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Something new and totally unexpected. I have digitized many thousands of 78 rpm records and this is the very first time I've come across this anomaly - about the middle of the recording there is a 3 second long silence, like the recording engineer accidently flipped off the switch or something. A close examination of the play surface shows about 4 grooves with only perfectly straight groove walls.

I assume ordinarily, this type of foul-up would have been cause to reject a recording, but this one slipped through. The recording is ONE SWEET LETTER by Doc Evans Band on the Dublin's label, this being one of four records in an album of Doc Evans recordings.

Here is a link to the recording:

http://78records.cdbpdx.com/DEB-a/ONE-S ... NS_D1b.mp3

The 'dead air' starts at about 1' 44" into the song.

First time for everything, I guess.

Cliff

Tightest band i've ever heard

I wonder: did they even play the take back?

This must have been in the period of lacquer masters, so there's no excuse...

Bill

It's from 1947, so pre-tape. They cut that straight to the master, probably, so it would be on every copy.

Unless they dubbed from another 33 ⅓ rpm lacquer to 78 rpm (as some companies did by then) - then the mistake could lie there. Not sure if a little dime outfit like Dublin's would do that. Labels like Columbia and Capitol did dubbings from 33 ⅓ in that mid-late 40's era.

I hunted around the internet and found this information from the Doc Evans web page:

http://www.docevans.com/?page_id=12

"S D Records was the brainchild of two Chicago record collectors, John Steiner and Hugh Davis. On December 9 and 10, 1947, John Steiner recorded Doc Evans’ Dixieland combo. By this time, he was no longer making new recordings for release on S D. But the matrix numbers are in his usual system of recording date plus suffix.

In a letter to the editor of Down Beat (published in the issue of January 28, 1948, p. 10), Steiner noted that that 8 sides had been cut. He reminded Down Beat readers that Hugh Davis was no longer his partner; “for three years he has had no association with the company.”

The material was released on a boutique label operated by Dublin’s, a Chicago record store. Dublin’s D1 through D4, four 78 rpm releases pressed on vinyl and (apparently) released simultaneously at some point in 1948."

This is all very cool info. This album is probably extremely hard to find, as it doesn't sound like there could have been much of a distribution network for this release.

These 8 recordings were released on a Paramount 10" LP, #106. It would be interesting to hear that recording of ONE SWEET LETTER to see how they handled the 3 seconds of silence. I found a couple inexpensive copies of this LP on eBay, I'll let you know what I find out.

Cliff

More information found, this time on the S D label web page by Clemson:

http://campber.people.clemson.edu/sd.html

The Dublin's release of ONE SWEET LETTER was take 5 from the Dec 10,1947 recording session and the later Paramount release used take 6 from that session, so I assume the Paramount record will have no blank part. The other 7 recordings from these sessions used the same Dublin's takes on the Paramount LP.

This S D label web site is really great! Everything you want to know about the label seems to be here.

Check it out!

Cliff

^ Also a nifty article there on the revived Paramount label.

got my copy of the Paramount LP 106 with the Doc Evans DUBLIN'S recordings. The LP has a different take of ONE SWEET LETTER, without the 3 seconds of silence. It is a significantly different version of the same title. I can see why they chose the other for the DUBLIN'S album.

You can here both takes here:

http://78records.cdbpdx.com/DocEvans/

Enjoy! Cliff