Lubinsky’s tight ways with a dollar were legendary. He was a man who would scour the menus of a given city’s dining district until he found the cheapest one, a man who paid his artist-and-repertoire people’s expenses with great reluctance, who would refuse to pay a staff producer’s salary unless he recorded, even during a musician’s strike, and who insisted that his staff write business letters instead of making phone calls. He also is responsible for capturing some of the twentieth century’s most golden musical moments for posterity.
British-born Lubinsky came to Newark, New Jersey at an early age and by 1924 was running radio station WJN. Throughout the next decade and a half, he sold records and electronics. In 1942, he opened the Savoy operation at 58 Market Street.
The first Savoy act to chart was the Bunny Banks Trio, in early 1943. The main gauge of black music’s sales then was the Harlem Hit Parade. “Don’t Stop Now” by Banks and company went to number one in April.
Lubinsky not only survived the rough and tumble of the independent-label business, but became a key player. This is largely due to his hiring of first-rate talent scouts.
Teddy Reig was one such talent at Savoy. He was undaunted by Charlie Parker’s ostensible contractual obligation to the Dial label. A hastily composed (and forged) letter declaring Parker’s freedom to record for Savoy went into the file and the sessions began. Reig even unflinchingly recorded Bird during the late-forties musician’s strike. He was, surely, motivated in large part by Lubinsky’s above-mentioned salary threat.
Two figures who frequently show up in the articles on this site were key in establishing Savoy’s west coast stronghold. Ralph Bass had been making the rounds of the Central Avenue venues in Los Angeles, and the acquaintance of the area’s bandleaders. Johnny Otis had gone from territory-band drummer to bandleader, club owner and r&b revue organizer during the late forties. The two of them cut sides under various names, so as to showcase such newly discovered acts as Little Esther Phillips and The Robins.
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