Sundance 2003

Tom Dowd & The Language of Music

 (Docu)

By DAVID ROONEY

A Language of Music Films production. Produced by Mark Moormann, Scott Gordon, Mark Hunt. Executive producer, Juan Carlos Lopez. Directed by Mark Moormann.
 
With: Tom Dowd, Ray Charles, Eric Clapton, the Allman Brothers Band, Les Paul, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Aretha Franklin, Joe Bonnamassa, Ahmet Ertegun, Phil Ramone, Mike Stoller, Arif Mardin, Al Schmitt, Tito Puente Jr.
 

This review was corrected on Feb. 3, 2003.

In "Tom Dowd & the Language of Music," Miami filmmaker Mark Moormann celebrates one of 20th century music's unsung craftsmen, whose collaborations stretched from jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Mingus to funk-soulsters Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin, guitar supremo Eric Clapton and Southern rockers the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Illustrating the vital role of a skilled engineer in the pre-digital age, the documentary will be of special interest to musicians, but public TV slots also should welcome this warm appreciation of a humble man with infinite passion for his work.

More than an account of a technician who just happened to hook up with a string of history-making musicians, the docu identifies Dowd as a prime force behind some of the great names in contemporary music and a pioneer in the changeover from mono to multi-track recording. (Dowd died at 77 of emphysema in October while post-production on the film was being completed.)Dowd also was a key behind-the-scenes figure at Atlantic Records. His mastery at the control panels, ease at interfacing with singers and musicians, intuition with refining and shaping sounds and skill in teasing out a prominent, clean bassline helped make the red-and-black label legendary.

The film also charts the evolution of musicianship and recording techniques over the past half-century, quietly conveying a wistful nostalgia for the hands-on days of pre-computerized sound engineering. Recreating studio setups from back when some of popular music's most enduring hits were mixed without post-production tinkering, Moormann's film -- and Dowd in his own words -- present an eloquent case for music engineering to be considered an art rather than a mere technical skill.

The phenomenal talent lineup with which Dowd was associated includes Tito Puente, Jr., John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Otis Redding, Bobby Darin, Sonny and Cher, Cream, Buffalo Springfield and Rod Stewart. Among pop classics he had a hand in creating are the Drifters' "Save the Last Dance for Me," Franklin's "Respect," Dusty Springfield's "Son of a Preacher Man," Ben E. King's "Stand By Me," Booker T and the MGs' "Walkin' the Dog" and Derek and the Dominos' "Layla," which Dowd revisits here at the mixing console, isolating guitar tracks by Clapton and Duane Allman.

Moormann also touches on Dowd's truncated parallel career as a nuclear physicist at Columbia U, where he was part of the research team that developed the atomic bomb and traveled to Bikini Atoll to supervise testing.

In addition to recording artists, interviewees include producers and music industry veterans such as Phil Ramone, Arif Mardin, Ahmet Ertegun, Les Paul, Jerry Wexler and Mike Stoller, intercut with archival studio and concert footage, still photos and a handful of reconstructions.

At feature-length, the conventionally assembled documentary feels a little long. Non-musicians may find the painstaking coverage of recording processes a little dry and more space could have been given over to music clips. But Dowd's graciousness and enthusiasm, and the enormous respect afforded him by industryites on record here, make this a thorough and satisfying acknowledgement of one man's unique contribution to popular music.

Camera (color), Patrick Longman; editors, Tino Wohlwend, Moormann; set decorator, Lewis Zucker; sound, Dean Gudmundson, John Austin; associate producers, James Kirk, Wendy Perkins, Lawrence Saichek. Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival (Documentary Competition), Jan. 22, 2003. Running time: 92 MIN.