Bob Power is an American
Grammy Award–winning and
multi-platinum
Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...
record producer, audio engineer, composer, arranger, performer, and music educator.
Early life
Power was born in
Chicago, moved to
Rye, New York, then moved to
St. Louis,
Missouri, and attended
Webster College
Webster University is a private university with its main campus in Webster Groves, Missouri. It has multiple branch locations across the United States and countries across Europe, Asia, and Africa. It offers undergraduate and graduate programs ...
, where he studied music theory.
He also studied classical composition and conducting, alongside playing his own contemporary music. He subsequently obtained a master's degree in jazz from
Lone Mountain College
Lone Mountain College was a college acquired by the University of San Francisco (USF) in 1978.
History
It was built and founded by the Religious of the Sacred Heart as Sacred Heart Academy in Menlo Park, California, in 1898. The school bec ...
(since acquired by
University of San Francisco) in
San Francisco.
Career
Power stayed in California between 1975 and 1982, scoring music for the
PBS Emmy Award–winning television series ''
Over Easy'' and writing music for broadcast advertising. Power contributed music for advertising campaigns for companies, including
The American Cancer Society (
Emmy Award winner),
AT&T,
Casio,
Coca-Cola,
Elizabeth Arden,
Hardee's
Hardee's Restaurants LLC is an American fast-food restaurant chain operated by CKE Restaurants Holdings, Inc. ("CKE") with locations primarily in the Southern and Midwestern United States. The company has evolved through several corporate owne ...
,
Hertz,
Intel,
Mercedes-Benz,
Purina, and
The United States Postal Service.
He then moved to
New York City in 1982 to further his music career by playing gigs in a variety of venues, including one performance at a wedding of a member of the Bensonhurst Mafia.
Power was asked by the owner of
Calliope Studios to sit in as engineer of a music recording session by the group
Stetsasonic. Stetsasonic thought so highly of Power's work that he continued to work with them, overseeing the breakthrough sessions for their album ''
On Fire''.
He continued his liaison with rap groups thereafter, linking up with the New York City rap collective the
Native Tongues. The
Native Tongues was a group of hip-hop groups, including
A Tribe Called Quest
A Tribe Called Quest was an American hip hop group formed in Queens, New York City, in 1985,[Q-Tip](_blank)
,
Black Sheep
In the English language, black sheep is an idiom that describes a member of a group who is different from the rest, especially a family member who does not fit in. The term stems from sheep whose fleece is colored black rather than the more comm ...
,
De La Soul
De La Soul () is an American hip hop trio formed in 1988 in the Amityville area of Long Island, New York. They are best known for their eclectic sampling, quirky lyrics, and their contributions to the evolution of the jazz rap and alternative ...
, and
Jungle Brothers. All of the musical groups within the collective based their music around intricately designed and complex arrangements of
sampling.
Power's ability to produce music that mimicked the clarity of the sampled recordings was highly valued by producers within the Native Tongues.
His most noteworthy project as an engineer is his work on A Tribe Called Quest's sophomore album ''
The Low End Theory
''The Low End Theory'' is the second studio album by American hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest, released on September 24, 1991, by Jive Records. Recording sessions for the album were held mostly at Battery Studios in New York City, from 1990 to ...
'', which was recorded between 1990 and 1991 and released in September 1991. Power describes his work on ''The Low End Theory'' in the following quote:
By the mid-1990s, Power ran a production suite at
Sony Music Studios in New York. His profile continued to expand through his record production work with
Me'Shell N'degéocello,
The Roots
The Roots are an American hip hop band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The Roots serve as the house band on NBC's ''The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy F ...
,
D'Angelo
Michael Eugene Archer (born February 11, 1974), better known by his stage name D'Angelo (), is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He first garnered attention after co-producing the single "U Will Know" ...
, and
Erykah Badu. The latter saw Power get his first number 1 R&B single, "
On & On," while N’degéocello's ''
Peace Beyond Passion'' received a nomination for a
Grammy Award as 'best engineered album'.
Recent career
Bob Power is currently an Arts Professor in the
Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts located in
New York City.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Power, Bob
1952 births
Living people
Musicians from Chicago
Webster University alumni
American audio engineers
Record producers from Illinois
Musicians from New York (state)
New York University faculty
Engineers from Illinois