American Epic is an historic, multi-media endeavour that includes a three-part historical documentary broadcast series that uncovers the untold story of early American recorded music. Almost a century later, 20 of today's great artists used one of those systems, reassembled from original parts, to make an album. Because the lathe uses a weight-driven pulley system of gears to end the recording, songs must be recorded straight through, in less than three and a half minutes. Sound familiar? The weight is connected by pulleys to the turntable, which revolves beneath the stationary cutting head. Rarely does historical research result in the sort of cut-up hands and 450-volt shocks that this research often led to.”. The unusual CBS TV station deal that scored one executive a $1-million golf membership. But the records proved immensely popular. Record companies planned to sell specific genres to regional audiences: Cajun music in Louisiana, bluegrass records in West Virginia, and so forth. The nominal reliance on electricity was necessary, as this was before recording teams could depend on reliable AC electrical outlets in remote locations. The reason vintage 78 rpm records typically sound so primitive compared with modern recordings traces to the weak link in the original record-playback chain: Blame the steel needles used on old gramophone players, which literally began decimating records from the first time they were played. There was that one keyhole into the past. The American Epic Sessions is a documentary film in which an engineer restores the fabled long-lost first electrical sound recording system from 1925, and twenty contemporary artists pay tribute to the momentous machine by attempting to record songs on it for the first time in 80 years. So the industry went looking for artists who would attract new listeners, and invested in the technology needed to record them outside of New York studios. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated as of 1/1/21) and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement (updated as of 1/1/21) and Your California Privacy Rights. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Director Bernard MacMahon and Engineer Nicholas Bergh recording on the very first electrical sound recording system from the 1920s, the only one in the world. One revelation in assembling “American Epic” was the evidence of just how good the early recording equipment was — and still is today. “I just wanted to look at a picture of the machine. Record companies leasing the machines from Western Electric paid a royalty on each record sold, prompting them to design their own recording lathes in the early 1930s. A Times review of court filings, CBS’ internal communications and interviews with two dozen current and former CBS television station employees found that many were troubled by the outcome of the investigation and questioned the company’s commitment to cleaning up its culture. It was Bergh who reassembled the last recording machine from circa 1928 and restored it with assistance from MacMahon and McGourty (in locating the final parts of the Scully lathe to make it work). Epic Records ist ein US-amerikanisches Musiklabel.Zu den bekanntesten Künstlern, die bei Epic unter Vertrag stehen oder standen, zählen Fifth Harmony, Camila Cabello, Judas Priest, Rage Against the Machine, The Jacksons, Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, Bethany Joy Lenz, Anastacia, Tori Amos, Fiona Apple, Future, Avril Lavigne, Good Charlotte, Tenacious D, Shakira und The Nightwatchman. In 2000, he started a hunt for any pieces of the original technology. ", The portable electrical system allowed people to record directly onto a 78 record and quickly share their music with a huge audience. Wired may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. Many of the artists appearing in the film felt the limitations of recording lathe technology led to a more spontaneous performance. Singer Randy Parton, Dolly Parton’s brother, dies at 67 of cancer. AMERICAN EPIC. See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour ». Much like iTunes and streaming, the lathe democratized music. For instance, to acquire one part for the Western Electric portion of the rig, Bergh traced the rare microphone pre-amp section to a collector in Tokyo and worked out a three-way trade involving three 1940s vintage recording amplifiers and a second collector. When MacMahon started researching American Epic, he discovered that the original electric lathes---as many as 20 of them---had been lost. Country star Dolly Parton says her brother and singing partner Randy Parton has died of cancer. But the rise of radio sent the record industry into crisis. In July, So Cal indie label Burger Records shut down after female fans and musicians accused some of bands of sexual misconduct. The lathe requires limited electricity, which is needed for an electromagnet that operates the cutting head, as well as to power a strobe that allows the engineer to monitor the turntable’s speed. WIRED is where tomorrow is realized. Bizarre New ‘Love’ Turntable Rotates on Your Records, Stream Your Vinyl Records With a Lovely Wireless Turntable, Music Bloggers Hack Record Industry by Launching Indie Labels. "It's the blueprint for the next 60 years of audio recording." It took a decade, but he eventually built a weight-driven lathe, microphone, and