(LAST UPDATED AND EXPANDED APRIL 28, 2020) Welcome to the Deep Groove Mono collector’s discography for legendary jazz recording engineer Rudolph Van Gelder. I have dubbed this a “jazz collector’s discography”, for while it is not exhaustive, it is intended to cover all Van Gelder recordings for albums deemed “collectible” by today’s standards. To be precise, this discography aims to cover the following:

Blue Note: All recordings for LPs released prior to 1966 (1952-1965)
Prestige: All jazz recordings prior to 1959 (1954-1958)
New Jazz: All recordings prior to 1961 (1954-1960)
Impulse: All recordings prior to 1966 (1960-1965)
Savoy/World Wide/Regent, Riverside, Argo Jazz, Signal, Atlantic, Debut, Progressive, ABC-Paramount, Ad Lib, Bethlehem, Contact, Limelight, Pacific Jazz, United Artists: All jazz recordings prior to 1966

Note that this discography only covers albums recorded by Rudy Van Gelder, and that there are many albums mastered by Van Gelder that are not included here because he did not record them.

Originally Unissued Recordings: Because of this discography’s collector focus, recordings that were not originally released between 1953 and 1965 have been omitted. For example, although Tina Brooks’ Back to the Tracks was recorded in 1960, the sessions for this album have not been included here because the album wasn’t released until 1998.

Formats: This discography focuses on the ten-inch and twelve-inch LP formats. Because Van Gelder largely did not work professionally in the 78 era, and because the vast majority of his recordings released on 78 were also released on LP, data for 78s has been omitted with the exception of sessions released on 78 only.

Questionable Recordings: While I have attempted to make this discography complete for the above scope, there are some Van Gelder recordings that have not (yet) been included. In some cases, while there is evidence suggesting that an album was recorded by Van Gelder, that evidence has not been deemed strong enough for that album to be included here. An example is an album where the back of the LP jacket says “Engineer: Rudy Van Gelder” but various discographies do not list the recording location as Van Gelder Studio. These albums have been excluded here because we cannot be sure if these albums were recorded and mastered by Van Gelder or mastered only. Finally, on a rare occasion it is known that at least part of an album was recorded by Van Gelder, but the dates and/or locations of the Van Gelder sessions could not be determined, so these albums have been excluded due to incomplete information. If you have reason to believe that a classic jazz album not listed here was recorded by Rudy Van Gelder, please let me know.

Sources:

1. The professional journals of Rudy Van Gelder (special thanks to Maureen Sickler and Elijah Shiffer)
2. Tom Lord, The Jazz Discography
3. The Jazz Discography Project (jazzdisco.org)
4. Official album liner notes (original LPs or compact disc reissues; first-hand copies or internet images)

Indicators:
^ = An album containing previously released material (the original release is always presented here as well)
* = An album with material only partially recorded by Rudy Van Gelder

In the future this discography may expand to include Verve, CTI, and later recordings by Blue Note, Prestige, New Jazz, and Impulse that are currently omitted. Someday it may even expand to contain the entire Van Gelder discography. For now, my hope is that vintage jazz collectors and general fans of the classic “Van Gelder Sound” will find this database insightful and useful. If you have any questions, comments, or corrections, please don’t hesitate to email me. Feel free to sort the columns and filter the database by searching, and have fun exploring the world of classic jazz recordings that Rudy Van Gelder is responsible for!

– Rich Capeless, February 10, 2014