REAL GONE
Producer, A&R, executive and music lover Tommy LiPuma died on March 13.
Farewell, Tommy LiPuma, Joni Sledge, Alessandro Alessandroni and more.
Tommy LiPuma was in his middle twenties, plying the family trade of barbering in Cleveland, when he took a pay cut to pack records for a local distributor. It was the first step in a long and stellar career, but he did not forget the loading bay lessons of what made a successful release. A figure of energy and taste who found his vocation when listening to jazz and R&B radio, he moved to Los Angeles to work as a plugger for Liberty Records in 1961. His habit of sitting in on studio sessions led to demo production, where he made the acquaintance of singers and sessioneers including Randy Newman and Leon Russell. His first production hit was The O’Jays’ 1965 hit Lipstick Traces (On A Cigarette); soon after, he was made staff producer at A&M, where his successes included The Sandpipers’ 1966 Top 10 hit Guantanamera (LiPuma also gave the wiggy mid-section narration). Cognisant of changing tastes, in 1968 he co-founded Blue Thumb Records, where he helmed albums by Dave Mason, Dan Hicks and Gabor Szabo. LiPuma’s honed pop sensibility was arguably more apparent as the ’70s progressed, with his work on Barbra Streisand’s Number 1 The Way We Were (1974) and George Benson’s Grammy-bagging Breezin’ (1976). After more quality studio dates for Warners – in the next 15 years, he would produce Bill Evans, Miles Davis, Al Jarreau, Dr. John, Randy Newman, Everything But The Girl and Aztec Camera – he attained a zenith of sorts with Natalie Cole’s Unforgettable With Love, 1991’s multi-platinum winner of six Grammys. LiPuma also held a variety of executive positions at Elektra, Verve and Warners, but he never abdicated his studio role: late-period credits include albums for Paul McCartney, Willie Nelson and Diana Krall. An art collector and raconteur, in 1999 he memorably explained his philosophy to Performing Songwriter magazine. “The most important thing, and it’s still something that’s my credo today, is material… a friend of mine once used an expression and I use it all the time now – you can’t turn horseshit into ice cream. You got to have the goods, otherwise, all these elements don’t mean anything.”