a six-foot amplifier rack with parts used in those early recording sessions. It created a template for music discovery and distribution widely used today. "There was no known film footage of it working, or photographs of it," he says. © 2021 Condé Nast. “Along with my research and sound engineering background,” he added, “I also had a background restoring antique cars, which was very helpful in this sort of dirty hands-on research. During the acoustic era from the late 1800s until the mid-1920s, such lathes were connected to large horn sound collectors — early microphones — that required musicians to sing and play at maximum volume to create enough energy to physically move the sound horn diaphragm and the attached cutting head. Announcer: 'American Epic' told the story of how technology, talent, and invention produced the DNA of America's music. Beat - Epic - 12" JavaScript scheint in Ihrem Browser deaktiviert zu sein. It is the essential source of information and ideas that make sense of a world in constant transformation. Then MacMahon met Nicholas Bergh, who had rebuilt one. During the 1920s, ordinary Americans were able to make recordings with a portable electrical sound recording system. Columbia Records and Victor Talking Machine Company targeted listeners in rural America who could afford hand-crank record players but not electric radios. A collection of texts, radio communications, quotes and scenes from the last hours of Kobe Bryant’s life before the fatal helicopter crash in Calabasas. Column: Here’s how I broke through and got a COVID vaccine. Finding a working lathe proved nearly impossible. 15 culture picks: Birdland benefit with Leslie Odom Jr., the Broad on Basquiat. But he said the Scully lathe theoretically could still be used by contemporary musicians to make high-quality recordings for release on vinyl. The film was directed and co-written by Bernard MacMahon and stars Nas, Alabama Shakes, Elton John, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Jack White, Taj Mahal, Ana Gabriel, Pokey LaFarge, Beck, Ashley Monroe, Los Lobos, The A… "This equipment is the beginning of things being wired," he says. The recording equipment presented unique challenges to artists accustomed to ProTools and compressors. Bergh, an ethnomusicology student at UCLA from 1998 to 2002, was fascinated with the means by which early recordings he was studying were created. Filmmakers Bernard MacMahon and Allison McGourty highlight the unforeseen ripple effects of commercial record companies’ attempts to survive the rise of radio in the mid-’20s, when suddenly consumers could enjoy music without having to pay for records. White, however, grabs the broken fabric strip, hops in a car and races to the nearest tailor shop he can find to the Melrose Avenue studio. “If the first three ‘American Epic’ films are like the story of the Apollo [first manned moon landing] mission, with unseen film footage, interviews with the astronauts and scientists, then the fourth film, ‘The American Epic Sessions,’ is where we rebuild the rocket and go to the moon ourselves,” co-producer and co-writer McGourty said. Adam Savage tells the story behind American Epic, the culmination of a two-decade-long project to reassemble a one-of-a-kind 1920s recording system and the exhausting restoration of hundreds of the era’s forgotten musical works. Today, Bergh spends most of his time working on restorations of vintage film soundtracks. Played back through a massive vintage movie theater loudspeaker, the recording sounded stunningly true-to-life. These portable machines toured the country in the 1920s, visiting rural communities like Poor Valley, West Virginia, and introducing musicians like the Carter Family to new audiences. "It's very much a precursor to people sharing something on SoundCloud immediately after they've captured it.". Get it HERE via TEN/Epic Records. Sie müssen JavaScript in Ihrem Browser aktivieren, um alle Funktionen in diesem Shop nutzen zu können. The same recording-playback system also provided the foundation of the revolution the film industry underwent in the late ’20s: talkies. ‘American Epic: The Collection’ and ‘American Epic: The Soundtrack’ are out now on Legacy Recordings; ‘American Epic: The Sessions’ will be released on June 9 by Columbia Records. "Record sales were centered in the big cities, to people with money." That weight, the largest of three the lathe uses, descends gradually along a four-foot drop, its descent controlled by a governor assembly and a seven-gear transmission that can vary the groove spacing while a single live performance is cut onto a 10-inch black lacquer master disc. "Getting musicians around a focal point, getting them to tell that story—the thing that comes out of it is a profound document," says T Bone Burnett, who produced Epic Sessions with Jack White and Robert Redford. An indispensable part of the story is the record-cutting lathe and its companion electric amplification system that Bergh, 40, pieced together to re-create and better understand the way music was recorded in far-flung regions around the country. I tried to Google it and found nothing. He’s preparing it for a modern-day studio session with bluesy rocker Jack White and several cohorts when an inch-wide band of fabric attached to a 100-pound weight that drives the contraption snaps. