Russell Elevado

Russell Elevado (born 1966 in the Philippines) is a recording engineer and record producer based in New York City.

Description

Russell Elevado is a multi-Grammy award-winning^[1] record producer and recording engineer, born in the Philippines in 1966. His family immigrated to the United States in 1972 and grew up in New York City. Elevado's career started in 1986 when he started an internship at producer Arthur Baker's studio called Shakedown Studios in New York City. Elevado worked at various studios as assistant engineer eventually ending up at Quad Studios where he made his engineering start and was a staff engineer there from 1989 to 1991. Upon leaving Quad Studios, Elevado went independent.

Elevado is known for his use of analog equipment exclusively and prefers recording to tape for his productions.

Accolades

Russell Elevado has a catalog of 50 full albums from the over 100 albums in his discography.

Elevado earned a Grammy Award^[1] in 2000 for his production work recording and mixing contemporary R&B recording artist D'Angelo's critically acclaimed album Voodoo. Voodoo is now considered a classic album in the contemporary R&B genre and paved the way for the neo soul movement. Elevado's "old school" engineering and production techniques and preference for using mostly vintage equipment gave the album a sound reminiscent of classic soul or funk records fused with hip-hop textures and psychedelic treatments heard on classic 1960s and 1970s rock records.

In 2009, he received a Grammy nomination for Best Engineered Album^[1] for engineering Al Green's Lay It Down.

In 2015, he won a Grammy for Best R&B Album^[1] on D'Angelo's Black Messiah, the long-awaited follow-up to Voodoo.

In 2020 Elevado won a Grammy in the Best World Music category for mixing Angelique Kidjo's "Celia" album. in the same year he also received a nomination as producer/engineer/mixer for the band Lettuce in the Best Jazz instrumental album category.

Elevado's shows his broad range of styles among artists when he received the Grammy award for Album of the year^[1] for Jon Batiste's album We Are in 2022 which also won numerous awards that year.

From 2003 to 2006 Elevado produced, recorded and mixed 3 albums for the late jazz trumpet player Roy Hargrove. The band was called Roy Hargrove and the RH Factor which was a fusion of jazz, soul and funk. All of which were recorded and mixed all analog with minimal overdubs in a time when Elevado's contemporaries were embracing digital recording and mixing. These albums are a prime example of Elevado’s sound, creativity and vision.

Elevado mixed a few songs for Bilal's controversially unreleased second album, Love for Sale.^[2]

His work with Questlove, The Roots and Common is also very notable, pushing the limits of organic hip hop with creative mixing and production. he's worked with some of the most popular and influential artists and producers of his era like Alicia Keys (Elevado mixed her hugely successful debut single “Fallen”), Jay Z, Rick Rubin, Tony Visconti, Mark Ronson, Erykah Badu and J Dilla to name a few. What sets him apart from his peers is his commitment to analog and organic method of creativity. He has been quoted in many interviews about his dissatisfaction with the digital recording medium and the way it has changed the industry and the creative process of artists and production. Elevado does not use any plug-ins (digital effects and processing) and uses analog equipment exclusively for processing. His dedication to analog has defined his career attracting a wide range of artists from different genres.

Selected discography

Full albums

Angélique Kidjo - "OYO"
Animal Collective - "Isn't It Now?"
Blackalicious - “Blazing Arrow”
Blackalicious - “The Craft”
Corneille - “Birth of Cornelius”
D'Angelo - “Voodoo” (engineered and mixed)
D'Angelo- "Black Messiah"
Dave Chappelle’s Block Party - Soundtrack w/ various artists
David Ward - “Violet, Gold + Rose” (mixed and mastered)
Dornik- "Dornik"
Fredy Massamba - "Makasi"
Goapele - “Change It All”
iET - "So Unreal"
Inky - "Primal Swag"
Jay-Z Feat. The Roots - “MTV Unplugged”
Kamasi Washington- "Truth"
Karl Denson - “The Bridge”
Keziah Jones - “Black Orpheus”
Keziah Jones - "Captain Rugged"
Mike Andersen - "Echoes"
Nikka Costa - "Everybody's Got Their Something”
Nikka Costa - "Pebble to a Pearl"
Patrice - “Nile”
Patrice - "One"
Roy Hargrove presents The RH Factor - “Hard Groove” (Co-produced, engineered and mixed)
Roy Hargrove presents The RH Factor - “Strength” (Co-produced, engineered and mixed)
Roy Hargrove presents The RH Factor - “Distractions” (Co-produced, engineered and mixed)
Saul Williams - “Amethyst Rock Star”
The Dandy Warhols - The Dandy Warhols Are Sound
Tye Tribbett & G.A - “Life”
Wayna - "The Expats"
Xenia Franca - "Em Nome Da Estrela"
Zap Mama - "ReCreation"