Alan Douglas

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Alan Douglas Rubenstein (born July 20, 1931 in Boston , Massachusetts , † June 7, 2014 in Paris , France ) was an American music producer and sound engineer who recorded some important jazz albums before producing Jimi Hendrix and other rock musicians .

Live and act

Douglas tried his hand at making recordings in his hometown and founded the Duchess Records label there in the mid-1950s , but it was not economically successful. He then went to New York City , where Phil Ramone gave him access to his studios. In the late 1950s he worked for Nicole Barclay and produced the Eddie Barclay Orchestra for their Barclay Records . He also intended to make recordings with Billie Holiday (but couldn't do that anymore due to the singer's death).

United Artists

With the recommendation of Nicole Barclay, United Artists brought him in 1960 to develop a jazz repertoire for the label. He has produced albums with Art Blakey , Kenny Dorham , Vi Redd , Herbie Mann, and Jackie McLean ; he also suggested playing together in the studio in unusual combinations, which also made it possible to bring in musicians who were under contract with other labels. He produced the album Undercurrent with Bill Evans and Jim Hall , and the album Money Jungle with Duke Ellington , Charles Mingus and Max Roach . This production activity for United Artists ended with the disastrous town hall concert by Mingus. In 1963 he took on the albums Conversations and Iron Man with Eric Dolphy ; Douglas released the first album on his FM Records , which existed from 1964 until the label went bankrupt in 1965.

In the following years he put together the book The Essential Lenny Bruce from the estate of Lenny Bruce , which sold well.

Douglas Records

In the late 1960s he produced voice records by Allen Ginsberg , Timothy Leary and Malcolm X as well as The Last Poets for his own label Douglas Records . He drew Jimi Hendrix and Buddy Miles on some of these recordings , for example for Timothy Leary's campaign record You Can Be Anyone This Time Around . Douglas also planned an album with Hendrix, Miles Davis and Tony Williams ; however, it did not materialize due to the fee claims (raised at the last minute) by Davis and Williams. He also brought Gil Evans together with Hendrix; the intended album The Gil Evans Orchestra Plays the Music of Jimi Hendrix was created posthumously. After Hendrix's death Douglas had his musical legacy (500 hours of recordings) and put together several albums from it, and he also edited the material. In the early 1970s, he released two albums by John McLaughlin , which, according to the guitarist Devotion, mixed himself up and paid insufficiently for My Goal's Beyond . He also produced S Club 7 , Queen and Echo & the Bunnymen , and was later also responsible for recording Bill Laswell , Eric Clapton and Geri Allen's Three Pianos for Jimi .

Alan Douglas died at his home from a fall at the age of 82.

Productions

plates

Books

  • The Essential Lenny Bruce , Douglas Books, 1969.
  • Jimi Hendrix: Starting at Zero , Bloomsbury USA, 2013.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bruce Weber: Alan Douglas, Who Mined Hendrix Archive, Dies at 82. Obituary in The New York Times, June 14, 2014 (accessed June 15, 2014).
  2. ^ A b c Edwin Pouncey Alan Douglas: The Man Who Sold the Underworld , Wire Magazine 161 / July 1997
  3. ↑ Douglas on Blue Note (Liner Notes)
  4. ↑ Cf. Jerry Hopkins The Jimi Hendrix Experience 1996, p. 283 Critical for Hendrix see the role of Douglas Klaus Theweleit and Rainer Höltschl Jimi Hendrix: a biography Berlin 2008, p. 194
  5. ↑ Corey Washington Nobody Cages Me 2010, p. 51
  6. ^ Richie Unterberger The Rough Guide to Jimi Hendrix , Rough Guides Ltd, 2009, p. 151
  7. ↑ http://www.johnmclaughlin.com/ (period 1968–1970)
  8. ↑ Bruce Weber: Alan Douglas, Who Mined Hendrix Archive, Dies at 82. Obituary in The New York Times, June 14, 2014 (accessed June 15, 2014).
personal data
SURNAME Douglas, Alan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American music producer and sound engineer
DATE OF BIRTH July 20, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Boston , Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH June 7, 2014
Place of death Paris , France