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Al Schmitt is a recording engineer and record producer.

Early career[link]

Schmitt grew up in New York City. After serving in the U.S. Navy he began working at Apex Recording Studios at the age of 19. In the late 1950's Schmitt moved to Los Angeles and became a staff engineer at Radio Recorders on Santa Monica Blvd in Hollywood. In the early 1960's he moved to RCA in Hollywood as a staff engineer. While at RCA he engineered albums for Henry Mancini, Cal Tjader, Al Hirt, Rosemary Clooney, Liverpool Five, The Astronauts, Sam Cooke "Bring It on Home to Me" "Cupid" "Another Saturday Night" in 1961. He also did a lot of motion-picture scoring work for Alex North and Elmer Bernstein.

From the mid-60s to present[link]

In 1966 Schmitt left RCA and became an independent producer. He produced albums for Jefferson Airplane, Eddie Fisher, Glenn Yarborough, Jackson Browne and Neil Young. In the mid 70's he began spending more time engineering again, recording and mixing artists from Willy DeVille and Dr. John.

Other career highlights include engineering both Frank Sinatra Duets albums, Ray Charles' Genius Loves Company and some of Diana Krall's albums. Much of his work in the last few years has been with producer Tommy LiPuma.

Awards[link]

During his career Al has recorded and mixed more than 150 gold and platinum albums^[1] and was inducted into the TEC Awards Hall of Fame in 1997, and received the Grammy Trustees Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006. As a member of The Recording Academy's Los Angeles Chapter, Al served several terms on The Recording Academy's National Board of Trustees. He has won a total of 18 Grammy Awards, more than any other engineer or mixer. In addition he was awarded two Latin Grammy Awards in 2000 including Album of the Year. In 2005 he won five Grammys for his work on Ray Charles' Genius Loves Company including Album of the Year, setting the record most most Grammys won by an engineer or mixer in one night. He is also the only person to win both the Grammy and Latin Grammy for Album of the Year.

The Schmitt-engineered song "Moon River" and its associated album won two Grammy awards in 1961 as well as an Academy Award for Best Song with its appearance in the film Breakfast at Tiffany's. Schmitt won his first Grammy in 1963 specifically for engineering the Hatari! soundtrack by Henry Mancini.

List of Grammy Awards received by Al Schmitt^[2]

References[link]

Bruce Swedien (1998)

Bruce Swedien is a Grammy Award-winning audio engineer and music producer. He is known for his work with Quincy Jones.

Swedien is a five-time Grammy winner and has been nominated 13 times. He recorded, mixed, and assisted in producing the best-sold album in the world, Thriller by Michael Jackson. He was the primary sound engineer for Jackson's studio recordings from 1978 to 2001.

He also recorded and mixed for jazz artists such as Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Quincy Jones, Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock and Jeff Oster. His pop work includes Patti Austin, Natalie Cole, Roberta Flack, Mick Jagger, Jennifer Lopez, Paul McCartney, Diana Ross, Rufus, Chaka Khan, Barbra Streisand, Donna Summer, Sarah Vaughan, and the zouk band Kassav'. He worked on the scores for Night Shift, The Color Purple and Running Scared.

On 10 November 2001, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in philosophy from the Luleå University of Technology, Sweden for his achievements as a sound engineer. Swedien also held "masterclasses" at the Swedish National Radio for practicing sound engineers.

Swedien is notable for pioneering the 'Acusonic Recording Process' which involves pairing up microphones together on vocals and instruments when making recordings. This achieved an enhanced roomy ambient sound, some of which is evident on albums produced in collaboration with Quincy Jones on tracks such as "Sounds And Stuff Like That!!", George Benson's "Give Me the Night", and the Michael Jackson albums he worked on.

References[link]

• Swedien, Bruce (2003). Make Mine Music. Norway: MIA Musikk. ISBN 82-996756-1-8.
• Swedien, Bruce (2009). In the studio with Michael Jackson. New York: Hal Leonard Books. ISBN 978-1-4234-6495-2.

External links[link]

• In The Studio with Bruce Swedien
• Archived interview with Mr. Bonzai, November 2006
• Bruce Swedien on Recording, Mixing Michael Jackson
• Bruce Swedien Interview
• Swedien Works With Jennifer Lopez
• Bruce Swedien On Recording Jennifer Lopez
• Bruce Swedien - Microphones Master Class
• An Incredible New Sound for Engineers
• Bruce Swedien's Autobiography 'Make Mine Music'
• Bruce Swedien discusses Jeff Oster

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Rachael Price (born 1985) is a jazz vocalist from Hendersonville, Tennessee. She is a graduate in Jazz Studies at the New England Conservatory in Massachusetts. Price is the great-granddaughter of creationist and Seventh-day Adventist leader George McCready Price, and the daughter of the musician Tom Price.

Solo achievements[link]

In 2003, Price received an honorable mention at the Montreux Jazz Festival's International Jazz Vocal Competition. In 2004, Price was a semi-finalist and the youngest competitor in the history of the Thelonious Monk Institute Vocal Competition. In August 2004 she made her U.S. jazz festival debut at Yale’s Jazz On The Green where she opened for Joshua Redman. She won the 2006 Independent Music Award for Best Gospel Song with her recording of My God, My Adored One with the Boston Praise Collective.^[1] She regularly appears in concert as a featured vocalist with the T. S. Monk Sextet, and is currently working with Grammy Award winning record producer K. C. Porter.

