Tom Dowd

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thomas J. "Tom" Dowd (born October 25, 1925 in New York , † October 27, 2002 in Miami , Florida ) was an American sound engineer and music producer .

Live and act

Childhood and youth

Through his parents (father conductor, mother opera singer) he came into contact with music very early. Both supported and promoted his interest. After graduating from high school in 1942 with an emphasis on math and physics, the military service was supposed to follow, but Tom was still too young compared to the other boys in his former class. So it came about that he could initially continue to devote himself to education. He studied at City College and also played in the band at Columbia University , where, thanks to his outstanding knowledge of physics, he soon got a job in the local physics laboratory.

As a young teenager he suddenly came into contact with well-known scientists such as John R. Dunning , Bill Havens and the later Nobel Prize winner James Rainwater . When he was drafted into the military at the age of 18, he remained with the rank of sergeant on the research team, which soon became notorious under the name " Manhattan Project ": In 1945 the atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In 1946 he retired after taking part in two nuclear weapons tests ( Operation Crossroads ).

The beginnings in the music industry

When he wanted to continue his physics studies, he found that his previous work was still subject to confidentiality and could not be recognized. Frustrated, Dowd looked for distraction and found it doing a summer job at a music studio that recorded classical music. He enjoyed the work so much that he stayed with it for the time being. In 1949 there was something of a key experience for him: In a three-hour recording session, he recorded four tracks by the artist Eileen Barton . He never saw the artist again and this session wouldn't be worth mentioning if the first single, entitled If I Knew You Were Comin 'I'd've Baked a Cake, hadn't been a big hit.

Tom Dowd worked meticulously to improve the recording technique; so he took z. B. a separate microphone for each instrument, which was absolutely unusual at the time.

He gained renown and his reputation spread more and more among musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie and Joe Turner and the Ravens . The former summer job had turned into a new career.

He soon had a deep business relationship with Atlantic Records after Stick McGhee's "Drinkin 'Wine Spo-dee-O-Dee" was a hit.

This was followed by more records by artists such as Ray Charles and Ruth Brown in the 1950s . In the following years Dowd established himself more and more and worked passionately on the further development of the technology: Atlantic owed him the possibility of stereo recording, which was used for the first time by the famous jazz musician John Coltrane . With him Dowd recorded albums such as Giant Steps and Coltrane's Sound . Thanks to the new stereo sound, the virtuoso's music could be captured even more grippingly. By the beginning of the 1960s, Tom Dowd had finally earned the reputation of an exceptional talent in terms of production and sound mixing.

In 1967 Tom went to Europe: During an extensive tour of a Memphis All-Star group, among them Dowd's protégé Otis Redding , he was engaged as the musician's spokesman. The tour was very successful for the musicians, and they also met their great idols, the Beatles - who in turn were also impressed by the group from Memphis.

The muscle shoals session

After returning to Alabama, Tom Dowd recorded artists like Wilson Pickett and the then completely unknown Aretha Franklin during the famous Muscle Shoals session . She thanked her producer 25 years and countless hits later when she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the indication that Tom had a large part in the typical Aretha sound.

In the early 1970s Tom Dowd moved to Miami and continued to work in the newly built Atlantic Records South building. One of the first albums he produced there was At Fillmore East by The Allman Brothers Band . This was followed by other productions by successful groups and artists such as Cream , Rod Stewart and Lynyrd Skynyrd in the 1970s .

The collaboration with the aforementioned Rod Stewart , Eric Clapton and Lynyrd Skynyrd continued for the next few years.

In 1996, after 50 years in the music business, he was first nominated for a Grammy for his contribution to the John Coltrane Box Set . The previously successful Allman Brothers experienced a comeback in the 1990s. Dowd produced four successful albums from them alone in the years 1990-1994.

The last few years

In addition to his further work as a producer, Dowd also gave lectures at high schools and universities. Thanks to his decades of experience, he was a "walking encyclopedia" in terms of recording technology.

In 2002 he was finally awarded an honorary Grammy for his life's work.

In 2003 the full-length documentary Tom Dowd & the Language of Music was released. The premiere took place at the Sundance Film Festival . Dowd himself could no longer witness this: he died of cancer on October 27, 2002 at the age of 77.

Discography producer (excerpt)

Discography Tonmeister ( Engineer ) (excerpt)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20070928212802/http://www.thelanguageofmusic.com/bio_40.HTM
  2. ^ Dan Daley: The Engineers Who Changed Recording . In: Sound on Sound . October 2004. Retrieved November 1, 2007.
  3. ↑ The Man . Tom Dowd and the Language of Music . Retrieved November 1, 2007.
  4. ^ A b Joel Selvin: Here Comes the Night: The Dark Soul of Bert Berns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm and Blues. Counterpoint, Berkeley, CA 2014, ISBN 978-1-61902-302-4 , p. 32 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  5. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20070928212802/http://www.thelanguageofmusic.com/bio_40.HTM
  6. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20070928212802/http://www.thelanguageofmusic.com/bio_40.HTM
  7. ^ Forrest Norman: Soundman God . In: New Times , January 16, 2003. Retrieved January 7, 2011. 
  8. ↑ Christopher Walsh: Tom Dowd, Revered Innovator, Dies . In: Nielsen Business Media, Inc. (Ed.): Billboard . November 9, 2002, ISSN  0006-2510 , p. 6. Retrieved December 20, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME Dowd, Tom
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dowd, Thomas J.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American sound engineer and music producer
DATE OF BIRTH October 25, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH new York
DATE OF DEATH October 27, 2002
Place of death Miami , Florida