Jesse Crawford (1895-1962) was an American theatre organist, one of the most famous popular organists of the early recording and radio eras. He became known as the “Poet of the Organ.”

In the Pristine catalogue he appears in 1925: Landmarks from the Dawn of Electrical Recording, where his work helps illustrate the new sonic possibilities of the microphone age.

Crawford’s playing was smooth, lyrical and ideally suited to theatre organ colour, with the instrument’s stops turned into a small orchestra of domestic fantasy.

His page belongs here because early recording history was not only symphonies and arias. Crawford represents the great glow of the theatre organ as it entered homes through loudspeakers.