Beginning at 6:00 PM this evening, WKCR will dedicate thirty continuous hours to airing some of the thousands of jazz sessions recorded over more than half a century by one of the best recording engineers the world has ever known: Rudy Van Gelder.

From John Coltrane's A Love Supreme to Art Blakey's Moanin' and Horace Silver's Song For My Father, Rudy Van Gelder worked with the biggest names and labels in jazz to engineer immersive listening experiences the likes of which no one had ever heard before. Initially an optometrist by day, the Jersey City native followed his ear to Englewood Cliffs, NJ, where he opened his Van Gelder Studio in 1959. The work he did there would eventually earn him an Audio Engineering Society Gold Medal and the trust of musicians such as Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk, and Sonny Rollins, as well as make him an asset to labels like Verve, Impulse!, Prestige, and Blue Note.

With his passing today at the age of 91, Rudy Van Gelder leaves behind a legacy that will be heard and appreciated for lifetimes. Join WKCR as we celebrate that legacy with thirty hours of recordings engineered by Van Gelder, on air at WKCR 89.9FM and online at www.wkcr.org until midnight, August 26.