About Tom Dowd
Thomas J. Dowd Jr., known to his closest friends and associates as "Tommy", was born October 20th, 1925, in the Borough of Manhattan. His father was a radio innovator and stage set manager/designer. His mother was a classically trained pianist and opera singer. Tommy grew up surrounded by creativity and music, no doubt fueling his lifelong passion for combining cutting edge technological innovation in the recording studio with a mastery of allowing the artist's vision to come to life.
​
Tommy was accepted into Manhattan's prestigious Stuyvesant High School where he excelled in math & science. By then Tommy played numerous instruments and would pick up a few more during his formal high school years. Set to graduate from Stuyvesant at 16, Tommy assumed he would go to college to study radio engineering at NYCC or Columbia University where he had been taking college level classes. World War 2 interrupted his vision, enlisting into the Army he was asked to join the Columbia University band and work in the Pupin Physics Laboratory where he started out washing test tubes, while still in high school.
​
Upon turning 18 years of age, Tom Dowd was sent for basic training and sent back to the Pupin Physics Laboratory with his orders reading "US Army Corps of Engineers, Manhattan District", which later became known to the world as part of the Manhattan Project, aiding in the development of the first atomic weapons, ultimately ending the war in the Pacific. Tom was assigned to monitor Geiger counters, measuring radiation from the Cyclotron overnight. After the detonation of the United States first nuclear weapons over Hiroshima & Nagasaki the war came to an end, but Tom's service to his country did not. Tom, amongst other "radiation specialists" upon learning what they had been working on, were assigned to "Operation Crossroads" and sent to the Marshall Islands (Bikini Atoll) to investigate the effect of nuclear weapons on warships known as "Able" and "Baker" (the 1st ever and devastating underground) nuclear explosions.
​
In 1947, after serving his time in the Army, Tom returned to Columbia University intending to finish his studies. He assumed he would be given college credit for his new life experiences, which included the knowledge of 3 new elements. The Columbia administration disagreed, however, and thus Tom was unable to secure college credit due to the “Top Secret” nature of his scientific endeavors. The professors at Columbia simply did not know the science that Tom had learned through his government service and he was not inclined to sit through classes that he could have taught! Fortunately, academia's loss became music's gain.
​
​Tom left Columbia without graduating and took a job as an assistant engineer at a New York City recording studio in 1947. Quickly working his way up at the studio, Tom became acquainted with Herb Abramson of National Records, supervising sides for the label. As luck would have it, Herb met Ahmet Ertegun and shortly thereafter they formed Atlantic Records. Atlantic, at that time, employed a German Professor who Ahmet entrusted with recording directly to acetate as head recording engineer at the studio. When the German professor was not available one day, it was a 21-year-old Tommy Dowd who was called to engineer the session. Ahmet was enraged when he saw this "kid" on his session, storming out in protest. Thankfully Herb followed Ahmet, assuring him that he had worked the young engineer before and that he knew what he was doing. With Tom’s musical background and scientific knowledge, he quickly put Ahmet at ease, turning up the base beyond EQ levels and using multiple microphones in the studio, which Ahmet had never seen anyone do before. These techniques gave Ahmet the rich, full sound he had been looking for, and he was duly impressed. Time passed and Tom worked as a freelance engineer around town and started making a name for himself from his work on two hit records, Eileen Barton’s “If I Knew You Were Coming I’d of Baked a Cake” for National Records and Atlantic's 1st ever hit, the re-recording of Stick McGhee’s “Drinkin’ Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee”. By 1953, when Atlantic Records could afford to employ a full-time house engineer, Ahmet knew there was no one else for the job.​
​
​The sky was the limit for the ever-growing Atlantic Records team and their new offices at 234 W 56th Street in New York City, where they would conduct business on the 3rd floor of Brownstone and move office furniture as necessary at all hours of the day & night to record. With the label's success, and Jerry Wexler joining the label as one of its principles, the makeshift studio quickly became the top 2 floors of the brownstone, where floorboards where reinforced to install a Scully lathe, and the 1st ever an 8-track recording machine was used in a “commercial” studio.
Tommy and Les Paul were friends. One day Tommy, and his discerning ear, noticed that a newly recorded Les Paul & Mary Ford song had many more tracks than were possible to record by two people unless an 8-track machine was employed in the process. Tom quickly called his buddy Les, who confirmed that he had an 8-track machine that was used on the recording. Les put Tom in contact with the machine's manufacturer, AMPEX, who at that point had only made two 8-track machines: one for the US Government and one for Les. Atlantic Records continued to grow and in 1956 it acquired a much larger space at 1841 Broadway. The offices and studio were once again in the same building and Tommy was tasked with designing the new recording studio. Noticing an old non-soundproof door being sent for scrap, Tommy envisioned turning that old door into a recording console using slide potentiometers to replace the Bakelite knobs that had been used previously, thus the first ever modern day recording console with "faders" was created in house at Atlantic Records with Tommy's oversight.
By 1960 the Atlantic Records team, spearheaded by their head engineer, had released countless hit records including The Drifters, The Coasters, Ray Charles, to name a few. On “What I’d Say”, Ray Charles’ masterpiece, Tommy devised a way to record and press the entire song on both sides of a 45 RMP single, making it a seminal hit.
In his lifetime Tom Dowd worked with, captured, and touched the lives of the veritable who's who of modern music to include, amongst others, Jazz luminaries: Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman and Charles Mingus, R&B wonders: Aretha Franklin, Sam & Dave and Otis Redding; Rock & Roll superstars: Eric Clapton, Lynyrd Skynyrd & Rod Stewart; 80's Hit makers: Kenny Loggins & Eddie Money and 90's standouts: Primal Scream to name a few.
In his last decade of life, Tom was semi-retired and focused on his passion of music education, guest lecturing, helping found the Florida Chapter of NARAS and its Grammy’s in the School program, while reuniting with and contributing significantly to The Allman Brothers Band resurgence in the 1990’s and producing/mentoring then up and coming talent such as Joe Bonamassa & Susan Tedeschi into the early 21st Century.
In February of 2002 Tom Dowd was awarded the prestigious Grammy Trustees Award (lifetime achievement for non-performer) 8 months prior to his passing on October 27th, 2002, in Miami, Florida where he had resided since the late 1960’s. At the time of his passing, he was survived by his wife Cheryl, daughter Dana & son Todd (d. 2025) from his first marriage.
In January of 2003 a documentary film titled “Tom Dowd & The Language of Music”, which was 7 years in the making prior to Tom’s passing, premiered to critical acclaim at Sundance Film Festival, bringing Tom’s vivacious personality and storytelling to life on screen. Since Tom’s passing he has been posthumously awarded a Grammy Technical Lifetime Achievement Award (2006 – accepted by his wife Cheryl & daughter Dana) and inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (2012 – inducted by Robbie Robertson & accepted by his daughter Dana).
While Tom’s contribution to sound recording innovation, engineering, arranging and production have helped shape modern day recording, he was at all times a gentleman and a humble man. He would have wanted to be remembered first and foremost for his contributions as an innovator of stereo recording/engineering and the life-long friendships he forged along the way.
Please take the time to check out our proprietary “Discography” section which has Tom's most comprehensive list of projects he worked on during his long and illustrious career in music spanning over 50 years.
​​​