Atlantic Studios

This is the Cova Building where Atlantic had its studios 1969-1990.

Atlantic Studios was the recording studio of Atlantic Records. It was located at 1841 Broadway (at the corner of 60th Street), in New York City. According to the address written in the original liner notes (1957) of Charles Mingus' The Clown, it was initially located at 157 W 57th Street. The American record label first recorded in these studios in November 1947. The studio is the first to record in stereo, with the efforts of Tom Dowd.

Akkerman talks about the album

David Bowie on the night in question

For the recently published Box Set of Akkerman albums Jan has commented on each of the albums for a booklet that accompanies the 26 discs. On Tabernakel he has written

This album proved a great opportunity. Producer Geoffrey Haslam introduced me to arranger George Flynn insisting "Jan, he's your man". Thanks to Atlantic boss Ahmet Ertugun, engineer Gene Les Paul (son of) and the New York Philharmonic came on board. We made the album in a week.(1)  From my perspective, new instruments such as Moog synthesizers (2) in the seventies marked a musical renaissance. I wanted to connect the modern with traditional lute music and that was the general philosophy behind Tabernakel. Once I'd discovered old Mediaeval lute material and Julian Bream's work (3), I immediately went to Cambridge University to make photocopies of the tablatures (4). I only found out later that I could have bought them at Schott's music on Great Marlborough Street in London! (5) At the time I couldn't incorporate any lute playing in Focus so I recorded it for my third solo record instead. To record the lute, Gene plastered the instrument with so many Barcus Berry pick-ups (6) (purchased at Mannys in NYC (7)) that consequently it looked like a hospital patient! I knew Tim Bogert and Carmine Appice from Vanilla Fudge (8) and they were great guys to record with and understood exactly how I wanted to do things.

House of the King was done on the Coral electric sitar, (9) an instrument I discovered in the States in early 1973, and I use a genuine sitar on the record

Javeh, (10) the Jewish name for the Lord, came to me while staring upon the wide landscape of Friesland where I was living at the time. The piece starts a little restlessly but turns into an impressionistic and calm piece. In February 1974, I wanted to perform Javeh at the prestigious Grand Gala du Disque (the Dutch equivalent of the grammys) (11) and invited George Flynn to assist the orchestra with the arrangements. The performance, which was performed live on television, didn't go to plan and I decided to play solo. After the first few bars, I felt uncomfortable and decided to walk away. This happened in front of David Bowie and other celebrities (12), but I've never regretted it for a moment.

(1) Sounds like a slight exaggeration but maybe not

(2) See Wikipedia article on the Moog here

(3) See Wikipedia on Julian Bream here

(4) These days the tablatures from Cambridge are online. See here.

(5) See here

(6) In 1963, experiments initiated by violinist John Berry and electronics visionary Les Barcus, gave birth to the first ever piezo crystal transducer for musical instruments. Many further innovations have been made since. For more, see here.

(7) There from 1935-2009. See this Wikipedia article here.

(8) See Wikipedia article here

(9) See an article on the Coral here

(10) See Wikipedia article here

(11) The event on Friday February 15 was the last time the event was televised. For details of the many others performing that day see here.

(12) David Bowie is not listed above but he is mentioned here on Wikipedia.

The Atlantic Years

Akkerman was with Atlantic Records from 1973-1978. Atlantic is the company founded in 1947 by the Ertegun brothers and two others. In 1967 it was taken over by Warner Brothers but allowed a measure of independence. Focus recorded with Polydor but Akkerman had previously been with EMI. They published his first album Talent for Sale (later known as Guitar for sale) as a budget album and had produced Profile on their progressive Harvest label.

The Akkerman albums with Atlantic were as follows:

1. Tabernakel

2. Eli (with Kaz Lux)

3. Jan Akkerman (featuring Jan in bed with his guitar on the sleeve)

4. Jan Akkerman Live (at the Montreux jazz festival)

5. Jan Akkerman 3 (released 1979)

Akkerman also appears on the 1978 Atlantic album by Joachim Kuhn Orange Drive. In 1980 Atlantic published the album The Best of Jan Akkerman and friends.

Only Tabernakel was recorded in the USA, the other studio albums being done at Soundpush in Blaricum, Holland. In the case of Jan Akkerman 3 there was a great deal of additional recording in another Dutch studio, and in New York (horns), London (strings and flutes) and California (final mixing).

In 1978 Akkerman moved to CBS where the first album was an orchestral one Aranjuez with Claus Ogerman. It would seem that the costs of producing orchestral albums and the relatively low sales of Akkerman albums meant that Atlantic were no longer willing to fork out the cash necessary. Akkerman did three albums with CBS but in 1982 Pleasurepoint was released on the WEA label (Warner Elektra Atlantic). (Jan also says Jan Akkerman 3 was so called because it was his third album for Warners which makes sense if we discount Eli and the live album.)