Verve Music Group

Verve would like to congratulate Al Schmitt on his latest GRAMMY win: Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for Diana Krall's latest CD The Look of Love.

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Al Schmitt has been in recording studios since he was seven years old, starting in his uncle's recording studio in New York City.  At nineteen, after serving in the U.S. Navy, Al got his first engineering job at Apex studio in New York working with his mentor, engineer Tommy Dowd.  He was responsible for recording simple demos but that changed when a presumed demo booked under the name Mercer, turned out to be Duke Ellington and his band.  Al went on to record sessions for Atlantic Records, Prestige Records and Bobby Shad's "Sittin In."

With encouragement from Dick Boch of World Pacific Jazz, Al made a move to California to work at Radio Recorders, where together with Bones Howe, he did the first Peter Gunn album for RCA Victor.  Al engineered several RCA Victor sessions, and when they opened their own studio at Sunset and Vine, he was the first engineer they hired.  He won his first Grammy in 1962 for Mancini's "Hatari."  In 1963, he became a staff producer at RCA, producing the Jefferson Airplane, Eddie Fisher, Sam Cooke, Gale Garnett, and the Limelighters.  He left RCA to become an independent producer in 1967 and went on to produce for the Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna, and Jacksone Browne.

Because of strict union regulation at RCA, while Al was producing he could not engineer.  When Tommy LiPuma asked him to engineer Dave Mason's album, "Alone Together," Al realized how much he'd missed using his skills in recording and mixing.  Al's second Grammy came working with Tommy LiPuma on George Benson's album, "Breezin," in 1976.

Al loves producing and engineering and has been privileged to work with the best and the brightest in the recording industry.  In addition to "Hatari" and "Breezin," Al has won Grammys for engineering Steeley Dan's "Aja" in 1977 and "FM(No Static At All) in 1978; and for "Toto IV" in 1982; and Natialie Cole's "Unforgettable" in 1991; and for Diana Krall's "When I Look In Your Eyes" in 1999.  In 2000 he won two Latin Grammys, as the engineer in the Best Pop Album and Album of the Year categories for Luis Miguel's "Amarte Es Un Placer."  Al won his 11th Grammy in 2001 for Best Engineered Album-Non Classical, for Diana Krall's "The Look of Love."

During his career, Al has recorded and mixed over 150 gold and platinum albums; received 24 Grammy nominations and 11 Grammy wins.  In 1997 he was inducted into the TEC Hall of Fame.  In 1998 and again in 2000 and 2001, Al was elected to serve as national Trustee for NARAS.