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRK8Rqe6z0k&feature=youtu.be. Inside CBS’ fraught investigation into allegations of racism and misogyny. The Scully lathe itself is a marvel of early 20th century engineering. "There was that one keyhole into the past.". People eager to get the COVID-19 vaccine ahead of schedule have flocked to some L.A. clinics, spending hours in an unofficial standby line for doses left over at the end of the day. Steve Lacy is a pretty big deal. “It gave the world the opportunity to record every kind of voice and instrumentation, and to faithfully reproduce those performances on a phonograph record. The lathe is very much a precursor to people sharing something on SoundCloud immediately after they’ve captured it. “It was like putting together a 10,000-piece jigsaw puzzle — without the picture on the box to guide you,” “American Epic” director Bernard MacMahon told The Times recently. And musicians have rediscovered it. Many lugged along racks of batteries to power the equipment. There, he commandeers a sewing machine and stitches it back together on the spot. This remarkable technology forever changed how people discover and share music, yet it was almost lost to history until music legend T Bone Burnett and a few friends decided to bring it back. Without the recording lathe, Willie Nelson would have never heard the Carter Family sing. He soon discovered that the company kept technical information about that equipment highly classified, fearing others might steal their proprietary technology. (It’s no coincidence that this is a standard song length.) After their expected breakthrough year, with a Coachella gig, was sidelined due to COVID, Lili Trifilio and Beach Bunny hit reset with a bracing EP. Jack White, T. Bone Burnett, and Robert Redford have teamed up to executive produce American Epic, a historical music project exploring the pivotal recording journeys of the early twentieth century, which for the first time captured the breadth of American music and made it available to the world. The three-part historical documentary follows the trail of record company talent scouts from the late 1920s as they toured America with a recording machine to capture the raw expression of an emerging culture whose recordings would lead to the development of the Blues, Country, Gospel, Hawaiian, Cajun, and Folk music. Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony.The label was founded predominantly as a jazz and classical music label in 1953, but later expanded its scope to include a more diverse range of genres, including pop, R&B, rock, and hip hop. To experience the recording process, this reporter brought his clarinet to Bergh’s lab and played “Petite Fleur,” an old New Orleans jazz standard associated with Sidney Bechet. He’s a postman no more: Nathan Evans, whose “Wellerman” rendition birthed the sea-shanty TikTok sensation, says he’s been signed by Polydor Records. With new music and partnerships on the horizon, BIA continues to show that 2020 is her year. Beach Bunny’s airborne pop-punk calls out toxic dudes, with irrepressible glee. For The American Epic Sessions, a PBS program airing June 6 and a CD landing June 9, 20 artists—including Merle Haggard, Alabama Shakes, and Nas—recorded on a Western Electric system. The weight-driven lathes of the 1920s gave way to models with electric motors, which allowed for a longer recording time. All rights reserved. These are the women’s stories. Bergh eventually found “one very old, grainy picture” showing an old Scully cutting lathe — so named for its creator John J. Scully — and a Western Electric amplification system that had been used for recordings made during the talent scouting sessions. Ralph Peer recorded country music legends Jimmie Rodgers, the Carter Family, and the Johnson Brothers during a single week in Bristol, Tennessee. "We're living in its wake now," says MacMahon. How Hip-Hop Producer Steve Lacy Makes Hits With ... His Phone. It’s been a rocky rollout, but I felt like I’d hit the lottery when I got my emailed confirmation, for a Pfizer injection at 12:15 on Thursday. View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 2017 CD release of American Epic on Discogs. The system allowed record labels to make field recordings. Bergh pointed out that the cutting head on the machine — the component that actually carved grooves into the discs, allowing music to be played back — was technologically so good that it remained in common use until the late 1940s. It was, in a very real way, the first time America truly heard herself. The producers spent nearly a decade rebuilding an original 1920s recording system - now the only one left in the world - timed by a weight … The Flaming Lips perform in Oklahoma City with band and audience members isolated in their own “space bubbles.” How they did it. Energy is also required for a vacuum that whisks away threads of lacquer as the cutting head does its work. A recording of Beck and a gospel chorus performing "Fourteen Rivers, Fourteen Floods" required 14 takes to accommodate the equipment, including one with the microphone in the corner of the room, another beside Beck's guitar, and another with the chorus facing the wall. Watch the music video HERE. It’s a tangential moment in the Emmy Award-nominated documentary “American Epic,” but one that grabs viewers’ attention. What other rock star has ever been so passionately interested in music history that he'd actually spend his own money to preserve old records? Miami Sound Machine - Dr. Those companies sent teams of talent scouts out into the hinterlands to record regional styles of music, hoping to make up plummeting record sales by marketing to audiences they had largely ignored and which were not being served by radio stations either. American Epic … None of the books in the libraries I researched had any photos either.”