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van gelder says the studio was an ideal setting for “a love supreme. ”
a chance to see the van gelder studio and hisself in action. hear ye !
the studio size is like a gazillion times larger than his living room studio .
recording studio operated by engineer rudy van gelder from this location after mid - july 1959 .
wiel arets, stills - karen van de kraats... graphic design studio
rudy van gelder, seen in a 2000 photo, oversaw john coltrane' s 1964 recording at his studio .
john coltrane, photographed in the van gelder studio with wife alice, completed
a love supreme
in about four hours .
in 1964, tenor saxophonist coltrane recorded his deeply spiritual masterpiece a love supreme for the impulse! label at van gelder’s studio .
john coltrane recorded his milestone album
a love supreme
in december 1964 at van gelder studio in englewood cliffs. (chuck stewart )
blue note records spokesman cem kurosman said van gelder died on thursday morning at his home in englewood cliffs, new jersey. the home was also the site of van gelder’s studio for more than half a century .
in englewood cliffs, van gelder had constructed a studio in his home and began recording there in the summer of 1959. earlier sessions were done at a studio set up at his parents’ home in hackensack .
• coltrane did more recording in new jersey than in any other state, according to lewis porter, author of “john coltrane: his life and music. ” he recorded at van gelder studio in englewood cliffs and earlier in van gelder' s first studio space in his parents' hackensack home .
in 1959, van gelder finally set up his own purpose - built studio at englewood cliffs. the live acoustics, according to those who have worked there, are impressive and van gelder took pains to ensure a relaxing and comfortable ambience .
in this 2000 photo, rudy van gelder poses by the organ in his recording studio in englewood cliffs. (john munson / star - ledger file photo )
van gelder says coltrane’s artistry is more evident today than during the recording in 1964 .
here is a clip of an interview with rudy van gelder from “perfect takes. ”
legendary recording engineer rudy van gelder has passed away | 91. 5 kios - fm
he died suddenly at his home, which doubled as his studio, a place blue note called in its remembrance of van gelder
a holy site of jazz music .
main studio’s relationship with the school of architecture at the illinois institute of technology started in 2013 when the dutch architect and theorist wiel arets became the school’s dean and invited main studio founder, edwin van gelder, to work on the college’s first ever print publication .
one can google rudy van gelder photos and there are a lot of photos on the internet .
van gelder studio was noted for its acoustics, which included the nearly 40 - foot - high ceilings. the engineer also brought an attention to detail when recording, kahn says .
he built a recording studio in his parents’ living room that would come to be known as the legendary “hackensack studio”. the studio was complete with central air conditioning, a separate control room, microphones galore, and inimitable “nooks and crannies” in which to record to achieve special sound effects. van gelder ran his optometry practice while recording at a feverish pace with artists such as zoot sims, bill triglia, sonny igoe, phil urso, lennie tristano, and howie mann. the studio became popular among new york area musicians due to van gelder’s skill, and recording rates. but the true allure of the studio was its atmosphere .
“he brought his abilities, talents and dedication to the music, ” kahn adds, of van gelder .
the first time i' ve seen film footage of the studio. great stuff, folks !
rudy van gelder was central to the story of blue note records. photograph: zuma wire / rex / shutterstock
in 1953, saxophonist gil melle introduced van gelder to blue note records co - owner alfred lion. this was the start of a fourteen year association during which time van gelder engineered virtually all of the label' s output. additionally, van gelder was recording for prestige records. he said, “i was examining eyes on monday and recording miles davis on wednesday. i was driven to make the music sound closer to the way it sounded in the studio. this was a constant struggle — to get electronics to accurately capture the human spirit. ” thelonious monk' s composition “hackensack” was a dedication to van gelder and the unique atmosphere of his studio .
in an interview thursday with nj. com, monk recalls sitting in on his father' s sessions at van gelder' s hackensack studio, and the awe he felt years later, stepping in to the englewood cliffs studio to record his own music .
i felt like i was working with a giant .
udy van gelder, who has died aged 91, was the most celebrated recording engineer in the history of jazz .
the blue note connection in 1952 van gelder was introduced to blue note records producer alfred lion. lion was interested in van gelder’s signature sound produced in the hackensack studio. just one year later van gelder engineered his first album for blue note records, and began a fruitful relationship with lion. while van gelder possessed the technical skills to record a band, lion possessed the foresight to identify a desirable sound of the record, and draw that sound from rudy. together the two formed what is colloquially referred to as the “blue note sound ,
a sound unique to blue note records. however, van gelder did not exclude other labels and worked engineering for prestige, cti, savoy and vox records .
