![]() “I am absolutely devastated to learn the news that we lost my dear brother-in-arms, the legendary Bruce Swedien,” Jones wrote on Roberta’s Facebook page. The news of his death, released this week by his daughter Roberta Swedien, of Gainesville, was a shock to Quincy Jones. 16 at UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville of complications from hip surgery. Swedien, who had lived in Ocala for many years, died Nov. Those albums cemented Swedien, a five-time Grammy Award winner, as one of the best sound masters in music history. Those albums escalated Jackson to the title of King of Pop by the end of the 1980s. Thriller would become the all-time best-selling album. During the next decade, he teamed up with Jones and Jackson to create the iconic albums “Bad” and “Thriller.” ![]() Swedien was a sound engineer working with Jones on the 1979 album “Off the Wall,” the first solo album of Michael Jackson. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.You can see the joy in sound engineer Bruce Swedien’s face as he leaned back in a comfy chair in a sound studio, sitting next to grinning legendary music producer Quincy Jones in a photo snapped about 40 years ago. 18, 2020: Updated to include further information on Swedien’s recording career and familial survivors. In addition to his daughters, Roberta Swedien and Julie (Loren) Johnson, Swedien is survived by his wife of 67 years, Bea.ġ0:44 AM, Nov. In an interview with a recording industry trade group, Swedien recalled a tip Jones once gave to him: "Don’t be after your time and don’t be before your time. You can feel the electricity in the room." "They all sat down and did not make a sound. But then, said the engineer, "Count Basie would stand up to give the down beat, and boy that tape would better be rolling." When that happened, the crowd stopped. Musicians rolled in, each with a few friends until the recording studio was part session, part party. Swedien recalled all-night sessions with Basie and his band that didn't begin until the clubs had closed. " were so fascinated by the recording technique and would put up with me trying to experiment with different sounds and different microphones." "I learned microphone technique by experimenting with Count Basie, with Woody Herman, Duke Ellington Stan Kenton," Swedien explained of his time at Universal. After Putnam relocated to Los Angeles at the behest of Frank Sinatra to open United Western Recorders, Swedien took over in Chicago. Soon Swedien was overseeing the facility's studio B. Putnam told them that if their son ever moved to Chicago he'd give him a job at his Universal Recording Studios. That a teenage Swedien was destined to work in recording studios was so obvious to his parents in post-war Minneapolis that when visiting Chicago in the mid-1950s, they sought out one of their son's idols, the recording pioneer Bill Putnam. ![]() Such inventiveness expanded the potential of the studio and was learned through countless hours in windowless rooms focusing solely on vibrations and frequencies. The combined effect, Swedien wrote in his book "Recording Michael Jackson," tricked the ear into perceiving depth of field. Swedien then layered the tracks to create a Jackson choir. Robinson capture the specific thump that propels the song.įor Jackson’s backing vocals on songs from "Thriller," Swedien suggested that the singer record a pair of similar takes a few inches from the microphone, step two paces back to record another take and then record another as Jackson moved his mouth and voice across the microphone to create a kind of stereo pan. ![]() Made of unvarnished, unpainted wood, it helped drummer J.R. To record drums on Jackson's “Rock with You,” for example, the engineer built a heavy-duty drum platform that was braced and counter-braced about a foot above the ground. That was the sonic genius of Bruce Swedien." In his Instagram statement, Jones heaped praise on Swedien's way in the studio during the "Thriller" sessions: "I have always said it’s no accident that more than four decades later no matter where I go in the world, in every club, like clockwork at the witching hour you hear 'Billie Jean,' 'Beat It,' 'Wanna Be Starting Something,' & 'Thriller'. The engineer recalled being astounded by Jackson's talent, as well as his eagerness to experiment. When Jones accepted the job making Jackson's 1979 debut solo album, "Off the Wall," Swedien was part of the package. The two took separate paths in the early 1970s - Jones moved to Paris - but reconnected in 1975 to collaborate on albums for the Brothers Johnson, George Benson and Lesley Gore. ![]()
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