Edmeston, NY — July 20, 2016 — Al Pryor, the executive vice president of Mack Avenue Records, and engineer Todd Whitelock discuss how they have crafted Grammy® winning jazz records over the past 11 years together, and the recording equipment responsible, including their choice of digital to analog converters. Mack Avenue’s recording of bassist Christian McBride’s Trio “Live At The Village Vanguard” won the ‘Best Improvised Jazz Solo’ Grammy for Christian in 2016.“Todd understands how to capture the sound of an acoustic instrument, which is of critical importance to Mack Avenue Records in building its own sound that aspires to what the great labels — Blue Note, CBS Masterworks — have done. We have been on this constant search for the tools that will help us get there. Dangerous Music is foremost among companies that understand the transition from the analog to the digital world to help us bridge the gap to get there,” says Al Pryor in the video. Todd Whitelock adds, “Dangerous Music has the clarity and transparency that I knew Al was going to like. It has changed, literally, the way we make records.”
ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES
Al Pryor, Executive Vice President for Artists & Repertoire for Mack Avenue Records is a veteran of Sony Music, Gramavision Records, Harry Belafonte Enterprises, Blue Jackel Entertainment, arts advocate organizations like Chamber Music America, and various commercial and public broadcasting operations. This past year Pryor was awarded a Grammy as the producer for vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant’s Grammy winning sophomore release For “One To Love.” His work as an A&R man and producer has included collaborations with many artists ranging from the legendary band leader Gerald Wilson, to the great Brazilian artist Oscar Castro Neves, to today’s musical geniuses like Christian McBride and Danilo Perez, and to future greats such as pianist Aaron Diehl and multi-instrumentalist Warren Wolf. But many musicians and jazz fans in the greater metropolitan New York City area know Pryor from his days as a pioneer of the all-jazz public radio format in America and the live concert broadcasts from NYC distributed throughout nation and the world.
For more on Al Pryor, please visit: http://www.allmusic.com/
Todd Whitelock has engineered albums for many of today’s most exciting artists including Josh Groban, Idina Menzel, Harry Connick Jr., Yo Yo Ma, Kronos Qt., Chick Corea, Wynton Marsalis. and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra to name just a very select few. His work has been awarded six Grammy awards over a twenty five year career, the most recent being “For One to Love” by Cécile McLorin Salvant which garnered the prestigious “Best Jazz Vocal Album” for 2016 and his recording of Christian McBride’s Trio “Live At The Village Vanguard” captured a Grammy winning performance by Christian for Best Improvised Jazz Solo, the first for a Double Bassist. Besides album work Todd has engineered numerous Broadway Cast Recordings, Film Scores and Feature Music such as last year’s Coen Bros. movie “Hail Caesar!” as well as the theme music to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert by Jon Batiste.
For more on Todd Whitelock, please visit: http://www.allmusic.com/
