Al Schmitt, Grammy winning engineer and producer, dies at 91
NEW YORKย โ Twenty-time Grammy winner Al Schmitt, whose extraordinary career as a recording engineer and producer included albums by Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra and many other of the top performers of the past 60 years, has died at age 91.
Schmittโs family announced on Facebookย that he died Monday, without identifying a specific cause. Schmitt lived in the Los Angeles area. A relative, who did not want to be identified, confirmed Schmittโs death to The Associated Press.
โThe world has lost a much loved and respected extraordinary individual, who led an extraordinary life,โ the Facebook posting reads in part. โThe most honored and awarded recording producer/engineer of all time, his parting words at any speaking engagement were, โPlease be kind to all living things.โโ
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He won his first Grammy in 1963, then collected 19 more competitive awards and the honorary Recording Academy Trustees Award, in 2006.
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Schmitt worked on more than 150 gold records, in a wide range of styles. He engineered Henry Manciniโs โMoon Riverโ and Sam Cookeโs โAnother Saturday Night,โ Steely Danโs โAjaโ and Madonnaโs โThis Used to be My Playground.โ He engineered Natalie Coleโs blockbuster โUnforgettableโ album and Barbra Streisandโs โThe Way We Were.โ
He produced โVolunteersโ and several other Jefferson Airplane albums, helped produce Neil Youngโs โOn the Beachโ and more recently Dylanโs โShadows in the Nightโ and Paul McCartneyโs โKisses on the Bottom.โ
Brian Wilson, whose album of Gershwin songs was remixed by Schmitt, was among those Wednesday offering tributes, tweeting โAl was an industry giant and a great engineer who worked with some of the greatest artists ever, and Iโm honored to have worked with him on my Gershwin album.โ Michael Bubleฬ, Journeyโs Steve Perry and Michael Bolton also praised him.
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Schmittโs other credits included Sinatraโs final studio recordings, โDuetsโ and โDuets II,โ and Charlesโ final album, โGenius Loves Company,โ which won Grammys in 2003 for best album and for best record, the Charles-Norah Jones duet โHere We Go Again.โ Years earlier, he engineered the duet album โRay Charles and Betty Carter,โ a personal favorite despite Charlesโ struggles with heroin addiction.
โAt that point, Ray was having a major drug problem,โ he told Billboard in 2018. โSo every time (there was) a 10-minute break, they would take him off into the bathroom, and God knows what happened, what went on. It was sad to see that, but when he opened his mouth and sang, and (with) Betty, I mean, I got goosebumps. It was just unbelievable.โ
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Schmitt was married twice, and had five children, eight grandchildren, and five great grandchildren.
Born in Brooklyn, he was the nephew of recording engineer Harry Smith and as a boy would take the subway into Manhattan and head for his uncleโs studio, where anyone from Sinatra to Art Tatum might be in session. After serving in the Navy, he found work through his uncle at Apex Studios, where one of his first assignments was recording Duke Ellington. He would also soon befriend Tom Dowd, who as an engineer for Atlantic Records later worked on classic songs by Aretha Franklin, Eric Clapton and many others.
โAl was an obvious music enthusiast,โ Dowd told Billboard in 2002. โHe liked a lot of records and a lot of artists โ not just popular artists but the โbubbling underโ artists too-and was sensitive to music, whether it was jazz or gospel or blues or pop.
He moved to Los Angeles in the late 1950s and became a staff engineer for RCA Records. Schmitt received his first Grammy for engineering Manciniโs โHatariโ and was still winning them in his 80s, including one for McCartneyโs โKisses On the Bottomโ and another for a concert version of McCartneyโs record, โLive Kisses.โ
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His memoir โAl Schmitt On the Record,โ published in 2018, included tributes from Dylan, Young (โAl is the master,โ he wrote, โI love it when he gets pissed offโ), Streisand and the Airplaneโs Jorma Kaukonen, who remembered Schmittโs skill and patience with โthis bunch of musical anarchists.โ
Schmitt had his own stories to tell. He became close to Cooke and dined with him just hours before the singer was shot and killed in 1964 at a Los Angeles motel. He remembered Natalie Cole crying in the studio while making โUnforgettableโ as she worked on โduetsโ with her father, the late Nat โKing Cole,โ whose vocals were joined to hers thanks in part to the studio tricks of Schmitt.
He learned to work with, and work around, the musicians, whether the Airplaneโs indulgence of drugs and sonic effects or Sinatraโs request that he sing in front of the studio band and not in the recording booth, despite such enticements as cigarettes and a bottle of Jack Daniels. He got to work with the singer through his friendship with โDuetsโ producer Phil Ramone.
โI did an interview with a magazine where they asked me if I had any regrets in my career,โ he wrote in his memoir. โI answered that I had one regret: that I hadnโt worked with Frank Sinatra. Three weeks later, I got the call from Phil Ramone.
โThat happened with Paul McCartney, too; somebody asked me who I hadnโt worked with that Iโd like to, I said, โPaul,โ and shortly after that it happened โ I did a record with Paul! Bob Dylan, too; Iโve pretty much gotten my bucket list done now.โ
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