[Dixielandjazz] BENNY GOODMAN 1938 Carnegie Hall Recordings.

[Stan Brager]

Bob, Bill, Steve and all BG fans;

The source for the information about the Carnegie Hall recordings comes from
an interview with Bill Savory by Ross Firestone and documented in chapter 25
of Firestone's book "Swing, Swing, Swing". Savory was the Columbia engineer
who was given the task to master the concert recording from Benny Goodman's
concert acetates which were commissioned by Albert Marx. Marx had 2 sets of
acetates made in tandem - one by Harry Smith's studio for Marx' wife Helen
Ward (as Bill mentioned) and the second for Benny Goodman made by Raymond
Scott's Universal Recording Studios.

Savory indicated in his interview some uncertainty about the microphones but
believed that they consisted of the RCA 44-BX which was over the conductor's
podium (Benny thought that this was the only mike) and at least 3 others.
These were all connected to a mixing console and fed by Class A broadcast
quality telephone lines to CBS' master control. Master control fed the
Carnegie signal to the 2 recording studios.

The Carnegie Hall technician was told to turn on the mixing console and not
to touch any of the knobs. As a result, the sound level in some places was
way too low. Savory remembered that Walter Page's bass solo volume had to be
cut from "Honeysuckle Rose". In some places, he tried to bring up the volume
on the bass and heard Krupa's foot interfering with the sound. Oddly, Harry
Goodman's bass was often heard in the big band numbers.

For those who have access to Firestone's informative book, this information
is on page 368.

Stan
Stan Brager
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill Haesler" <bhaesler at bigpond.net.au>
To: "Steve Barbone" <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2007 5:51 PM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] BENNY GOODMAN 1938 Carnegie Hall Recordings.


> Dear Bob,
> To add to Steve's information regarding the mics for the Carnegie Hall
> Concert.
> In John McDonough's excellent liner notes for the recent (and better
> remastered) Jasmine JASCD 656 2-CD set he writes, in part:
> "CBS had a permanent wire installed at Carnegie Hall. There were a few
> Western Electric 618-B dynamic microphones on floor stands around the
> stage and an RCA 44-BX suspended about 20 feet above the stage apron.
> All were patched into a console that was linked by phone wires to CBS
> master control at 485 Madison Avenue."
> Mr McDonough then explains how Albert Marx (Helen Ward's husband and a
> producer at Brunswick) was able, as an independent contractor, to
> request the circuit to 'The Hall' to be opened to take the feed to
> Harry Smith's studio at 2 West 46th Street. All unbeknown to Benny, and
> others, at the time.
> Kind regards,
> Bill.
>
>
>
>