William Savory

William Alcott Savory (June 11, 1916 – February 11, 2004) was an

long-playing record

albums to market in 1948.

Biography

Savory was born William Alcott Savory of French and Italian parents aboard the ocean liner

Helen Ward, a former singer in Benny Goodman's band.^[1]

Savory specialized in transcribing live performances off the air for

classical musicians, and spoken word broadcasts in the 1930s. The radio recordings of the live broadcasts, made before the introduction of tape, were known to only a handful of people until they were acquired by the National Jazz Museum in Harlem in 2010. They were recorded on 12- or 16-inch discs, made of raw aluminum or lacquer coated aluminum (called incorrectly "acetates"). Because they were recorded at speeds of 33⅓ rpm, Savory was able to record longer performances than were previously available on 10-inch 78 rpm shellac discs, which could capture only about three minutes of music.^[1]

A master of the art of disc cutting, Savory made the first transfers from disk to tape to LP master. Among these were the on-site recordings of Benny Goodman's historic January 16, 1938 concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City, which has been described by critic Bruce Eder as "the single most important jazz or popular music concert in history."^[2]^[3] He also developed the technique for cutting the masters of 78 rpm recordings that were being transferred to the new format.^[1]

During

CIA."^[1]

The National Jazz Museum has begun digitizing recordings of performances by

Columbia University School of Law.^[1]