Richard Larm Alderson (born February 10, 1937) is an American

audio engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduc ...

and record producer, who has worked on recordings by

Nina Simone Nina Simone ( ; born Eunice Kathleen Waymon; February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003) was an American singer, pianist, songwriter, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned styles including classical, folk, gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, and po ...

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...

Harry Belafonte Harry Belafonte ( ; born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927 – April 25, 2023) was an American singer, actor, and civil rights activist who popularized calypso music with international audiences in the 1950s and 1960s. Belafonte ...

Sun Ra Le Sony'r Ra (born Herman Poole Blount, May 22, 1914 – May 30, 1993), better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, "cosmic" philosophy, prolific ou ...

The Fugs The Fugs are an American rock band formed in New York City in late 1964, by the poets Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg, with Ken Weaver (musician), Ken Weaver on drums. Soon afterward, they were joined by Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber of the Holy ...

, Pearls Before Swine,

Roberta Flack Roberta Cleopatra Flack (February 10, 1937 – February 24, 2025) was an American singer and pianist known for her emotive, genre-blending ballads that spanned R&B, jazz, Folk music, folk, and pop and contributed to the birth of the quiet storm ...

, Grover Washington Jr. and others.

Biography

Born in

East Cleveland, Ohio East Cleveland is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. The population was 13,792 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is a suburb lying east and south of Cleveland and west of Cleveland Heights. History Historically Eas ...

, he grew up in New York City. After graduating he worked in

record store A record shop or record store is a retail outlet that sells recorded music. Per the name, in the late 19th century and the early 20th century, record shops only sold gramophone records. But over the course of the 20th century, record shops sol ...

s, and then selling and installing audio equipment, before being employed by inventor

Sherman Fairchild Sherman Mills Fairchild (April 7, 1896 – March 28, 1971) was an American businessman and investor who founded over 70 companies, including Fairchild Aviation, Fairchild Industries, and Fairchild Camera and Instrument. Fairchild made signifi ...

as an audio engineer. He also began recording performers in

folk club A folk club is a regular event, permanent venue, or section of a venue devoted to folk music and traditional music. Folk clubs were primarily an urban phenomenon of 1960s and 1970s Great Britain and Ireland, and vital to the second British folk r ...

s in New York, such as the Village Gate, working on the sound system in parallel with lighting engineer Chip Monck. His first commercially released live recordings were of Nina Simone, released on the albums ''

Nina at the Village Gate ''Nina Simone at the Village Gate'' is a live album by singer Nina Simone. Released in early 1962, it was her third live album for Colpix Records, Colpix (and sixth album overall). The album was recorded at The Village Gate, a nightclub in Greenw ...

'' (1962) and '' Nina Simone at Carnegie Hall'' (1963). He also recorded performances by

Thelonious Monk Thelonious Sphere Monk ( October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the Jazz standard, standard jazz repertoire, includ ...

, and early Bob Dylan performances eventually released many years later as ''

Live at The Gaslight 1962 ''Live at The Gaslight 1962'' is a live album including ten songs from early Bob Dylan performances recorded in October 1962 at The Gaslight Cafe in New York City's Greenwich Village. Released in 2005 by Columbia Records, it was originally dist ...

''. In 1962, he designed and built RLA Studios in New York, and the following year began working with Harry Belafonte on his live sound system. The studios later became Impact Studios after Belafonte took a financial share. Biography by Sean Westergaard, ''AllMusic.com''
Retrieved January 20, 2019 Larry Crane, Coke Ennyday, Alex Stimmel, "Richard Alderson: 60's Free Jazz, Dylan's 'Electric' Tour, & More", ''TapeOp.com'', July/August 2011
Retrieved January 20, 2019

Albert Grossman Albert Grossman (May 21, 1926 – January 25, 1986) was an American entrepreneur and manager in the American folk music and rock and roll scene. He was famous as the manager of many of the most popular and successful performers of folk and folk ...

then invited Alderson to produce the live sound for Dylan on his groundbreaking

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and world tours in 1965–66 with

The Band The Band was a Canadian-American rock music, rock band formed in Toronto, Ontario, in 1957. It consisted of the Canadians Rick Danko (bass, guitar, vocals, fiddle), Garth Hudson (organ, keyboards, accordion, saxophone), Richard Manuel (piano, d ...

