Bruce Jackson (audio engineer)
Bruce Jackson | |
---|---|
Born | Bruce Robert Jackson 3 June 1949 Sydney, Australia |
Died | 29 January 2011 Death Valley National Park, California, United States | (aged 61)
Occupation(s) | Audio engineer, entrepreneur |
Website | https://www.brucejackson.com.au/ |
Bruce Robert Jackson (3 June 1949 – 29 January 2011) was an Australian
While still a partner at Apogee, Jackson began touring with
JANDS
Bruce R. Jackson was the first of five children born to Bruce H. Jackson, Sr and Mavis Jackson, living in
At age 18, Jackson and one of the boys, Phillip Storey, dropped out of university and became partners in an electronics business. They used their surname initials to form the company name: J&S Research Electronics Pty Limited.[4][8] The partnership's largest customer, Roger Foley, doing business as Ellis D Fogg,[9] a producer of psychedelic lighting effects, refused to write out the full company name and instead wrote JandS on his checks. The partners added an equipment rental company with the name JANDS Pty Limited, in response.[8] After moving the company from Point Piper to Rose Bay, JANDS made "whatever the hell they felt like", according to Jackson: lighting equipment, guitar amplifiers and public address system components such as column loudspeakers.[6] He described how, with so many American servicemen stationed in Vietnam spending their recreation time in Sydney, Australian bands and clubs were doing well: "the live music scene was jumping, and we were busy".[9] JANDS' successful rental business paid for the design of new gear.[6] After two years, Jackson and Storey quarrelled and the two decided to disband the company.[2] They sold out to Paul Mulholland, David Mulholland and Eric Robinson, who were operating a small lighting company Jubillee Gaslight, on Sydney's north shore. Later, JANDS grew under Mulholland and Robinson to become Australia's largest sound and lighting company. Jackson and Storey served as consultants to JANDS, from time to time.[4]
Clair Brothers
Jackson first met Roy Clair in 1970 during a world tour by the band Blood, Sweat & Tears when they stopped at Sydney for a concert held at Randwick Racecourse.[6][10] Clair had brought his unusually large American concert sound system to Australia and Jackson was curious to hear it, and to see how the big black 'W' bins were designed. He and a friend sneaked into the concert and spoke with Clair, asking "a whole stack of questions".[6] Clair decided to leave his sound system in Jackson's hands for a series of Johnny Cash tour dates coming up in some six months, rather than shipping all the gear home to the USA and back in between.[3] Jackson stored the system and then mixed the Cash tour across Australia. Afterward, Clair invited Jackson to visit him in Lititz, Pennsylvania.[3] Following a trip to London, Jackson stopped in at Clair Brothers and stayed to live in Pennsylvania.[3]
Jackson assisted Clair Brothers by teaming with Ron Borthwick to design a
Elvis Presley
Working for Clair Brothers, Jackson toured with
The earliest of these Clair Brothers-supported dates did not have a dedicated monitor engineer—monitors were mixed from FOH by Porter, assisted by Jackson. Jackson noticed that Presley's performance was very much dependent on how easily he was able to hear himself from the monitor speakers. Jackson said, "some nights would work well and others would be a total train wreck."[6] He advocated for a separate monitor mixing position at the side of the stage and after overcoming resistance to the concept was given this dedicated position.[6] Asked whether he thus invented the role of concert monitor engineer, Jackson replied, "no, not really. It was more that its time had just come."[6]
