Jacob Wendt - Silver Street

180-gram audiophile vinyl pressed at Record Technology INC (RTI). When it comes to making jazz records, Jacob Wendt is a jack-of-all-trades. Not only did he assemble the band for Silver Street and play the drums, he also did all the composing and arranging for the eight songs on the record. He made key recording and mixing decisions alongside engineer Paul Tavenner, who has over 30 years in the industry (previously holding positions at Capitol Records and CBS) and has been the owner of Big City Recording in Los Angeles since 1999.

Born in the Bay Area, Wendt relocated to Southern California at 18 years old to begin studying jazz in earnest. He quickly developed a passion for learning how all his favorite albums were made, which eventually led him to take a more active role in the technical aspects of producing Silver Street. Specifically, he was inspired by the legend of jazz recordist Rudy Van Gelder’s home studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, which was active in the 1950s during hard bop’s golden era. In the spirit of his favorite albums made there, Wendt elected to have his band play together in one room at Big City while opting for minimalist miking techniques. Using a classic stereo spread that has horns and drums flanking the piano and bass in the center, each instrument cuts through the mix with refreshing clarity. And where the recording of piano tends to suffer on numerous classic jazz albums, here it has been exceptionally recorded. Wendt and Tavenner have succeeded at creating an intimate sonic portrait of a small jazz combo swinging into the wee hours of the night at a crowded metropolitan club.