Al Schmitt
Albert Harry Schmitt (April 17, 1930 – April 26, 2021) was an American recording engineer and record producer. He won twenty Grammy Awards for his work with Henry Mancini, Steely Dan, George Benson, Toto, Natalie Cole, Quincy Jones, and others.
Schmitt grew up in New York City and lived in Brooklyn until the late 1940s. He bought his first 78 at the age of 10, Jimmie Lunceford’s record “White Heat.” Schmitt’s favorite band was Jimmie Lunceford & His Orchestra. He had a younger sister, Doris, and two younger brothers, Richie and Russell, both of whom became audio engineers. His family was poor so some Saturdays he worked at a shop doing shoe repairs.
On the weekends, Schmitt would spend time at his uncle’s recording studio, Harry Smith Recording (Smith had changed his name from “Schmitt” to “Smith” because of the anti-German sentiment of the era). From the age of 8, Schmitt would ride the subway himself from Brooklyn to Manhattan to go to the studio.
Smith’s studio was the first independent recording studio on the East Coast, engineered sessions for Brunswick Records including with Bing Crosby, and the Andrew Sisters. Smith was his father’s brother and also Schmitt’s godfather. Schmitt considers Smith one of his mentors for recording along with Tom Dowd.
Smith was friends with Les Paul, who became “like another uncle” to Schmitt. Schmitt and Paul remained friends for life
After serving in the U.S. Navy, he began working at Apex Recording Studios at the age of 19 as an apprentice. He got the job based on a recommendation from his uncle. His job was primarily assisting on engineer Tom Dowd’s recording sessions. After a few months, he was engineering small demo recordings (mono recordings at 78 rpm).
On a Saturday afternoon, Schmitt had a recording session with Duke Ellington and his Orchestra — not the small demo recording he was expecting. Schmitt was the only one at the studio and couldn’t get the owner or engineer Tom Dowd on the phone so he did the session in person. Schmitt said he told Ellington many times, “Mr. Ellington, I’m not qualified to do this”. Ellington responded by patting him on the leg, looking him in the eye and saying, “It’s okay sonny, we are going to get through this”. They cut three songs in four hours.
He worked at Apex for two years until it closed. When Apex closed, he moved to Nola Studios for a year (Tom Dowd told him of the opening) then worked at Fulton Recording. At Fulton, he worked with engineer Bob Doherty who taught him how to mix large orchestras. In 1958, Schmitt moved to Los Angeles and became a staff engineer at Radio Recorders on Santa Monica Blvd in Hollywood. In 1963, he moved to RCA in Hollywood as a staff engineer, the first engineer hired for the studio. While at RCA he engineered albums for Henry Mancini, Cal Tjader, Al Hirt, Rosemary Clooney, Liverpool Five, The Astronauts, Sam Cooke (“Bring It On Home to Me,” “Cupid,” “Another Saturday Night”) in 1961. He also did a lot of motion picture scoring work for Alex North and Elmer Bernstein. In addition, Schmitt worked with Jascha Heifetz’s “Million Dollar Trio”, which comprised Heifetz himself, Arthur Rubinstein on the piano, and Gregor Piatigorsky or Emanuel Feuermann on cello. Schmitt once stated that “Mr. Heifetz was very temperamental in the Studio.” He has also stated that Heifetz would have angry fits during recording sessions. Schmitt also engineered the recording sessions held at RCA Hollywood for Elvis Presley’s first post-army motion picture for Paramount Pictures, titled G.I. Blues. These recording sessions were held on April 27–28, 1960.
n 1966, Schmitt left RCA and became an independent producer. He produced albums for Jefferson Airplane, Eddie Fisher, Glenn Yarborough, Jackson Browne and Neil Young. In the mid 1970s he began spending more time engineering again, recording and mixing artists from Willy DeVille to Dr. John. Other career highlights include engineering both Frank Sinatra Duets albums, Ray Charles’ Genius Loves Company and some of Diana Krall’s albums. Much of his work in his last years was with producer Tommy LiPuma. He also recorded Sammy Davis, Jr., Natalie Cole, Thelonious Monk, Elvis Presley, Tony Bennett, Madonna, Michael Jackson, and many others. In 2014, Schmitt worked on Bob Dylan’s album, Shadows in the Night, which was released on January 30, 2015. He also worked on the Samsung’s Over the Horizon telephone ringtone theme of 2015 as a recording/mixing engineer.
See below a glimpse of the albums he worked on:
