Tom Dowd & The Language
Of Music
(Palm Pictures) 
"Tom
Dowd & the Language of Music" is a compelling
and fascinating look at the life and times of Tom Dowd,
a pioneering engineer who produced some of the most
important R&B, rock, soul and jazz records ever
made. Dowd's story is told in his own words and the
words of the countless musicians and musical insiders
who adored him.
Tom
Dowd was born on October 20, 1925 in New York City.
At a young age he excelled in mathematics and physics,
leading to his work from the ages of 16 to 20 on the
Manhattan Project at Columbia University. In 1946, as
a sergeant in the Army Corps of Engineers, he oversaw
a team of radiation detection specialists at the atomic
bomb tests in Bikini Atoll. After his discharge from
the Army, he soon began applying his science background
to help revolutionize the process of recording music.
While working for Atlantic Records, his pioneering work
in stereo recording, and later his design of the eight-track
console, revolutionized the recording industry.
At
Atlantic records he turned the knobs behind legends
like Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Big
Joe turner, Ruth Brown, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane
and many, many others. Dowd worked particularly closely
with Ray Charles on many of his most important recordings
and is credited with helping Ray find his own voice.
It was a hectic and exciting period as Dowd recounts
anecdotes like recording the Coasters in the afternoon
and then at midnight doing a Mingus session. Or when
he went own to Stax records in Memphis to fix some broken
equipment and tested it out by cutting Rufus Thomas'
"Walking The Dog." As the 1960's rolled in
Dowd continued to innovate and as the old fashioned
knobs gave way to sliders and multi-tracking he recorded
folks like Buffalo Springfield, The Allman Brothers
Band, Cream and Aretha Franklin among others. Along
the way we get some fantastic footage and interviews
from Ray Charles, Eric Clapton, The Allman Brothers
Band, Lynard Skynyrd, Les Paul, Aretha Franklin, Joe
Bonamassa, Ahmet Ertegun, Jerry Wexler, Mike Stoller,
Cream, Booker T & The MG's among others. The footage
of Aretha rehearsing in the Muscle Shoals studio is
alone worth picking this up.
Tom
Dowd passed away in 2002 and this film is a fitting
epitaph of a man who can rightly be called a genius.
"Tom Dowd & the Language of Music" has
been nominated for a 2005 Grammy Award for Best Long
Form Video. Appropriately, Dowd's nomination comes in
the same year that another genius, Ray Charles, receives
a posthumous nomination for "Genius Loves Company."
The New York Times wrote of Dowd, "In a world of
singers, an unsung Hero." The DVD includes special
features such as over 80 minutes of bonus footage which
include deleted scenes and bonus interview clips.
-Check
out these related links:
Tom
Dowd & The Language Of Music Website
(Jeff Harris)
