Rudy Van Gelder: legend

June 6, 2003 12:14 PM

Rudy Van Gelder was probably present for more moments of musical genius than any other human in history. He began working with Blue Note records in 1953, and went on to engineer thousands of sessions with some of the greatest jazz players of all time. Not bad for an optometrist who started off by building a studio in his parents' living room.
posted by Ty Webb (3 comments total)

My personal favorites of the RVG reissues: Grant Green's Green Street, and Sonny Rollins' Volume 2.
posted by Ty Webb at 12:19 PM on June 6, 2003

Rudy Van Gelder was probably present for more moments of musical genius than any other human in history.

Mozart, alone in his room (to paraphrase the old line about Thomas Jefferson -- see second paragraph in link) might be responsible for the most moments of musical genius. But if I was headed for the proverbial desert island, with only one label and one era, the early- to mid-60s Blue Notes probably would be my choice. (The label went way downhill in the 70s, though, after Francis Wolff died, when too many of the records had horrible jazz vocal backgrounds tacked on.)

The first Blue Note I bought, and still one of my favorites, was No Room For Squares.
posted by LeLiLo at 1:44 PM on June 6, 2003

Here's an interview with Van Gelder from 1999.

Re-mastered albums don't always sound better than previous versions, but the RVG series is really, really good.
posted by todd at 2:44 PM on June 7, 2003