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Eddie Kramer
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Eddie Kramer (born 1941 in Cape Town, South Africa) is an audio engineer and producer who has worked with Led Zeppelin, Triumph, Kiss (and solo Ace Frehley), Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, AC/DC, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Peter Frampton, Curtis Mayfield, Santana, Anthrax, Carly Simon, LOUDNESS and Robin Trower.
1960s
Eddie Kramer was born in South Africa, and as a child studied classical piano, cello and violin. He attended the prestigious South African College of Music to learn classical piano, but formed an interest in jazz. He moved to England at 19, where he recorded local jazz groups in a home studio and installed hi-fi equipment as a hobby.
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Encyclopedia
Eddie Kramer (born 1941 in Cape Town, South Africa) is an audio engineer and producer who has worked with Led Zeppelin, Triumph, Kiss (and solo Ace Frehley), Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, AC/DC, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Peter Frampton, Curtis Mayfield, Santana, Anthrax, Carly Simon, LOUDNESS and Robin Trower.
Career
1960s
Eddie Kramer was born in South Africa, and as a child studied classical piano, cello and violin. He attended the prestigious South African College of Music to learn classical piano, but formed an interest in jazz. He moved to England at 19, where he recorded local jazz groups in a home studio and installed hi-fi equipment as a hobby. In 1964 he joined Pye Studios, recording artists including Sammy Davis Jr., Petula Clark and The Kinks.
In 1965 Kramer established KPS Studios and was later employed by Regent Sound to oversee construction of a new four-track studio.
He joined Olympic Sound Studios in London, where he engineered albums for acts including Traffic, Small Faces, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix, for whom Kramer engineered every album from Are You Experienced to The Cry of Love. After Hendrix's death he co-produced War Heroes, Rainbow Bridge and Hendrix in the West.
In 1968 Kramer moved to New York to work at the Record Plant, engineering Hendrix's Electric Ladyland LP and also worked with Vanilla Fudge, Joe Cocker and NRBQ. Working independently from 1969, Kramer engineered Led Zeppelin II – the first of five albums he engineered for the band.
Kramer added his own touch to "Whole Lotta Love" from Led Zeppelin II. He said, "At one point there was bleed-through of a previously recorded vocal in the recording of 'Whole Lotta Love.' It was the middle part where Robert [Plant] screams 'Wo-man. You need it.' Since we couldn't re-record at that point, I just threw some echo on it to see how it would sound and Jimmy [Page] said 'Great! Just leave it.'"
In mid-1969 Kramer was hired to record the Woodstock Festival for both the album and the movie. The project was arduous, as he recalled: "I arrived as dawn and was struck by the sight of the sun rising over what appeared to be the stage. The show was scheduled to start by lunch time. That panic pretty much set the tone for the entire concert. All of us in the crew had Vitamin B shots, so that we would be able to stay up for three days. The whole thing was recorded under the most primitive of conditions, but we got it done."
Kramer subsequently recorded live albums by Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Kiss, John Mayall, The Rolling Stones, Peter Frampton, Joe Cocker, Curtis Mayfield, Santana, David Bowie and Derek and the Dominos.
1970s
Kramer was director of engineering at Electric Lady Studios from 1970-1974, producing the posthumous Hendrix records, as well as albums by Carly Simon, Sha Na Na and Peter Frampton. While there he engineered albums for artists as diverse as Dionne Warwick and David Bowie.
In 1975 he left Electric Lady Studios to produce Kiss' Alive!, which began a long time association with the band. His engineering work included Led Zeppelin's The Song Remains the Same and Peter Frampton's Frampton Comes Alive!.
1980s onward
Kramer produced Fastway, Anthrax and Twisted Sister, as well as country and classical acts including the Kentucky Headhunters and guitarist John Williams.
Kramer produced the Hendrix tribute album, Stone Free, featuring The Cure, Eric Clapton and Buddy Guy, raising $750,000 for the United Negro College Fund as musical scholarships to Berklee College of Music, the Juilliard School of Music and The Dance Theatre of Harlem.
Kramer produced and engineered Buddy Guy's Slippin' In (1995), which received a 1996 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Record and a W.C. Handy Blues Foundation Album of the Year award. Buddy Guy and The Saturday Nite Live Band with G.E. Smith, was nominated for a 1996 Grammy Award.
He also produced In From the Storm (1995), a compilation of Hendrix tracks featuring: Sting, Steve Vai and Carlos Santana with the London Metropolitan Orchestra.
Other projects
Kramer has produced an instructional video, Adventures in Modern Recording, which features an interview with guitarist Les Paul. He has co-authored a Hendrix biography, Hendrix: Setting the Record Straight, with John McDermott. He is also compiling a photographic book, From the Other Side of the Glass, which features his photographs and recollections about the artists he worked with in the 60's and 70's.
Production credits
Selected production credits:
Engineering credits
Selected engineering credits:
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