By Hillel Italie, National Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --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.
Schmitt's family announced on Facebook 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 Schmitt's death to The Associated Press.
"The world has lost a much loved and respected extraordinary individual, who led an extraordinary life," the Facebook posting reads in part. "The most honored and awarded recording producer/engineer of all time, his parting words at any speaking engagement were, 'Please be kind to all living things.'"
He won his first Grammy in 1963, then collected 19 more competitive awards and the honorary Recording Academy Trustees Award, in 2006. Schmitt worked on more than 150 gold records, in a wide range of styles. He engineered Henry Mancini's "Moon River" and Sam Cooke's "Another Saturday Night," Steely Dan's "Aja" and Madonna's "This Used to be My Playground." He engineered Natalie Cole's blockbuster "Unforgettable" album and Barbra Streisand's "The Way We Were." He produced "Volunteers" and several other Jefferson Airplane albums, helped produce Neil Young's "On the Beach" and more recently Dylan's "Shadows in the Night" and McCartney's "Kisses on the Bottom."
Brian Wilson, whose album of Gershwin songs was remixed by Schmitt, was among those Wednesday offering tributes, tweeting "Al was an industry giant and a great engineer who worked with some of the greatest artists ever, and I'm honored to have worked with him on my Gershwin album." Michael Bublé, Journey's Steve Perry and Michael Bolton also praised him.
Schmitt's other credits included Sinatra's final studio recordings, "Duets" and "Duets II," and Charles' final album, "Genius Loves Company," which won Grammys in 2003 for best album and for best record, the Charles-Norah Jones duet "Here We Go Again." Years earlier, he engineered the duet album "Ray Charles and Betty Carter," a personal favorite despite Charles' struggles with heroin addiction.
"At that point, Ray was having a major drug problem," he told Billboard in 2018. "So 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."
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 uncle's 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.
"Al was an obvious music enthusiast," Dowd told Billboard in 2002. "He liked a lot of records and a lot of artists — not just popular artists but the 'bubbling under' artists too-and was sensitive to music, whether it was jazz or gospel or blues or pop.
"He had quick hands and quick ears. They ran through the song once, maybe twice, and he had it down in his mind and in his hands and was able to fly with it right away. His endeavor, at the outset, was to capture what the artists and musicians were doing. He has an unlimited horizon."
He moved to Los Angeles in the late 1950s and became a staff engineer for RCA Records. Schmitt received his first Grammy for engineering Mancini's "Hatari" and was still winning them in his 80s, including one for McCartney's "Kisses On the Bottom" and another for a concert version of McCartney's record, "Live Kisses."
His memoir "Al Schmitt On the Record," published in 2018, included tributes from Dylan, Young ("Al is the master," he wrote, "I love it when he gets pissed off"), Streisand and the Airplane's Jorma Kaukonen, who remembered Schmitt's skill and patience with "this bunch of musical anarchists."
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 "Unforgettable" as she worked on "duets" with her father, the late Nat "King Cole," 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 Airplane's indulgence of drugs and sonic effects or Sinatra's 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 "Duets" producer Phil Ramone.
"I did an interview with a magazine where they asked me if I had any regrets in my career," he wrote in his memoir. "I answered that I had one regret: that I hadn't worked with Frank Sinatra. Three weeks later, I got the call from Phil Ramone.
"That happened with Paul McCartney, too; somebody asked me who I hadn't worked with that I'd like to, I said, 'Paul,' and shortly after that it happened — I did a record with Paul! Bob Dylan, too; I've pretty much gotten my bucket list done now."
“Heretic” and “Maria” Set As Red Carpet Premieres At AFI Fest
The American Film Institute (AFI) has announced that Heretic, the psychological thriller starring Hugh Grant, and Maria, based on the life of opera singer Maria Callas starring Angelina Jolie, will round out the Red Carpet Premieres section at this year’s AFI Fest. The Heretic Gala Screening will take place on Thursday, October 24, and the Maria Gala Screening will be held on Saturday, October 26. The complete Red Carpet Premieres section includes the world premieres of Music By John Williams, Robert Zemeckis’ Here, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl and Clint Eastwood’s Juror #2. All Red Carpet Premieres will take place at the historic TCL Chinese Theatre. The full lineup for AFI Fest 2024 will be unveiled on October 1.
“At the heart of AFI Fest is an unwavering dedication to celebrating the best in global cinema--together,” said Bob Gazzale, AFI president and CEO. “We look forward to uniting artists and audiences once again to be inspired by the art form in a powerful sense of community.”
Heretic follows two young missionaries (Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) who are forced to prove their faith when they knock on the wrong door and are greeted by a diabolical Mr. Reed (portrayed by Grant), becoming ensnared in his deadly game of cat-and-mouse. The film is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods and produced by Stacey Sher, Beck, Woods, Julia Glausi and Jeanette Volturno. The film will be released nationwide by A24 on November 8.
Directed by Pablo Larraín, Maria presents a tumultuous and beautiful depiction of one of the world’s most renowned artists and reimagines the legendary soprano in her final days in Paris, as Callas (Jolie)... Read More