August 25, 2016

N.J. jazz giant Rudy Van Gelder, who recorded John Coltrane, Miles Davis, dead at 91

Source: NJ.com

Rudy Van Gelder, a renowned recording engineer who captured jazz greats Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane and many others in his parents' Hackensack living room and later in his eponymous Englewood Cliffs studio, died Thursday at the age of 91, according to jazz writer Nate Chinen.

The location and cause of death were not announced.

Van Gelder, a lifelong New Jerseyan, recorded quintessential albums of the genre: John Coltrane's "Blue Train" and "A Love Supreme," Miles Davis' "Workin'" and "Steamin'," Thelonious Monk's "Monk," Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers' "Moanin'," and Lee Morgan's "The Sidewinder."

"I would say they learned how to record jazz together," says T.S. Monk, the son of the jazz legend and an esteemed jazz drummer in his own right. "He really, really got it right. You can list to a Rudy Van Gelder from the 1950s that sounds like it was recorded today."

Read more: http://www.nj.com/entertainment/celebrities/index.ssf/2016/08/rudy_van_gelder_jazz_recording_engineer_obituary.html

---

Sad day. Always loved the sounds he captured. Hancock's "Empyrean Isles" and Coltrane's "Blue Train".

A life well lived, however.