Roche, Edward
Biography
From 1935 until his retirement in 1991, Ed Roche recorded the sounds of Kansas City. The first engineer for Kansas City's Municipal Auditorium, Roche installed and operated the then state of-the-art audio system. He meticulously documented music and civic events, including performances of the Kansas City Philharmonic. In 1952, Roche established Crown Recording Studio. Crown quickly became one of Kansas City's leading studios. Over the years, Roche recorded thousands of bands, choruses and radio programs including the Kansas City Hour. Roche produced tapes for the Nazarene Church that were distributed internationally. During the 1980s, he preserved the open-reel tapes and instantaneous cut discs for the Harry Truman Presidential Library.
Found in 2 Collections and/or Records:
Ed Roche Collection
The collection contains many unique items recorded in the Kansas City area, including political speeches, musical performances, religious services, and advertisements for businesses and organizations. The Kansas City Philharmonic Orchestra and the Kansas City Conservatory of Music are strongly represented with numerous recordings of each entity. Finally, the collection also holds some national radio programs, such as "The Guiding Light," "Hymns of All Churches," and "Michael Shayne."
Kansas City Jazz Festival Collection
The Kansas City Jazz Festival Collection was gifted to the UMKC Miller Nichols Library by the Ed Roche family estate after his death in 1997. The collection consists of festival programs for every year between 1964 and 1972, which are housed in LaBudde Special Collections. Also in the collection are live recordings engineered by Roche between the years 1964 and 1971, which are housed in the Marr Sound Archives.
Additional filters:
- Subject
- Art music 1
- Jazz 1
- Kansas City (Mo.) 1
- Kansas City Jazz 1
- Radio broadcasting 1
