Moses Asch
| Moe Asch | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Moses Asch December 2, 1905 Warsaw, Poland |
| Died | October 19, 1986 (aged 80) New York City, New York, United States |
| Nationality | U.S. |
| Occupation |
Record executive Record engineer |
| Known for | Folkways Records |
| Parent(s) | Sholem Asch |
Moses Asch (December 2, 1905 – October 19, 1986), often known as Moe Asch, was a Polish-American recording engineer and record executive. He founded Asch Records, which then changed its name to Folkways Records when the label transitioned from 78 RPM recordings to LP records. Asch ran the Folkways label from 1948 until his death in 1986. Folkways was very influential in bringing folk music into the American cultural mainstream. Some of America's greatest folk songs were originally recorded for Asch, including "This Land Is Your Land" by Woody Guthrie and "Goodnight Irene" by Lead Belly. Asch sold many commercial recordings to Verve Records; after his death, Asch's archive of ethnic recordings was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution, and released as Smithsonian Folkways Records.
Moses Asch was born in Warsaw, Poland, the son of Yiddish language novelist and dramatist Sholem Asch, and the younger brother of novelist Nathan Asch. In 1912, the Asch family left Poland, on account of anti-Semitism, and settled in a suburb of Paris. In 1915, as war engulfed France, the family emigrated to New York. After the war, Asch studied electronics at a technical Hochschule in Koblenz, Germany. He returned to New York to commence work as an audio engineer.
In 1938, his father's employer, The Jewish Daily Forward, commissioned the firm where Asch worked to build a transmitter for its Yiddish-language radio station, WEVD. Asch thereafter explored the market for recorded Yiddish music, both sacred and secular. In 1940, Asch established Asch Recordings, and concentrated on publishing and selling phonograph records. Asch overextended his operations and went bankrupt in 1948.
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