New York - Up Close & Personal With Tommy LiPuma

On June 25 Recording Academy members and non-members gathered for an intimate evening with three-time GRAMMY-winning producer and Verve Music Group Chairman Emeritus Tommy LiPuma. The event was moderated by Ashley Kahn, author, music journalist, and regular commentator for National Public Radio's "Morning Edition."

 

Many topics were discussed highlighting LiPuma's career as a producer and A&R man. He talked about his introduction to jazz music when he was 14, and his first job packing records for a record distribution company by day, and performing in a three-piece polka band at night.

 

LiPuma shared many anecdotes about his experiences in recording studios and working with arrangers such as Johnny Mandel and Claus Ogerman, engineer Al Schmitt and artists such as George Benson, Natalie Cole, Miles Davis, Diana Krall, and Barbra Streisand, among others. He discussed Cole's duet on "Unforgettable" with her father, Nat King Cole. LiPuma described how he took the old track and layered it with new music, and how an orchestra was brought in to follow along with the visual clip of Nat King Cole's performance. The end result: Everything was replaced except for the vocals.

 

Throughout the evening, Kahn played various audio clips, which combined with a photograph montage, helped capture some of LiPuma's career highlights. Many words were used to describe LiPuma throughout the night, but the most impressive was "genius."