Last night, the Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing took its second annual Grammy week event, dubbed "Rock My Soul," far away from the bustle of downtown's L.A. Live area, where Grammy events have been going on since Monday—and where load in for Sunday's Grammy awards is already under way. The producers and engineers wing went instead to an unprepossessing West Los Angeles location: the storied Village Recording Studios, a full-service recording complex in a 1920's Masonic Temple, which has been home to the likes of Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Barbra Streisand, Steely Dan, and Pink Floyd. Oversize Grammy statuettes flanked the entrance on the rainy night, and a searchlight streaked the air in a neighborhood perhaps not as accustomed to it as some others to the east and west.
Honorary event chairs Jimmy Douglass and Nile Rodgers, Grammy winner Keb' Mo', Recording Academy president and C.E.O. Neil Portnow, and chairman Jimmy Jam hosted about 450 guests to honor industry biggies Tom Dowd, Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun, Arif Mardin, and Jerry Wexler. The program supported the educational and advocacy initiatives of the Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing.
Tres L.A. passed hors d'oeuvres and set up stations, serving comfort foods like blackened shrimp, baked goat cheese, and mini Cubano sandwiches at stations. Belvedere sponsored the bars.
Preceding the official program and remarks, KCRW's Jason Bentley served as DJ in the second-floor theater, and musicians entertained in a lantern-strung cocktail tent. To close the night, music of the honorees filled the first floor in the multilevel venue, and different types of mysic—rock and pop, jazz, and R&B—filled smaller suites named for sponsors Fender, Shure, and Universal Audio, respectively.
