Within the grooves of a record, some producers announce their presence loud and clear. Daniel Lanois sounds like Daniel Lanois. George Martin sounded like George Martin. Eno is Eno is Eno. Other leading lights, like Rick Rubin, practice a sort of willful transparency and backseat-ness to let the artist be their most authentic selves.

Then consider Leanne Ungar, who's produced and engineered some of the preeminent artists of the 20th century. Where does she fit within that spectrum? "I think different types of music call for different types of sound," Ungar tells GRAMMY.com. "Some have buried vocals; some have the biggest vocal you've ever heard. I wanted to be able to do both."

Having it both ways in the engineer's chair doesn't mean Ungar somehow lacks a distinct identity; actually, it means the opposite. By serving the song first and foremost, Ungar fulfills the highest calling of a producer and/or engineer: Getting the music into a listener's consciousness via the purest, most unfettered route.

Where does this philosophy come from? "What goes with my personality is that I've always tried to be as invisible as I can," Ungar continues. "So, when I go back and listen to records I've done over periods of time, it's pretty changeable. It's pretty much at the service of the artist and the song."

Read on for an in-depth interview with Ungar about what inspired her to become a producer and engineer, how she honed her particular approach and what she wants to bring out of any artist — no matter the genre, style or intent.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

I'm such a fan of those Leonard Cohen albums you co-engineered. What was it like working on I'm Your Man?

I was just talking to a student the other day who said he's working on a song called "I'm Your Man." I said, "I recorded a song called 'I'm Your Man!'" He'd never heard of it, of course.

It was fun because the sense of humor seemed to come more to the front of that record than some of the others. I took over in the middle; I didn't record all the basics. It was being produced by Roscoe Beck in the beginning, and at a certain point, he wanted to leave the project. I never really talked to him about why.

I was traveling between working in New York and working in L.A., and Leonard was in L.A. It was just terrific, meeting [oudist] John Bilezikjian and recording [vocalist] Jennifer Warnes. There was some amazing talent on that record.

Leonard's always been hilarious, so I never fully grasped how it came to the forefront on that album.

Just looking at him with a wilted banana on the cover is so funny!

When did you first realize you were into the sounds of records — the architecture of them more so than what they contained?

There were a couple of things that happened to me after I walked into the studio and was bowled over by what was going on in there, and wanted to be part of it. A couple of things that pushed me into engineering.

One was a sound company that worked with the Grateful Dead, called Alembic. At that point in time, which was the late '60s, people weren't even really using stacks of speakers and monitor speakers. The fact they were putting that much into the concert sound told me that sound was really important.

Then, there was a record called Something/Anything by Todd Rundgren.

Such a fan!

Such a fantastic record. I noticed he did everything on it. He wrote; he sang; he produced; and he also recorded and mixed, which put that on the same level as the others. That meant a lot to me, too.

One other key moment didn't happen until '76, when Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life came out. Amazing record, and a lot of those horns were synth horns, and they didn't have reverb on them.

I was listening to that record, sitting there with a fellow assistant engineer, and we were just marveling that it could sound like that without having any reverb. I didn't know how they did that, and it was wonderful.

I'm also a big fan of dry production.

I am too! Reverb is hard. It clouds up records and it puts a distance between you and the subject. It also can imply impact, so I think there are times when it has to be there.

But records on the dry side — especially those that have depth, with something in the front of your face but also in the back of the soundscape that's [dictating] the front or back of the room — are really satisfying.

How did you meld your various influences into a signature approach?

What goes with my personality is that I've always tried to be as invisible as I can. I don't think that sound is about the mixer that much. If you're serving the song and it's getting across, I think that's the important thing.

So, when I go back and listen to records I've done over periods of time, it's pretty changeable. It's pretty much at the service of the artist and the song.

I love producers on both sides of the equation — those who are super-transparent and those who put an unequivocal stamp on everything.

I think different types of music call for different types of sound. Some have buried vocals; some have the biggest vocal you've ever heard. I wanted to be able to do both.

