Rudy Van Gelder (born November 2, 1924, Jersey City, New Jersey) is an American recording engineer who specializes in jazz.Often regarded as one of the most important recording engineers in music history, Van Gelder has recorded several thousand jazz sessions, including many widely recognized as classics, in a career spanning more than half a century. Van Gelder has recorded many of the great names in the genre, including Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, Grant Green, Wayne Shorter, John Coltrane, and many others. He worked with many record companies, but he is most closely associated with Blue Note Records.
There was no recording industry, really, when I started in all this, and so as I pursued recording as a hobby, I became that kid from New Jersey whom jazz musicians would come to see. The fact that, after a while, people started paying me for this was a surprise, although I'm happy about that now.
#
Fact
1
His father and uncle played the trumpet, as did he. He was interested in ham radio, which led to an interest in recording. He set up a monaural tape recorder in his family's living room and invited his musician friends over to play.
2
His original Hackensack, New Jersey studio was immortalized by Thelonious Monk in the instrumental "Hackensack".
3
He attended optometry school in Philadelphia and practiced optometry, while keeping music recording as a hobby. Demand for his recording skills grew; with a loan from his parents, he built a control room off the family living room. Blue Note Records founder Alfred Lion heard about him and hired him.
4
Legendary jazz recording engineer.
Music Department
Title
Year
Status
Character
Time Piece
1965
Short music recordist
Sound Department
Title
Year
Status
Character
Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser
1988
Documentary sound: additional film crew Flanagan/Harris piano duo
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
Imagine
2004
TV Series documentary
Himself - Recording Engineer, A Love Supreme
Blue Note - A Story of Modern Jazz
1997
TV Movie documentary
Himself
Known for movies
Blue Note - A Story of Modern Jazz (1997) as Himself
Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser (1988) as Sound Department
Time Piece (1965) as Music Department
Imagine (2004) as Himself - Recording Engineer, A Love Supreme
$1.3 Million
