Indispensable Feature Story: Eddie Kramer
Eddie Kramer. His name can be found on a copious number of album credits. He worked with so many influential artists that his contribution to rock music is incalculable. The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, Kiss. The list goes on and on. As an engineer, and later producer, he shaped the sound of many of the most important bands from the late ‘60s through the 2010s.
Born in South Africa, Edwin H. Kramer grew up in a family of classical music fans (his father was an amateur violinist). He studied classical piano at the South African College of Music until he followed his parents to the UK when they left South Africa due to its shameful apartheid policy. While at college, he had become interested in other genres, namely rock and jazz. He built a makeshift home studio in London and recorded jazz acts, along with some other odd jobs. His foundation as musician, fan, and mastery of recording techniques would enable him to develop strong relationships with artists. Kramer considered his musicality to be one of his greatest strengths. “…the musical part of it never left…it’s front and center when I react to anything,” he explained. “I’m so blessed to have had this wonderful musical background…I listen to the music first and the technical stuff is really secondary, that’s more a means to an end.” 1
His career began to take off when he secured a job at Advision Studios in central London in 1962. Though it was one of the city’s top studios, he left after one year to join the studio team at the legendary Pye Records. There, he first began to make mobile recordings of classical performances.
Pye Records, established in 1955, was also a pivotal label in the early days of rock and roll. In the ‘60s, it was home to artists like the Kinks, the Searchers, and Status Quo as well as pop singers Sandie Shaw, Petula Clark, among others. At his new job, he was able to assist on recordings for many of these artists.
In 1965, he founded his own studio, KPS, which was later acquired by Regent Sound. Kramer was asked to build and manage its four-track studio there and would engineer two Beatles singles, “Baby, You’re a Rich Man” and “All You Need Is Love” from Magical Mystery Tour. From there, he moved on to Olympic Studios to work as Assistant Engineer with The Rolling Stones (Between the Buttons, Flowers, and Their Satanic Majesties Request), Small Faces (Small Faces), Traffic (Mr. Fantasy, Traffic), and finally, Jimi Hendrix.
It was with Hendrix that Kramer became an essential creative partner in the studio. He was impressed when he heard Hendrix’s first single, “Hey Joe,” released in 1966. Kramer recalls meeting him, a moment he called the most stunning of his life. “He’s sitting in the corner of Olympic, huddled up in this old raincoat because it was bloody cold in London at the time. We all knew about him because he had done ‘Hey Joe,’ came to London, and just shredded the town. All the musicians were crying into their guitars.” Kramer went on to say, “He changed my life, basically, and the course of my musical and production and engineering career.” 2
After placing a microphone in front of Jimi’s amp, Kramer was “gobsmacked” by the guitarist’s sound. “I’d never heard anything quite like it, and it really changed the whole concept of how I was going to record stuff. It was such an impact! Can you imagine hearing that sound for the first time? Oh my God, it was earth-shattering!” 3 Hendrix, for his part, was happy to finally connect with an engineer who could help him achieve his ideal sound. Kramer engineered or assisted on most of the tracks for the groundbreaking Are You Experienced? The album was a huge success upon its release, selling more than a million copies in just seven months.
Kramer and Hendrix were to continue their successful partnership through the next few years, and he relocated to New York in 1968 to work with the guitarist. He was Chief Engineer on Axis: Bold As Love, and recorded Electric Ladyland alongside Gary Kellgren at the Record Plant.
Kramer recalled his experience recording “Voodoo Child.” “I had mics everywhere, and the fact that Jimi was singing live too! I wasn’t afraid of recording an artist in the room live as he was cutting. To me, anything that was in the room was fair game to be recorded. Don’t forget that I had an artist who was an absolute genius, so it made life a lot simpler.” 4 He later mixed the live recordings from the Fillmore East in 1970, eventually released as Band of Gypsys.
Just months after the album’s release, Hendrix was dead from barbiturate-related asphyxia. “Jimi was on a rise, no question. I think the Band Of Gypsys was the key that opened the door because not only did it yield a fantastic album, but it also had that funk, blues, tough R&B vibe, which led to this beautiful open space for him to jam and really just stretch out for 15 minutes," Kramer reflected. "That was the stepping stone," Kramer explained. "So his death was not only a shock to everybody, but it was premature in the sense of what he was thinking musically. Listen to the Monterey performance of ‘67 – which is an all-time classic – and then go two years later and listen to Machine Gun. Again you’re talking about three pedals, a guitar, and Marshall amps. So it isn’t as if there’s some kind of magic technology going on. It’s still one guy, two hands, making sounds that nobody had ever made before." 5
"Eddie Kramer exploring psychedelic sounds with Jimi Hendrix"