And being transparent involves far more than just flicking on the recorder and walking away. I'm sure seeming invisible requires a lot of subtle brushstrokes behind the scenes.

[Chuckles] I think you're right about that.

The way Leonard and [producer] John [Lissauer] worked on "Hallelujah" in the studio — there wasn't a big budget for the record, and they had some big ideas. One of the things they were doing a lot was using samples from the Synclavier [synthesizer]. We were having to simulate a church space, a choir — different things that weren't what they seemed.

So, to serve that particular song, there had to be a great amount of dynamics and depth to the "choir" that was going on. So, I was working hard, sweating, trying to make that happen.

Leonard kept asking for more and more and more reverb in his voice. He wanted to sound like God on that particular [song]. And I don't think I did that good a job of simulating God, but there's certainly a lot of reverb on it!

Listening to early Leonard Cohen is interesting. They added bells and whistles that didn't really need to be there — but I kind of like them!

He really did not like those! 

When we went to do that Sony Legacy album [2022's Hallelujah & Songs From His Albums], the first thing we thought is we'd make the early stuff sound like the later stuff, as some of the later stuff sounded fabulous.

So, when we put that EQ up on the early stuff, it brought up all those tambourines and bells and things that were all [Gestures, suggests a ceiling] up here. Leonard said, "I fought the producer. I didn't want it to be on the album. And now, I don't want it louder on the album. Make it dull!

His idea was very much centered around the voice. And I think he always thought because he was not a quote-unquote great singer — I think he was a great singer in his own style — he always thought that if there was too much embellishment, people wouldn't listen to him.

Give me a record you worked on that you feel sums up your vision.

Well, there is that Holly Cole record I like a lot — [1993's] Don't Smoke in Bed. It's a jazz trio in Toronto — just piano, bass and voice. It's very, very simple, but it sounds pretty good and goes into different style machinations. It's emotional, but not overdone. I like it a lot.

I rented Shelley Yakus' Telefunken 251 for the voice and it sounded fantastic! We also rented a Neve sidecar so we could get some 1073 [channel amplifier/equalizer modules] on some of the inputs.

We ended up not liking it very much on the piano because the piano player [Aaron Davis] had a way of touching the piano that sucked all the highs out of the sound. It was the most velvety, quiet piano sound I'd ever heard, and he could make any piano sound like that.

Having that piano sound go through the Neve pre[amp]s put too much fuzz and softness into the sound, so I ended up not using Neves on the piano.

It's crazy how recording processes that would have cost a fortune 40 years ago are now accessible to almost anyone. What advice would you give a young music-maker just starting to mess around with sounds at home?

I think it's wonderful that the sounds are there and they can be had that universally. It's absolutely great that you don't have to go into some million-dollar studio. Although if you are searching for certain orchestral or drum sounds, it is good to have an acoustic environment that's been treated.

For me, the thing that's most important is the way you listen — what you hear. So, to me, mixing is mostly about hearing. Because hearing is so universal — we can't stop sounds coming in — we all think we're hearing everything, but we're not.

One of the courses I've been teaching for 19 years now is critical listening. It's about, "What do I listen for? How do I go into a dense recording and listen for things that were done that made it sound like that? What are the tools, and how can you tell them apart when you can't solo something?"

I think mixing is a lot about the relationships between this sound and that sound. I was talking about "front and back" earlier. The ways textures sound next to each other. Not how they sound on their own or solo, but how something bright can make something sound darker than it would on its own.

That's the stuff you have to be paying attention to, and listen hard for. Mixing is hard, whether you're doing it in a million-dollar studio or in your bedroom. I don't think either one is really harder if you know what you're going for.

Producer & Engineer Susan Rogers Worked With Prince And Barenaked Ladies. Now, She Wants To Know Why We Love The Music We Do.

"Is there a show happening on Sunday?," seven-time GRAMMY winner Leslie Ann Jones quipped to thunderous applause. "Because this is the place to be." 

Jones was the main honoree fêted during A Celebration of Craft — a joint event presented by the Recording Academy's Producers & Engineers Wing and Songwriters & Composers Wing. The 2024 GRAMMYs Week event was held on Wednesday, Jan. 31 at the GRAMMY Museum.  

With its breathtaking night view of downtown Los Angeles and a casual, cosmopolitan vibe, the Museum’s Ray Charles Terrace was indeed the perfect location for dozens of songwriters, producers and engineers to celebrate the behind-the-scenes craftsmanship that sustains the music business. Fueled by lifelong passion and an obsessive attention to detail, their artistry often goes unnoticed by the general public. 

In his opening speech, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. noted the evening’s historic significance — it was the first time that a GRAMMY Week celebration brought together the wings of Songwriters & Composers with Producers & Engineers. "The world needs more music right now," he said. "It needs more of what we do."  

Noting how special it feels to be a songwriter at the Recording Academy, Songwriters & Composers Wing Chair E. Kidd Bogart and Susan Stewart invited the nominees for a GRAMMY in the Songwriter Of The Year, Non-Classical category onstage. It was inspiring to see such a diverse group of creators being recognized — from Edgar Barrera, who reinvented the urbano genre through massive hits for Karol G and Bad Bunny, to country mastermind Shane McAnally, whose current nomination encompasses songs performed by the likes of Brandy Clark and Walker Hayes. Nominees Justin Tranter and Theron Thomas were also in attendance; Songwriter Of The Year, Non-Classical nominee Jessie Jo Dillon was unable to attend.

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While introducing Leslie Ann Jones — who was also the first woman chair of the Recording Academy’s Board of Trustees between 1999 and 2001 — Mason Jr. emphasized what an extraordinary person she is. "She is a classicist, but also a forward thinker and a trailblazer," he said. "She set the bar high in terms of passion, equality and inspiration — but she is also at the peak of her career, still leading the charge."  

The daughter of drummer and bandleader Spike Jones and singer Helen Grayco, Jones delivered a highly quotable speech that summarized her 40 year-old career in music. She recalled being mesmerized by the Beatles and the Temptations as a kid, and how her appreciation for their songs only grew as she developed her career as the sonic architect of pristine recordings.  

"We’re all very lucky to be surrounded by music every day," she said. "Music transcends everything. Someone with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia will smile when a song plays, and sing along to the lyrics. My service to our craft has given me a sense of purpose."  

Complimenting Jones' words with sound, singer/songwriter Brandy Clark (who has 17 GRAMMY nominations of her own) took the stage and launched into "Buried," a dazzling cut off her 2023, self-titled fourth album. The song’s gorgeous vocals, understated melody and witty lyrics about getting drunk on wine and dance exemplified the transformative power of a great song.  

Clark looked vulnerable as she performed the confessional gem "Dear Insecurity" — alone onstage in a sparkly black outfit, armed with her guitar. Underscoring the complexity of her artistry, her singing sounded delicate and incredibly powerful. 

Next up was Michigan husband and wife duo The War & Treaty, currently nominated for Best New Artist and Best American Roots Song at the 2024 GRAMMYs. Theirs was also a pared-down setup: Tanya Trotter on vocals and tambourine; Michael Trotter Jr. on keyboards and voice; and Max Brown on guitar. But the intensity and grit in their sound evoked the monumental scope of an avant-garde gospel orchestra.   

"And I’ve seen the devil... Chasing after the innocent with them blazing guns," Trotter Jr. belted as he played jazz-influenced chords on "Ain’t No Harmin’ Me" — a tune that shimmers with the mystique of a classic anthem from decades past.  

On "Blank Page," the group’s groove reached its finest combustion whenever the couple’s vocalizing harmonized together with abandon. But the musical backdrop — a sophisticated fireball of soul, blues, rock and folk — is both visionary and rooted in the classics.  

