[Dixielandjazz] Mercury Records - Orillia (Ontario) Packet and Times, April 18, 2014

[Robert Ringwald]

Mercury Records a Rare Breed
by Lorne VanSinclair
Orillia (Ontario) Packet and Times, April 18, 2014
To modern-music fans, Mercury Records does not mean much. As part of the multinational
conglomerate Universal Music Group, it operates under Island Def Jam Music strictly
for reissues of pre-1998 recordings and some current country material. In some countries,
the name is used for local artists' releases, but it's not a real record company;
it's just another brand.
At one time, though, Mercury was one of the big players, recording almost the whole
range of popular music and leading the way in much of it. The difference between
then and now is the people. Today, the company, or what's left of it, is run by executives,
accountants and marketers seeking to extract maximum value from the brand, but in
its heyday, Mercury's executive offices were populated by talented people passionate
about music and recording. In fact, some of the most talented people in the recording
industry, including Quincy Jones, Norman Granz and John Hammond, worked for Mercury
at some time or another.
Two periods in Mercury's history are particularly interesting to collectors and fans
of vintage music. The first is the early years, when, as a true Chicago indie, Mercury
recorded an excellent array of blues and jazz. The second is during the 1950s and
early 1960s, when, using innovative and elegant technology, it produced some of the
finest classical records ever made.
The company was founded in 1945 by plastics expert and jazz fan Irving Green, booking
agent Berle Adams and a couple of other less active partners. They caused an immediate
stir in the industry by opening two pressing plants, one in Chicago and the other
in St. Louis, using automated equipment designed by Green. At the time, there was
still a shortage of skilled (male) workers due to the war, which limited production.
Mercury's plants employed untrained women and could churn out 700,000 discs a week
with a 24-hour turnaround time. With that powerhouse behind it, Mercury could out-produce
even its biggest rivals -- all it had to do was find the talent.
Berle Adams had a lot of contacts. As an agent, he had represented Louis Jordan,
Ben Webster, Fats Waller and Art Tatum, among others. He also booked dates for the
likes of Glenn Miller, Woody Herman and Nat King Cole. He was a dedicated jazz fan
and, at first, Mercury recorded blues and jazz artists almost exclusively; Albert
Ammons, Jay McShann, Sippie Wallace, Roy Byrd (a.k.a. Professor Longhair), Buddy
Rich and Eddie "Mr. Cleanhead" Vinson and others made some great, and rare, jump
blues and jazz records on the Mercury label. However, the company found more success
with pop artists like Frankie Laine (though he was more of a jazz singer at the time)
and Vic Damone, so it soon changed focus.
In 1947, Mercury was convinced to let an unknown singer, Patti Page, record a song
called Confess. The song required two singers answering each other, but Mercury couldn't
afford that, so it had Page record both parts on tape and overdubbed them together.
It was the first time that technique had been used with tape. It worked so well,
Mercury employed it on almost all of Page's numerous and very successful recordings.
By the mid-1950s, Mercury was a major pop-music label, big enough to have several
subsidiary labels to handle specialized categories of music. It still had an impressive
jazz roster on its EmArcy label, most of it picked by jazz impresario Granz. Hammond
also lent his expertise in the late 1940s, just after he left the army and before
his legendary stint with Columbia Records.
Even with all that success, it was Mercury's move to classical music that really
set the label apart.
Mercury began making monaural classical recordings in 1951. The recording director
was noted archivist David Hall and the recording engineer was C. Robert Fine, known
as Bob to his friends. Fine had developed a single microphone technique for jazz
recordings and he employed it for his first classical session, Pictures at an Exhibition,
performed by Rafael Kubelik and the Chicago Symphony. The resulting LP was a critical
and commercial success. New York Times critic Howard Taubman declared Fine had captured
the "living presence" of the orchestra. From then on, Mercury used that phrase as
the name for its classical series.
In 1955, Fine expanded the technique to stereo using three microphones. That was,
and is, a radical departure from accepted practice. Usually, each instrument in an
orchestra or band has its own microphone placed up close; the sound is balanced in
the control-room mixing board using up to 24 unique channels. Fine firmly believed
three channels gave the best sound. He placed one microphone in the centre of the
room and two on each side to capture the left and right instruments. Although it
seems like a simple approach, it was far more difficult to set up. Fine spent days
determining precisely the best spot for each microphone. His ultimate goal was to
pick up every instrument in perfect balance. It was mostly a trial-and-error process;
the optimum placement depended on the acoustic energy generated by the orchestra,
the acoustical properties of the hall and the nature of the work being played. Every
session was different.
Fine recorded the three channels on a custom-designed three-track Ampex tape recorder.
Later, he started using 35-millimetre magnetic film, normally used for making movie
soundtracks, which had better resolution, less noise and better frequency range.
On the artistic side, Mercury vice-president Wilma Cozart (yes, it had a woman vice-president)
used her many contacts to find great orchestras and performers who were not under
contract. Cozart and Fine worked together so well, they soon married.
Mercury Living Presence LPs are among the most cherished by audiophile classical
collectors. Pristine copies of rare issues often fetch close to a thousand dollars.
Bach Cello Suites by Janos Starker has sold for as much as $1,700 on eBay.
In 1961, Mercury was purchased by Dutch electronics company Philips, inventor of
the cassette tape. Green continued as president and the company continued to do well.
By the 1970s, it was in the hands of German-based Polydor and soon after that, the
corporate mergers, brand trading and whatnot became almost too confusing to follow.
It becomes especially confusing for younger jazz fans trying to sort out original
labels. For instance, Granz left Mercury in the late 1950s to start his own label,
Clef, which was distributed by Mercury. A few years later, Granz formed another,
completely independent company, Verve Records, which had no relationship with Mercury.
Mercury closed its EmArcy subsidiary and moved its jazz artists to the flagship label.
After one of the mergers in Europe, Universal Music Group ended up owning both Verve
and Mercury and proceeded to reissue Mercury jazz recordings on the Verve label.
Mercury Records as a vital force pretty well died out in the early 1990s and we'll
probably never see anything like it again; there just isn't the energy, drive and
passion on the business side of the recording industry anymore, and that's a shame.
__________
Lorne VanSinclair is organizer of the Musical Collectables Record and CD Sale, Canada's
largest record collectors' event, and, with his wife, Mary, is owner of Carousel
Collectables Antique Market at 27 Mississaga St. W. in downtown Orillia. Email him
at
info at musicalcollectables.com
-30


-Bob Ringwald K6YBV
www.ringwald.com
916/ 806-9551

First you forget names,
then you forget faces.
Then you forget to pull up your zipper...
it's worse when you forget to pull it down.