englewood cliffs and beyond in the midst of his successful recording career in the late 1950’s, van gelder built his masterpiece: his own private studio in englewood cliffs, new jersey. this studio is home to legendary jazz albums such as john coltrane’s “a love supreme”, mccoy tyner’s “speak no evil” and herbie hancock’s “maiden voyage”. while van gelder is currently not recording as actively as he was in the 1960’s, he still has a profound effect on jazz .
while coltrane had enjoyed success with atlantic records, recording “giant steps” and “my favorite things” in new york, he welcomed the chance to return to van gelder’s studio after signing with impulse! records, according to kahn, of fort lee .
without van gelder, or someone like him, we might not have nearly as vast a collection of the 1950s jazz greats .
bespoke becomes standard | vgdesign and stijltuinen co - existed for a few years, until they both merged into stijltuinen. since 2012 the company is called design studio erik van gelder, specialized in high - end residential design and bespoke outdoor furniture. the label by erik van gelder produces superbly functional and beautiful items that give your outdoor living space a personality of its own .
applause for van gelder’s methods was not quite universal. he was occasionally criticised for his use of “reverb” to add body to a soloist’s tone. the composer and bassist charles mingus refused to work with van gelder because, he claimed, “he changes people’s sounds” .
van gelder is currently re - mastering analog blue note recordings to restore them to their original state. this line of re - released recordings is known as the rvg series. van gelder is working to restore the original recordings’ mood, track listings, and warmth. he recently engineered trumpet prodigy christian scot t’s record “yesterday you said tomorrow ,
recorded at the englewood cliff studio .
van gelder’s first studio was located inside of his parents’ newly - constructed home in suburban hackensack nj, where he was able to offer recording services at far lower rates than those found across the east river in new york city. image courtesy of jazzwax .
in that light, here’s a small assortment of images — just a few personal favorites from mr. van gelder’s oceanic body of work .
coltrane, who began working with the engineer in the mid - 1950s as a sideman with miles davis, enjoyed recording with van gelder .
in 2012, the national academy of record arts and sciences honored van gelder with its trustees award recognizing his lifelong contribution to jazz recording .
although they respected him greatly, musicians were amused by van gelder’s extreme fastidiousness – no smoking on the premises, no food or drink in the studio, and on no account was anyone to touch a microphone. he himself always wore gloves when handling equipment .
did you know rvg always wore gloves and didn’t allow anyone to smoke (even in those days) in the studio .
photo 1: in 2000, rudy van gelder poses by the hammond c - 3 organ used by jimmy smith, jack mcduff, ray charles and others in his recording studio in englewood cliffs, nj. (john munson / nj star - ledger file photo )
“my goal is to make the musicians sound the way they want to be heard, ” van gelder told the new york times in 2005 .
“as i look back and realize where his music was going, i can see his music had a spiritual quality, which matched perfectly with the atmosphere of the new studio, ” says van gelder, 90, who still holds an occasional session at his studio but has cut back on working due to his health, advanced age and, he says, the changing nature of the music business .
a few comments. everyone looks so young. the studio size is like a gazillion times larger than his living room studio. did you notice when they were playing the record of the stones' satisfaction how much better it sounds than any cd version ?
because van gelder didn' t think he could make a living with his first love, he studied at the pennsylvania college of optometry in philadelphia and practiced until 1959. since recording consoles were not available commercially, van gelder made his own equipment and set up a studio in his parents' living room in hackensack, nj. “as a matter of fact, ” van gelder said in an interview, “at one point my parents actually put an extra entry door to the building to their own living quarters so they could come in, in case i was recording. ”
perhaps the starkest illustration of the recording quality that was available to jazz artists already comes from listening to john coltrane’s a love supreme, recorded at van gelder’s new studio in englewood cliffs in 1964 for impulse records, and comparing it to the recording of coltrane’s giant steps made by tom dowd years earlier, at atlantic records in nyc in 1959. van gelder’s 1964 recording sounds like 1954, and dowd’s 1959 recording sounds like 1969 .
van gelder’s professional studio—which he operated in his parent’s living room from 1953 to 1958 before upgrading to a dedicated space—was a one - man operation that allowed fledgling upstart labels including blue note, prestige, verve, impulse and savoy, to record myriad talents of an entirely new genre .
in 2012, the national academy of record arts and sciences honored van gelder with its trustees award recognizing his lifelong contribution to jazz recording. he also received the american engineering society' s gold medal and was named a jazz master by the national endowment for the arts. van gelder was working on a mix the week before he passed away. when he died, he was just down the hall from his world - renowned studio .
