About nine years ago, The College of Cinematography, Arts, and Television invited recording engineer and educator ADALBERTO “EDDIE” RIVERA TORRES to moderate a forum on Puerto Rico’s recording industry history. As he prepared for the event, he realized that the recording industry’s history told, from a recording engineer’s perspective, did not exist. The realization was a learning moment and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to set the record straight. To his credit, Torres seized the moment.
Six years later, after conducting interviews with fellow technicians, studio owners, collectors, musicians, artists, producers, and record company executives and conducting meticulous research at the University of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico’s General Archives, The Center for Puerto Rican Studies, internet portals and numerous conversations with historians, Torres emerged with Playback: A History of Puerto Rico’s Recording Studios in the 20th Century in hand.
The result is a comprehensive history of the island’s recording industry and a fascinating narrative that begins in the late 1800s with technological advances that led to the creation of “radio labs.” The book also includes overviews of roughly forty recording studios (many no longer exist). Moreover, it shines a light on the industry’s unsung pioneers, the equipment, the artists they collaborated with, and the recordings they created, many of them historic.
Torres also uncovers fascinating facts, such as The first Puerto Rican music recorded was Félix Astol’s La Borinqueña, sung by the Cuban soprano Rosalia “Chalia” Diaz (1864-1948) on the Zonophone label in 1900. The tenor Antonio Paoli was the first Puerto Rican recording artist to record Pagliacci de Leoncavallo for the English Gramophone label in 1907. In 1909, the Edison label presented a collection of twelve Puerto Rican songs by the soprano Gracia López and musician singer Jorge H. Santoni, which the company promoted as “twelves songs from that pleasant island possession.”
Playback includes vintage photos, historical newspaper clippings, a detailed appendix, and a glossary of recording industry jargon.
The book ends in mid-2000 with what Torres describes as “The Democratization of Music.” The advances in digital recording, the use of digital workstations connected to computers, and the proliferation of home studios and recording devices, for better or worse, allow anyone to record music. Despite the advances, Torres points out that something needs to match the thrill of interacting with an artist and creating music in a conventional recording studio. After thirty-plus years in the trenches, Torres should know!
The introduction, titled An Industry is Born, and the appendix is worth the book’s price. If you’re a music lover, collector, or interested in Puerto Rico’s recording industry and the unsung pioneers behind the music, Playback is for you. Highly recommended!
