Ken Rich
Encyclopedia
Ken Rich is an American producer/engineer/ composer and musician. He began playing violin at age 5, tuba at age 9 and moved on to the electric bass at age 15. After majoring in philosophy at Oberlin College
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...

 while pursuing intensive jazz studies with Wendell Logan
Wendell Logan
Wendell Morris Logan was an American jazz and concert music composer who created the jazz department at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music....

 and Donald Byrd
Donald Byrd
Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II, is an American jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd is best known as one of the only bebop jazz musicians who successfully pioneered the funk and soul genres while simultaneously remaining a...

, he moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 in 1991. He quickly ensconced himself in the session and live music scene of New York playing bass on David Byrne
David Byrne
David Byrne may refer to:*David Byrne , musician and former Talking Heads frontman**David Byrne , his eponymous album*David Byrne , Irish footballer*David Byrne , English footballer...

's "It Goes Back", "Offbeat - a Red Hot Soundtrip", Shabba Ranks
Shabba Ranks
Shabba Ranks is a Jamaican dancehall musician.He was one of the most popular dancehall artists of his generation. He was also one of the first Jamaican deejays to gain worldwide acceptance, and recognition for his 'slack' lyrical expressions and content, when "ridin' di riddim"...

' 1993 Grammy Award winning album "X-Tra Naked", and Laurie Anderson
Laurie Anderson
Laura Phillips "Laurie" Anderson is an American experimental performance artist, composer and musician who plays violin and keyboards and sings in a variety of experimental music and art rock styles. Initially trained as a sculptor, Anderson did her first performance-art piece in the late 1960s...

's "In Our Sleep" with Lou Reed
Lou Reed
Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...

. Mr. Rich was a member of Babatunde Olatunji
Babatunde Olatunji
Babatunde Olatunji was a Nigerian drummer, educator, social activist and recording artist.- Biography :Olatunji was born in the village of Ajido, a small town near Badagry, Lagos State, in southwestern Nigeria. A member of the Yoruba people, Olatunji was introduced to traditional African music at...

’s NYC-based band from 1994 until Olatunji's death in 2004.

Those sessions inspired Rich to develop his own home studios in the East Village
East Village, Manhattan
The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...

 and Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

 apartments where he produced Joseph Arthur
Joseph Arthur
Joseph Arthur is an American singer-songwriter and artist from Akron, Ohio. Combining poetic lyrics with a layered sonic palette, Arthur has built his reputation over the years through critically acclaimed releases and constant touring; his unique solo live performances incorporate the use of a...

’s album “Our Shadows Will Remain
Our Shadows Will Remain
Our Shadows Will Remain is the fourth studio album by Joseph Arthur. The album was released in the US September 28, 2004 on 12" vinyl, October 12, 2004 on CD, and in the UK on July 11, 2005 on CD and double 12" vinyl...

” which was voted Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...

’s Album of the Year in 2004 and Chris Rubin’s (Rolling Stone) Number One album of 2004. He also co-produced Mr. Arthur’s “You’re so True” which appeared on the Grammy-nominated Shrek 2 Soundtrack. From those home studios Mr. Rich also produced Tracy Bonham
Tracy Bonham
Tracy Bonham is an American alternative rock musician best known for her 1996 single "Mother Mother".Raised in Eugene, Oregon, Bonham is a classically-trained violinist and pianist...

’s “Blink The Brightest” (Zoe Records), Rene Lopez’s “One Man’s Year” and Morley’s “Days Like These” (Universal France) which Time magazine said “embodies modern-day NY femininity in all its multicultural finesse”.

In 2007 Ken Rich opened Grand Street Recording in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordering Greenpoint to the north, Bedford-Stuyvesant to the south, Bushwick to the east and the East River to the west. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 1. The neighborhood is served by the NYPD's 90th ...

 where his credits include Ani DiFranco
Ani DiFranco
Ani DiFranco is an American Grammy Award-winning singer, guitarist, poet, and songwriter. She has released more than 20 albums, and is widely considered a feminist icon.-Biography:...

 “Red Letter Year” (Righteous Babe Records-2008), The Gutter Twins
The Gutter Twins
The Gutter Twins is a musical collaboration between rock musicians Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan. Dulli and Lanegan have regularly contributed to each other's projects since 2000, most notably in Dulli's Twilight Singers; of the duo's origins, Dulli said "I think Mark told a journalist we were doing...

 “Saturnalia” (Sub-Pop-2008)., Lucinda Black Bear “Capo My Heart and Other Bear Songs” (2008), Noe Venable Summer Storm Journals (2008), Fionnn O’Lochlainn “Spawn of the Beast” (2008), The Compulsions EPs Laughter From Below (2004), Demon Love-2008, and High as Hell (2009), William Hart Strecker “Smoke and Clouds” (2005) and “All This Dreaming” (2007), Ward White “”Pulling Out” (2008), Greg Tannen “Rocket” (2008), The Key Party
Darren Gaines & The Key Party
is a 7 piece subversive lounge act from New York City. The band was started by Darren Gaines in 2006 .The self-released debut came out in the fall of 2006. It was named Album of the Day by , Download of the Week in the and dubbed “15 songs of rock and roll poetry celebrating the debauched, the...

's Hit or Miss, named CMJ album of the day (CMJ 2007) and the SF Chronicle’s Download of the Week in 2007.) and “My Blacks Don’t Match” (2009), and the Brooklyn Boogaloo Blowout’s 7” ep featuring Leah Siegel
Leah Siegel
Leah Siegel, is an American musician, singer, songwriter. She is the daughter of Robert Siegel and Jane Siegel.Siegel wrote a song for a Topsy Foundation commercial. The commercial won a Clio Award, Grand LIA and award at Cannes, in addition to being named an "ad worth spreading" by the nonprofit...

(2009),

In 2008, Rich's score and sound design for Alex Lyras’s play “The Common Air” were nominated for 2008 Garland Awards and won the 2008 Ovation Award for Intimate Theater and the 2008 LA Drama Critics Circle Sound Design Award.

Ken Rich continues to produce, engineer, mix, master and still plays an occasional bass gig.

See also

Grand Street Recording
The Common Air
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK