ABSTRACT
American jazz cornetist and band leader, born Joseph Oliver on a plantation near Abend, Louisiana. He played in New Orleans brothels, and formed a group that became the Creole Jazz Band. In 1918 he moved to Chicago and in 1922 invited Louis Armstrong to join his Creoles. Historic recordings followed in 1923 (discussed in the article on Armstrong), showing Oliver at his peak, especially in two-cornet work with Armstrong. After Armstrong left in 1924, Oliver’s group moved toward a smoother style, featuring Barney Bigard, Albert Nicholas, Kid Ory, and Omer Simeon. Fine recordings were made in 1926-1927 in Chicago, including “Someday, Sweetheart” (Vocalion #1059; 1926) and “Black Snake Blues” (Vocalion #1112; 1927). The ensemble was then titled King Oliver and His Dixie Syncopators. A sophisticated sound developed in the next few years, in part because of the arrival of trombonist J.C. Higginbotham who replaced Kid Ory. “Speakeasy Blues” (Vocalion #1225; 1928) is a good example. Oliver recorded for Victor in 1929-1930, then for Brunswick and again for Vocalion (his final recordings) in 1931. Oliver died in Savannah, Georgia. Oliver’s recordings are available on various European and U.S. label CDs; Classics has issued his complete recordings in chronological order on a series of CDs, and other labels have reissued selections, including Milestone,
ASV/Living Era, JSP, and Music Memoria, to name a few. [Allen 1955.]
American trumpeter, arranger, and composer, born Melvin James Oliver in Battle Creek, Michigan. He played with various bands in his teens, and was with Jimmie Lunceford in 1933 as performer and arranger. Oliver’s arrangements for Lunceford were outstanding, giving that ensemble a unique and sophisticated timbre. “The magical way in which Sy Oliver could blend harmony and instrumental color with his own unique brand of relaxed swing is shown to perfect effect on ‘Dream of You’” [Schuller]. Oliver arranged for Tommy Dorsey in 1939-1943, doing his most famous work (“Yes Indeed,” “Opus No. 1,” “Well, Git It,” etc.). In a “dramatic overnight impact” [Schuller] he produced a jazzbased sound for Dorsey. Oliver was a music director and producer for Decca Records, breaking the color line in the music industry. He led his own band at times, notably in the late 1970s when he was installed at the Rainbow Room in New York. He also composed for Hollywood and for television programs. He died in New York. [Schuller 1989.]
SEE LOUDSPEAKER
Born in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, Olson was a pioneer in musical sound reproduction and one of the most important researchers and designers in the history of audio. He received his B.E. degree from the University of Iowa in 1924, continued his graduate studies at the same institution, and was awarded a master’s in solid mechanical wave filters in 1925 and went on to obtain a Ph.D. in atomic physics in 1928. He joined RCA in 1928 and
stayed with the company for 40 years. Some of the primary things Olson tackled at RCA were the development of the RCA magnetic tape recorder for television and the music synthesizer. Another problem was the poor quality sound in the new talking pictures that had recently been introduced. Part of the solution Olson came up with involved the development of the velocity microphone, and he was also instrumental in work done on RCA’s second-order gradient microphone. In 1932 he patented the first cardioid ribbon microphone using a field coil instead of a permanent magnet. In 1934 he was placed in charge of acoustical research for the RCA Manufacturing Co., at the company’s Camden acoustic laboratory, where he went on to develop the electronic synthesizer with Herbert Millar. Subsequently, he became director of the acoustical and Electromechanical laboratory at RCA Laboratories, in Princeton, New Jersey. In 1938, under his supervision, Leslie J. Anderson came up with the design for the RCA 44B ribbon bidirectional microphone and the 77B ribbon unidirectional, and in 1942, Olson patented a single-ribbon cardioid microphone and a phased-array directional microphone. Apart from microphone design, he worked to develop high-directivity horn speaker systems for theater and sound-reinforcement use, and also designed a loudspeaker woofer system that was a precursor to the acoustic suspension design further developed by Edgar Villchur some years later. Between 1958 and 1963, Olson, drawing on profits from Elvis Presley’s record sales for RCA, developed what became known as the Dynagroove record. This was actually a system of recording and reproducing music that retained the phase relationships while compressing the 70-to 90-decibel dynamic range of live classical music to the 60-decibel limit of LP phonograph records. In the 1960s, Olson also experimented with surround sound, and in 1966, he was appointed staff vice president of acoustical and electromechanical research for the entire company. During his long career, Dr. Olson was granted more than 100 patents, published more than 130 technical articles, and wrote a number of important books, including Applied Acoustics; Acoustical Engineering; Modern Sound Reproduction; Music, Physics, and Engineering; and Musical Engineering. Elected to the National Academy of Science in 1959, and later becoming a fellow of the American Physical Society and Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, Olson received numerous additional awards in the field of audio engineering, among them being the Audio Engineering Society’s John H. Potts award, in 1949 (later to become the Gold Medal), an Honorary Membership, in 1957, and the AES award, in 1965. A past president of the organization, he was editor of the Society’s journal from 1966 until 1969, and was editor emeritus for 13 years. He also received three awards from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, including a fellowship, and was awarded the first Silver Medal in Engineering Acoustics ever offered by the Acoustical Society of America, in 1974, and the Society’s first Gold Medal, in 1981.
