On January 27, the Alliance hosted representatives of the National Trust for Historic Preservation to discuss their recent report, “Preserving African American Places: Growing Preservation’s Potential as a Path for Equity.” Lawana Holland- Moore, associate program officer of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund Di Gao, senior director of research and development and Leslie Canaan, senior field officer, each addressed the report’s central question: “How can preservation be a force for advancing equitable development and social justice in African American neighborhoods and other communities of color?” “Preserving African American Places” with the National Trust (Detroit, Michigan) and Muscle Shoals (Sheffield, Alabama). ![]() The modest building, constructed in 1930, holds a well-deserved place alongside other celebrated American recording studios like Hitsville U.S.A. Local giants like Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, The O’Jays and Billy Paul, among others, recorded some of their most beloved songs at Sigma, as did David Bowie, who famously recorded the LP Young Americans there in 1974. Sigma Sound, founded in 1968 by sound engineer Joseph Tarsia, soon became the beating heart of “The Sound of Philadelphia,” a fusion of soul, gospel, rhythm and blues, jazz, funk and classical music that dominated popular music in the late 1960s and 1970s. Thanks to nominating partners Brewerytown Beats, Philly Sound Archive and all the former friends, employees and lifelong fans of Sigma who supported the nomination, the famous studio is now safeguarded against demolition and insensitive alterations. In November 2020, the Philadelphia Historical Commission formally approved our nomination and listed Sigma Sound Studios, 210- 12 North 12th Street, on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places. I know you will consider yourself one of the luck fifty and enjoy the airy clean sound of the Sigma DI.Sigma Sound Studios Added to Local Register We spent months searching supply houses, the web and electronic equipment manufacturers to find just 50 of the rare transformers. Unfortunately I found that the heart of the Sigma DI, a high quality audio transformer, had been out of production for years and is now just about impossible to find. It was only at the urging of a musician friend, who wanted a Sigma DI of his own that I considered building a few. The day Sigma opened its doors and the 35 years that followed it was the only DI I used for recording musician like Ronnie Baker, Gerald Veasley, Steve Beskrone, Bob Babbitt, Anthony Jackson and many others. You know the sound you hear it in the recordings of the OJays, Lou Rawls, Teddy Pendergrass, the Stylistics, the Spinners, MFSB, Grover Washington Jr and Patti LaBelle, its The Sound of Philadelphia. In every head to head comparison with both active and passive store bought DIs the Sigma box came out on top. Always looking for the better mousetrap, as new DIs came to market we put our box to the test. We wanted a general purpose direct box that would not only direct inject electric keyboards but more importantly would get the best out of the electric bass and guitar.The unexpected results were astonishing the Sigma DI quickly became the favorite of the bass and guitar players. It was then that I built the first Sigma D I. Primitive by todays standards the console had just 12 inputs that fed a then state of the art 8 track tape machine. ![]() In 1967, before stock consoles and turn key studios, I and some believers, wire by wire, component by component built Sigmas first studio.
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