Jackson had to deal with Presley's absence from rehearsals at Graceland and concert soundchecks. The singer would usually show up at the concert venue at the last minute, walk out on stage and start to sing, having never heard the sound system. Presley sometimes turned to the side of the stage to ask Jackson to make changes, and a few times he stopped the show to have Jackson come out and stand center stage and listen carefully to the monitors while Presley sang to 20,000 people.[6] One night in Fort Worth, Texas, Presley led the audience in singing "Happy Birthday to You" in honour of the engineer's birthday—an "amazing, and very embarrassing" occasion for Jackson.[6] Jackson can be seen at his side-stage mix position in Presley's 1977 "CBS Special" TV show. At Presley's final performance on 26 June 1977, he said "I would like to thank my sound engineer: Bruce Jackson from Australia."[3]
Touring with Presley was like no other assignment. Presley and his entourage travelled in four or five jets to the next tour stop: one for Elvis and his closest colleagues, one for the band, one for
Parker managed the concert tours for Presley, and exerted a strong influence. Jackson quit his job while on tour after he was "pushed too far" by Parker, according to Roy Clair.[14] Presley apologised to Jackson, and he rejoined the tour as an independent engineer, answering only to Presley.[14] Jackson mixed hundreds of concerts for the singer, who called him "Bruce the Goose"[15]—a working life filled with strange hours, hard physical labour and constant travelling.[6] In August 1977 he was in Portland, Maine setting up at the next Presley engagement when he heard he had died.[11]
Independent engineer
Bruce Springsteen
As an independent engineer, Jackson signed a contract to work directly for
Right away, Jackson noticed that Springsteen was a very particular critic of his own concert sound. At every new venue, Springsteen would take "BJ" around to various seats in the concert venue, sitting in every section, even the last row of seats, and listen to the band play.
In 1981 for The River Tour, Jackson arrived at a vertical configuration of loudspeakers which were supplied with nominal left and right stereo signals, the signals connected throughout the sound system in an alternating pattern of vertical lines of eight loudspeakers each, giving the audience a semblance of stereo imaging otherwise impractical on such a large scale. He continued to use this method on the Born in the U.S.A. Tour in 1985.[20] A reporter from Popular Mechanics described the 160 main and 40 auxiliary loudspeakers typically used at a large arena or stadium. Jackson set the main loudspeakers 54 feet (16 m) high on scaffolding, each enclosure holding two 18-inch low-frequency cone drivers, four 10-inch mid-frequency cone drivers, two high-mid compression drivers and two high-frequency compression drivers. The auxiliary zones covered audience areas which wrapped around to the sides of the stage. The 200 loudspeakers were driven by 96 amplifier channels capable of putting out a total of 380,000 watts.[20] The tour was said to have drawn "unusual critical acclaim for crispness and distortion-free performances."[20] Jackson was nominated for a TEC Award as 1985's best sound reinforcement engineer but Gene Clair received the honour.[21]
Jackson worked closely with individual musicians in Springsteen's band to help them achieve the sound they wanted. Keyboard player
Jackson was close to Presley, but the two men were not near in age. Springsteen was closer to Jackson's age and the two got along as friends, the singer giving a Jeep off-road vehicle as a gift in thanks for his contribution to successful concerts. Jackson said of the Jeep that he sold it after tiring of "bouncing around the place in it."[23] In 1988, Jackson quit touring at the birth of his son Lindsey.[19] He settled in Santa Monica, California, to concentrate on audio electronics ideas. However, he was consulted occasionally by Springsteen staff and Clair Bros to solve acoustic issues during subsequent tours, for instance in Verona, Italy in 1993.