rudy van gelder, a renowned recording engineer who captured jazz greats miles davis, thelonious monk, john coltrane and many others in his parents' hackensack living room and later in his eponymous englewood cliffs studio, died thursday at the age of 91, according to jazz writer nate chinen .
an amateur radio buff and jazz fan, van gelder set up his first studio in the living room of his parents’ house in hackensack, new jersey, recording local musicians. in 1953 one of his friends, saxophonist gil melle, introduced him to blue note records founder and producer alfred lion. he soon became the main recording engineer for the independent label, using innovative recording techniques that helped turn the label into a major force on the modern jazz scene. pianist thelonious monk composed a tribute to van gelder’s home studio, hackensack, which he recorded there in 1954 .
van gelder later embraced digital technology. starting in 1999, he began remastering his analog blue note recordings into digital recordings for the label’s rvg edition series .
in later years, van gelder remastered much of his original work for the rudy van gelder series for blue note, as well other jazz classics, including
mercy, mercy, mercy !
by cannonball adderly and the original miles davis sessions for
the birth of cool ,
according to jazz times .
jesse klapholz ‘ analysis of rudy van gelder’s place in recorded music history is excerpted and adapted from his upcoming textbook, the new cyclopedia of jazz recording techniques .
van gelder made his blue note debut with gil melle in 1953. according to a 2001 jazz times profile, he may have made his prestige debut with thelonious monk' s
hackensack
in 1954. five years later, he opened the englewood cliffs studio and became a full - time engineer .
“it was his near geek - like dedication to his craft, always upgrading his equipment, trying out new ideas, approaches to get the best sound possible, and taking it to the very end as far as mastering his own session recordings, ” kahn says in describing van gelder’s strengths in the studio .
the jazz drummer and new jersey resident ts monk, son of thelonious monk, told urltoken: “i would say [ my father and van gelder ] learned how to record jazz together. he really, really got it right. you can list to a rudy van gelder from the 1950s that sounds like it was recorded today. ”
when blue note records was resurrected in 1985 van gelder again recorded for that label and, more recently, sessions for fantasy, reservoir, sharp nine and high note records. blue note' s rudy van gelder series of remasters includes hundreds of albums and toshiba - emi also called upon him to remaster some capitol sessions, including albums by cannonball adderley and miles davis. in 2013 organist joey defrancesco released his high note album “one for rudy”, dedicated to and engineered by the now legendary van gelder .
editor' s note: today' s post is the second in a series about legendary sound engineer rudy van gelder and his impact on jazz. see part 1 .
because of this, van gelder became almost single - handedly responsible for the recording, establishment, and dissemination of a majority of modern jazz’s recorded corpus in his era .
“coltrane had very strong feelings for van gelder, ” says ashley kahn, author of the 2002 book “a love supreme: the story of john coltrane’s signature album. ”
legendary recording engineer rudy van gelder passed away on august 25, 2016 at the age of 91. van gelder is regarded as the greatest of jazz engineers, being responsible for the warm, natural sound that distinguished blue note records from the mid - 1950s through the 1960s, as well as upon other labels such as prestige and impulse .
van gelder enrolled in the pennsylvania college of optometry in 1938. when he graduated in 1942 van gelder opened his own practice, and proceeded to forge a career path that did not previously exist: “record engineer”. (did he use his optometry practice to fund his real passion of sound recording? i am sure that the equipment was expensive )
in a 2014 interview with inside jersey about the 1964 recording of
a love supreme ,
van gelder spoke about the special synergy in the englewood cliffs studio .
while i was building the new studio, the neighborhood had no idea what kind of structure it was. as it came together, everyone assumed it was going to be a church with a peak in the center of the room. the look and feel was very church - like ,
he adds .
van gelder soon found his services as a recording engineer so much in demand that he gave up his day job as an optometrist. in 1959, he bought his house in englewood cliffs, where he built his own studio – a cathedral - like space with a vaulted ceiling and excellent acoustics that became a modern jazz shrine .
if you were to attempt to listen to all of rudy van gelder ’s recordings back - to - back, it would take something on the order of four months to complete .