. This ingenuity, resourcefulness and creative engineering exemplify a key theme of “American Epic,” the ambitious four-part BBC-PBS collaboration that reveals how technological and cultural changes intersected in the mid-1920s to revolutionize the nascent recording industry. The lathe predates the switch from acoustic to electric recording. A new PBS documentary chronicles the impact of the lathe—and next month will release the music contemporary artists recorded on one. The recording sessions fill a separate two-hour PBS documentary – The American Epic Sessions – which is just wonderful. Jimmie Rodgers, singer of ‘Honeycomb’ and other hits, dies at 87. For The American Epic Sessions, a PBS program airing June 6 and a CD landing June 9, ... Record companies leasing the machines from Western Electric paid a royalty on each record … Randy Rainbow, Wynton Marsalis and Elvis Costello support a storied jazz club. The women who brought down Burger Records. American Epic: The Soundtrack highlights 15 recordings from the Emmy-nominated American Epic historical documentary series on CD or vinyl LP, including original recordings by The Carter Family, Mississippi John Hurt, Charley Patton, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and more all restored to unprecedented levels of sonic fidelity. "At the time, the record companies didn't have any sense that people in New York would be interested in recordings that were made by rural Mississippi musicians," says MacMahon. American Epic is a documentary media franchise based upon the first recordings of roots music in the United States during the 1920s and their cultural, social and technological impact on North America and the world. And some said it provided a connection to the musicians who influenced them. For The American Epic Sessions, the filmmakers have re-assembled the recording machine that allowed America to first hear itself. After his sea shanty sparked a viral craze, this TikTok star now has a record deal. Recordings from the likes of Mississippi John Hurt and Skip James and Robert Johnson laid the foundation for the music of the late 20th century. We wonder what the logistical challenges of doing … These records were the basis of folk and blues music in the ‘50s and ‘60s for Dylan, for Clapton, for all of us. ... BIA was also featured in this year’s Good American Spring 2020 clothing campaign and is the face of the Missguided x Sean John capsule collection for Fall 2020. Record sales dropped 80 percent in 1926 alone. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. In the multi-award-winning follow up film to the American Epic series, Jack White and T Bone Burnett invite today's greatest artists to test their skills against the long-lost machine that recorded their musical idols and forebears, 90 years after it was invented. Reinventing the machine that let America hear itself on the PBS-BBC doc ‘American Epic’ Western Electric recording system Recording engineer Nicholas Bergh has a … "It brought about the advent of the American singer-songwriter, of people recording songs about their own lives, about what was happening in the world," says MacMahon. CBS bought a small Long Island TV station for $55 million. "It was a very elitist thing, music," says Bernard MacMahon, director of American Epic, a three-part documentary about the early days of audio recording that premiered last night on PBS. “For the first time, this technology allowed everybody to be recorded,” she said, “and it democratized American music.”, For Classic Rock coverage, join us on Facebook, How the Flaming Lips pulled off COVID-distancing space bubble shows. "These records were the basis of folk and blues music in the ‘50s and ‘60s for Dylan, for Clapton, for all of us," says Burnett. Orange County indie label Burger Records shuts down amid sexual misconduct allegations, Tracking coronavirus vaccinations in California, The unusual deal that scored one executive a $1-million golf membership, Tyronn Lue reflects on Kobe Bryant’s death: ‘I’m just not ready yet’, How the Lakers went from LeBron’s milestone to handling Kobe’s death. Sabrina Carpenter dropped a new song, and fans think it’s about Olivia Rodrigo, “I’m happy and you hate it,” Sabrina Carpenter sings in her new track, “Skin,” which seems to be a response to Olivia Rodrigo’s hit single “Drivers License.”, Young L.A. ‘vaccine chasers’ crowd unofficial standby lines in hopes of a shot. They have replicated the atmosphere of America’s seminal 1920s field recordings down to the smallest detail, with top American artists recording straight to wax, using all the original microphones, amplifiers, and other equipment from that era. The breakthroughs and innovations that we uncover lead to new ways of thinking, new connections, and new industries. The lathe democratized music production and distribution, just as mixtapes, file-sharing, streaming services, and platforms