Jack Skurnick (March 22, 1910 – September 6, 1952) was an American record producer and writer, known as the founder and director of

EMS Recordings EMS Recordings was founded in 1949 by Jack Skurnick in New York City. The company won first prize at the Audio Fair of 1950 for the high quality and interest of its recordings. It issued the first recording of works of Edgard Varese. Skurnick's par ...

and as publisher and editor of the music review ''Just Records''.

Career

Skurnick worked in the "Elaine Music Shop" on West 44th Street near Madison Avenue in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, a music store owned by his parents, Max and Anna Skurnick.

Doris Day Doris Day (born Doris Mary Kappelhoff; April 3, 1922 – May 13, 2019) was an American actress, singer, and activist. She began her career as a big band singer in 1939, achieving commercial success in 1945 with two No. 1 recordings, " Sent ...

bought records there, and many classical musicians came in to make purchases and chat with Skurnick. One of these was

Edgard Varèse Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse (; also spelled Edgar; December 22, 1883 – November 6, 1965) was a French-born composer who spent the greater part of his career in the United States. Varèse's music emphasizes timbre and rhythm; he coined ...

. Another was

Safford Cape Safford Cape (28 June 1906 - 26 March 1973) was an American conductor, composer and musicologist. Born and educated in Denver, Colorado, Cape moved to Belgium in 1925 to further his studies in composition and musicology. From 1933, after a few yea ...

, director of Pro Musica Antiqua. When Skurnick started his record company,

, he named it after the shop. He also convinced Cape and Varese to record with him. EMS was the first label to record Varese. In the magazine Skurnick sought to build respect for music as an art and to raise performance standards. In the EMS recordings, he put these principles into practice. His aim was to record a history of music, with special attention to the lesser known masterpieces, in performances that would be a model of authentic musicianship. He had mapped out plans far into the future when his work was suddenly interrupted.

Interests

A movie buff, he wrote a script that he shot himself. Film director

Jules Dassin Julius "Jules" Dassin (December 18, 1911 – March 31, 2008) was an American film and theatre director, producer, writer and actor. A subject of the Hollywood blacklist in the McCarthy era, he subsequently moved to France, and later Greece, whe ...

, then an actor at the Artef, a Jewish theater in New York, appeared in it. It was shown to a small group at a space Skurnick rented in New York but never released beyond that. A fan of old movies, Skurnick twice rented a hall in which to show them. Because he was not able to afford to rent the space regularly, he suggested the project to Betty Chamberlain, Director of the Department of Communications at The Museum of Modern Art from 1948–53, who subsequently introduced a more elaborate series of films at MoMA.

Personal

Skurnick was married to the painter Fay Kleinman for 18 years, and had one daughter, Davida. Since her marriage, Davida has been known as

Davi Napoleon Davi Napoleon, also known as Davida Skurnick and Davida Napoleon (born 1946), is an American theater historian and critic as well as a freelance feature writer. She is a regular contributor to ''Live Design'', a monthly magazine about entertainmen ...

. Skurnick has two grandsons he never met, Brian Napoleon and

Randy Napoleon Randy Napoleon (born 30 May 1978) is an American jazz guitarist, composer, and arranger who tours nationally and internationally. He has also toured with the Freddy Cole Quartet, Benny Green (pianist), the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra led by ...

; a great grandson, Jack Napoleon, who is named after him, and a great granddaughter, Juliet Napoleon. Skurnick died of a heart attack on September 6, 1952, at the age of 42.

References

* Conly, John M. "They Shall Have Music" in ''The Atlantic'', September 1960, p. 107. Jack Skurnick's work with recording engineer Robert Blake at EMS Recordings is explored.

External links

Safford Cape: A Discography
notes

Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by wikt:nonconformity, nonconformity, Free improvisation, free-form improvisation, sound experimen ...

's interest in EMS * ttp://articles.latimes.com/2006/jan/29/entertainment/ca-zappa29 LA Times documents Jack Skurnick's work and its influence on Frank Zappa {{DEFAULTSORT:Skurnick, Jack 1910 births 1952 deaths American record producers American music critics 20th-century American non-fiction writers