Van Gelder Studio
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The Van Gelder Studio is a
recording studio A recording studio is a specialized facility for Sound recording and reproduction, recording and Audio mixing, mixing of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home proje ...
at 445 Sylvan Avenue, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, United States. Following the use of his parents' home at 25 Prospect Avenue,
Hackensack, New Jersey Hackensack is the most populous municipality in and the county seat of Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.
, for the original studio, Rudy Van Gelder (1924–2016) moved to the new location for his recording studio in July 1959. It has been used to record many albums released by jazz labels such as Blue Note,
Prestige Prestige may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Films *Prestige (film), ''Prestige'' (film), a 1932 American film directed by Tay Garnett: woman travels to French Indochina to meet up with husband *The Prestige (film), ''The Prestige'' (fi ...
, Impulse!, Verve and CTI. It was added to the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
on April 25, 2022, for its significance in performing arts and engineering. With accompanying 24 photos.


Background

From around 1952, beginning with a session led by Gil Melle that was sold to Blue Note, recordings were made by Van Gelder for commercial release in the living room of his parents' house at 25 Prospect Avenue in Hackensack, a house that had been built with the intention of doubling as a recording studio. The area was later subsumed by the Hackensack University Medical Center. In a 2012 interview, Van Gelder explained to Marc Myers,
"My father decided to build a home on a lot there in 1946. By then I was completely involved with recording local musicians who wanted to hear themselves on a 78 rpm. When my father was having the blueprints done, I asked him if I could have a control room with a double glass window next to the living room. I wanted to perfect the techniques of contemporary music recording... ...My father agreed immediately. He knew how passionate I was about the music and the process of recording. I asked that the living room be as large a space as possible, within the footprint of the house. My father’s architect decided to accomplish this by making the living room ceiling higher than the rest of the house, which made for great acoustics."

"The house was U-shaped, with the bottom of the U facing the street. It was a modern, California-style house. If you viewed the house from the street, the bedrooms and control-room were in the wing on the right side. The living room/studio was in the center, and the left wing housed the kitchen and dining room. Outside the dining room was an open patio... ...They an Gelder's parentssoon added a separate entrance to the bedroom wing. They were always very supportive and encouraging of my recording activities. All of the musicians smoked at the time but my parents rarely complained. Just once I remember my mother leaving me a note asking me to tidy up better."
In July 1959, Van Gelder moved to a new facility in Englewood Cliffs. The last recording session at Hackensack and the first at Englewood Cliffs were both led by Ike Quebec and are contained in '' From Hackensack to Englewood Cliffs'', a collection of singles recorded by the saxophonist in July 1959. Important recordings made at Hackensack include Booker Ervin's '' The Space Book'', '' The Freedom Book'', '' The In Between'', '' Groovin' High'', '' Exultation!'';
Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th century music, 20th-century music. Davis ado ...
' '' Workin''' and '' Steamin''' (1956); solo debuts by Hank Mobley ('' Hank Mobley Quartet'', 1955) and Johnny Griffin ('' Introducing Johnny Griffin'', 1956). Van Gelder's recording techniques were closely guarded, to the extent that microphones were moved when photography of bands was taking place in order to disguise his means of recording. The new structure with a 39-foot ceiling and fine acoustics, designed by the architect David Henken and inspired by the work of
Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...
, resembles a chapel. The critic Ira Gitler describes the studio in liner notes for the saxophonist Booker Ervin's '' The Space Book'' (1964): "In the high-domed, wooden-beamed, brick-tiled, spare modernity of Rudy Van Gelder's studio, one can get a feeling akin to religion." "When I started making records, there was no quality recording equipment available to me," Van Gelder recalled in 2005. "I had to build my own mixer. The only people who had quality equipment were the big companies. They were building their own electronics." Among many significant recordings made at Englewood Cliffs are
John Coltrane John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the Jazz#Post-war jazz, history of jazz and 20th-century musi ...
's '' A Love Supreme'' (1964), Booker Ervin's '' The Space Book'', 1964
Sonny Rollins Walter Theodore "Sonny" Rollins (born September 7, 1930) is an American retired jazz tenor saxophonist who is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. In a seven-decade career, Rollins recorded over sixt ...
' '' Sonny Rollins on Impulse!'' (1965), Stanley Turrentine's ''
Cherry A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet '' Prunus avium'' and the sour '' Prunus cerasus''. The na ...
'' (1972) and '' Don't Mess with Mister T'' (1973), Andrew Hill's '' Point of Departure'' (1964), Freddie Hubbard's '' Red Clay'' (1970) and Hank Mobley's '' Soul Station'' (1960). For its significance in the history of jazz music, the Van Gelder Studio was entered in to the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
on April 25, 2022. The nomination was prepared by a group of historic preservationists, Peggy Norris, H. Michael Gelfand, and Jennifer Rothschild, and the music historian Ashley Kahn.


List of recording sessions

The following table lists recording sessions for albums held at the studio.
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1950s


1960s


1970s


1980s


1990s


2000s


See also

* List of US recording studios * National Register of Historic Places listings in Bergen County, New Jersey


References

{{Authority control Companies based in Bergen County, New Jersey Recording studios in the United States Mass media in New Jersey 1959 establishments in New Jersey Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey National Register of Historic Places in Bergen County, New Jersey New Jersey Register of Historic Places