Greg Landau is an American,

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

-based record and video producer, and an instructor of music and Latin American Studies focused on the social movements that produced revolutionary music and art. He has produced eight Grammy nominated records and has produced over 80 CDs and numerous film scores including serving as Music Supervisor of the film '' La Mission''. He produced the album "Songs from La Mission".

Early life

Landau's parents are poet

Nina Serrano Nina Serrano (born 1934) is an American poet, writer, storyteller, and independent media producer who lives in Vallejo, California. She is the author of ''Heart Songs: The Collected Poems of Nina Serrano'' (1980) and ''Pass it on!: How to sta ...

and filmmaker

Saul Landau Saul Landau (January 15, 1936 – September 9, 2013) was an American journalist, filmmaker and commentator. He was also a professor emeritus at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, where he taught history and digital media. Educa ...

. He was born in

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is the List of municipalities in Wisconsin by population, second-most populous city in the state, with a population of 269,840 at the 2020 Uni ...

and grew up in San Francisco's

Mission District The Mission District ( Spanish: ''Distrito de la Misión''), commonly known as the Mission ( Spanish: ''La Misión''), is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. One of the oldest neighborhoods in San Francisco, the Mission District's name ...

. He co-founded Round Whirled Records with Camilo Landau and Round World Media along with his sister Valerie Landau. He worked with his father and

Haskell Wexler Haskell Wexler (February 6, 1922 – December 27, 2015) was an American filmmaker, cinematographer, and documentarian. He won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography twice, in 1966 for ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' and 1976 for ''Bou ...

on many documentary films in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Music career

During the 1980s, Landau toured internationally as a

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...

and tresero with the

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

Nueva Canción (European , ; 'new song') is a left-wing social movement and musical genre in Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula, characterized by folk music, folk-inspired styles and socially committed lyrics. is widely recognized to have played a profou ...

group, Luis Enrique Mejia Godoy and Mancotal, and shared stages with

Silvio Rodríguez Silvio Rodríguez Domínguez (born 29 November 1946) is a Cuban musician, and leader of the Nueva Trova movement. He is widely considered as Cuba's best folk singer and arguably one of Latin America's greatest singer-songwriters. Known for his ...

Pablo Milanés Pablo Milanés Arias (24 February 1943 – 22 November 2022) was a Cuban guitar player and singer. He was one of the founders of the Cuban nueva trova, along with Silvio Rodríguez and Noel Nicola. His music, originating in the Trova, Son and ...

Mercedes Sosa Haydée Mercedes "La Negra" Sosa (; 9 July 1935
at BrainyHistory.com – 4 October 2009) was an

Chico Buarque Francisco Buarque de Hollanda (born 19 June 1944), popularly known simply as Chico Buarque (), is a Brazilian singer-songwriter, guitarist, composer, playwright, writer, and poet. He is best known for his music, which often includes social, econom ...

, Amparo Ochoa and

Nicomedes Santa Cruz Nicomedes Santa Cruz Gamarra (June 4, 1925 – February 5, 1992) was a Peruvian singer, songwriter and musicologist. He was primarily a ''decimista'' (or ''decimero''), a singer of ''décimas''. He researched most forms of Afro-Peruvian music and ...

in music festivals and concerts across

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

and

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. He lived and worked in Nicaragua in the 1980s before returning to the US in 1991.

Media production

Landau has produced work with

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

LucasFilm Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company founded by filmmaker George Lucas in December 10, 1971 in San Rafael, California, and later moved to San Francisco in 2005. It is best known for creating and producing th ...

, Six Degrees Records,

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...

and

StarMedia StarMedia (stylized as starMedia) is a Latin American Internet brand, co-founded in August 1996 by Fernando Espuelas and Jack Chen as the first pan-regional Internet portal for Spanish and Portuguese speaking audiences. History During the do ...

. As Executive Producer at Starmedia, he has produced videos with

Christina Aguilera Christina María Aguilera ( , ; born December 18, 1980) is an American singer-songwriter, actress and television personality. Recognized as Cultural impact of Christina Aguilera, an influential figure in music and having received Public imag ...

Carlos Santana Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán (; born July 20, 1947) is an American guitarist, best known as a founding member of the Rock music, rock band Santana (band), Santana. Born and raised in Mexico where he developed his musical background, he r ...

Los Lobos Los Lobos (, Spanish for "the Wolves") is a Mexican American rock group, rock band from East Los Angeles, California. Their music is influenced by rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country, zydeco, folk, R&B, blues, brown-eyed soul, and traditional ...