this is an extraordinary achievement by itself, and is somewhat masked by the syrupy prostrations of those perpetuating the myth of van gelder as a “pioneering” recordist or an “engineer’s engineer. ”
“for many jazz musicians, such as coltrane, it was a home away fromhome, ” porter says of the studio. “he felt comfortable in it. ”
these are both stereo recordings. rvg’s new studio at the time had rising cathedral ceilings, while atlantic’s studio sat in a low - rise concrete building with 12 - foot high ceilings. still, the cymbals on the rvg recording are slightly sibilant with exaggerated stick attack compared to dowd’s older recording in what may have been a more compromised space. (my best guess is that this effect owes to the microphones being placed a bit too close to the cymbals on van gelder’s recording compared to dowd’s. )
rudy van gelder has left to the heaven' s big band as the new master of sound engineer. let' s enjoy more of 1000 master' s recordings in jazz. .
beginning in 1998, van gelder became involved in producing new, 24 - bit digital editions of his classic blue note albums. this “rgv” edition reveals details inaccessible by analogue equipment. it is now possible to detect van gelder’s delicate adjustments to the recording balance during the course of a performance, and to appreciate the exact blend of intimacy and spaciousness with which the music is presented .
van gelder not only recorded sessions for blue note, but also worked extensively with prestige records on such sessions as miles davis’ bag’s groove and walkin’ and sonny rollins’ tenor madness and saxophone colossus .
“while i was building the new studio (in englewood cliffs), the neighborhood had no idea what kind of structure it was, ” van gelder recalls. “as it came together, everyone assumed it was going to be a church with a peak in the center of the room. the look and feel was very church - like, ” he adds .
rudy van gelder, in 1988. he remained active in engineering, bringing his hand to “chemistry, ” an album released this summer, by the tenor saxophonist houston person and the bassist ron carter .
but whatever van gelder may have lacked in space, technology, technique and trappings, he made up for in both affordability and sheer volume, cementing his place in the history of recorded music forever .
word of his talent eventually reached alfred lion, the co - founder of blue note records, and - - in his late twenties - - van gelder' s jazz recording career began to flourish .
i' ve always been curious about something regarding rvg' s studio. does anyone know what equipment he used for playback? i' ve never seen a photo of that .
“my ambition from the start as a recording engineer was to capture and reproduce the music better than other engineers at the time, ” van gelder said in a 2012 interview with jazz writer mark myers. “i was driven to make the music sound closer to the way it sounded in the studio. this was a constant struggle – to get electronics to accurately capture the human spirit. ”
this commemorative twitch — wearily familiar in our year of losses, from david bowie to prince to, just last week, the vibraphonist bobby hutcherson — is especially well suited to the memory of rudy van gelder, whose legend was shaped within the confines of his recording studio. mr. van gelder, who died on thursday at 91, was the most revered recording engineer in jazz — the man behind the curtain on thousands of albums and the chief architect of the storied “blue note sound. ” he shaped the way we hear the music and the way we want it to be heard .
“van gelder used a mix of types and placements of microphones to bring us as close as possible to monk, coltrane, miles, horace silver, [ and ] grover washington, jr. he was an engineer’s engineer, but warmth and realism, pop and juiciness exude from all his work. with all his technique, what rudy van gelder wanted to capture, he said, was the human spirit. ”
udolph van gelder was born in jersey city on november 2 1924; his parents ran a shop selling women’s clothing. he qualified as an optometrist and began his working life with a small practice at teaneck .
in 1959 van gelder' s reputation had reached the point that he could quit his day job and he poured all of his money into creating his own, adequately sized home and studio in englewood cliffs, nj. “i' ll give you an example, ” van gelder said, “gil evans, he had music in his head that was just incredible and as time went on people discovered it. he brought a nine - piece band into hackensack, into the living room. i knew then i couldn' t do it right. i have a responsibility to the producer and to the musician. i couldn' t do that (in hackensack) and that was my motivation. ” the new studio' s design was inspired by the work of frank lloyd wright with input from one of wright' s students and bore resemblance to a chapel, with high ceilings and fine acoustics. van gelder' s wife, elva, a classical pianist, was instrumental in determining the design .
