Forgotten Heroes: Roger Nichols

In this modern era, where data is available at the click of a mouse it seems we have forgotten the thing that makes music so great, the people. Forgotten are those that help the artists make their album and pity the individual who assumes that the relationship between that of an engineer and the artist is just a technical one. Sadly these people will ultimately go unrecognised in the digital future, the only link to the album outside of the audio itself being the cover.

In my CD collection I have a copy of Steely Dan's Aja. In there it names an astounding engineer by the name of Roger Nichols (7 times Grammy Winner) who helped shape and form the sound for some amazing artists over the years. I didn't know the man, just the music behind the man. Fine music it was too. Sadly Roger passed away on Saturday the 10th April 2011 after a short fight with Pancreatic Cancer.

As lovers of music, we should celebrate people like Roger and his documented collection of work, but sadly future engineers and producers won't have people looking up to them or students wanting to be as good as them as modern music delivery means that they are fast becoming the invisible people of the creative music industry. With no physical product I wouldn't have learnt the name Roger Nichols and appreciated what he offered to the world. It's time to go home and put Steely Dan on the hi-fi and toast to one of the silent men in the industry without whom artists might not shine quite as bright as they do.

Full Article @ LA Times