DVD Recommendation - Tom Dowd & The Language of Music

You probably don't know who Tom Dowd is, but if you record music, your life has been effected by him deeply. Dowd was the staff engineer/producer for Atlantic Records starting in the 1940's and his career stretched all the way until shortly before his death from emphysema in 2002. The list of people he's worked with is like a who's who of music history: Ray Charles, John Coltraine, Rod Stewart, Charlie Parker, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Booker T and the MGs, The Drifters, Bobby Darin, Aretha Franklin, The Allman Brothers... the list is as long as your arm.

But perhaps even more important than his body of work were his innovations to the world of recording. Although multi-track recording was invented by Les Paul, it was Dowd who popularized it. Stereo recording, too, had been around since the 30's, but it wasn't until Dowd began using it that it caught on. As if that wasn't enough, you can thank Dowd for the design of modern mixing boards, too. Prior to his innovation, mixers were controlled with dials... it was Dowd's idea to use sliders and to eventually add the EQ and bus sections as they exist today.

This film is a really interesting look into his life and features tons of interviews with people who knew him and worked with him. It's also one of the few music films you are likely to see where the 'nice guy' makes it. Throughout the whole thing, Dowd's love for music clearly is his reason for being, and that's something any musician or music lover can learn from.