“acknowledgement” also features coltrane chanting the album’s title for just over half a minute, reinforcing the spiritual theme. it would be the only time he featured his voice in a studio recording .
as i look back and realize where his music was going, i can see his music had a spiritual quality, which matched perfectly with the atmosphere of the new studio .
the national endowment for the arts, in a tribute to van gelder, noted that he was “considered by many the greatest recording engineer in jazz” who “recorded practically every major jazz musician of the 1950s and 1960s” .
jump to 1: 09: 00 and 1: 17: 00 and watch a few minutes of jimmy smith recording for verve in rudy van gelder' s studio in englewood cliffs. at 1: 19: 50 jimmy is having fun listening to playback in the control room. that' s rudy in the background, laughing and rewinding a tape. creed taylor is writing down the names of the tunes
rudy van gelder recorded most if not all of the blue note catalogue and is mostly known for his blue note recordings, although as mentioned he also worked for prestige records. van gelder, as much as alfred lion or francis wolff, made blue note records what it was and is. and thank god for michael cuscuna of mosaic records, who helped source all the rvg series and reissues that have come out over the years .
pursuit of excellence | erik van gelder’s work includes a wide range of outdoor designs. from the country to the city, and from small courtyards and stunning roof terraces to expansive estates. no matter the differences in size or scope, erik van gelder’s designs always reflect his style and are recognized as distinctive. they are sophisticated, well - balanced and with powerful contrasts. and also stylish and calm, enhancing nature’s aesthetic and functional dimensions .
van gelder’s name soon spread among the east - coast jazz community and, by the mid - 1950s, he was recording not only the bulk of blue note’s output, but also that of prestige and other specialist labels. he was still using a room in his parents’ house as a studio and, until 1954, still practising as an optometrist: “i was examining eyes on monday and recording miles davis on wednesday. ”
“ready, rudy? ” was something jazz musicians routinely said from mr. van gelder’s studio floor, and the phrase became a kind of an in - joke, the title of a tune by duke pearson. here, on the first track of “relaxin’ with the miles davis quintet, ” we hear a less standard but more famous bit of studio chatter, as davis rasps, “i’ll play it and tell you what it is later. ” that offhandedness provides much of the charm of these sessions, for prestige; coltrane even begins his tenor - saxophone solo away from the microphone, as if stepping up to the plate .
the vastness of mr. van gelder’s midcentury output can make it easy to forget how active he remained in our own time. (one of his most recent credits is “chemistry, ” by the tenor saxophonist houston person and mr. carter — an album released this summer .) christian scott was a firebrand trumpeter still in his mid - 20s when he recorded his second album, “yesterday you said tomorrow, ” at mr. van gelder’s studio in 2010. “jenacide (the inevitable rise and fall of the bloodless revolution) ” is a politically charged track from the album, and its sound — that mix of electric guitar and tambourine — feels both raw and refined .
erik soon discovered his passion for luxury residential projects – the trigger for his second design studio ‘ stijltuinen’. he embraced high - end landscape design to achieve the highest standards and create breath - taking exteriors .
rvg’s true legacy however—which is often overlooked—stems not from his technical prowess, but from the economical studio time he was able to provide to these newly emerging artists. blue note booked sessions that typically cut an album in two days, other labels in just one. with his one - man band approach and the low overhead that went along with it, van gelder facilitated an overflowing fountain of new jazz recordings that otherwise would not have been possible .
rudy van gelder, pictured third from the left with members of the roger dawson septet in 1976. roughly 52 at the time, he had already spent more than two decades recording some of the most seminal works in modern jazz history .
but dissenting voices have been few. in 2009 van gelder was elected a fellow of the audio engineering society of america and in 2013 he received the society’s gold medal. in 2012 he received the grammy trustees’ award for his life’s work .
rudy van gelder, the audio engineer who helped shape the sound of modern jazz on recordings including such timeless albums as john coltrane’s a love supreme, lee morgan’s the sidewinder and herbie hancock’s maiden voyage, has died. he was 91 .
inside his recording studio on sylvan avenue, engineer rudy van gelder was focusing on a different type of music — jazz — as saxophonist john coltrane and his three - piece supporting band set up for a recording session with producer bob thiele. before the night ended, coltrane would create “a love supreme, ” a milestone recording in the history of jazz whose themes of spiritual rebirth and uplift fit in with the hope and optimism of the holiday season .
n addition to blue note, the list of companies recording at the englewood cliffs studio over more than five decades has included verve, riverside, impulse, prestige, grp, muse and the classical label, vox. that period saw several major advances in recording technique, including the introduction of stereophonic sound and multi - channel recording, and the switch from analogue to digital. van gelder embraced them all, although his clients were often resistant to new methods .
among these was the saxophonist gil melle, whose recording was eventually issued on the small progressive label. melle was subsequently taken up by blue note, whose co - owner and recording director, alfred lion, asked the studio he normally used to reproduce van gelder’s sound for melle’s new record. after several attempts, the engineer told lion: “' look, i can’t get that sound. you’d better go to the guy that did it in the first place. ”
to my ear, van gelder’s tenor sax sound has a tone that is thin and top - heavy in comparison, while on dowd’s recording of giant step s, the piano sound is much clearer and more natural sounding, with a better balance overall .
