Love Is Overtaking Me show host Sam Toone has put together a special show to celebrate our, and his, second anniversary on air. Here he introduces the special six hour take over which is taking place this Saturday, March 11th.

In celebrating two years at KMAH Radio, we are to examine an artist whose oeuvre spanned an incredible 70 plus years in recorded music. His name is Rudy Van Gelder, and he lived 1924-2016.

If you pick up your favourite jazz record, the chances are you will find RVG scratched into the run out. Although not a part of the production process like Alfred Lion, Rudy had a chance to shape jazz in the way he would’ve liked by using the most innovative methods and a fine tuned ear for impeccable sound. Although a large majority of techniques were kept in house and under close protection, capturing recorded sound in the earlier years was far more challenging.

Rudy had started off life as an optometrist whilst carrying on his passion for the recorded medium on the side, as work had picked up with the likes of Blue Note – this became a full time passion that only most can dream of.

Not only was Rudy the go-to recording engineer for Blue Note, but also Prestige, Verve and Impulse! In which records spanning be-bop, hard-bop all the way up to jazz fusion including influences from South American and African musicians to blend the sound of all different cultures.

Recording the music of Art Blakey, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and pretty much all of the jazz greats, we look to cover as much of Rudy’s output we can in the six hours, whilst discussing these personal favourites.

We wonder whether the musicians, Alfred, Francis and Rudy, would have known these records would be respected so many years on across the world, still sampled in depth throughout the sampling world and listened to by so many.

Jazz has been coming back around over the last two years with the sounds of Shabaka Hutchings, Yussef Kamal, Binker and Moses and Antony Joseph all proving that, so this seems like the perfect time to educate each other on those who paved the way for very recent musicians to come to the stage.

Artwork by Daniel Prothero.