like Bandcamp did. A CBS executive ended up with a membership at an exclusive golf club owned by the seller. Not only that but his motives seem fairly pure. Bits and pieces of the mid-’20s Scully lathe, and the companion amplification equipment that facilitated the shift from acoustical to electrical recording, still existed, but Bergh learned that a fully intact version did not. “Probably more like 15 in all,” he said recently in his EndPoint Audio Lab facility in Burbank, where the unit resides. Their recordings captured musicians and genres rarely heard beyond regional pockets. Bergh, an audio engineer who specializes in restoring old soundtracks, has long been fascinated with the Western Electric system, which recorded the sound for The Jazz Singer and other early talkies. Let’s hope it gets easier. It was only with the development of microgroove technology after World War II that a new generation of cutting head came into use. John Krasinski, Dan Levy, Regina King will host ‘SNL’ as new episodes return. Neither would Merle Haggard or Johnny Cash. American Epic is an award-winning 3-part documentary series about the first recordings of rural music in the U.S.A. and their cultural, social and technological impact on the world. Back then, recorded music was written by professional composers, recorded by professional singers, and marketed to wealthy audiences. Instead of hiring professional songwriters and musicians, they leased portable recording gear from Western Electric and dispatched "song-catchers" to travel the country. The lathes recorded gospel, Delta blues, and bluegrass for the first time. Bergh tracked down various parts he needed in places as far away as Japan and Europe, and spent more than 10 years bringing it back to working order. "For the first time, America suddenly heard herself—and began to communicate with herself—through music. The franchise comprises a three-part award-winning documentary film series directed by Bernard MacMahon, a feature-length musical documentary film, a book, ten album releases and an educational program. “Saturday Night Live” returns with new episodes at the end of January with John Krasinski, Dan Levy and Regina King announced as hosts. In the 1920s, record companies in search of new styles and markets sought out regional musicians, from the streets of Memphis to the Western prairies and the islands of Hawaii. In the feature-length companion film American Epic: The Sessions, Bergh has a chance to take a Western Electric recording machine and Scully Lathe into a studio and use them to record, produce and cut shellac records of performances by a whole host of contemporary artists, including Elton John, Willie Nelson, Jack White, Beck, the rapper Nas, and Taj Mahal. It’s almost entirely mechanical, driven by the previously referenced 100-pound weight. Ad Choices, Rebuilding—and Recording With—the 1920s Technology That Changed American Music Forever. The WIRED conversation illuminates how technology is changing every aspect of our lives—from culture to business, science to design. A 3-part documentary revisits the past in previously unseen film footage, photos, and interviews with music pioneers and eyewitnesses. Go inside one of the greatest-ever untold stories: how the ordinary people of America were given the opportunity to make records for the first time. "Everything about it was speculative.". It was this musical venture that allowed Americans, as narrator and project co-executive producer Robert Redford says in the film, “to hear themselves for the first time.”. Because the head doesn’t move, the turntable carriage also has to move laterally beneath that cutting head as it etches a groove from the outside perimeter of the disc toward the center. Recording engineer Nicholas Bergh has a working recording system from the 1920s made by Western Electric. Musical fans are invited to a “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” watch party. This unique device used a 100 pound weight on a pulley to turn the platter. Give Jack White credit. The singer who recorded the hits ‘Honeycomb,’ ‘Kisses Sweeter Than Wine’ and many other popular songs during the 1950s and ‘60s has died. Millions of people bought them, fundamentally changing the nature of popular music. The weight crashes to the floor, scotching the attempt, at least temporarily. Recording engineer Nicholas Bergh cranks the handle on a 90-year-old recording device — one he spent more than a decade on during a detective-like quest to painstakingly restore it to working condition. He's part of the band The Internet, he's a producer for J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar, and he just put out his first solo album which he made on his iPhone. The final hours of Kobe Bryant’s life: An oral history. “This machine was like the first mirror,” McGourty said. The rise of radio sent the record industry into crisis of microgroove technology World! Sewing machine and stitches it back together on the spot Levy, Regina King will host ‘ SNL ’ new! The foundation of the 1920s, ordinary Americans were able to make high-quality recordings for release on.. High-Quality recordings for release on vinyl sales were centered in the film industry underwent the. Of early 20th century engineering it created a template for music discovery and distribution used... 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