“the session was hypnotic, exciting and different. but i didn’t realize that until i remastered the tapes many years later. when coltrane was here, i was too worried about capturing the music, ” van gelder recalled in his 2012 interview with myers .
in 2009 van gelder received an a. b spellman nea jazz masters award for jazz advocacy. the smithsonian’s jazz oral history program will be interviewing him in the coming months to take an extraordinarily in - depth account of rudy’s career, legacy, and future .
“all these projects are also part of iit architecture’s identity, ” adds gelder. “but in this case, we’re using a serif font instead. each element of this identity needs and receives its own identity. ” this is where main studio’s strength ultimately lies: in devising flexible structures that allow sufficient room to live, breathe, and grow with time .
erik van gelder was born with a love of nature encoded in his dna. his grandfather had a nursery and decorated gardens, and his father ran a horticultural company. in 1999 erik went to study garden and landscape design at the larenstein university of applied sciences .
“our trust has now grown over the years. i’ve visited wiel in chicago quite a few times for these iit projects, and he is regularly in amsterdam. the face - to - face interaction is important. ” the relationship grows and continues, and now the studio is working on a series of publications for mchap, the mies van der rohe crown hall america’s prize .
van gelder’s real legacy is not so much in his techniques as in the sheer volume of his output—in the huge number of influential sessions that came through his suburban new jersey doors, which provided an affordable alternative for the burgeoning independent labels outside of the big nyc studios .
in many ways rudy van gelder, the new jersey - based jazz recording engineer who died on 25 august aged 91, was an anomaly. there aren' t many veterans of the recording industry with a similarly impressive list of credits who would claim not to listen to the music because they' re focusing on the sound of a session. marc myers w rites ,
he never developed much of a passion for the music, despite being an ear - witness to some of jazz greatest studio performances. rudy simply didn' t have the time to become a pure fan given how much he had to get right with the studio' s technology on his sessions. as rudy put it, he didn' t have the luxury of listening for enjoyment .
architect of luxury | after finishing his studies, erik’s interest in outdoor design and garden aesthetics exploded. he gained relevant experience in national and international landscape architecture. as he was keen to leave his mark, he established his own design studio: vgdesign .
so it’s natural, now, to look for some trace of mr. van gelder in the brilliant recordings he made, either at his first home studio in hackensack, n. j. , or at his second, in nearby englewood cliffs. it’s natural, and it’s also maddening, because so much of what he did was intangible. you hear it, you feel it, but his signature was etched in invisible ink. what is it, exactly, that you’re listening for? naturalism? warmth? the sound of a room ?
other producers and engineers, particularly from gelder' s generation, rarely claim to put anything other than the music at the top of their priority list. whether he truly heard things differently or was simply being more honest than his peers, gelder' s recording philosophy is refreshing .
the idea of listening to old tapes that i made, another chance to transfer them... this is my opportunity to present my version of how things should sound ,
van gelder said in a 2011 interview with blue note .
what a great job this is .
he also took an unusual route into the industry. an optometrist by trade and a notoriously reticent character, gelder famously twilighted on a home recording setup in his parents' hackensack living room. as more and more artists of repute went to work with him, these sessions gradually took over his daytime until he was working full time for labels like blue note, prestige and vox records. whereas most practitioners would learn their craft through studio - based apprenticeships – watching their mentors operate tape machines, consoles and disc cutters and working as part of a sizeable in - house team – van gelder began his recording education in solitude, reading much of the domestic recording literature aimed at the amateur market .
finally, another sentimental offering. many of mr. hutcherson’s finest recordings were made with mr. van gelder behind the controls. “out to lunch, ” the 1964 album by the multireedist eric dolphy, is full of these moments. listen to how well the recording captures mr. hutcherson’s muted clangs and chiming overtones — along with the bleats, harrumphs and gargles of mr. dolphy’s bass clarinet, and the deep gravitas of richard davis’s bass. there’s a quintet on this track, but on some level you’d have to credit mr. van gelder as an essential member of the band .
