Interviews

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Interviews

Alon Wolf: the Man Who Brings the Magic

Rogier van Bakel Mar 19, 2026 First Published: Apr 01, 2026 0 comments

A conversation with Magico founder Alon Wolf can feel like stepping onto a moving walkway; it's best to find your balance early. Over the course of a spirited five-hour conversation at the company's impressive production facility in Hayward, California, Wolf questioned my choice of gear. Twice.

Interviews

Steve Berkowitz: A Record Man For All Seasons

Sasha Matson Jul 02, 2025 First Published: Jul 02, 2025 0 comments

Photos by M. van Dorp.

Does anyone use the term "record man" these days? In an earlier era, it would have been used in the same way the term "ad man" was used, as a particularly American job description. People who spend their careers in and around the music business. Some of these record men are known by the publicsome of it anywaywhereas others may be familiar only to colleagues.

I met Steve Berkowitz under the best of circumstances: sitting in a basement listening room hearing beautiful recordings made in 1958 that I'd never heard before, by the Miles Davis Quintet. It was the recently issued Miles DavisBirth of the Blue (Analogue Productions APJ 172). The album was, the credits state, "Supervised by Steve Berkowitz." The name rang a bell, though prior to this meeting, I didn't have a face to go with the name.

Interviews

James Farber: Capturing the Live Event...in the Studio

Ken Micallef May 07, 2025 First Published: May 07, 2025 0 comments

Photo by Ken Micallef

Ask the average jazz-loving audiophile to list his favorite recording engineers, and such icons as Rudy Van Gelder, Roy DuNann, and Fred Plaut would top their lists. but if you asked a handful of current and recent New York City jazz musicians to cite their favorites, one name would leap to the front of the pack: James Allen Farber.

Interviews Music and Recording Features

Policed: the Complex Simplicity of Andy Summers

Rogier van Bakel Mar 12, 2025 First Published: Mar 12, 2025 0 comments

Summers photos By Rogier Van Bakel

"That's pretty odious," Andy Summers says to me. "An odious comparison." His blueish eyes darken. Roughly an hour into our 90-minute face-to-face interview, I'd asked if it bothers him that in terms of reach and staying power, his solo oeuvre will never match his work with The Police.

To me, the observation seemed factual and uncontroversial, like saying that the sun rises in the east. The Police sold more than 75 million records and played some of the largest venues in the world. The night before our interview, I'd watched Summers perform a show in a 400-seat theater in rural Waldoboro, Maine.

Interviews Music and Recording Features

Electropop Pioneer Boris Blank's Blank Canvas

Rogier van Bakel Nov 09, 2024 First Published: Nov 09, 2024 0 comments

Yello's Boris Blank poses at an outdoor cafe in old town Zurich. (Photo by Rogier van Bakel.)

Boris Blank has a cold, and three days after meeting him in his hometown of Zurich, I do too. This seems apt. Metaphorically, he's been infecting me for decades.

For almost 45 years, Yello, the pioneering Swiss band that Blank formed with singer Dieter Meier, has created witty electropop that provokes joy and awe in attentive listeners. You can dance to most of this music, of courseit's often hard not tobut its allure, its spell, goes deeper. For one thing, Yello's music is delightfully visual. Cinema for the ears.

Interviews Music and Recording Features

Mark Knopfler, Straits Shooter

Mike Mettler Jul 10, 2024 First Published: Jul 10, 2024 0 comments

All photos by Guy Fletcher

For a guy born in postwar Glasgow who spent his formative years across the border in Northern England, Mark Knopfler has a knack for writing songs based in an American ethos.

Since disbanding Dire Straits, which he led from 1977 to 1992, Knopfler has evolved from headband-sporting guitar hero to acclaimed observational songwriter. Commencing with his 1996 solo debut Golden Heart (Warner Bros.) and continuing through One Deep River, his just-released 10th solo studio album, on the jazz-centric Blue Note label, Knopfler tells character-focused stories in arrangements that might cause listeners to think he's from Nashville, not Northumberland.

Interviews Music and Recording Features

Steven Wilson: A Master of Immersive Music

Mike Mettler Mar 06, 2024 First Published: Mar 06, 2024 0 comments

Photo By Adam Taylor

Steven Wilson loves changing the minds of spatial audio skeptics. He's the go-to Dolby Atmos and 5.1 mixmaster for many heritage artists, new-wave bands, and alternative acts. Best known for leading the post-prog collective Porcupine Tree, releasing a score of genre-stretching solo albums, and serving as a key creative contributor to such experimental groups as No-Man and Blackfield, Wilson's approach is simple: bring them into his studio and let the music do the talking.

Interviews

Bob Ludwig—The Mastering Master Bids Farewell (Part 2)

Tom Fine Aug 22, 2023 First Published: Aug 22, 2023 0 comments

The wall of Gold and Platinum Disc Awards, as displayed at the Gateway Mastering website.

In Part 1 of this interview, which announced that famed mastering engineer Bob Ludwig was retiring, Ludwig discussed his early days as a music-loving student, as a trumpet player, his graduation from Eastman College with a Master's degree in music performance, and how working with legendary engineer and producer Phil Ramone at A&R Studio awakened his interest in how records are made. In this second part, Ludwig talks about how he moved to Sterling Sound, then to Masterdisk, and finally how and why he set up his own studio, Gateway Mastering Studios in Portland, Maine.

Interviews

Bob Ludwig—The Mastering Master Bids Farewell (Part 1)

Tom Fine Aug 21, 2023 First Published: Aug 21, 2023 0 comments

Photo: Peter Luehr

If album sales, longevity of career, position on the leading edge of audio technology, reputation in the music business, and involvement in many of the most important albums in history are the measurements, Bob Ludwig is the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) of music mastering.

"I'm an old goat, anyway," he joked during our multiday, many-hours conversation, centered around his recent retirement announcement and his five-plus decades as a mastering engineer.

If Bob Ludwig is the Michael Jordan of music mastering—and the case can definitely be made—then this is big news. I'll repeat it for emphasis: Bob Ludwig is retiring. Ludwig stopped taking new work on June 30, 2023.

Interviews Music and Recording Features

Samara Joy

Ken Micallef Aug 09, 2023 First Published: Aug 09, 2023 0 comments

Photo by Meredith Truax

23 year-old Samara Joy is the recipient of the 2023 Grammy Awards for best new artist and best jazz vocal album. Her 2022 sophomore outing, Linger Awhile (Verve), is a jubilant celebration of The American Songbook. Her warm, velvet-dark vocal tone, graceful swing sense, and intuitive interpretations provide a master class in classic jazz fundamentals.

Joy owns the past but also the present. On her TikTok channel, "Samarajoysings," she has accumulated 585,100 Followers and 4.3 million Likes. The channel documents performances of such standards as "A Foggy Day," "Guess Who I Saw Today," an a capella "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," and a sublime "Round Midnight," delivered in multi-octave glory. Old and new, together. Read that last bit again, about TikTok. That Joy is popular with jazz fans will surprise no one who has heard her music. That she has won such a following on a platform dominated by 1019-year-oldsmainly by singing 70-year-old songsboggles the mind.