Rudy Van Gelder

Rudolph " Rudy " Van Gelder ( born November 2, 1924 in Jersey City, New Jersey ) is an American sound engineer and operator of a private recording studio that specializes in jazz recordings.

During the 1950s and 60s Van Gelder was known in particular for his work for the label Blue Note Records, he worked with virtually every major jazz musicians of that time. Since the late 90's to Van Gelder mainly engaged in the digital post- its old original recordings. The All Music Guide ruled on Van Gelder: " Rudy Van Gelder is simply the best recording engineer in jazz history. "

Life

Already as a teenager, interested Van Gelder in audio technology, where his interest was initially limited to the reproduction of records. Later employed Van Gelder, who had actually learned Optometrist, with recording techniques and worked alongside his actual profession as a sound engineer for regional radio stations and small jazz labels. He practiced first in his parents' house in Hackensack (New Jersey) his own recording studio. His first recordings were seen on March 2, 1952, the jazz saxophonist cited by Gil Mellé Septet, which in 1953 Alfred Lion on his label Blue Note Records. 1959 Van Gelder gave his profession as an optician on and set up a studio in Englewood Cliffs, a small town just a few kilometers southeast of Hackensack, one in which it operates to this day. The first recordings there arose on August 12, 1959 Coleman Hawkins With The Red Garland Trio.

Work

Van Gelder understood like no other to implement the wishes of the musicians and composers regarding the sound quality of their music. He also had a keen understanding of the recording technique of the 1950s and 60s. The difficulty was that recordings at that time were still recorded live, that is all necessary for recording musicians found themselves in the studio and played a title in a so-called Take - part of more than ten minutes in length - a. If you wanted to now record the music on tape, so had to the different volume levels, sound spectra and directional characteristics of the various instruments depending on the individual factors of each other, and the consequent suitability of different types of microphones are observed. Van Gelder now had the ability to musicians and microphones to group so that the sound is as optimal as possible ( the live game accordingly) could be recorded on tape. He said in an interview about his obsession to reproduce the best sound, as follows:

"Quality is what my work is concerned. Since the beginning it's all what I am thinking, day and night: How can I get the shots that I have made, sound better "?

Van Gelder saw himself always as a sound engineer in the literal sense, that is, someone who is himself not only for the quality of the recording, but also takes care of the development of the necessary technology. In particular, at the initial time recordings were created in the studios of the major radio stations. These were, however, directed their proper sense and staffed according to the production of radio broadcasts. A special studio art, as is common today, was hardly available at the time. The Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs is still on the cutting edge of technology.

In the production of the so-called fathers (so to speak the master negatives ) for the production of vinyl records left Van Gelder nothing to chance. The tape recordings were mostly dubbed by Van Gelder himself to the paint films from which the father was produced later. In the beginning, each of these films by Van Gelder hand was provided with the signature RVG. Later, the signature was done by means of a stamp.

Clients of the firm of Van Gelder Studios was primarily a jazz label Blue Note Records. From 1953 to 1967 almost all studio recordings were made for Blue Note Van Gelder's leadership, so he is the creator of the clear and balanced Blue Note sound. Although he also Ozzie Cadenas Savoy Records, Orrin Keepnews ' and Bill Grauer Riverside, Bob vine prestige and Bob Thiele's Impulse! Records and worked for Creed Taylor's Verve, CTI Records, and for the classical label Vox later, its name is usually only associated with Blue Note.

Van Gelder worked with musicians such as Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Art Blakey. Not least because have Van Gelder and Alfred Lion ( as a producer ) helped shape the bebop jazz styles and the subsequent term. Among the most famous recordings of Van Gelder's studio John Coltrane's A Love Supreme is one of 1964, in collaboration with producer Bob Thiele of Impulse! arose. In 1965 the album went two Grammy nominations and is referred to in the jazz literature as " John Coltrane's legendary album ".

Since 1999, Blue Note released in collaboration with Van Gelder called The Rudy Van Gelder Edition (short: RVG Edition). Here recordings from the 1950s and 60s, remixing with the help of modern 24 - bit technology from the original tape recordings. The original recordings were for the most part already with the help of Van Gelder, but also recordings as Birth of the Cool of Miles Davis from the years 1949/50, there have been re- edited. Later devoted Van Gelder of the digital processing of images that he has cared for Prestige Records, they are available as Rudy Van Gelder Series since 2006.

Awards

In 2009 he received the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship.

Recordings (selection)

Dedications of musicians

One indication of Van Gelder's reputation and the mythical connotations of his name among musicians is the long list of him and his studios dedicated to jazz pieces.