“alfred liked the way i made things sound so he put me on his team and from then on i was working for him doing albums, ” van gelder recalled in a 2008 interview for the national endowment for the arts, which named him a jazz master, the nation’s highest jazz honor .
after lion retired in 1967, the label’s new owners began turning to other recording engineers more frequently. in the 1970s, van gelder worked as the engineer for producer creed taylor’s commercially successful crossover jazz label, cti, recording such albums as trumpeter freddie hubbard’s red clay and saxophonist grover washington jr’s mister magic .
van gelder was notoriously secretive about his recording techniques. “i' ll tell you this, ” he said to marc myers, “ i used neumann condenser mikes before anyone else did. i bought one of the first ones sold here. they were extremely sensitive and warm - sounding .
interestingly, he said that he never experimented with new equipment on blue note recording sessions. when he bought a new microphone or other equipment, he would test them on other sessions where the producers were less particular. van gelder embraced digital recording and believed the cause of poor digital sound was inadequate recording and mixing techniques .
the artists that van gelder is most famous for working with however, such as coleman hawkins, dizzy gillespie, charlie parker, art tatum, and miles davis amongst many others, are the pioneers of smaller jazz ensembles in contrast to the much larger (and much better financed) jazz “big bands” of that era .
“some musicians sounded more real on your recordings than they would in a club, ” the pianist and writer ben sidran ventured in 1985 in a rare interview with mr. van gelder, who seemed to agree. he replied, “a great photographer will really create his image, and not just capture a particular situation. ”
van gelder' s early attraction to recording began as a child when he purchased a three dollar home recording device that was advertised on the back of a comic book and came with a turntable and blank recording discs. he became involved with amateur radio as a teenager which led to an interest in microphones and electronics. when asked about his interest in jazz, van gelder said “well, that started right from the very beginning, even when i was a kid. that was the music i loved. when i’d buy records, i’d ask the people who made the ones i liked most what kind of microphones they used. the microphones mattered. ”
evocatively called nowness, the first publication set the tone for the institute’s new focus under the guidance of arets. gelder went to chicago to speak with the dean and draw from the structure of the canonical building by mies van der rohe that houses the university; he used its shape and arets’ theories to inform the editorial layout .
van gelder’s sound – self - effacingly warm, natural and crystal clear – displayed musicians to their best advantage while scrupulously observing the tonal perspective of the jazz ensemble. above all, he could capture that element in a player’s sound which conveyed his musical personality. his role in coltrane’s career, especially, was of incalculable importance from this point of view .
i have been dreading the day i would hear this news. but it’s true, rudy van gelder (rvg) has died at the age of 91. he became legendary, but started out recording late - night sessions in his parents’ living room in the early 1950’s while attending optometry school by day. thank goodness he didn’t pursue an optometry career !
the beginnings of a master van gelder caught the recording bug at an early age. at seven he was already in the experimenting with sound using his first piece of equipment, a $ 2. 98 “home recorder, ” to capture his friends’ voices, family’s poetry, and neighbors’ music. in 1931 that equipment was cutting edge. the home recording device used a tone arm and needle to press grooves into a blank plastic record. the sounds recorded on these blank disks could be played back and listened to using the same turntable on which they were recorded. however, van gelder quickly grew tired of the deficiencies of the recording equipment available, and ordered parts from radio equipment manufacturers to make his own recording gear .
the list of recordings upon which van gelder participated is simply staggering. he was engineer for the prestige recordings of miles davis' s first great quintet featuring john coltrane, red garland, paul chambers and philly joe jones, as well as for numerous other prestige dates. in addition to the immense number and consistently excellent quality of releases by blue note, for impulse records he recorded john coltrane, including “a love supreme”, gil evans, oliver nelson and ray charles (genius + soul = jazz); and the list of companies recording at the studio for over five decades has also included verve, riverside, cti, grp, muse and the classical label, vox .
i would say they learned how to record jazz together ,
says south orange' s t. s. monk, the son of the jazz legend and an esteemed jazz drummer in his own right .
he really, really got it right. you can list to a rudy van gelder from the 1950s that sounds like it was recorded today .
van gelder, a lifelong new jerseyan, recorded quintessential albums of the genre: john coltrane' s
blue train
and
a love supreme ,
miles davis'
workin'
and
steamin' ,
thelonious monk' s
monk ,
art blakey & the jazz messengers'
moanin' ,
and lee morgan' s
the sidewinder .
i recall that npr personality susan stamberg once visited van gelder’s famous englewood cliffs new jersey studio, and immediately clapped her hands to get the studio’s base acoustic. you then heard a voice telling, or rather ordering, her to stop! telling the imperious susan stamberg to stop! i loved it! rudy also made many people wonder where englewood cliffs, n. j. even was. there are pictures of it in the blue note book, with its pointed cathedral ceilings with wood specially sourced from a forest in oregon per rudy’s specifications. when it was being constructed, neighbors didn’t know what it was, many thinking it was a church. in a musical sense, it was. there’s also a picture of the home’s exterior on the interior spread of sonny rollins’ album sonny rollins on impulse, with sonny’s karman - ghia parked outside. you get a good sense of rvg’s great blue note sessions in the francis wolff photo book. wolff, co - founder of blue note and like alfred lion an emigré from hitler’s germany, took photos of all the recording sessions .