Lake Street Dive[link]

Price also performs with Lake Street Dive, a four-piece Boston band she formed three years ago with Mike Olson, Michael Calabrese and Bridget Kearney, who were students at The New England Conservatory a "free country band"--as in country music, played free. This concept was quickly abandoned in favor of country music, played in an edgy, loose fashion.

With the help of an award from The John Lennon Songwriting Contest, Lake Street Dive recorded their debut CD in 2006, in this episode....

Discography[link]

• Dedicated to You (2003)
• From Exile To Exaltation (2006)
• Rachael Price & The Tennessee Terraplanes - Refreshingly Cool (2008)
• The Good Hours (2008)
• ...in this episode (2006) (Lake Street Dive)
• Lake Street Dive - Lake Street Dive (2010)

External links[link]

• Official website
• Personal website
• Lake Street Dive

Dave Koz
Background information
Born	(1963-03-27) March 27, 1963 (age 49)
Origin	Encino, California
Genres	Smooth jazz
Occupations	Musician, Radio host
Instruments	Saxophone, Piano, drums, EWI
Years active	1990 – present
Labels	Capitol Records (1990–2008), EMI, Rendezvous Entertainment, Concord Records (2009–present)
Associated acts	Bobby Caldwell
Website	davekoz.com

Dave Koz (born March 27, 1963) is an American smooth jazz saxophonist.

Life and career[link]

Dave Koz was born on March 27, 1963 in Encino, California. Koz attended William Howard Taft High School in Woodland Hills, California performing on saxophone as a member of the school jazz band. He later graduated from UCLA with a degree in mass communications in 1986, and only weeks after his graduation, decided to make a go of becoming a professional musician. Within weeks of that decision, he was recruited as a member of Bobby Caldwell's tour. For the rest of the 1980s, Koz served as a session musician in several bands, toured with Jeff Lorber. Koz was a member of Richard Marx's band and toured with Marx throughout the late 1980s. He also played in the house band of CBS' short-lived The Pat Sajak Show, with Tom Scott as bandleader.^[1]

In 1990, Koz decided to pursue a solo career, and began recording for Capitol Records. His albums there include Lucky Man, The Dance, and Saxophonic. Saxophonic was nominated for both a Grammy Award and an NAACP Image Award.

In 1994, Koz began hosting a syndicated radio program, The Dave Koz Radio Show (formerly Personal Notes), featuring the latest music and interviews with who's who in the genre. Dave co-hosted of The Dave Koz Morning Show With Pat Prescott on 94.7 The Wave, a smooth jazz station in Los Angeles for six years. He decided to leave the show in January 2007 and was replaced by Brian McKnight.

In 2002, Koz started a record label, Rendezvous Entertainment, with Frank Cody and Hyman Katz.

In an April 2004 interview with The Advocate, Koz came out publicly as a gay man. Later the same year, he was named by People magazine as one of their "50 Hottest Bachelors" in their June issue.

Dave and the late Wayman Tisdale performing at the Dave Koz & Friends Smooth Jazz Cruise 2006

In 2006, Koz was selected to host a syndicated afternoon show for Broadcast Architecture's new Smooth Jazz Network. The show, based in Los Angeles, is broadcast on other Smooth Jazz stations across the country. Koz and Ramsey Lewis are the only two Smooth Jazz personalities to host two different syndicated shows during the week.

Capitol Records/EMI's "Forever Cool" (2007) features Koz in a new arrangement of "Just in Time" with the voice of the late Dean Martin.

Koz has promoted annual Dave Koz & Friends Jazz Cruises since 2005.

Koz is the host of a weekly half-hour television series named Frequency put on by Fast Focus.^[2] Koz interviews musicians on the show such as Earth, Wind & Fire, Jonathan Butler, and Kelly Sweet. At the end of each interview, he plays along with the musician, adding some of his saxophone riffs to one of their hit songs.

Koz was also the bandleader on The Emeril Lagasse Show. The band, Dave Koz & The Kozmos, featured Jeff Golub (guitar), Philippe Saisse (keyboards), Conrad Korsch (bass guitar), and Skoota Warner (drums).^[3][4][5]

Koz plays a Yamaha silver alto sax (YAS-62S) with a #7 Beechler metal mouthpiece, a Yamaha straight silver Soprano sax (YSS-62S) or a vintage Conn curved soprano sax with a #8 Couf mouthpiece, and a Selmer Mark 6 Tenor sax with a Berg-Larsen 90/2 hard rubber mouthpiece. As for reeds, he uses size 3 Rico Plasticover.^[6]

On September 22, 2009, Koz received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.^[7]

In October 2010, Koz performed "Start All Over Again" in a Desperate Housewives season 7 episode Let Me Entertain You, alongside singer Dana Glover.

Discography[link]

Musical recordings of Koz include:^[8]

Albums[link]

• A. "The Dance" also peaked at #67 on Billboard's Rhythm & Blues/Hip Hop Albums.
• B. "Smooth Jazz Christmas" also peaked at #2 on Billboard's Holiday Albums.

Singles[link]

Compilation appearances[link]

• The Weather Channel Presents: The Best of Smooth Jazz, (2007)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Dave Koz

• Dave Koz official website