Bruce Swedien ( ) (April 19, 1934 – November 16, 2020) was an American recording engineer, mixing engineer and record producer. He was widely known for his work with

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Michael Jackson, one of the most culturally significan ...

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and

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. Swedien first achieved widespread recognition as engineer with

Frankie Valli Francesco Stephen Castelluccio (born May 3, 1934), better known by his stage name Frankie Valli, is an American singer and occasional actor, best known as the frontman (lead singer) of The Four Seasons (band), the Four Seasons. He is known for ...

and the Four Seasons' 1962 single " Big Girls Don't Cry" which sold over one million copies and stayed at number one on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 for five weeks. Swedien won 5

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

s for Best Engineered Album for his work with Jackson and Jones. He received 13 additional nominations.

Early life and education

Swedien was born on April 19, 1934, in

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

, Minnesota. His parents, Ellsworth and Louise (Perusse) Swedien, Ellsworth of Swedish descent, and Louise of French descent, were both classically-trained musicians, leading Swedien to develop a passion for music and recording at an early age. His father bought him a disc recording machine when he was 10 and a professional tape recorder after graduating high school. Swedien studied electrical engineering with a minor in music at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

Career

In 1954, aged 20, Swedien set up a recording studio in the old Garrick/LaSalle movie theater in Minneapolis. He transformed the space into the Swedien Recording Studio, where he produced and recorded music for several years with artists such as Art Blakey and

Herbie Mann Herbert Jay Solomon (April 16, 1930 – July 1, 2003), known by his stage name Herbie Mann, was an American jazz Flute, flute player and important early practitioner of world music. Early in his career, he also played tenor saxophone and clarinet ...

. However, in late 1957, he sold the studio and relocated to Chicago. In 1957, after leaving Minneapolis he began working for RCA Victor Records in Chicago. Shortly after that, he left for

Universal Recording Corporation Universal Recording Corporation was a recording studio in Chicago founded by Bill Putnam, Sr. for the purpose of investigating new recording techniques and the development of specialized recording equipment. Universal Recording was seminal i ...

where he worked under chief engineer Bill Putnam. He first met Quincy Jones when Jones was vice president for

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. Mercury Records released ...

in Chicago. The two worked on albums for artists like

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and

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. Swedien moved to Brunswick Records where he ran and developed the label's studios and sound in the late 1960s and 1970s. The label was responsible for numerous R&B and pop hits during that time, with artists such as The Chi-Lites, Tyrone Davis and Jackie Wilson. Swedien was known for pioneering the "Acusonic Recording Process", pairing up microphones together on vocals and instruments, a technique enabled by synchronizing several multi-track recorders with SMPTE timecode. This achieved an enhanced roomy ambient sound, some of which is evident on albums produced in collaboration with Jones on such tracks as George Benson's " Give Me the Night", and the

albums on which he had worked. He would often experiment while recording with Jackson, having the singer stand at different distances from the microphone and singing through a cardboard tube, among other techniques. Swedien wrote about his experience working with Jackson in a 2009 book titled ''In the Studio with Michael Jackson''. His pop work included recordings by Patti Austin,

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, David Hasselhoff,

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, Rufus, Chaka Khan,

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, Donna Summer, and

. He worked on the scores for '' Night Shift'', '' The Color Purple'' and '' Running Scared''.

Recognition

On November 10, 2001, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in philosophy from the Luleå University of Technology for his achievements as a sound engineer. Swedien also held classes at the Swedish National Radio for practicing sound engineers. On August 30, 2015, Swedien was presented the Pensado Giant Award at the second annual Pensado Awards held at

Sony Pictures Studios Sony Pictures Studios is an American television and film studio complex located in Culver City, California, at 10202 West Washington Boulevard and bounded by Culver Boulevard (south), Washington Boulevard (north), Overland Avenue (west) and ...

Culver City, California Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. It is mostly surrounded by Los Angeles, but also shares a border with the unincorporated area of Ladera Heights, Californi ...

. The award was presented by Quincy Jones.

Death

Swedien died on November 16, 2020, at the age of 86, from surgery complications for a broken hip caused by a fall as well as COVID-19.

Awards

Swedien won 5

s and was nominated 12 times.

References

External links

In The Studio with Bruce Swedien
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Archived interview with Mr. Bonzai, November 2006Bruce Swedien on Recording, Mixing Michael Jackson

Q&A session with Bruce Swedien on GearSlutzBruce Swedien Interview
at NAMM Oral History Collection (2016) {{DEFAULTSORT:Swedien, Bruce 1934 births 2020 deaths American audio engineers American people of Swedish descent Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Florida Businesspeople from Minneapolis Grammy Award winners Record producers from Minnesota