Luis Pastor "Val" Valentin

By the time I had the pleasure of working with Val Valentin in the mid eighties, I knew him only as the nice, white-haired Venezuelan gentleman who handed Ed McMahon his mic as he came onstage to emcee Star Search.

That's Val to Sammy's left wearing the suit and tie.

I was young and a bit dense and had no idea the guy was an extreme heavyweight in the recording world. Today online I've seen references claiming Val and Rudy Van Gelder were arguably the two most important jazz recording engineers ever, but back then all I knew about him was that he was friends with Ed Greene, and pleasant to work with.

He was also an engineer at Verve Records during their heyday in the late fifties and early sixties, eventually running the engineering side of the label.

Several LPs regularly come up when serious vinyl devotees engage in the "you gotta have this one" game. The Soul of Ben Webster often gets mentioned, along with Coltrane's Giant Steps, but one blogger I read waxed poetic about an album called Ella and Basie from 1963. Strangely enough, the two only recorded together twice, and if having the two of them together wasn't enough, the arrangements are all by Quincy Jones and Benny Carter. Naturally I had to have it. It's not an easy find. I got my copy used from Moishechazzer's Fine Music on eBay.

Amazing LP.

I'm sure you've figured out who engineered the recording. It's a brilliant listen--Ella's in absolutely perfect voice, and the band is frighteningly in the pocket. Val puts the saxes on the left, all of the brass on the right, and lets Ella own the middle. In a time when the stereo release of an album was often an afterthought, Val's soundstage placement is perfect.

According to the interwebs, Val passed in 1999. Miss you, Val.