Audio Fidelity Records - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Audio Fidelity Records, was a record company out of New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, most active during the 1950s and 1960s. They are best known for having produced the first mass-produced American stereophonic long-playing record in November 1957 (although this was not available to the general public until March of the following year).

Background

Sidney Frey (1920–1968), founder and president of Audio Fidelity, had Westrex, owner of one of the two rival stereo disk-cutting systems, cut a stereo LP

LP album

The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...

disk for release before any of the major record labels, several of which had the Westrex equipment but had not yet produced a stereo disk. Side 1 was The Dukes of Dixieland, Side 2 was railroad sound effect

Sound effect

For the album by The Jam, see Sound Affects.Sound effects or audio effects are artificially created or enhanced sounds, or sound processes used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media...

s. This demonstration disc was introduced to the public on December 13, 1957 at the Times Auditorium in New York City 500 copies of this initial demonstration record were pressed. On December 16, 1957, Frey advertised in the trade magazine Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

that he would send a free copy to anyone in the industry who wrote to him on company letterhead.

That move generated a great deal of publicity and launched a revolution in the way the world listens to music: on two channels, for two ears, in stereo. Frey promptly released four additional stereo disks. The equipment dealers had no choice but to demonstrate on Audio Fidelity Records. Frey became known as "Mr. Stereo" during that era.

Stereophonic sound was not entirely new to the public. In 1952, sound engineer Emory Cook developed a stereophonic disk that used two separate grooves and playback needles; the following year he had a catalog of about 25 disks available for audiophiles. Multi-channel sound was integral to the widescreen motion picture processes Cinerama

Cinerama

Cinerama is the trademarked name for a widescreen process which works by simultaneously projecting images from three synchronized 35 mm projectors onto a huge, deeply-curved screen, subtending 146° of arc. It is also the trademarked name for the corporation which was formed to market it...

(1952) and CinemaScope

CinemaScope

CinemaScope was an anamorphic lens series used for shooting wide screen movies from 1953 to 1967. Its creation in 1953, by the president of 20th Century-Fox, marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and movie projection.The anamorphic lenses theoretically...

(1953). And stereophonic audio tapes

Magnetic tape

Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic recording, made of a thin magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic. It was developed in Germany, based on magnetic wire recording. Devices that record and play back audio and video using magnetic tape are tape recorders and video tape recorders...

had been commercially available to audiophile

Audiophile

An audiophile is a person who enjoys listening to recorded music, usually in a home. Some audiophiles are more interested in collecting and listening to music, while others are more interested in collecting and listening to audio components, whose "sound quality" they consider as important as the...

s, although expensive, since the mid-1950s. After the release of the Audio Fidelity demonstration disks, the other spur to the popularity of stereo disks was the reduction in price of a stereo magnetic cartridge

Magnetic cartridge

A magnetic cartridge is a transducer used for the playback of gramophone records on a turntable or phonograph. It converts mechanical vibrational energy from a stylus riding in a spiral record groove into an electrical signal that is subsequently amplified and then converted back to sound by a...

, for playing the disks, from $250 to $29.95 in June 1958. The first four stereo discs available to the general public were released by Audio Fidelity in March, 1958— Johnny Puleo and his Harmonica Gang Volume 1 (AFSD 5830), Railroad - Sounds of a Vanishing Era (AFSD 5843), Lionel - Lionel Hampton and his Orchestra (AFSD 5849) and Marching Along with the Dukes of Dixieland Volume 3 (AFSD 5851). By the end of March, the company had four more stereo LPs available.

In the summer of 1958, Audio Fidelity recorded 13 classical LPs in London's Walthamstow Town Hall. The orchestra was the specially-formed Virtuoso Symphony of London, which consisted of top London orchestral players and instrumentalists. However, once these recording sessions were over, it was never heard of again. Six of the LPs were conducted by Alfred Wallenstein, who concentrated on the symphonic repertoire (Brahms's 4th Symphony, Tchaikovsky's Pathetique
Symphony No. 6 (Tchaikovsky)
The Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, Pathétique is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's final completed symphony, written between February and the end of August 1893. The composer led the first performance in Saint Petersburg on 16/28 October of that year, nine days before his death...

, Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique
Symphonie Fantastique
Symphonie Fantastique: Épisode de la vie d'un Artiste...en cinq parties , Op. 14, is a program symphony written by the French composer Hector Berlioz in 1830. It is one of the most important and representative pieces of the early Romantic period, and is still very popular with concert audiences...

, and so on) and six by Arthur Winograd (both conductors were ex-cellists) who recorded lighter fare, such as Operatic Marches and Popular Overtures. The 13th LP (Strauss Waltzes) was conducted by Emanuel Vardi. The LPs were expensively produced and retailed at a very high price but reviews of the time were divided between critics who found the stereo sound immensely vivid and others for whom it was over-modulated to the point of distortion.

Audio Fidelity went on to record Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....

