Hi folks:

I just finished digitizing an LP by Emil Bruh & his Ensemble called
"Jewish Melodies". The label says they were located in New York, but
I've associated them with Chicago; certainly most of the 78s I've seen
on the label are of Chicago-style polka music.

The LP label says "Copyright 1946", but I suspect that's not correct.
First off, LPs hadn't been invented in 1946, so this might have been a
reissue of a 78 album. But the aural evidence suggests otherwise; the
freq2uency response sounds pretty wide for 1946, and there's no surface
noise evident. Could it have been a tape? Bit early for that, though
it's not impossible. But it sounds like an early 1950s recording -- the
peaky, shrieky high frequencies say that.

A couple more data points: of course recordings weren't copyrightable in
1946. Could the copyright be for the label design? Unlikely, since this
was before LPs existed.

There are absolutely no liner notes; some assiduous Googling came up
with the fact that this record's been reissued a couple of times,
including a cassette from Global Village. Descriptions of the reissues
indicate that none of them included any information other than titles.

I did find an entry in the 1940 Census for an Emil Bruh living on 180th
St. in New York City. He was born about 1898 in Rumania; he sounds like
a likely candidate.

Anyhow, does anyone know about Dana's recordings in the LP era? Did they
have a very early tape recorder? Or was this, as my ears suggest, a
1950s recording?

Any and all information is welcome.

Peace,
Paul

PS The Online Discographical Project doesn't include Dana. Neither does
Barr.