Howard's death is no surprise. He was failing for some time. Nevertheless,
his contribution to the birth of the Lp makes him one of the important
players in the success of Columbia Masterworks and worthy of remembrance.
He liked to tell the story of moving a cot into a studio where he could nap
in between supervising dub editing lacquer cuts into Lp masters, and it was
all true, including having to re-make a majority of what had been produced
after technical problems in manufacturing caused them all to be scrapped.
Despite that setback, he and his engineering team began again and met their
deadline in time for the spring 1948 launch of the new format.
In the decade before 1961 he supervised many of the Masterworks recordings
that allowed Columbia to lead the U.S. market. I have a photo of Howard
auditioning a test pressing sometime in the early fifties. He is young,
balding and clean shaven, attired in a dress shirt and tie. Like his
mentor, Goddard Lieberson, he set great store by dressing well. I worked on
many recordings that he supervised when they were reissued on CD, and
admired his preparation and disciplined approach.
What isn't mentioned in that NY TIMES obit is that he was born Shapiro but,
according to the assimilationist impulse of his day, changed it to Scott in
the late forties. It was a privilege to have known him. *Requiescat in pace*
.
DDR
On Sun, Oct 7, 2012 at 11:03 AM, David Lewis <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/arts/music/howard-h-scott-a-developer-of-the-lp-dies-at-92.html?_r=1
>
> Funny, he was mentioned here not long ago.
>
> Uncle Dave Lewis
>
--
Dennis D. Rooney
303 W. 66th Street, 9HE
New York, NY 10023
212.874.9626
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