Editing Brunswick Records (section)

===1916–1929===
Records under the Brunswick label were first produced by the [[Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company]], a company based in [[Dubuque, Iowa]] which had been manufacturing products ranging from pianos to sporting equipment since 1845. The company first began producing [[phonograph]]s in 1916, then began marketing their own line of records as an afterthought. These first Brunswick records used the [[Vertical cut recording|vertical cut]] system like [[Edison Disc Record]]s, and were not sold in large numbers. They were recorded in the United States but sold only in Canada.<ref>{{cite book |last=Laird|first=Ross|title=Brunswick Records – A Discography of Recordings, 1916–1931 vol. 1: New York Sessions 1916–1926|year=2001|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Westport, CT|isbn=0-313-31866-2|page=49}}</ref>

[[Image:I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate label (Brunswick Record 2338-A).jpg|left|thumb|200px|A Brunswick record label from 1922]]
In January 1920, a new line of Brunswick Records was introduced in the U.S. and Canada that employed the lateral cut system which was becoming the default cut for [[Gramophone record#78 rpm disc developments|78 discs]]. Brunswick started its standard popular series at 2000 and ended up in 1940 at 8517. However, when the series reached 4999, they skipped over the previous allocated 5000s and continued at 6000. When they reached 6999, they continued at 7301 (because the early 7000s had been previously allocated as their Race series). The parent company marketed them extensively, and within a few years Brunswick became a competitor to America's "big three" record companies, [[Edison Records]], [[Victor Talking Machine Company|Victor]], and [[Columbia Records]].

The Brunswick line of home phonographs were commercially successful. Brunswick had a hit with their Ultona phonograph capable of playing [[Edison Disc Records]], [[Pathé Records#Pathé discs|Pathé disc records]], and standard lateral 78s. In late 1924, Brunswick acquired the [[Vocalion Records]] label.

Audio fidelity of early-1920s, acoustically-recorded Brunswick discs is above average for the era. They were pressed into good quality [[shellac]], although not as durable as that used by Victor. General music director [[Walter B. Rogers]] and his colleague [[Gus Haenschen]] lured significant classical and popular soloists into Brunswick's roster, including [[Sigrid Onegin]], [[Marie Tiffany]], [[Michael Bohnen]], [[Mario Chamlee]], [[Richard Bonelli]], [[Giacomo Lauri-Volpi]], and popular singers [[Al Bernard]], [[Ernest Hare]], and light-voiced [[Nick Lucas]]. Significant Brunswick instrumentalists included pianists [[Leopold Godowsky]] and [[Josef Hofmann]], and violinists [[Bronislaw Huberman]] and [[Max Rosen]].

In the spring of 1925 Brunswick introduced its own version of electrical recording derived from the [[Pallophotophone]] system, developed by [[Charles A. Hoxie]] (and licensed from [[General Electric]]) using [[photoelectric]] cells, which Brunswick called the "Light-Ray" process. These early electric discs have a harsh equalization which does not compare well to early electric Columbias and Victors, and the company's logbooks from 1925–27 show many recordings that were unissued for technical reasons having to do with the GE system's electronic and sonic inconsistencies. (Only Brunswick and Vocalion records pressed at their West Coast plant bore the name "Light-Ray Process" on the labels.)

[[Image:WildAndRecklessHobo.gif|right|thumb|200px|A Brunswick record label from the mid-1920s]]
Once Brunswick's engineers had tentative control of their new equipment, the company expanded its [[popular music]] recording activities, exploiting its roster of stars: the dance bands of [[Bob Haring]], [[Isham Jones]], [[Ben Bernie]], [[Abe Lyman]], [[Earl Burtnett]], and banjoist [[Harry Reser]] and his various ensembles (especially the Six Jumping Jacks), and [[Al Jolson]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=Al Jolson Biography & History|website=[[AllMusic]] |url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/al-jolson-mn0000609215/biography| access-date=8 March 2023}}</ref> (whose record labels proclaimed him "The World's Greatest Entertainer With Orchestra").

Then based in [[Chicago]] (although they maintained an office and studio in New York), many of the city's best orchestras and performers recorded for Brunswick. The label's [[jazz]] roster included [[Fletcher Henderson]], [[Duke Ellington]] (usually as the Jungle Band), [[King Oliver]], [[Johnny Dodds]], [[Andy Kirk (musician)|Andy Kirk]], [[Roger Wolfe Kahn]], and [[Red Nichols]]. Brunswick initiated a 7000 race series (with the distinctive 'lightning bolt' label design, also used for their popular 100 hillbilly series) as well as the Vocalion 1000 race series. These [[race records]] series recorded hot jazz, urban and rural blues, and gospel. Brunswick also had a very successful business supplying radio with sponsored transcriptions of popular music, comedy and personalities.

In the early 1920s Brunswick also embarked on an ambitious domestic classical instrumental recording program which carried over into the electrical era, recording violinist [[Bronislaw Huberman]], pianists [[Josef Hofmann]] and [[Leopold Godowsky]] (both of whom made the majority of their American recordings for Brunswick), and the New York String Quartet. They moved into orchestral recording in 1922 with the renowned "Capitol Grand Orchestra" under [[Erno Rapee]] from the [[Capitol Theatre (New York City)|Capitol Theatre]] in New York (at a time when [[Eugene Ormandy]] was the orchestra's concertmaster), then contracting with the [[Minneapolis Symphony]] under [[Henri Verbrugghen]] and the [[Cleveland Orchestra]] under [[Nikolai Sokoloff]] in 1924, the orchestra of the [[Metropolitan Opera House (39th Street)]] under [[Gennaro Papi]], and in a tremendous steal from Victor, they put the [[New York Philharmonic]] with conductors [[Willem Mengelberg]] and [[Arturo Toscanini]] on their artists roster - but only briefly. The popular records, which used small performing groups, were difficult enough to make with the photoelectric cell process; symphony orchestra recording, however, further exacerbated the problems of the "Light-Ray" system. Few orchestral records were approved for issue and those that did appear on the market often combined excellent performances with execrable sound, which particularly displeased Toscanini (only two sides he conducted were ever released). Brunswick found it expedient and ultimately cheaper to contract with European companies (whose electrical recording systems surpassed Brunswick's). Among the recordings Brunswick imported and issued under their own label (through an agreement reached with [[Polydor]], [[Deutsche Grammophon]]'s export branch) were historic performances conducted by [[Hans Pfitzner]] and [[Richard Strauss]]—the latter conducting critically acclaimed performances of his symphonic poems ''Don Juan'' and ''Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks'', recorded in [[Berlin]] in 1929–30. Some of these recordings have been reissued on CD.

Brunswick itself switched to a conventional condenser microphone recording process (licensed through [[Western Electric]]) in 1927, with better results. Prior to this, however, they had introduced the Brunswick Panatrope all-electric phonograph with electric amplification. This phonograph met with critical acclaim, and composer [[Ottorino Respighi]] selected the Brunswick Panatrope to play a recording of [[bird songs]] in his composition ''[[Pini di Roma|The Pines of Rome]]''. [[Jack Kapp]] became the record company executive of Brunswick in 1930.<ref name="LarkinGE">{{cite book|title=[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music|The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music]]|editor=[[Colin Larkin (writer)|Colin Larkin]]|publisher=[[Guinness Publishing]]|date=1992|edition=First|isbn=0-85112-939-0|page=354}}</ref>