the title for the first mainstream american hit record in jazz belongs to dave brubeck’s take five, which emerged from this system. it was recorded in columbia’s 30th street recording studios 5, 500 square foot church, with its 60 foot hight ceilings. featuring a mighty and memorable solo by joe morello, the sound quality here is astounding, and becomes even more so when compared to van gelder’s recordings from around the same time .
an established optometrist with an office in teaneck, van gelder had a sideline recording friends and local musicians in his parents' house. (his parents eventually added a separate entrance to their bedroom to avoid walking in on the recording sessions, he told the wall street journal in 2012 .
my parents and the neighbors never complained. only once my mother left me a note asking me to do a better job tidying up .
)
recording in a living room was miles away from recording in one of the few major studios at the time. pianist bill taylor said in an interview with current musicology that rudy “was the first engineer that i worked with who was that sensitive, and really just took time and cared about mike placement and all that sort of stuff. ” van gelder’s technical innovations are inextricably linked to his love for jazz. musicians appreciated this duality, and so did record producers .
the first comes from “blue train, ” the 1958 album by the saxophonist john coltrane. mr. van gelder’s more celebrated work with coltrane came later, with “a love supreme, ” on the impulse! label. but what you hear on “moment’s notice, ” which was taped to two - track mono, shows how he could evoke a band’s sound in physical space. notice the transition between solos, especially from lee morgan’s swashbuckling trumpet to paul chambers’s bowed bass .
plus, it' s nice to get away from the hassle of the big cities. a lot of people can be more creative and relaxed out in the middle of no where. it could have been the room as well. he had pitched ceilings, which most recordings studios don' t have, so it might have created an interesting studio sound while they are playing. live but intimate is my guess .
it so happens that mr. van gelder died on wayne shorter’s 83rd birthday. that coincidence sent me immediately to my vinyl reissue of “speak no evil, ” which mr. shorter recorded in 1964. (it was released on blue note in 1966 .) one thing i’ve always loved about the sound of this track is the way that herbie hancock’s piano (silvery, crisp) plays against elvin jones’s drums and cymbals (earthy, dark), while perfectly supporting the horns .
a lot of the appeal was that it was a residence and totally devoted to music as art rather than to pop music and commercials which were the bread and butter of the major studios. this meant that the musicians didn' t have to worry about what impression they' d make on studio personnel, didn' t have to worry about the musicians' union and didn' t have to worry about anybody using drugs .
i wrote a blog post a few years ago, comparing rudy to cartier - bresson and the joy they both brought to my life. with all the compression modern recordings get to stuff the music into mobile devices, rudy van gelder is to be treasured even more. his recordings show utmost respect for the timeless music he recorded, doing the artists proud. thank goodness rvg was so prolific over a six - decade career. we jazz lovers, we audiophiles, are truly grateful .
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mr. van gelder was also the sonic mastermind behind cti records, creed taylor’s stylish crossover label. the sound of these albums was warm and luxurious, and while there are many tracks to choose from, my instinctual pick would be the title track of “red clay, ” the hit 1970 album by the trumpeter freddie hubbard. it has a jumping - out - of - your - speakers tenor saxophone solo by joe henderson, along with a neon - funky rhythm section: mr. hancock on electric piano, ron carter on electric bass, lenny white on drums.
the van gelder studio is a recording studio located at 445 sylvan avenue , englewood cliffs , new jersey . it was set up in 1959 by rudy van gelder ( 1924 – 2016 ) and has been used to record many albums released by jazz labels such as blue note , prestige , impulse ! , verve and cti . 
the van gelder studio is a recording studio located at 445 sylvan avenue, englewood cliffs, new jersey. it was set up in 1959 by rudy van gelder (1924 – 2016) and has been used to record many albums released by jazz labels such as blue note, prestige, impulse! , verve and cti.
the van gelder studio is a recording studio located at 445 sylvan avenue, englewood cliffs, new jersey. it was set up in 1959 by rudy van gelder (1924 – 2016) and has been used to record many albums released by jazz labels such as blue note, prestige, impulse! , verve and cti.