40 Facts About Eddie Kramer

Edwin H Kramer was born on 19 April 1942 and is a South African-born recording producer and engineer.

Eddie Kramer has collaborated with several artists now in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, including Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, the Kinks, Kiss, John Mellencamp, and Carlos Santana, as well as records for other well-known artists in various genres.

Eddie Kramer is a photographer who has exhibited a number of his intimate images of performers, particularly Hendrix, with whom he worked on Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold as Love, Electric Ladyland, Band of Gypsys, and The Cry of Love, as well as the posthumous Valleys of Neptune, People, Hell and Angels, Miami Pop Festival, and other releases produced through Experience Hendrix, the organization formed by Hendrix's heirs.

Eddie Kramer was born in Cape Town to art and music-loving parents Sonny and Minna Eddie Kramer, active opponents of apartheid who moved from South Africa to London in the early 1960s for political reasons.

Eddie Kramer studied classical piano at the South African College of Music.

Eddie Kramer moved to London at age 19, some six months after his parents' relocating there.

Eddie Kramer got his first industry job in 1962 at Advision Studios.

Eddie Kramer assisted on Pye Studios recordings by the Kinks, the Searchers, the Undertakers, Petula Clark, and Sammy Davis Jr.

Regent then tasked Eddie Kramer to help build and run their new four-track studio.

Eddie Kramer became a permanent part of Hendrix's creative process, collaborating on the four albums which Hendrix released before his death in 1970.

In 1968 Eddie Kramer relocated to New York, primarily to continue working with Hendrix.

Eddie Kramer began the second decade of his career working alongside architect John Storyk to oversee creation of Jimi Hendrix's state-of-the-art studio, Electric Lady Studios, built and equipped for a then-astonishing $1 million.

Eddie Kramer served as Director of Engineering there from 1970 to 1974, producing Carly Simon's debut solo album, Carly Simon, as well as albums for Sha Na Na and Peter Frampton, and engineering albums for Lena Horne, Dionne Warwick, and David Bowie, David Live and Young Americans.

In 1973 Eddie Kramer mixed Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy.

Eddie Kramer produced Buddy Guy, classical guitarist John Williams, award-winning country group the Kentucky Headhunters, hard rock and metal bands such as Whitesnake, Icon, Pretty Maids, Fastway, Alcatrazz featuring Steve Vai and Graham Bonnet, and Anthrax.

Eddie Kramer produced Among the Living for Anthrax in 1987, which yielded a Top 10 single in the UK, "I Am the Law".

In 1993 Eddie Kramer produced and engineered Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix, featuring tracks by Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, The Cure, Buddy Guy, classical violinist Nigel Kennedy, Living Colour, jazz guitarist Pat Metheny, hip hop artists PM Dawn, Spin Doctors, and others.

In 1994 Eddie Kramer released a two-part video series, "Adventures in Modern Recording", utilizing interviews with Les Paul, the seminal guitarist as well as pioneer of both electric guitar development and modern recording techniques such as multi-tracking and looping.

Since then, Eddie Kramer has served as co-producer of all Hendrix releases.

Eddie Kramer produced a second Hendrix tribute album in 1995, In From the Storm.

Eddie Kramer won a 1999 Grammy award for his audio production on the video for Jimi Hendrix's live album Band of Gypsys.

Eddie Kramer collected another Grammy in 2002 for engineering a single entitled "The Game of Love", with Carlos Santana and vocal by Michelle Branch.

In 2004, Eddie Kramer had several Hendrix-related projects, including helping DigiTech design and create an effects pedal which emulates characteristically Hendrixian guitar sounds.

Eddie Kramer remastered Hendrix albums for Classic Vinyl, and remixed Woodstock, a posthumous live release, in 5.1 surround sound.

In 2005 Eddie Kramer reunited with architect John Storyk to design Anacapa Studios in Malibu, California.

Again working with Digitech, Eddie Kramer helped design and create a Brian May guitar effects pedal in 2006.

Eddie Kramer remixed "Evil Ways", a previously unreleased live Santana track from Woodstock, in 2007, for the 40th anniversary of Woodstock.

Eddie Kramer engineered and mixed a 2008 album with Joey Santiago and Dave Lovering of the Pixies.

Eddie Kramer again exhibited photos in 2009, at the Morrison Hotel Gallery in Manhattan, as well as a newly opened branch Morrison Hotel Gallery in Del Mar, California.

Eddie Kramer was filmed and interviewed in 2009 for a BBC documentary about Sir George Martin, producer of all but one of the Beatles' album releases.

In 2010 he remixed "Cheap Sunglasses", a re-make of a ZZ Top single by the Australian hard rock band Wolfmother, and in conjunction with John McDermott and the Hendrix family's organization, Experience Hendrix, Eddie Kramer prepared Valleys of Neptune, an album of previously-unreleased Hendrix performances.

Eddie Kramer was chosen to be a presenter at the 2011 Grammy Technical Awards.

Eddie Kramer worked again with Robert Randolph in recording a "sacred steel" band for a 2013 release called Robert Randolph Presents: The Slide Brothers.

Eddie Kramer specifically cites Hendrix's strong individuality, powerful message, and expansion of the sonic vocabulary of electric guitar, including its potentials for controlled feedback and distortion.

Eddie Kramer recalls Hendrix as extremely disciplined in the studio, with his objectives thoroughly pre-planned.

Hendrix envisioned the tonal spectrum as a palette of colors, often instructing Eddie Kramer with color-based commands.

Eddie Kramer was such a complete human being with such far-reaching intellect.

Eddie Kramer broke a lot of barriers, musically and in every way.

Eddie Kramer was assistant engineer on Between the Buttons, Flowers, and Their Satanic Majesties Request.

Eddie Kramer improvised droning, Indian-sounding passages to weave among the song's verses.