Bob Power, Legendary Music Engineer And Producer, Passes Away At 74
He was not on the list.
Bob Power, a renowned music engineer and record producer, has passed away. He was 74. DJ Premier confirmed the news of Power’s passing in a post on social media, lauding him for his work on numerous classic albums.
“R.I.P. to one of the iLLest Engineers of all time…Mr. BOB
POWER,” his post read. “Thank you for your various pointers in recording from
D’Angelo to ATCQ’S Low End Theory, Erykah Badu’s Baduizm, and so on!”
Questlove also paid tribute to Power on Instagram.
“You could NOT encounter a more engaging, enthusiastic,
laser-focused craftsman of sound and Sonic’s (engineer/mixing/production). I
mean, he’d let me bug him ad nauseam about “what does this button do? that
button? Bob was our training wheels for how to present music,” Quest wrote. I’m
so devastated by his passing. Thank you for changing all of our lives, Bob.”
In his remarkable career, Power contributed to landmark albums such as A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory, D’Angelo’s Brown Sugar, and Erykah Badu’s Baduizm, all of which were engineered at New York studios.
After earning degrees in music theory and jazz from Webster College and Lone Mountain College, Power began scoring music for television and advertisements. Eventually, he began engineering at New York’s Calliope Studios in the mid-1980s, working on Stetsasonic’s On Fire album. He became the go-to sonic architect for the Native Tongues collective, most notably for his work on A Tribe Called Quest’s landmark album, The Low End Theory.
Power pioneered techniques for mixing complex sample-based
arrangements with heavy, clear bass. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, he
contributed to projects made by Erykah Badu, D’Angelo, Me’Shell Ndegéocello,
The Roots, Tony! Toni! Toné!, Common, and De La Soul. Before his passing, Power
Associate Arts Professor at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music,
A Grammy nominee and NYU teacher, Power’s techniques for crisp snares and deep kicks bridged hip-hop’s golden age to neo-soul. He leaves an enduring legacy that music fans will always remember.
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