Jimmy Robinson, a recording engineer who worked with Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie and many others, died last month at the age of 67, Pollstar reports. Along with his recognized studio talents, Robinson also played guitar, piano, bass, trumpet, saxophone and drums.

In the late ‘60s Robinson was playing with his Maryland band the Nowhere Men when jazz drummer Buddy Miles hired him as tenor saxophonist and brought him to New York City, where he impressed Hendrix and Record Plant co-founder Chris Kellgren, who hired him as an assistant engineer. One of his earliest assignments was to record the first-ever live show by Hendrix and Miles' Band of Gypsys in 1969. Robinson soon developed a scheduled partnership with Hendrix’s studio assistant Eddie Kramer, and they both worked regularly with the guitarist. Robinson moved to Hendrix’s Electric Lady studio in 1970.

In 1974, he became a member of Paris, the band formed by Bob Welch, formerly of Fleetwood Mac. Robinson was credited with bringing Welch -- who also happened to be his brother-in-law -- back to music and overseeing two successful solo albums in the late '70s. “Jimmy and I were both big fans of Led Zeppelin at the time,” Welch once said. "We conceived of forming a band, Paris, which would be more like Zeppelin than Fleetwood Mac. [Bassist] Glen Cornick was also in favor of this; we all wanted to rock ‘hard,’ yet with ‘depth,’ like we felt Zeppelin was doing.”

Robinson also worked on Bowie’s Station to Station album, and was credited by producer Harry Maslin with having “saved the day” with his “professionalism” during a particularly tense recording session. Further collaborations included sessions with Jimmy Page, Sammy Hagar and Van Morrison. After the death of colleague Kellgren, Robinson became a consultant and freelance engineer, and set up his own firm, Ear Candy Audio Productions, Inc. His credits included Tom Petty, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Paul McCartney and many others. Robinson released a solo album, Guitarworks, in 2012.

 

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