoom, as I think it is a significant addition to life in these times. It can be really as close as can be to having a nice conversation in person, if done right. We could start Saturday's session early to help you get your Zoom chops together, if you wanted. That goes for anybody else, too. Like I said, I'm happy to help people get comfortable with it; like I said, it's a huge addition to life in these times, and I've met some really cool people as a result of Zoom.
Oh my goodness, thank you so much! This is incredible information! I really appreciate your research! I've been following this thread casually and have been blown away by your and others efforts to uncover the history of this incredible studio. Every time I check in I am amazed. I would bet that the album was recorded in just one session; it is very simply recorded, just guitars, voice, and bass. It would not surprise me if the album was basically recorded live with no overdubs. I'm not sure that Gordon Lightfoot had signed to UA at the time of those recordings. Unfortunately, things are very murky regarding his UA years and details are very hard to find. I did some more research and managed to dig up two reviews of the album on that site. One of them cites November 1964 as the month it was recorded, not December like the chronology listing. It also mentions that the time between the recording in late '64 and the release in '66 was spent by his management shopping for a record deal. Makes sense, since a single from the album was released on Warner Brothers in 1965. So the sessions were likely not booked by a label but rather by his management. Finally, the review mentions that they chose a small room in the studio for a more intimate sound. I seem to recall that 30th had a smaller studio room aside from the main studio. Here's the page with those reviews: Lightfoot! Album Review I apologize for not having all of this information when I initially asked the question; I hadn't dug it up yet.
Thanks for the offer, but there's another reason, nothing to do with all that: My elderly mother has severe mobility issues and, though she has upper body strength and to a degree lower body as well, she can't stand on her own (that is, trouble in the middle), and so I am her caretaker and have to be on guard for when she calls, thus at a crucial moment I may be interrupted to attend to her. But again, many thanks and good luck.
For Dan's AES Zooms, I say there is zero problem with any level of attending. Many people come any time they want, turn off their camera, leave for while, come back, eat, just listen, whatever, so long as things are muted when appropriate and aren't disrupting to others. We have mods to help mute people having problems (or troublemakers). People will type text into Zoom chat, or can unmute when wishing to talk, if at all. Some use their phone so they can run around, even in the car. These Zooms can last for 4 hours, so we expect this. My caretaker days have past, but cherished the time; my virtual hat is off to you.
I'm an AES member and would love to attend the Zoom, but I will be traveling tomorrow during the presentation. Will it be available to view after the fact?