. In the same period, Alderson continued to engineer and then produce recordings in New York, for Fania Records artists such as Joe Bataan, as well as

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

sessions for

Prestige Records Prestige Records is a jazz record company and label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock in New York City which issued recordings in the mainstream, bop, and cool jazz idioms. The company recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz music ...

. In the mid and late 1960s, he worked extensively for ESP-Disk Records, on artists such as

Albert Ayler Albert Ayler (; July 13, 1936 – November 25, 1970) was an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist and composer. After early experience playing rhythm and blues and bebop, Ayler began recording music during the free jazz era of the 1960s. Ho ...

, Patty Waters, Sun Ra, The Fugs and Pearls Before Swine. Several incorporated Alderson's innovative use of

musique concrète Musique concrète (; ): " problem for any translator of an academic work in French is that the language is relatively abstract and theoretical compared to English; one might even say that the mode of thinking itself tends to be more schematic ...

recordings,

tape splicing Reel-to-reel audio tape recording, also called open-reel recording, is magnetic tape audio recording in which the recording tape is spooled between reels. To prepare for use, the ''supply reel'' (or ''feed reel'') containing the tape is place ...

and exotic percussion instruments. Other musicians with whom he worked in the 1960s included

Muddy Waters McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913April 30, 1983), better known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer-songwriter and musician who was an important figure in the post-World War II blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of moder ...

Spanky and Our Gang Spanky and Our Gang was an American 1960s sunshine pop band led by Spanky McFarlane, Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane. The band derives its name from Hal Roach's ''Our Gang'' comedies of the 1930s (known to modern audiences as ''The Little Rascals''), ...

and

The Last Poets The Last Poets is a poetry collective and musical group that arose in the late 1960s as part of the African-American civil rights movement and black nationalism. The name was inspired by revolutionary South African poet Keorapetse Kgositsile who ...

, as well as

gospel musicians Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message was reported. In this sense ...

. Jay Jay French, "Record producer remembers The Beatles relationship with Bob Dylan", ''Goldmine'', June 18, 2018
Retrieved January 20, 2019 In 1969, Alderson moved to

Chiapas Chiapas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas, is one of the states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of Mexico. It comprises Municipalities of Chiapas, 124 municipalities and its capital and large ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, where he spent several years forming his own band and recording the indigenous music of the region, later released by

Smithsonian Folkways Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was f ...

. He returned to New York in 1975, and set up Rosebud Recording with

Ralph MacDonald Ralph Anthony MacDonald (March 15, 1944 – December 18, 2011) was an American percussionist, steelpan virtuoso, songwriter, musical arranger, and record producer. His compositions include " Where Is the Love", a Grammy Award winner for the due ...

. While there, he oversaw recordings by Grover Washington Jr., Roberta Flack,

Bill Withers William Harrison Withers Jr. (July 4, 1938 – March 30, 2020) was an American singer and songwriter. He is known for having several hits over a career spanning 18 years, including "Ain't No Sunshine" (1971), "Grandma's Hands" (1971), "Use Me ( ...

and

David Sanborn David William Sanborn (July 30, 1945 – May 12, 2024) was an American alto saxophonist. He worked in many musical genres; his solo recordings typically blended jazz with instrumental pop and R&B. He began playing the saxophone at the age o ...

, among others. From the 1980s, he continued to work as an engineer and consultant, setting up Alderson Acoustics and designing a variety of recording facilities in and around New York. He also worked on

jingle A jingle is a short song or tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. Jingles are a form of sound branding. A jingle contains one or more hooks and meanings that explicitly promote the product or service being advertised, usually ...

s and TV commercials, and on projects with producer and arranger Rob Mounsey. In 2010, Alderson was nominated for a

Grammy 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 a ...

in the Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical section, for singer-songwriter Leslie Mendelson's album ''Swan Feathers''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alderson, Richard 1937 births Living people Record producers from Ohio American audio engineers