Once I lastly sat down with Leslie Ann Jones at NAMM it felt like the top of a really lengthy working joke. We had been making an attempt to do that since 2019 and I’ve to provide full credit score to my co creator in life and chaos administration Kasia who by some means managed to herd schedules flights and basic insanity to get us into the identical room.
What makes Leslie’s story even richer if you find yourself sitting together with her is the information of the place she got here from. She grew up across the Los Angeles TV and music scene and is the daughter of two musical mother and father. Her father was the legendary novelty drummer and bandleader Spike Jones and her mom Helen Grayco was a surprising vocalist who sang alongside him. Via her mum she grew up listening to Mel Tormé Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand. Via her dad she heard the whole lot from classical to comedy to excessive finish huge band preparations.
She informed me within the interview that she used to hearken to these beautiful vocal preparations on her mum’s eight observe participant within the automotive and mentioned all you want is one identify when speaking about listening to Frank or Barbra. These singers formed her style early and it explains why to today huge band stays her favorite music.
She was musical from day one. Sears Silvertone guitar at fourteen. All lady bands. Enjoying High 40. Arranging for her associates’ bands. Constructing PA programs in garages. Making basement recordings on an early Tascam 4 observe as a result of she needed to be one other Peter Asher and produce bands.
And by 1974 she was already out on the street as Fanny’s street supervisor and stay sound mixer. She was barely out of her teenagers and already flying by intuition.
Early visits to Abbey Street and the primary huge leap
When she informed me she had solely ever been to Abbey Street as soon as earlier than our interview I almost fell off my chair. It was when she was street managing Fanny as they opened for Jethro Tull throughout the UK.
She mentioned the levels have been raked steeply and she or he was fearful of heights. Getting as much as the consoles was a feat in itself.
I informed her if Fanny have been out now they might be one of many largest bands on the earth and she or he smiled and mentioned she was positive of it and that the panorama has modified a lot that they might lastly get the credit score they deserved.
From there she walked straight into her first studio job. ABC Recording Studios in Los Angeles. And like we coated in our dialog it began within the least glamorous room within the constructing.
The tape duplication room.
Her shift was 4 until midnight. Making EQ copies. Making cassette runs for executives. Making ready European mastering curve variations. It was meticulous work nevertheless it gave her an understanding of the sign chain that only a few individuals get anymore.
The second she raised her hand
Her break got here when an assistant engineer refused a schedule change. Leslie informed me she merely caught her hand up and mentioned she would do it. The session was Michel Polnareff. It received her into the management room as an assistant for the primary time.
From there she educated with individuals like Roy Halee Barney Perkins and Reggie Dozier. Not unhealthy firm.
After which got here John Mayall who requested her to engineer his Plenty of Folks stay album in 1977. That was her first full engineering gig and she or he informed me she requested him why he selected her.
He mentioned he favored that she received on her knees and glued tape machines whereas different engineers walked in carrying loafers.
That work ethic turned her calling card.
The Automatt, innovation and ladies’s music
In 1978 she moved to San Francisco and joined The Automatt. The place was already well-known for innovation in mixing automation and new applied sciences. That they had one of many earliest digital multitrack programs and Leslie turned one of many first engineers wherever to make use of the 3M digital machine.
Her coaching there got here instantly from Fred Catero and David Rubinson. She recorded cues for Apocalypse Now. She recorded Carlos Santana with Tony Williams and Ron Carter. She engineered Maze Confunkshun Angela Bofill and a collection of albums for Holly Close to and Cris Williamson.
She informed me in our interview that her experiences with ladies’s music at The Automatt have been transformative. Girls owned labels ladies distributors ladies solely festivals ladies working the enterprise finish. She mentioned it was the primary time she noticed music and activism fused in such a strong method.
Freelance and the top of an period
When The Automatt closed in 1984 she freelanced for Windham Hill and Olivia Data and engineered a number of the final releases Olivia ever made. After which in 1987 she returned to Los Angeles and joined Capitol Studios.
Capitol Studios and the large band years
Her ten years at Capitol have been foundational. She engineered Rosemary Clooney Michael Feinstein Carmen McRae Betty Carter and an infinite quantity of orchestral and jazz materials. She informed me that working with arranger Peter Matz was surreal as a result of she had grown up listening to his preparations on her mum’s eight tracks.
She nonetheless remembers Diana Krall enjoying a piano solo and sitting there pondering I hope the mics don’t distort please let the preamps be proper.
She additionally mentioned one thing that caught with me.
“You want just a little worry so you don’t turn into complacent.”
Arrival at Skywalker Sound
In 1997 she moved to Skywalker Sound and has by no means left. She is now the Director of Music Recording and Scoring and spends her days recording orchestral scores movie parts and producing or mixing albums.
She even performs on certainly one of Skywalker’s intramural softball groups due to course she does.
Once we talked about how she received the job she mentioned she believed she was employed for her movie contacts as a lot as her ability. For her first few years she barely touched a console. As an alternative she rebuilt the scoring stage tradition and the technical workers citing engineers like Dan Thompson and hiring techs like Aaron Reiff.
She formed the tradition to match her personal ethic.
Everyone seems to be handled the identical. Large finances or unbiased. No hierarchy of price.
She mentioned that is perhaps her actual legacy there.
Main awards, management and selling ladies
Leslie has received a unprecedented listing of Grammys throughout jazz classical and immersive recordings together with Ask Your Mama Solar Rings and Soundtrack of the American Soldier. She has been nominated in each classical and non classical engineering classes one thing only a few engineers ever obtain.
In 2018 she was inducted into the TEC Corridor of Fame at NAMM.
She was additionally the primary lady employed as an assistant engineer at ABC Studios the primary lady Nationwide Officer of the Recording Academy a Trustee a previous Chair of the Board of Trustees and a lifelong advocate for ladies in audio.
She serves on the advisory board of Girls’s Audio Mission teaches on the Institute for the Musical Arts and has produced quite a few landmark recordings by ladies together with Holly Close to Cris Williamson Ronnie Gilbert Margie Adam and the Montclair Girls’s Large Band.
Oh and she or he co produced certainly one of Jane Fonda’s exercise albums within the eighties and earned a platinum document for it.
There’s nothing she has not performed.
Movie sound and video games
Her movie work contains Apocalypse Now Zodiac Blissful Toes Ballets Russes and Requiem for a Dream.
She has additionally recorded scores for video games like Star Wars The Drive Unleashed Gears of Struggle 2 Prototype Lifeless Area and Beowulf.
Once we talked about movie scoring she emphasised how a lot stress sits on the engineer.
“It’s important to know what’s going to work. You can’t cease a ninety piece orchestra whilst you strive one other microphone.”
And when one thing fails the associated fee is big. That’s the reason she loves Andrew Watt’s line about being fast not quick. Fast means appropriate. Quick means sloppy.
Might somebody repeat her path right this moment
Once I requested her whether or not an adolescent might observe the same path right this moment she paused.
“I have no idea the reply,” she mentioned.
Her alternatives have been constructed on an business that regarded very totally different. However she supplied one piece of steerage she believes nonetheless works.
Discover a songwriter composer singer or artist and turn into the particular person they can not stay with out. Develop collectively. Construct a relationship.
Our business has at all times run on relationships. That has not modified.
AI and Napster
Leslie in contrast AI to the Napster second. When Napster arrived the business panicked as a substitute of studying to information the change.
Twenty years later streaming is the centre of the enterprise.
She hopes we’ll do higher this time. Put up guard rails. Use AI as a device. Let it assist with out letting it substitute craft.
She mentioned she already finds AI model search helpful for distilling info. Not a shortcut. A device.
“I can not think about how AI will plug in a patch twine,” she mentioned laughing “nevertheless it may counsel an concept I want.”
Closing reflections
Sitting with Leslie you’re feeling like you might be speaking to the residing timeline of recent recording. From Spike Jones to Steely Dan to Apocalypse Now to Rosemary Clooney to Kronos Quartet to immersive audio and recreation scores she has seen each reinvention and stayed curious by all of them.
Increase your hand. Do the work no person else desires. Keep simply scared sufficient to remain sharp. Preserve the little child alive inside you who loves music.
That’s the lesson of Leslie Ann Jones.
