Alan Douglas (record producer)
Alan Douglas ( born July 20, 1931 in Boston ) is an American music producer and sound engineer, who first produced some important jazz albums before he produced Jimi Hendrix and other rock musicians.
Life and work
Douglas already tried in his native city as a record producer and founded the mid-1950s, the label Duchess Records, but that was not commercially successful. He then went to New York City, where he gave Phil Ramone access to its studios. In the late 1950s he worked for Nicole Barclay and produced for the Barclay Records Eddie Barclay Orchestra. He also intended to make recordings with Billie Holiday ( but was the consequence of the death of the singer could not be realized ).
On the recommendation of Nicole Barclay took it back in 1960, United Artists, to develop a jazz repertoire for the label. He produced albums with Art Blakey, Kenny Dorham, Vi Redd, Herbie Mann and Jackie McLean; He also suggested to play together in the studio in unfamiliar combinations, which it also allowed contracting musicians, who stood with other labels under contract. He produced with Bill Evans and Jim Hall album Undercurrent, with Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus and Max Roach Money Jungle album. This producer working for United Artists ended with the disastrous Town Hall Concert of Mingus. In 1963, he took with Eric Dolphy albums Conversations and Iron Man on; the former album was released on Douglas on his FM Records, which from 1964 1965 existed until the bankruptcy of the label.
In the following years he turned from the estate of Lenny Bruce together the book The Essential Lenny Bruce, which sold well. In the late 1960s he produced speech plates of Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary and Malcolm X as well as The Last Poets Douglas for his own label. Some of these shots he took Jimi Hendrix and Buddy Miles zoom. Douglas was also planning an album with Hendrix, Miles Davis and Tony Williams; However, it did not materialize due to the ( collected at the last minute ) salary demands of Davis and Williams. He also brought along with Hendrix Gil Evans; the intended album The Gil Evans Orchestra Plays the Music of Jimi Hendrix was posthumously. After Hendrix's death Douglas possessed long on its musical legacy ( 500 hours recording) and put it together several albums, where he also edited the material .. In the early 1970s, he released two albums, John McLaughlin, in which he arbitrarily according to the guitarist Devotion abmischte and only insufficient for My Goal 's Beyond paid. He also produced S Club 7, and Echo & the Bunnymen Queen. In recent years, Douglas was also responsible for taking pictures of Bill Laswell, Eric Clapton and Geri Allen's Three Pianos for Jimi.