Results for "rudy van gelder"

Rudy Van Gelder

Born: November 2, 1924

Rudy Van Gelder started recording artists such as Miles Davis and Cannonball Adderley in the early 50s, in the comfort of his parent’s living room. It wasn't until 1959 that he opened his studio in Englewood Cliffs and along with Alfred Lion, changed the way Jazz was being recorded. In his six-decade career, it is estimated that he has recorded, mixed, and mastered over 2000 albums not only for Blue Note but Verve Records, Impulse!, CTI, and many others.

Blue Note Records founder Alfred Lion and Van Gelder first met when musician Gil Melle introduced them in 1953. Lion was impressed with the sonic clarity of Van Gelder's recordings, and he made sure that Van Gelder recorded most Blue Note sessions from 1953 to 1967. The signature “Blue Note Sound” is really a culmination of Lion's devotion to hard bop jazz, Van Gelder's meticulous pursuit of accurately capturing that improvisatory music, and the remarkable playing of the musicians on those early sessions at the Hackensack home studio. In his later career, Van Gelder operated from his state-of-the-art digital facility in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., where he worked with re-issue producer Michael Cuscuna on the RVG Series.

Miles Davis: Miles '56: The Prestige Recordings

by Mike Jurkovic
June 19, 2026

Let us imagine for the moment that it is a day or two after the Big Spirit Beyond Wonder has separated the wheat from the chafe. The terrible, unwanted wars have ceased. Global climate change is no longer a threat. Autocracy is in the dustbin of history where it rightfully belongs. Illness has passed. The world, ...

Lakecia Benjamin: We Dream

by Mike Jurkovic
May 28, 2026

Lakecia Benjamin is clearly pulling no punches on We Dream. Not that she ever has, given a discography that includes 2020's Pursuance: The Coltranes (Ropeadope Records); 2012's intoxicating, groove-crazy Retox (Motema) or the spellbinding sister releases Phoenix (Whirlwind, 2023) and the super stoked Phoenix ReImagined (Live) (Ropeadope Records, 2024). We Dream drops the mic and leaves ...

Eddie Daniels: To Milton With Love

by Artur Moral
February 14, 2026

Even in a field as conducive to covers as jazz, it is unusual to find a complete reinterpretation of an album with all its tracks in their original order. Interestingly, 2025 has seen several releases of this type, some widely known and deservedly acclaimed, like Branford Marsalis' Belonging (Blue Note Records, 2025), which pays homage to ...

Dave Stryker: Blue Fire - The Van Gelder Session

by Kyle Simpler
February 9, 2026

Many of Dave Stryker's recent albums focus on a particular idea or concept that serves as the recording's focal point. His Eight Track series (Strikezone 2013-2019) and Stryker with Strings Goes to the Movies (Strikezone, 2025) serve as prime examples. With Blue Fire -The Van Gelder Session, the guitarist steps into the studio of legendary producer ...

Red Garland Revisited!

by C. Michael Bailey
November 17, 2025

Prestige Records released Red Garland Revisited in 1969. However, Rudy Van Gelder recorded the eight selections comprising the album 12 years earlier at his Hackensack, New Jersey studio. Using bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Art Taylor as his rhythm section, adding guitarist Kenny Burrell on two pieces--Miles Davis's “Four" and “Walkin.'" Recorded May 24, 1957, this ...

Ron Carter New Jazz Trio And Foursight Quartet At Birdland

by Paul Reynolds
October 31, 2025

Ron Carter New Jazz Trio and Foursight Quartet Birdland New York, NYOctober 16 and 23, 2025 Ron Carter turned 88 in May, 2025. That fact is hard to reconcile with the continuing vitality and frequency of his performances, including those with two small groups at Birdland Jazz Club this month--as ...

Bob Schlesinger at Dazzle

by Geoff Anderson
August 20, 2025

Bob Schlesinger Dazzle Denver, COAugust 14, 2025 For decades, renowned recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder captured one classic jazz album after another in his Englewood Cliffs, NJ studio. Perhaps because he did so many, he was extremely efficient. He was able to get an album on tape in a single day, ...

I Dischi del 2024 secondo Ludovico Granvassu

by Ludovico Granvassu
January 2, 2025

Spesso molti articoli sulle “migliori uscite dell'anno" iniziano con una premessa quasi apologetica ("questi non sono necessariamente 'i migliori album dell'anno,' ma 'i miei preferiti';" “è tutto soggettivo;" “domani avrei scelto titoli diversi;" “ho potuto selezionare solo dieci album," ecc.)? Queste dichiarazioni sembrano riflettere il disagio del redattore, costretto a riassumere un vasto ecosistema artistico selezionando ...

Ludovico Granvassu's Garden of Jazzy Delights 2024

by Ludovico Granvassu
December 31, 2024

Have you noticed how many “best of the year" listicles start with an apologetic preamble ("these are not necessarily 'the best albums of the year' but 'my favorites';" “it's all subjective;" “tomorrow I might have chosen different titles;" “I could only select ten albums" etc.)? Those disclaimers channel the writer's discomfort of having to summarize a ...