Barbra Streisand
Jackson was working as an entrepreneur in digital audio electronics in 1993 when
Streisand employed Jackson's mixing talents on her 1995 TV special called Barbra: The Concert. Along with Ed Greene and
Jackson mixed Streisand's
Other artists
In addition to Presley, Springsteen and Streisand, Jackson mixed concert sound for Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, Rod Stewart and the Faces, Barry White, Jefferson Airplane, Ozzy Osbourne, Carly Simon, Three Dog Night, the Jackson 5, Cat Stevens, Glen Campbell, Art Garfunkel, Procol Harum and Lou Reed.[3][23][32] During 1983 when Springsteen was not touring, Jackson mixed sound for Stevie Nicks on The Wild Heart Tour, June to November 1983. Fourteen years later he mixed for Fleetwood Mac during their live performances recorded in Burbank for MTV, released as the album The Dance.[33]
World events
In 1998, Jackson was contacted by Ric Birch of the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) to mix sound for the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney. Jackson felt that his skills would be put to best use as organiser and audio director rather than as one man behind a mixing console.[24] He put together a team of audio professionals as well as an equipment design composed of digital nodes linked with optic fibre to transport digital audio around the largest venues without attenuation or ground hum. To wire the spectacle which played to 110,000 people in attendance and some 3 billion distant viewers around the world, redundant systems were connected throughout so that a single failure point could not halt the show.[24] To complete the assignment, Jackson said one of the main factors was working within budget, which was not unlimited as it had been with Streisand.[19] He served as audio director for the opening ceremony on 15 September and the closing ceremony on 1 October.[4] Before the event, he told a reporter, "I have a well rehearsed crew in place and there is every reason to expect it to go well."[24]
In December 2006, Jackson served as audio director at the 15th Asian Games, held in Doha, Qatar.[11][34] The main loudspeakers for the opening and closing ceremonies were the KUDO model from L-Acoustics.[34] Jackson found that extreme heat and occasional downpours did not adversely affect the Optocore fibre audio connections around the largest venues. Digital audio was passed to a combination of Lake Contour and Dolby Lake Processors.[35]
Following his success in Sydney, Jackson was tapped to direct the audio design and production at the
Jackson directed sound for the
Digital audio
Beginning in 1979 between Springsteen tour dates, Jackson crisscrossed the U.S. promoting the
None of Jackson's prospects bought one in the first year. He had better luck with
During an April 1985 Springsteen tour leg in Japan, Jackson first listened to Compact Discs played on a CD player connected to his concert sound system, and he did not like what he heard.[6]
Apogee Electronics
After finishing Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. tour, Jackson expressed his ideas about possible improvements to digital audio in a conversation with Christof Heidelberger, a designer of digital audio electronics, and Betty Bennett, the president of Soundcraft's U.S. division. Jackson, Bennett and Heidelberger formed
Apogee's branding was largely Jackson's doing. Bennett said in 2005 that the company's decision to sell purple-coloured products was one of Jackson's ideas: "He has a good eye for design, and we wanted to distinguish ourselves from the all-black rack gear that everybody had at that point."[40] Jackson encouraged a lighting designer from Clair Brothers to sketch a company logo on a cocktail napkin over dinner one evening, and that was immediately made the Apogee logo.[40]
In 1994, Jackson spoke to a Billboard reporter about digital audio. Described as Apogee's president and chief engineer, he said, "digital is finally living up to the warm, natural sound of analogue that we know and love."[43] A decade later, he warned against the belief that bigger specification numbers guarantee better sound quality. He noted that 192 kHz sampling rate was often cited as being better than 96 kHz because of it being twice as fast "when in reality there's a whole bunch of other influencing factors responsible for any audible improvements."[6]
Jackson and Bennett divorced in the mid-1990s and he sold his share of Apogee to finance the divorce settlement.[11] Company co-founder Bennett became CEO.[40]
Loudspeaker management system
After leaving Apogee, Jackson entered into a joint venture with Clair Brothers to design a digital loudspeaker controller for control of complex concert sound systems. Jackson estimated that the project would cost $800,000 in U.S. dollars, but it ended up costing Clair Brothers more than $2M.[6] From the same garage in which he started Apogee, Jackson developed the proprietary Clair iO: a two-input, six-output digital audio matrix with opto-isolated output circuits. An essential element of the system was its ability to be controlled by wireless tablet computer by an audio engineer walking around to various seating sections in a concert venue, to tailor the system's response more precisely.[44]
Jackson then joined with Dave McGrath of Lake Technology to produce a commercial version of the controller, the Lake Contour, essentially the same hardware but with different software. McGrath and Jackson acquired Clair Technologies LLC, the earlier joint venture.
