SPARS Legacy Award recipient Joe Tarsia
This year marks a very special moment in the 32 year history of SPARS. The SPARS Board of Directors will award the first annual SPARS Legacy Award to one of the founders of SPARS, the group’s first President, Philadelphia native and founder of the legendary Sigma Sound Studio, recording studio legend, Joe Tarsia. The ceremonies will take place during the annual SPARS,/P&E Wing/APRS Mix@AES Reception on Friday evening, October 21, 2011 at Four-o-Four Club and Restaurant as part of the 131st AES Convention.
From Cameo/Parkway Records to founder and owner of the legendary Sigma Sound Studios, Joe Tarsia’s career spanned more than 50 years of extraordinary music recording.
No professional achievement is more meaningful to Joe Tarsia than his hand in creating the “Philadelphia Sound.” From the mid 60′s to the early 80′s the unique sound that came to life in Sigma’s studios dominated the world’s airways. The success of Sigma regulars, Gamble & Huff, Tom Bell, Tom Moulton, Bobby Martin and Baker, Harris & Young attracted a stream of top artists and producers from around the world, all coming to capture the “Sigma magic.”
With some 180 or more gold and platinum records, Joe Tarsia and Sigma studios received awards and recognition from the Recording Industry Association of America, Billboard Magazine, Pro Sound News, 3M Company, The City of Philadelphia, The State of Pennsylvania, The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, Black Music Association, The Philadelphia Music Alliance Walk of Fame and most recently, the Wildwood, NJ’s Avenue of the Stars.
In the 1981 edition of “The Rock Book of Lists”, a media guide published by Rolling Stone Press, under the heading “Great Engineers” (a category covering all pop genres), Joe Tarsia is listed fifth with the quote, “Joe Tarsia must be considered the leading engineer in the field of Soul and Disco.”
Congratulations to this awe-inspiring legend and a true-life SPARS Legacy…
(Read more on Joe Tarsia and the first annual SPARS Legacy Award…)