The history of music and my mastering the music of today: how they relate. Besides my work mastering current music of every variety from acoustic Folk and Jazz to Electronic Dance music and Hip Hop, I love to collect archival music (music from the distant and not-so-distant past). I know the history backwards and forwards. It’s really easy to “draw a line” directly to today’s tracks.
My home library consists of some 5000 records, thousands of cassettes and reel to reel tapes and over 6000 CD’s. I also have collections of DATs, VHS-HiFi and other less major formats and well maintained machines to play them. All this allows me to have perspective (there’s that word again – just like perspective in mastering) and study what came before.This allows me to relate to all my current clients’ music in a unique way. I have also spent countless hours listening to live music in a vast assortment of different venues. This allows me to know how musicians want their music to sound and refer that knowledge to my mastering projects.
My background also includes years doing live sound for legends of the music world. For example, there is nothing that compares to mixing sound for New Orleans jazz pioneer Eubie Blake. the authenticity is irreplaceable. Then to advance to Woody Herman’s Thundering Herd big band, work with singers Billy Eckstein and Johnny Hartman who had Charlie Parker and John Coltrane in their bands, up to the more experimental jazz of Cecil Tailor and Anthony Braxton gives me insight not available to many engineers who work exclusively in the isolated world of the studio. My background extends to all types of music, not just jazz, by any means. I have worked with Carl Perkins, Townes Van Zandt, Robert Hunter, Run-DMC, Arthur Baker, operatic tenor Robert White, and The Rolling Stones.
The history of music is all out there to hear. Live concert recordings add an irreplaceable dimension. I’m familiar with so much that has come before. I can work on your project and draw from that wealth of information to relate to today. I can handle the music of your archival re-release with authority and have it come out sounding “right”. The history of music is alive and can be heard on all of today’s releases, consciously or not. You just have to know where to look!