Pilot
Jackson was an avid pilot, licensed to fly from early adulthood. He flew often, for pleasure, one of the few concert audio engineers who did.[48] In the 1970s between Presley concert dates, Jackson flew the singer's personal jet airliner, a converted Convair 880 named Lisa Marie after Presley's daughter.[48] For Presley's band rehearsals at Graceland, Jackson would fly some 800 miles (1,300 km) from Lititz to Memphis with the back of a small plane loaded with assorted mic stands, cables and monitor loudspeakers. The band would rehearse for a bit in Graceland's racquetball court, then hang out in the Jungle Room waiting for Presley who rarely came downstairs.[6]
A small aircraft owner, at one time Jackson operated a 1975 Grumman American AA-5B Tiger. In 1979 he sold it to his lighting company friend, Tait Towers founder Michael Tait, to pay for an earlier purchase of a more powerful aircraft, a new Mooney M20J that he registered 7 December 1978.[2][49] Jackson used the M20J to carry Fairlight samplers across the U.S. to demonstrate them to studios and musicians, once flying from New York to Los Angeles in 15 hours after he heard Herbie Hancock was interested.[6] Interviewed in 2005 at his Sydney office, Jackson said he missed his "little plane" terribly, that it was kept in a hangar for his use whenever he visited California,[6] surrounded by dusty boxes of audio gear and stored memorabilia.[23] He said he had considered flying it from California to Australia but his wife was "not too keen on the idea."[6]
Jackson was interested in aviation developments. In mid-2010 he flew himself and a friend to Mojave Air and Space Port to see Virgin Galactic's VSS Enterprise, a sub-orbital spacecraft being glide-tested.[23]
Death
Jackson landed his Mooney at Furnace Creek Airport (the lowest elevation airstrip in North America) near the visitor center of Death Valley National Park early in the afternoon of 29 January 2011.[50][51] He had no flight plan filed. Following a brief stop he took off in clear, sunny weather bound for Santa Monica, but a few minutes later he crashed and died about 6.5 miles (11 km) south of the airfield in a dry lake bed.[2][51] The wreckage was discovered by park rangers on the morning of 31 January, and was later examined by investigators who did not determine a cause for the accident.[51] Jackson was survived by two brothers and two sisters, and by his fourth wife, Terri, their daughter Brianna, and Aja, Jackson's stepdaughter. He was survived by his third wife Betty Bennett and their son Lindsey and daughter Alex.[2][5] Jackson was survived by his second wife Ruth Davis who sang background vocals for Springsteen. He was also survived by his first wife Margaret who married him when they were both 21 years old. Margaret was with him when he started JANDS, and accompanied him to the U.S. when he went to work for Clair Brothers.
A memorial celebration of Jackson's life was held 25 February at the Sydney Opera House.[48] Some 500 attendees listened to remembrances and anecdotes from family members and from business colleagues such as Roy Clair and David McGrath. Prerecorded videos were played, sent from Springsteen, the band U2,[15] Streisand and her manager Martin Erlichman, and members of Fleetwood Mac.[14]
In 2018, a book was published of Jackson's life, especially about his time with Elvis Presley. The book, Bruce Jackson: On The Road With Elvis, was written by Jackson's brother Gary, who assembled extensive diary entries and interview clips, and double-checked the facts with industry colleagues. Springsteen wrote the foreword.[52][53]
References
- ^ a b "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Variety or Music Series or a Special". 1995 Emmy Awards. IMDb. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Mitchell, Kevin M. "Sound Pioneer Bruce Jackson Killed in Plane Crash". FOH Online. Timeless Communications. Retrieved 2 February 2011.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Bruce Jackson, Elvis Presley Sound Engineer Killed in Plane Crash". Elvis News. Elvis Australia. 2 February 2011. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ a b c d e f Jackson, Bruce (March 2003). "A Life in Sound". Live Sound International. Archived from the original on 25 February 2010. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ a b c d Grafton, Julius (1 February 2011). "Bruce Jackson – 62 epic years". CX. Archived from the original on 18 February 2011. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac Stewart, Andy. "Name Behind the Name: Bruce Jackson – Apogee, Jands, Lake Technology" (PDF). Audio Technology (40). Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 March 2012. Retrieved 21 June 2014.
