James Farber’s career got off to a rolling start in 1978 when he was hired as a full-time assistant engineer at the then just-launched Power Station Studio in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Midtown Manhattan. Here, he acted under the tutelage of studio owner Tony Bongiovi as well as now-iconic engineers like Bob Clearmountain, Neil Dorfsman, Scott Litt and, of course, Al Schmitt. With his minimalistic approach to engineering, the latter would become a pivotal influence on James’ work moving forward when finding his specialty niche in jazz.

Since then, James has recorded well over 1,000 albums, worked with some of the world’s premier artists and is widely considered one of the best jazz recording and mixing engineers ever. His footprint in the genre is indelible.