Jack Towers was in charge of radio broadcasting at the US Department of Agriculture from 1952 to 1974 and became a noted remastering engineer of musical recordings after his retirement.
10 Facts About Jack Towers
1.
2.
Jack Howard Towers was born in Bradley, South Dakota in the United States.
3.
Jack Towers moved to Washington in 1941 to work for the US Department of Agriculture, served in the Army from 1942 to 1946, and then returned to the USDA.
4.
Jack Towers retired from the USDA in 1974 and what had been a hobby of remastering rare recordings, primarily of jazz groups, became a second career.
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Jack Towers used techniques such as manually scraping imperfections such as pops and hisses from reel-to-reel tapes with an X-Acto knife.
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Jack Towers lived in Hyattsville, Maryland and, from 1991, in Ashton until he died at age 96 in 2010 in nearby Rockville from Parkinson's disease.
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Jack Towers was survived by his wife of 70 years, Rhoda Sime Towers, and two daughters and was predeceased by a son.
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Jack Towers has been called an "audio magician" for his restoring, remastering, and producing of vintage jazz recordings.
9.
Jack Towers saw Ellington live in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and, when Burris learned Ellington would be in Fargo in 1940, he asked the William Morris Agency, Ellington's agent, for permission to record the session.
10.
Jack Towers remastered works by Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller and other notable jazz performers.