[78-L] Mr Goon-Bones and electronic echo chamber

[Michael Biel]

In the 50s and 60s Columbia used the back stairwell in their 6 story NYC 
studio building (53rd St?).  They had  RECORDING  lights at every 
entrance.  While we were walking down those stairs, Miles Kreuger told 
me about the time he ruined a recording by running down the stairs 
shouting YAHOO all the way.  He had just figured out that since Candide 
opened the week after Bells Are Ringing, it also might have been 
recorded in stereo.  The engineer who worked both was still there and 
told him that he thinks it was and the master tapes were probably still 
in the basement vault.  Not wanting to wait for the elevator, Miles ran 
down despite the light being lit.  There was a happy ending because the 
stereo master tapes were there and he produced the stereo issue of 
Candide.  He mentioned that he used several alternate takes, so the 
original mono issue is different from the reissue.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com

David Lennick wrote:
> And in fact some sound really nice, like the Brunswick Salon Orchestra's 
> "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers". It figures that Scott would have come up with 
> the technique.
>
> dl
>
> davdieh at aol.com wrote:
>   
>>  
>> Palitz inherited the gizmo from Master tinkerer Raymond Scott who employed it on his sextet sides. It is clearly in use on Ellington's "I let a song go out of my Heart." Once Master's operations were folded into Brunswick's the technique was employed with a vengence. All of those cavernous sounding 1939 Brunswicks and Columbias were still being recorded in the old, cramped ARC studios.
>> David Diehl
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>>     
>
>   
>> Another story credits Morty Palitz with using the same procedure at Brunswick 
>> in 1939. Lots of small labels started using an echo chamber in 1945 and you can 
>> hear the results on Musicraft, Signature (the Whiteman "Rhapsody in Blue"), 
>> VitaCoustic (the Harmonicats) et al.
>>
>> dl
>>
>> simmonssomer wrote:
>>     
>>> I've read that the earliest Decca reverbs were made with a second mike in 
>>> the adjoining men's room.
>>> Needless to say, flushing was taboo.
>>>
>>> Al Simmons
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>>> From: "Steve Wixson" <wixson at chattanooga.net>
>>> To: <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
>>> Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 8:54 AM
>>> Subject: [78-L] Mr Goon-Bones and electronic echo chamber
>>>
>>>
>>>       
>>>> Hello List,
>>>>     Ted Goon's first record was The Sheik of Araby which sold 400,000
>>>> copies when 200,000 was a hit.  The B-side, Ain't She Sweet, had an
>>>> exaggerated off-beat and was said to be one of the first American
>>>> produced records to use the new electronic echo chamber that London
>>>> Records had used with some symphony recordings.
>>>>
>>>>     The Billboard critics were noted as saying Ain't was a virtual
>>>> monstrosity, and would kill the record.  It didn't.  One day several
>>>> month's after the initial release, a St. Louis disc jockey played the
>>>> B-side for a dancing audience and it took off selling a million and a
>>>> quarter copies.
>>>>
>>>>     Does anyone have info on the early use of the echo chamber to maybe
>>>> validate the above.  Thanks, Steve
>>>>
>>>> Hello everyone,
>>>>     I'm brand new to the list and not sure how to proceed.  I am
>>>> researching the recordings of Ted 'Mr. Goon-Bones' Goon who recorded in
>>>> the late 40s and early 50s.  I play rhythm bones so am personally
>>>> interested.
>>>>
>>>>     I prepared a list from the research that I've done to date.  I don't
>>>> know if it's appropriate to post something that's a couple pages of double
>>>> spaced lines.  Help me out.  Steve
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------via webmail----
>>>> Steve Wixson
>>>> wixson at chattanooga.net
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>