Ansonia

1940s-1990s Latin label from New York City, founded by Ralph Pérez. >> For the company (℗ & ©, or as manufacturer or record company), use Ansonia Records, Inc. Founded in 1949 by by Rafael ‘Ralph’ Pérez, an A&R rep for the Latin American division of Decca Records in New York. The label is named after a popular hotel on the Upper West Side of Manhattan where the company often housed visiting recording artists.
  Some of the first Ansonia sides were Dominican merengues. Pérez put together what became the most popular group in that genre outside of the Dominican Republic in the 1950s: Angel Viloria Y Su Conjunto Típico Cibaeño. From this initial success, Pérez and Ansonia would continue to release music made for Puerto Rican, Cuban, and Dominican immigrants in the Spanish-speaking New York communities of El Barrio (Spanish Harlem), The Bronx and Brooklyn, as well as for listeners in the Caribbean and throughout Latin America.   Many sessions took place at Beltone Studios in midtown Manhattan. Recording studios in San Juan, Havana and Mexico City were also used to build the Ansonia catalog.    After the death of Ralph Pérez in 1969, his daughter Mercedes and her husband Herman Glass became managers of Ansonia. In 1985 Ansonia moved to new facilities in New Jersey. Herman Glass produced records in New York and overseas until his passing in 1986, at which time Mrs. Pérez-Glass and their son Henry Gerard Glass assumed responsibilities. Ansonia’s last recording of new material was in 1990.