Rudy Van Gelder
Appearances
This album is one of guitarist Kenny Burrell's best-known sessions for the Blue Note label. Burrell is matched with tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, bassist Major Holley, drummer [more]
- List Price: $17.98
- Member Price: $11.98
This unusual set (reissued on CD by Blue Note) was one of the most successful uses of a gospel choir in a jazz context. Trumpeter Donald Byrd and a septet that also includes tenor [more]
- List Price: $17.98
- Member Price: $11.98
Out to Lunch stands as Eric Dolphy's magnum opus, an absolute pinnacle of avant-garde jazz in any form or era. Its rhythmic complexity was perhaps unrivaled since Dave Brubeck's Time [more]
- List Price: $17.98
- Member Price: $11.98
One of the most versatile of guitarists. -George Benson
This languid, seductive gem may well be Grant Green's greatest moment on record. Right from the opening bars of the classic title cut, Idle Moments is immediately ingratiating and [more]
- List Price: $17.98
- Member Price: $7.99
Herbie Hancock's debut as a leader, Takin' Off, revealed a composer and pianist able to balance sophistication and accessibility, somewhat in the vein of Blue Note's prototype hard [more]
- List Price: $17.98
- Member Price: $11.98
Like Eric Dolphy before him, Jackie McLean sought to create a kind of vanguard "chamber jazz" that still had the blues feel and -- occasionally -- the groove of hard bop, though [more]
- List Price: $17.98
- Member Price: $11.98
This Blue Mitchell date is a classic, particularly the opening "Fungii Mama," which is really catchy. The trumpeter's quintet of the period (which includes tenor saxophonist Junior [more]
- List Price: $16.99
- Member Price: $11.98
Often overlooked, perhaps because he wasn't a great innovator in jazz but merely a stellar performer, tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley was at the peak of his powers on Soul Station. [more]
- List Price: $17.98
- Member Price: $11.98
He is still a master. -Herbie Hancock
On his third date for Blue Note within a year, Wayne Shorter changed the bands that played on both Night Dreamer and Juju and came up with not only another winner, but also managed to [more]
- List Price: $17.98
- Member Price: $11.98
One of Blue Note's greatest mainstream hard bop dates, Song for My Father is Horace Silver's signature LP and the peak of a discography already studded with classics. Silver was [more]
- List Price: $17.98
- Member Price: $3.98
Biography
- Born Nov 2nd 1924 in Jersey City, NJ
Rudy Van Gelder is, quite simply, the greatest recording engineer in jazz history. He was responsible for just about every session on the Blue Note label from 1953 to 1967 (among thousands of others), encompassing some of jazz's most groundbreaking and enduring classics. The signature of a Van Gelder recording lies in the rich, natural tone of each instrument and the clearly defined separation between them, ensuring that every sonic detail is audible. What's more, Van Gelder had an uncanny knack for capturing sonic textures that supported whatever mood the musicians and producers were aiming at. Exactly how he did all that is a mystery. Van Gelder, a modest and unassuming man in many ways, was fiercely protective of his techniques, from the placement of microphones and musicians in the room to the type of mic itself. Whatever the source of his alchemy, Van Gelder was responsible for preserving some of America's greatest music in the most sympathetic settings possible.
A one-time ham radio operator, Van Gelder was initially an optometrist by day; as a hobby, he set up a studio in his parents' living room in Hackensack, NJ, and began recording local jazz musicians. In 1953, saxophonist {Gil Mellé} introduced Van Gelder to Blue Note founder Alfred Lion, who was immediately impressed with Van Gelder's capabilities and began a 14-year association with him. Van Gelder's crystal-clear recordings helped make Blue Note's reputation as an elite jazz label despite its relatively small size. In 1959, he finally quit his day job and moved his studio to a new facility in Englewood Cliffs, NJ, where he has remained ever since. He broke off with Blue Note in 1967 amid the label's post-sale overhaul, later becoming the house engineer at Creed Taylor's CTI label in the early '70s. Van Gelder still freelances for a variety of labels and in 1999, Blue Note began reissuing 24-bit Van Gelder re-masters of some of the label's greatest albums. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide
The Source for Discounted Rare & Essential Jazz Music CDs!
©2010 Jazz Heritage Society. All Rights Reserved.
Jazz Heritage Society - 1710 Highway 35 - Oakhurst, NJ 07755