"Thank you for being you," said Trotter Jr. before bringing this unforgettable evening to a close. "Thank you for being authentic. Thank you for being badasses." 

Here's The Official Guide To GRAMMY Week 2024: MusiCares Person Of The Year, Pre-GRAMMY Gala, Recording Academy Honors & More

The Recording Academy’s Producers & Engineers Wing and Songwriters & Composers Wing are joining forces to host “A Celebration of Craft.” Taking place Wednesday, Jan. 31, at the GRAMMY Museum in Downtown Los Angeles, the inaugural event, the first-ever joint GRAMMY Week event for the Academy’s craft Wings, will honor seven-time GRAMMY winner Leslie Ann Jones for her prolific work as a recording and mixing engineer and record producer. The event will also salute the year-round work of the Producers & Engineers and Songwriters & Composers Wings and shine a light on the people working behind the scenes to create the year’s best musical works, including this year’s Songwriter Of The Year nominees. The premiere celebration kicks off the official start of GRAMMY Week 2024, the Recording Academy’s weeklong celebration comprising official GRAMMY Week events honoring the music community in the lead-up to the 2024 GRAMMYs, officially known as the 66th GRAMMY Awards.

“A Celebration of Craft” also debuts during a major development for the production and songwriting fields at the annual GRAMMY Awards. For the first time ever, the Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical and Songwriter Of The Year, Non-Classical categories will be awarded in the General Field of the GRAMMY Awards at the 2024 GRAMMYs next month. The Recording Academy announced these significant additions last June after they were voted on and passed by the Recording Academy’s Board of Trustees last May; relocating these categories allows all GRAMMY voters to participate in the voting process for these non-genre-specific categories and recognize excellence in the important fields of producing and songwriting.

“Songwriting and producing are some of the fundamental building blocks of our industry — in addition to, of course, performing and recording,” Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. told GRAMMY.com about the GRAMMY category changes." “We feel this change is an opportunity to allow our full voting membership to participate … We are excited that our entire voting body will be able to contribute to such important categories like Songwriter Of The Year and Producer Of The Year. Again, these are such important parts of our Awards process. But bigger than that, they're an important part of the music ecosystem. Since these categories are not genre-specific, and they are across many different genres, we felt it was responsible to put them in the General Field so everyone could vote for these important awards.”

A recording and mixing engineer and record producer for more than 40 years, Leslie Ann Jones has held staff positions at ABC Recording Studios in Los Angeles, the Automatt Recording Studios in San Francisco, and Capitol Studios in Hollywood. Now at Skywalker Sound, she continues her career recording and mixing music for records, films, video games, and television, and producing records primarily in the classical genre. Over the course of her career, she has worked with artists from Herbie Hancock, the Kronos Quartet, Holly Near, and Michael Feinstein to Santana, Bobby McFerrin, Charlie Haden, BeBe & CeCe Winans, ConFunkShun, and many more.

The first woman Chair of the Recording Academy’s Board of Trustees (1999-2001), Jones is the recipient of seven GRAMMY Awards, including four for Best Engineered Album, Classical and one for Best Immersive Audio Album. She serves on the Advisory Board of Institute for the Musical Arts, the Board of Directors of the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.), and she is an Artistic Advisor to the Technology and Applied Composition degree program at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Jones was also inducted into the NAMM TEC Hall of Fame in 2019 and is a Heyser lecturer. She was also the recipient of the 2022 G.A.N.G. Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Jones chaired the committee that wrote “Recommendations for Hi-Resolution Music Production,” published by the Producers & Engineers Wing of the Recording Academy, and is also a member of the Library of Congress’ National Recording Preservation Board.

“I’m so excited for our Producers & Engineers and Songwriters & Composers Wings to come together for ‘A Celebration of Craft’ later this month,” Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. said in a statement. “Both Wings are a critical part of our mission at the Recording Academy to create spaces for music creators to thrive, and I look forward to joining with music people from both of these communities to kick off our GRAMMY Week celebrations.”

