Building Where First “On Location” Recordings of Jazz and Country Were Made Faces Demo

Movement to save it wins temporary injunction. In June 1923, pioneer record producer Ralph Peer and New York-based Okeh Records took their newly-invented portable recording equipment to Atlanta, Georgia. In an empty downtown warehouse on Nassau Street they made American music history. This first commercial “on location” recording session outside the permanent music studios in Northern cities gave Okeh the opportunity to find and record Southern talent closer to the source. Most noteworthy, the Nassau Street recording sessions were the first to record what we know today as country music, but significant jazz, blues, and gospel recordings were also made. The first commercial radio station to go on the air in the South was the Atlanta Journal newspaper’s WSB in on March 15, 1922. Just two days later, the rival Atlanta Constitution newspaper started broadcasting as WGM. Warner’s Seven Aces, Atlanta-based dance band of recent college graduates led by pianist and composer Byron Warner, was formed in May 1922 and by July they were performing daily concerts on WGM. They were billed as the country’s second “radio orchestra,” second only to Detroit’s WWJ, and continued to perform regularly at Atlanta’s premiere social clubs, the Capital City Club and the Piedmont Driving Club. In April 1923, the Constitution announced that the Aces would be taking a week off in M