Ewing Nunn - Old School Analog Recordist

M

MissionCityJazz

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(Moderator: I’m a newbie on the forum, so please feel free to move this message/thread to a more appropriate category if it doesn’t belong here.)

For many years, I worked with a fine traditional jazz band that a gentleman by the name of Ewing Nunn recorded extensively in the 1960's (on the Audiophile record label). He was a very interesting individual; however, I never had the honor of meeting him as he passed away before I joined the band in 1978.

Ewing Nunn had a true love and passion for his art. He was apparently his own man, made his own judgments regarding sound, recording and equipment. From what I've read, he made his own microphones. He didn't run with the crowd or follow the conventional wisdom of the time regarding “new technology.” He was an old-school monophonic analog recordist and was skeptical of "stereo" and ventured into in grudgingly.

He would have blanched at the new “digital” recording gear and techniques used today. He certainly would have given it all a try, but I suspect he would have come to the conclusion that it was inferior to analog; hence, my posting this in the analog category

I wish I'd had to change to meet him and pick his brain about his experiences in sound recording. I wish he were alive today to share his stories and wisdom with the folks on this forum.

Here are a couple of links to some information regarding Ewing Nunn:

http://home.flash.net/~bobgh/nunn.htm

http://www.franastat.com/ap/mics.htm
 
MCJ,

Thank you for my musical education of the day :)
I have always been interested in trend-setting people in the music industry, but I had never heard of him or his label. Fascinating stuff; the man was definitely ahead of the game.
Do you know if any of his discs have ever been re-issued on CD?

Best,
C.
 
Greetings!

George Buck of New Orleans now owns the Audiophile label.

http://www.jazzology.com/audiophile_records.php

The Doc Evans CD's were all initially recorded (to the best of my knowledge) by Ewing Nunn. Incidentally, Doc was a *fine* early jazz cornetist in the Bix Beiderbecke tradition and his son, Allan, maintains a website in his dad's honor:

http://www.docevans.com/

But, I digress...

I've never heard any of these CD reissues so I can't speak for how faithfully they capture the original analog recordings; however, Doc Evan's music is most certainly terrific and well worth hearing in any format!

MCJ
 
Greetings all -

I had the pleasure of working with Ewing for many years until his move to San Antonio, Texas in 1972.

The man was amazing when it came to sound. I was with him for a number recording sessions in the late 60's and early 70's. None that I attended were done in a recording studio. We set up in various locations from churches, to empty office buildings, to the auditorium at Tulane University in New Orleans.

He would walk into this empty room and start clapping his hands and listen to the "personality" of the room. After checking all areas of the room, he'd select an area and set up the session at that location.

It took forever for him to accept the fact that stereo recordings were the wave of the future. He stuck with monophonic as long as he could. Even in modern times, he only used a maximum of three microphones in a recording session.

For some of his humorous thoughts on some of the technical advances of the recording industry, take a look at a pamphlet he had printed. http://www.franastat.com/ap/apjoke1.htm

Ewing was not only an extraorinary recording engineer, but he also new the music. I heard him stop a band a number of times because one of the artists was not getting it right!

I'm afraid the sound quality of today's CD's would have him very upset. It is very flattering that some of the old bands want to reproduce the Audiophile recordings on CD, but most of the results I've heard have been less than stellar.

The master tapes have deteriorated to the point that one of the two tracks will drop completely out for a period of time. To be honest, I've had better luck recording the albums onto a high quality cassette tape, then putting it on a CD.

It's great to relive some of the great memories.
 
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