, and Sub-Comandante Marcos. He co-founded Round World Music with Robert Leaver, who owned an eclectic music store in San Francisco

He has produced eight Grammy-nominated albums:

Carlos "Patato" Valdes Carlos Valdés Galán (November 4, 1926 – December 4, 2007), better known as Patato, was a Cuban conga player. In 1954, he emigrated from La Habana to New York City where he continued his prolific career as a sideman for several jazz and ...

's '' Ritmo y Candela'' and '' Ritmo y Candela II'' in 1996 and 1998, and '' Peru Blue'' with Pamela Rodriguez in 2006. He has worked with artists including

Buena Vista Social Club Buena Vista Social Club was a musical ensemble primarily made up of Cuban musicians, formed in 1996. The project was organized by World Circuit (record label), World Circuit executive Nick Gold, produced by American guitarist Ry Cooder and dire ...

's Juan de Marcos Gonzalez, Susana Baca, Bobi Cespedes, Dr Loco,

Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s and had a string of hit records in the early 1950s as a member of The Weav ...

, Omar Sosa, John Santos,

Pancho Quinto Francisco Hernández Mora (April 23, 1933 – February 11, 2005), better known as Pancho Quinto, was a Cuban rumba percussionist and teacher. He was the founder of Yoruba Andabo and one of the "godfathers" of the guarapachangueo style of Cuban rumba ...

Quetzal Quetzals () are strikingly colored birds in the trogon family. They are found in forests, especially in humid highlands, with the five species from the genus ''Pharomachrus'' being exclusively Neotropical, while a single species, the eared quet ...

, Carne Cruda,Mix Magazine
, Band Profile: Carne Cruda Los Mocosos,

Maldita Vecindad La Maldita Vecindad y los Hijos del Quinto Patio (, usually called only "La Maldita") is a band formed in Mexico City in 1985. They are pioneers of rock en español and one of the most influential rock bands in Mexico. They first made an impact ...

, poet

Piri Thomas Piri Thomas (born Juan Pedro Tomas; September 30, 1928 – October 17, 2011) was an American writer and poet of Puerto Rican- Cuban descent, whose memoir '' Down These Mean Streets'' became a best-seller. Early years Thomas was born to a Puerto ...

, and

David Byrne David Byrne (; born May 14, 1952) is an American musician, writer, visual artist, and filmmaker. He was a founding member, principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of the American New wave music, new wave band Talking Heads. Byrne has ...

's record label

Luaka Bop Luaka Bop is a New York–based record label founded by musician David Byrne, former lead singer and guitarist for the art rock– new wave band Talking Heads. What began with Byrne making cassettes of his favorite Tropicália tracks for his fr ...

. Landau, Babatunde Lea, and John Greenham composed and produced "The African Diaspora Suite" in 2005 for a permanent installation in the newly built

Museum of the African Diaspora The Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) is a contemporary art museum in San Francisco, California. MoAD holds exhibitions and presents artists exclusively of the African diaspora, one of only a few museums of its kind in the United States. Loc ...

. He composed and produced the film score for

's 2006 documentary film, '' Who Needs Sleep''and Peter and Benjamin Bratt's "La Mission", which debuted at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

. He produced '' Salve a Bahia'' then '' Gente!'' for the Brazilian group SambaDa in 2009, who say he made their work “more fun, more work, more intense.” He also produced work for Mexican singer and songwriter Arturo Ortega. His most recent work was producing an album called Mondongo (Sept. 30, 2015) with La Cuneta, and previously a CD with Mexican rockers Maldita Vecindad, titled Circular Colectivo, that debuted with a splash in Mexico In 2011 he produced the CD, Calma, for Cuban pianist Omar Sosa, that was nominated for the Latin Grammys in the Instrumental Music Category. He served as music supervisor for the HBO documentary "Mariela Castro's March: Cuba's LGBT Revolution" directed by Jon Alpert.

Teaching

Landau received a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

in Communication from the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

. He teaches at the

University of California at Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located in Monterey Bay, ...

and

City College of San Francisco City College of San Francisco (CCSF or City College) is a public community college in San Francisco, California, United States. Founded as a junior college in 1935, the college plays an important local role, enrolling as many as 1 in 35 San Franc ...

, and he researches the role of music in contemporary societies.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Landau, Greg Record producers from Wisconsin Living people American musicologists Year of birth missing (living people) University of California, San Diego alumni University of California, Santa Cruz faculty Educators from Wisconsin Businesspeople from Madison, Wisconsin