Live from Rudy Van Gelder’s Studio, a new virtual music series, will debut on Saturday, November 14 with a live streaming broadcast from Rudy Van Gelder’s legendary recording studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
Created and produced by major jazz figures and Van Gelder associates Don and Maureen Sickler, Phil Coady, and Sam Kaufman, the first broadcast (starting at 9 p.m. EST) will feature a quartet led by iconic bassist Ron Carter, paying tribute to the great tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley—one of the most frequent clients of Van Gelder’s studio.
Van Gelder, probably the most famous and sought-after recording engineer in jazz between 1952 and his death in 2016, had his Englewood Cliffs facility purpose-built in 1959 after a design by architect David Henken. While he kept his recording techniques a closely guarded secret, it is understood that the acoustics of the studio were a significant part of the equation. The large, five-sided room includes brick tiles and a 39-foot domed wooden ceiling.
The studio is even more revered for the talents that have passed through it. Customers at Van Gelder’s have included Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Coleman Hawkins, Art Blakey, Ahmad Jamal, and John Coltrane. Almost every Blue Note Records session between 1959 and 1975 took place at the Englewood Cliffs studio, as well as classics for Impulse! (Coltrane’s A Love Supreme), CTI (Freddie Hubbard’s Red Clay), Prestige (Shirley Scott Plays Horace Silver), and many other labels.
Live from Rudy Van Gelder’s Studio marks the first time that a live event has been broadcast from the studio. For the inaugural episode, Carter leads a band that also includes tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano, pianist Isaiah J. Thompson, and drummer Kenny Washington.
More information and ticket sales can be found at the series’ website.
