[Rudy]

Legendary engineer Larry Levine passed away last night. Feel free to post your condolences and remembrances here. Thanks much!

The A&M Corner Staff
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[Harry]

I just played "A Taste Of Honey" by Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass in his honor. Larry Levine won a well-deserved Grammy for that recording.

http://mixonline.com/recording/interviews/audio_herb_alpert_tijuana/

RIP Larry. Another great one is gone and will be missed.

Harry
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...Preserving The Sound Online...

[Mike Blakesley]

Very sad. I was hoping someday he would post here with memories of the A&M years. RIP Larry and thanks for the music.
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Mike B.

[Dave]

We miss you, Larry...



Dave

[DAN BOLTON]

Very sad news indeed...Larry was one of the great unsung heroes in the development of popular music. We all owe him a great deal of respect and gratitude.


Dan
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DAN BOLTON

"As much as I love music, I never thought it was my life. I thought it was the vehicle I used to express my life." HERBIE MANN

[Captain Bacardi]

Very sad news indeed. I thought Larry was as much responsible for the sound of the TJB as Herb was. He was known as the 8th member of the Tijuana Brass. He will be missed.



Capt. Bacardi
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The Chicago Cubs - 102 years and counting....

[LPJim]

My condolences go to his family. His fine work will live on.


JB
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Please visit my A&M-related sites: http://home.comcast.net/~lpjim/ (new) and http://www.geocities.com/LPJim54/ (old)

[jazzdre]

Wow! And to think just last year, I was asking about his contribution to Spector's "wall of sound"! (Did he or did he not really create the wall of sound, and did Spector just take credit because he was the boss?)

I also had no idea that he was 80! I thought that I had read somewhere that he was Herb's age, and that they went to the same high school together, and that's how they met.

My condolences to his family and friends.

[Captain Bacardi]

There is Larry's website at http://www.larrylevinerecordingengineer.com that has some interviews by Larry, as well as some photos that you can check out.



Capt. Bacardi
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The Chicago Cubs - 102 years and counting....

[Rudy]

I know the person who run's Larry's site (Jos)...he's the one that informed us of Larry's passing.

As for Spector's sound, I'm guessing that Spector probably had a concept of what he wanted the music to sound like, and Larry was able to translate that into an engineering method that gave us the Wall of Sound. Of course, Larry brought that over to A&M with him, and especially on songs like "South Of The Border" and "Mexican Drummer Man", that influence is really strong.

Steve Hoffman's forum also has a tribute thread running, with some good photos:

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showpost.php?p=3458610&postcount=6
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[alpertfan]

Wow. I read some interviews he gave about Phil Spector and the TJB a while back. Come to think of it, it really WOULD have been great if he had had the chance to post here.

RIP.

[Steve Sidoruk]

Larry Levine, 80; engineered record producer Phil Spector's 'Wall of Sound' in the 1960s

By Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
May 13, 2008

Larry Levine, the recording engineer who helped translate the grandiose sonic vision of record producer Phil Spector into some of the biggest-selling and most influential recordings of the rock era, died Thursday, on his 80th birthday, at his home in Encino.

The announcement by his wife, Lyn, gave no cause of death, but he had suffered from emphysema and heart ailments, his cousin Stan Ross said.

If Spector was the visionary architect of the "Wall of Sound" that defined such 1960s hits as the Ronettes' "Be My Baby," the Crystals' "Da Doo Ron Ron" and the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling," Levine was the nuts-and-bolts contractor charged with making it work.

Inside the cramped Studio A of Gold Star Recording Studios at Santa Monica Boulevard and Vine Street in Hollywood, Levine applied his skill to capturing and shaping arrangements that often encompassed three or four guitars, several pianos, brass, percussion and other instruments, not to mention the vocals.

"He made Phil Spector a genius by applying the simple logic of using echo chamber," Gold Star's co-owner Ross said Monday of Levine. "Phil had a tendency of overbooking the room, and there were more musicians than there should have been in the studio.

"It began to saturate the walls, and you couldn't make it happen unless you get some separation, and the only way you could do that is by getting some echo and making the room sound larger. . . .

"I showed him how you work this echo chamber thing and he got into it and sure enough it worked. . . . If Phil had gone into another place to do it, it would have been a normal record without any wall of sound. . . . It gave it dimension, it sounded like it was a football field."

Born in New York on May 8, 1928, Levine grew up in Los Angeles. After serving in the Army during the Korean War, he learned the craft of recording from Ross, who had opened Gold Star with Dave Gold in the early 1950s.

Though Levine might be most strongly associated with Spector, his distinctive resume also includes the early rock 'n' roll records of Eddie Cochran and those by the Beach Boys, Sonny and Cher, Wings, the Carpenters, Dr. John and Herb Alpert.

Levine won a Grammy for best engineered recording for Alpert and the Tijuana Brass' 1965 hit "A Taste of Honey," and Alpert brought him to his A&M label to build and oversee an in-house recording studio modeled on Gold Star.

"Larry was just the easiest guy in the world to get along with," said drummer Hal Blaine, who worked with Levine on the Spector, Tijuana Brass and other sessions.

"It was just a delight working with Larry. He really enjoyed what he was doing."

Besides his wife, Levine is survived by his sons Rick, Rob and Michael; four grandchildren; and sister, Joyce Black.

richard.cromelin@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/valley/la-me-levine13-2008may13,0,5697144.story
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[Harry]

Today's Charles Osgood report on "The Osgood Files" was about Larry Levine. You can download an mp3 of it (or just play it) from here:

http://fetch.noxsolutions.com/ww1/mp3/osgood_05142008_725.mp3

It's less than two minutes long, but it's nice to hear Larry Levine given tribute for his life's work.

Harry
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...Preserving The Sound Online...

[JO]

[Ed Bishop]

Larry was one of the great mono mixers in recording history...he simply knew how to get the right sound for whoever needed it. We'll always remember his great work with Uncle Phil, but of course he also mixed Herb's best stuff in his prime, and many other A&M acts as well. He will be sorely missed, but what a legacy!

ED
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Yes, I want some TJB mono on CD...and TJB Vol. 2 as well....greedy, isn't I?

[KentTeffeteller]

Hi,

Another sad loss in the music industry. One of the best recording engineers and really the 8th member of the TJB. An integral part of the sound and spirit of West Coast records. Larry, we'll miss you!
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