Rudy Van Gelder (1924-2016) is the sound of CTI – and Blue Note, Prestige, Debut, Savoy, Impulse, Verve and so many other labels that have issued jazz for more than a half century. Van Gelder, considered by many to be one of the finest recording engineers in the world, recorded a vast majority of the jazz records issued since the early 1950s. So many of the greatest names in jazz have been recorded by Rudy Van Gelder, including Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Modern Jazz Quartet, Bud Powell, Sonny Rollins, Stan Getz, Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley and Herbie Hancock.
Van Gelder trained as an optometrist, believing he couldn’t make money as an engineer. While operating a practice in Teaneck, New Jersey, he recorded jazz artists during the evenings in the studio he built in the living room of his parents’ Hackensack, New Jersey, home. A 1952 Gil Melle recording for Blue Note launched Van Gelder’s career, though he continued as a full-time optometrist until July 1959, when he built his own customized studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
The cathedral-like structure, inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright, was designed by David Henken with significant input from Van Gelder to provide the finest acoustics. The 39-foot wood-beamed ceiling gave the space the feel of a chapel, inspiring some of the most impassioned performances of the many jazz artists who recorded there. Van Gelder built much of his own equipment and used specially devised microphones to capture sound the way he thought it was meant to be heard. Hereafter, Van Gelder devoted himself to engineering jazz and classical recordings on a full-time basis and did so here until his death in 2016.
Creed Taylor’s earliest collaborations with Rudy Van Gelder were for Jazz at the Metropole (Bethlehem/1955), Charlie Mariano (Bethlehem/1955) and Urbie Green’s Blues and Other Shades of Green (ABC-Paramount/1955). The two paired up for Taylor’s initial Impulse recordings, though Van Gelder continued engineering Impulse dates long after Taylor’s departure. The two would often work together at Verve on recordings by Dizzy Gillespie, Johnny Hodges, Anita O’Day, Jack Teagarden, Jimmy Smith, Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt, Bill Evans, Gil Evans, Cal Tjader, Stan Getz, Lalo Schifrin, Wes Montgomery, Astrud Gilberto, Lalo Schifrin, Kenny Burrell, Willie Bobo, Donald Byrd, Grant Green, Irene Reid, Kai Winding, Wynton Kelly, Gary McFarland, Quincy Jones, Ed Thigpen, Walter Wanderley, and Jackie and Roy.
“It’s almost like I don’t have to say anything to him,” Taylor said, “and he doesn’t have to say anything to me. We just nod. Over the years of working with somebody like that, you think like each other.”1
While Rudy Van Gelder never discussed his recording techniques with anyone, his procedure was clearly different for CTI productions than, say, those that he did for Blue Note or Prestige. There was even an obvious difference on the Blue Note and Prestige sessions, but one that was of a more musical nature. Producer Bob Porter is widely acknowledged for saying that “(t)he difference between Blue Note and Prestige is two days’ rehearsal.” Still, many noticed a more distinct sound on Van Gelder’s CTI albums.
Creed Taylor was always insistent about keeping each 12-inch album on the short end, around 15 minutes a side: this ensured what he considered to be a deeper, richer sound. Other differences include the addition of orchestras to many of the recordings – it’s rarely mentioned that Rudy Van Gelder had recorded many symphony orchestras for the Vox label – and Taylor’s insistence on recording booths for soloists to isolate – or overdub – performances atop the rhythm section, allowing either the player to perfect his solo or the producer to mix-and-match or swap parts (as Teo Macero would do on Miles Davis’ electric recordings).
“Working with Creed Taylor was the most sonically rewarding of them all,” said Van Gelder. “I started with Creed back in the Bethlehem days. Creed and I agreed pretty much as to what the sound would be, and we had great communication. He took my job beyond the five-piece bebop band to another level.”2
Rudy Van Gelder recorded all of the A&M/CTI albums – except for several sessions of Tamiko Jones’ I’ll Be Anything for You, recorded in Memphis – and, of course, would go on to record many more of Creed Taylor’s independent CTI productions. Indeed, at one point in the seventies, Rudy Van Gelder was exclusively contracted to CTI.
During the eighties, Van Gelder would digitally remaster a handful of the A&M/CTI titles for CD release (as he would years later for many of his Blue Note recordings), while continuing to engineer or mix CTI productions throughout the entirety of the label’s existence. After 1977, Rudy Van Gelder continued to engineer albums for many labels (Criss Cross, Milestone, Reservoir, Landmark, EmArcy, etc.), but was most prominent on Joe Field’s Muse and HighNote/Savant labels.
Endnotes:
- Creed Taylor, “Creed Taylor: Pride, Craftsmanship and All That Jazz,” interview by Robin Tolleson in Music Producers: Conversations with Today’s Top Record Makers (MixBooks, Winon, Minnesota, 1992), p. 109. ↩︎
- Ouellette, Dan, Ron Carter: Finding the Right Notes (Retrac Productions, Inc., New York City, 2013), p. 148. ↩︎