“From her decades-spanning recording career to her work as former Chair of the Recording Academy’s Board of Trustees, a co-chair of the P&E Wing, and much more, Leslie Ann Jones has always been committed to the music community and to excellence in recording,” said Maureen Droney, Vice President of the Producers & Engineers Wing, in a statement. “It’s a privilege to convene our national network of creatives and technicians to salute her at ‘A Celebration of Craft’ with the Songwriters & Composers Wing, an essential collaborator in our effort to recognize the people behind the music.”

“‘A Celebration of Craft’ will mark the first GRAMMY Week event for the Songwriters & Composers Wing since our Wing was founded in 2021, and we could not be more enthusiastic to come together with our community for an evening dedicated to celebrating their creativity,” said Susan Stewart, Managing Director of the Songwriters & Composers Wing. “We’re thrilled to co-host this event with our friends in the Producers & Engineers Wing and pay tribute to the diverse creative professions in our industry together.”

The 2024 GRAMMYs, officially known as the 66th GRAMMY Awards, will air live from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Sunday, Feb. 4 (8 -11:30 p.m. LIVE ET/5-8:30 p.m. LIVE PT) on the CBS Television Network and will stream on Paramount+ (live and on demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the special airs).

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Updated Friday Oct. 13, 2023 to include info about Kendrick Lamar's most recent GRAMMY wins, as of the 2023 GRAMMYs.

A GRAMMY veteran these days, Kendrick Lamar has won 17 GRAMMYs and has received 47 GRAMMY nominations overall. A sizable chunk of his trophies came from the 58th annual GRAMMY Awards in 2016, when he walked away with five — including his first-ever win in the Best Rap Album category.

This installment of GRAMMY Rewind turns back the clock to 2016, revisiting Lamar's acceptance speech upon winning Best Rap Album for To Pimp A Butterfly. Though Lamar was alone on stage, he made it clear that he wouldn't be at the top of his game without the help of a broad support system. 

"First off, all glory to God, that's for sure," he said, kicking off a speech that went on to thank his parents, who he described as his "those who gave me the responsibility of knowing, of accepting the good with the bad."

Looking for more GRAMMYs news? The 2024 GRAMMY nominations are here!

He also extended his love and gratitude to his fiancée, Whitney Alford, and shouted out his Top Dawg Entertainment labelmates. Lamar specifically praised Top Dawg's CEO, Anthony Tiffith, for finding and developing raw talent that might not otherwise get the chance to pursue their musical dreams.

"We'd never forget that: Taking these kids out of the projects, out of Compton, and putting them right here on this stage, to be the best that they can be," Lamar — a Compton native himself — continued, leading into an impassioned conclusion spotlighting some of the cornerstone rap albums that came before To Pimp a Butterfly.

"Hip-hop. Ice Cube. This is for hip-hop," he said. "This is for Snoop Dogg, Doggystyle. This is for Illmatic, this is for Nas. We will live forever. Believe that."

To Pimp a Butterfly singles "Alright" and "These Walls" earned Lamar three more GRAMMYs that night, the former winning Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song and the latter taking Best Rap/Sung Collaboration (the song features Bilal, Anna Wise and Thundercat). He also won Best Music Video for the remix of Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood." 

Lamar has since won Best Rap Album two more times, taking home the golden gramophone in 2018 for his blockbuster LP DAMN., and in 2023 for his bold fifth album, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers.

Watch Lamar's full acceptance speech above, and check back at GRAMMY.com every Friday for more GRAMMY Rewind episodes. 

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The Recording Academy has announced Terri Lyne Carrington and Judith Sherman as honorees for their accomplishments as pioneering women in jazz and classical music. They will be honored at the Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing GRAMMY Week Event on Feb. 1 at The Village Studios in Los Angeles. The 15th annual event will return in-person for the first time since 2020, to kick off GRAMMY Week 2023. 

