Enoch Light

Initially a fixture of the hotel and ballroom circuit, Enoch Light and His Light Brigade was formed in the late '20s by former Johns Hopkins University student, Enoch Light. Eventually switching to the big band sound of the era, the group recorded a number of original compositions for Bluebird, Vocalion and RCA Records. In 1956, Light set up Grand Award Records, making stereo sound recordings of big band era hits. In 1959 he inaugurated Command Records, with the aim of pursuing his interest in stereo sound. Command’s releases were precisely engineered studio masterpieces, and the label’s debut PERSUASIVE PERCUSSION (1959), remains one of the biggest-selling albums in U.S. chart history. Light continued to experiment with stereophonic sound well into the '60s, recording his best-selling STEREO 35/MM (1961), on 35mm film instead of tape, a process that dramatically reduced sound distortion.