, Al Hirt

Al Hirt

Al Hirt was an American trumpeter and bandleader. He is best remembered for his million selling recordings of "Java", and the accompanying album, Honey in the Horn . His nicknames included 'Jumbo' and 'The Round Mound of Sound'...

, Lalo Schifrin

Lalo Schifrin

Lalo Schifrin is an Argentine composer, pianist and conductor. He is best known for his film and TV scores, such as the "Theme from Mission: Impossible". He has received four Grammy Awards and six Oscar nominations...

, Oscar Brand

Oscar Brand

Oscar Brand is a folk singer, songwriter, and author. In his career, spanning over 60 years, he has composed at least 300 songs and released nearly 100 albums, among them Canadian and American patriotic songs...

, Lionel Hampton

Lionel Hampton

Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy...

, Pat Moran

Pat Moran

Patrick Joseph Moran was an American catcher and manager in Major League Baseball. As a manager, he led two teams to their first-ever modern-era National League championships: the 1915 Philadelphia Phillies and the 1919 Cincinnati Reds...

, Larry Adler

Larry Adler

Lawrence "Larry" Cecil Adler was an American musician, widely acknowledged as one of the world's most skilled harmonica players. Composers such as Ralph Vaughan Williams, Malcolm Arnold, Darius Milhaud and Arthur Benjamin composed works for him...

, Johnny Puleo

Johnny Puleo

Johnny Puleo was an American musician and actor, who specialized in playing the harmonica.He performed in front of such notables as the Royal Command in England and the Presidents of the United States and France...

, Patachou

Patachou

Patachou, real name Henriette Ragon is a French singer and actress. She is an Officier of the Légion d'honneur.-Early life:...

, Mohammed El-Bakkar

Mohammed El-Bakkar

Mohammed El-Bakkar was a Lebanese tenor, oud player, and conductor.El-Bakkar was a noted tenor and appeared in several Arabic-language films. He moved to the United States in 1952 and lived in Brooklyn. He released several LPs of Arabic music in the United States...

, Leon Berry

Leon Berry

Leon Berry was born about 1914. He died in Park Ridge, Illinois August 27, 1996. He was "an organist known in the Chicago area as the dean of roller rink rock..."Berry recorded his music for Audio Fidelity Records.-External links:*...

, The Sounds of the Nickelodeons at Paul Eakins' Gay Nineties Village, Eddie Cantor

Eddie Cantor

Eddie Cantor was an American "illustrated song" performer, comedian, dancer, singer, actor and songwriter...

, Myron Cohen

Myron Cohen

Myron Cohen was an American comedian and raconteur.Cohen began as a salesman in the New York City garment industry. When calling on customers, before showing his samples, he would tell a joke in order to put everyone at ease and establish a friendly mood...

, Jo Basile, The Teemates, classical music

Classical music

Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...

, and sound effects.

History

Audio Fidelity, Inc. was founded in 1954. A British branch, A-F England, Ltd., was established in 1959. Sidney Frey sold the company to Herman Gimbel around 1966. The company's name was changed to Audio Fidelity Enterprises circa 1971. It purchased Chiaroscuro Records in 1976. The last known releases under the Audio Fidelity label were circa 1984. In 1985 the company became Milestone Records. In 1997, Audio Fidelity Records was purchased out of bankruptcy by Colliers Media Company, which in turn was acquired by Margate Entertainment LLC in 2005. The name Audio Fidelity Records was licensed to Morada Enterprises, who currently release specialty CDs under the label. The historic Audio Fidelity catalog is currently being released by Margate Entertainment's Max Cat Records reissue label.

Key employees of the company, who were mostly uncredited on the recordings included: Willy Hamilton, chief audio engineer; Lawrence Frey (brother of Sidney), audio engineer; Rosalind Frey (wife of Sidney), vice president; Carl Shaw, business manager; George Demko, comptroller; Manny Vardi, producer; Claire Orson, publicity; Bill Shuler, album designer.

Additional labels owned by Sidney Frey included Kinor Records, Dauntless International, and Audio Rarities.

Sidney married the former Rosalind Kanon in 1948 and had two daughters, Andrea and Melanie.

Bossa Nova in the US

In September 1962, Sidney Frey, president of Audio-Fidelity Records, flew to Rio in search of bossa nova

Bossa nova

Bossa nova is a style of Brazilian music. Bossa nova acquired a large following in the 1960s, initially consisting of young musicians and college students...

artists to take to New York for a concert. Tom Jobim and João Gilberto were the obvious picks, but he brought all he could—Luiz Bonfá, Oscar Castro-Neves, Carlos Lyra, Milton Banana

Milton Banana

Milton Banana was a bossa nova jazz drummer. A self-taught musician, he is best known for his collaboration with João Gilberto and Stan Getz and for his work with the trio he founded....

, and Sérgio Mendes

Sergio Mendes

Sérgio Santos Mendes is a Brazilian musician. He has released over thirty-five albums, and plays bossa nova heavily crossed with jazz and funk....

. The Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

concert on November 21, 1962 was a historic moment—bossa nova, sub-titled "new Brazilian jazz," was presented for the first time to an American audience.

External links

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