SEPHARDIC MUSIC:
A CENTURY OF RECORDINGS

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Gramophone

Discography

Recordings Without Catalog Numbers

Source (for Recordings without Catalog Number): Michael Aylward

History

The UK Gramophone Company was founded in 1898 as the UK partner of Emile Berliner's United States Gramophone Company, founded five years earlier. The Gramophone Company first recorded in the Ottoman Empire in 1900. In May of that year, the Gramophone engineer William Sinkler Darby visited Belgrade and Bucharest, then recorded Greek and Turkish songs in Constantinople on single-sided, 7-inch records (Kaliviotis; Strötbaum.)

Around 1907, Gramophone opened a regional office in Alexandria. This office handled the company's affairs for the Near East, and issued the Greek and Turkish catalogues, including many of the so-called "Oriental Jewish" recordings discussed in this site (Gronow, 1981.)

In 1907 Gramophone engineers went to Sarajevo and Constantinople, recording masters that quickly found their way onto almost 30 releases. It's surely no coincidence that Gramophone added their first Sephardic titles shortly after Odeon did. The same artists often recorded for several companies; for instance, Jacob Algava recorded for both Odeon and Gramophone. It was also impossible to disguise the very bulky equipment and supplies that recording engineers carried in those days. So Gramophone representatives would certainly have known of Odeon's Sephardic activities in advance of the release date.

After a two-year break, visits by Gramophone engineers to Salonica in March 1909 and Smyrna the following month yielded a new crop of recordings, including the first by the famed cantor Isaac Algazi. Off the beaten track, the expatriate Italian singer and Hazan Alberto della Pergola recorded four Hebrew sides for Gramophone in Bucharest, Romania ca. August, 1913.

Some of these Gramophone Company titles appeared on the Gramophone label, while others were released by the company's Zonophone "budget" label. Altogether, Gramophone had by far the largest roster of Sephardic artists and recording locales of any recording company.

Catalogs

September 1909, Greece

Sources: Michael Aylward; Hugo Strötbaum

September 1909, Turkey

Sources: Michael Aylward; Hugo Strötbaum.

October 1910, Turkey

Sources: Michael Aylward; Hugo Strötbaum

December 1910, Turkey

Sources: Michael Aylward; Hugo Strötbaum

January 1911, Greece

Sources: Michael Aylward; Hugo Strötbaum; Aristomenis Kalyviotis

1914-1915, Romania

Source: Michael Aylward

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