Wow. That turned out to be a helluvalotowork. Had I known it would have take so much time, would I have done it? Sure I would!
So, one thing leading to another and Everest to the Fine Arts Quartet and to the Concert Disc label, I decided to go ahead and do a discography of the latter. Concert Disc, first initiated in 1953 as Concertapes, was the label of the Fine Arts Quartet, and they also hosted the New York Woodwind Quintet. But what I didn’t know as I embarked on that discography is that Concert Disc’s classical music flagship series would lead me to chronicling also their popular music series – so ironic that, for sake of fastidiousness and completeness, I spent so much time searching for information on music that is basically muzak-junk and for which I have utterly no interest, if not cringing disgust (One exception though, that I’d like to underline here lest it goes unnoticed while you look at the lengthy discography: Willie Wright, folk singer. See Concert Disc CS 45). And that, from there, I’d go ahead and retrace the history of Concert Disc’s reel-to-reel-tape-only predecessors, Concertapes and, even further back, Webcor. And that was even more painstaking research work, as tapes were, at the time, a very specialized niche market, so that there are far less remnant traces of their releases today. But I think I got through.
And, as a dear friend commented: all this, for what? Who today will have an interest for The Fine Arts Quartet, the New York Woodwind Quintet, and a label that, in the LP era at least, wasn’t particularly noted for its “distinguished” hifi quality?
Well… me, your honor.
Here you go, then, take a look at my mammoth Concert Disc / Concertapes discography.