Do you check out the engineer & producer before buying an album?

[class a]

Last week I was at a used record store and I found a very clean Freddie Hubbard album: Keep Your Soul Together. Never heard any of the music off it but I as usual checked out the engineer and it was Rudy Van Gelder and the producer was Creed Taylor so I figured how bad could it be if these guys were involved. Well the music was great and the SQ excellent. Is this a strange way of selecting music or do others base there purchase on this criteria. I've been doining it this way for years, in fact I'll even check out the studio musicians.

 

[MylesBAstor]

Last week I was at a used record store and I found a very clean Freddie Hubbard album: Keep Your Soul Together. Never heard any of the music off it but I as usual checked out the engineer and it was Rudy Van Gelder and the producer was Creed Taylor so I figured how bad could it be if these guys were involved. Well the music was great and the SQ excellent. Is this a strange way of selecting music or do others base there purchase on this criteria. I've been doining it this way for years, in fact I'll even check out the studio musicians.

Absolutely, as well as the "source" and pressing vintage for the release. (FYI, will still buy a late pressing LP for the music but not going to pay big bucks for it!)

Creed Taylor is only one of the most renowned jazz producers in history Worked at Bethelem Records, then left to found Impulse, signed Coltrane, then left Impulse to move to Verve where he promoted the then new music from Brazil called Bossa Nova and then CTI (Creed Taylor Inc). Sort of sounds like the music industries equivalent of Larry Brown All along the way he worked with Rudy van Gelder.

And yes, the best producers/engineers have a pretty good pct of success (of course there were a few clunkers but those were few and far between ).

 

[class a]

With producers and engineers like George Martin, Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd, Lou Adler, Alan Parsons, Eddie Kramer, Phil Ramone, Sam Phillips etc who came up in the 50's and 60's are there any young lions on the horizion that will pick up the baton or have we seen the golden age of these giants pass us by. They are either gone or on the downside of their careers.

 

[jadis]

I usually buy an album whose music I like then check the notes for the engineers, etc. Having them done by great engineers is a bonus to me which makes the music and SQ both a thumbs-up and such records become 'glued' to my record rack.

 

[JackD201]

In the "modern" age of close mic'ed multi-track and punch-ins the Mixing Engineers seem to be the stars. Bob Clearmountain is one of my favorites.

 

[FrantzM]

I usually but an album whose music I like then check the notes for the engineers, etc. Having them done by great engineers is a bonus to me which makes the music and SQ both a thumbs-up and such records become 'glued' to my record rack.

Same here...

 

[KeithR]

Music before engineer here.

 

[LL21]

No, but I have bought the SAME album that has been RE-mastered by Bob Ludwig, RVG and a couple others...purely on "spec" due to the name. Have not been disappointed yet...enjoy the remasters more than the originals in every case.