In addition to celebrating the achievements of three-time GRAMMY winner Terri Lyne Carrington and revered classical producer and 13-time GRAMMY winner Judith Sherman, the event will celebrate the year-round work of the Producers & Engineers Wing and its members. They advocate for excellence and best practices in sound recording, audio technologies and education in the recording arts, along with proper crediting, recognition and rights for music creators.

"We’re thrilled to return live to The Village Studios for the first time in three years to celebrate two groundbreaking music creators who are dedicated to innovating both creatively and technically in the recording field," said Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy. "Both Terri Lyne and Judith have made indelible contributions to music, and we look forward to bringing together producers, engineers and artistic professionals to honor these incredible artists and kick off our GRAMMY Week celebrations."  

Terri Lyne Carrington is an NEA Jazz Master, Doris Duke Artist, and three-time GRAMMY-winning drummer, composer, producer, and educator. She is the founder and artistic director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, as well as the artistic director for both Next Jazz Legacy program (a collaboration with New Music USA) and the Carr Center in Detroit. She has performed on more than 100 recordings over her 40-year career and has toured and recorded with luminaries such as Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Stan Getz, Esperanza Spalding, and numerous others.

Her artistry and commitment to education has earned her honorary doctorates from York University, Manhattan School of Music and Berklee College of Music, and her curatorial work and music direction has been featured in many prestigious institutions internationally. The critically acclaimed 2019 release, Waiting Game, from Terri Lyne Carrington + Social Science, earned the esteemed Edison Award for music and a GRAMMY nomination. In the fall of 2022, she authored two books, Three of a Kind (The AllenCarringtonSpalding Trio) and the seminal songbook collection, New Standards: 101 Lead Sheets By Women Composers. Her current GRAMMY-nominated album, New Standards Vol.1 (Candid Records), and her visual art curatorial debut at Detroit's Carr Center, Shifting the Narrative Part 1: New Standards, have accompanied the songbook release as part of the Jazz Without Patriarchy Project. 

Carrington is a 2022 inductee into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is co-executive producer and musical director for the newly formed Jazz Music Awards.

Judith Sherman has made an indelible contribution to the catalog of recorded classical music. 

She is an 18-time GRAMMY Award nominee and 13-time GRAMMY winner, including six GRAMMYs for Producer Of The Year, Classical (at the 36th, 50th, 54th, 57th, 58th, and 64th GRAMMY Awards). Early in her career she was employed at WBAI-FM in New York City, beginning as an engineer and over the course of four years working her way up to become producer and then music director. She was the recording engineer for the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont during the summers of 1976 through 1994 and worked as audio faculty at the Banff Centre in 2006 and 2008. A member of the board of directors of Chamber Music America, Sherman served first as secretary in 2002, and thereafter as vice president. She currently works as a freelance recording producer and engineer in New York.

Sherman has collaborated with a vast number of artists throughout her career including Rudolf Serkin, Ursula Oppens, Marc-André Hamelin, Llŷr Williams; with the Kronos Quartet and the Cleveland, Ying, Takács, and Pacifica String Quartets; with eighth blackbird and the American Brass Quintet; and with conductors such as Christoph Eschenbach, Donald Runnicles and David Zinman. Her recordings in the field of contemporary classical music have been particularly noted, including work with such composers as Steve Reich, Elliott Carter, Steve Mackey, Charles Wuorinen, John Adams, Shulamit Ran, David Rakowski, Philip Glass, Eric Moe, Joan Tower, and Terry Riley. Her recordings have appeared on many labels, including Nonesuch, Telarc, Cedille, New World, Avie, Albany, Signum, Hyperion, and Bright Shiny Things. 

"The Producers & Engineers Wing is privileged to pay tribute to two women who have pushed boundaries both in and outside of the studio," said Maureen Droney, Vice President of the Producers & Engineers Wing. "As GRAMMY nominees this year, Terri Lyne and Judith are awe-inspiring honorees who represent the best of the recording industry and whose contributions to their respective genres continue to resonate with our music community."

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