- ^ "Sydney house sells for $28m". PerthNow. 6 August 2007. Archived from the original on 8 September 2012. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ a b c Mulholland, Paul. "How Did Jands Get Its Name?". Jands. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ a b "Transcript: PSW Live Chat With Bruce Jackson, March 26, 2003". Study Hall. ProSoundWeb. 4 February 2011. p. 1. Archived from the original on 8 March 2012. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
- ^ "Bruce Jackson, 1949–2011". Mix. 15 February 2011. Archived from the original on 26 February 2011. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
- ^ a b c d e f g "FOH Interview: A Conversation with Bruce Jackson". FOH Online. Las Vegas: Timeless Communications. 15 October 2005. Retrieved 4 February 2011.
- ^ a b Young, Clive (2 February 2011). "Pro Audio Legend Bruce Jackson Dies in Plane Crash". ProSoundNews. Archived from the original on 5 February 2011. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ Rumble, John W. (1997). "Behind the Board with Bill Porter: Part Three". The Journal of Country Music. 19 (1): 28.
- ^ a b c Grafton, Julius (25 February 2011). "Bruce Jackson Tribute at Opera House". CX Web. Archived from the original on 13 July 2011. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
- ^ a b McDonnell, Geoffrey; Verbruggen, Peter (27 February 2011). "Bruce Jackson Memorial Service in Sydney". ElvisMatters. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
- ISBN 0-8195-6761-2.
- ISBN 0-275-97393-X.
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- ^ a b c d e f g h i Pertout, Andrián (1 March 2000). "Bruce Jackson: Sonic Guru". Mixdown. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ ISSN 0032-4558.
- ^ "1985 TEC Awards". Nominees and Winners. TEC Foundation. Archived from the original on 12 October 2010. Retrieved 8 February 2011.
- ISBN 0-312-30461-7.
- ^ a b c d e Stewart, Andy (August 2010). "Bruce Jackson: Life on the Cutting Edge". Audio Technology (76).
- ^ a b c d Ciddor, Andy (October–November 2000). "Opening Gambit". News. Fairlight. Archived from the original on 10 July 2011. Retrieved 5 February 2011. Fairlight hosts the article online; it originally appeared in Pro Sound News.
- ^ "Studio Legend Bruce Jackson Chooses VENUE and Pro Tools for Streisand World Tour". Digidesign press release. CreativeCow.net. 6 February 2007. Retrieved 8 February 2011.
- ^ Howe, Matt (2009). "Streisand—Live In Concert 2006 (aired: 2009)". Barbra Archives. Archived from the original on 8 August 2011. Retrieved 8 February 2011.
- ^ Railton, Jeremy (1 December 2006). "Set Designing Around Sound". LiveDesign. Retrieved 8 February 2011.
- ^ Henry, Chris (16 January 2007). "Barbra Streisand tour uses Dolby Lake Processor". Lighting & Sound International. Archived from the original on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 8 February 2011.
- ^ "Barbra Streisand Tours with Sennheiser/Neumann Wireless Combo Mic". ET Now. Entertainment Technology Press Limited News Stories. 12 December 2006. Retrieved 8 February 2011.
- ^ Wilson, Damien (27 July 2007). "Røde to the Rescue: Custom Røde microphone on tour with Barbra Streisand" (PDF). Røde Microphones. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 10 February 2011.
- ^ "Jackson with Millennia on Streisand's tour". Mil-Media.com. 18 February 2007. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 10 February 2011.
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ Adelson, Martin and Lisa. "The Dance (1997) – Fleetwood Mac". FleetwoodMac.net. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
- ^ a b Henry, Chris (15 December 2006). "Kudo opens the Asian Games". Lighting & Sound International. Archived from the original on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 8 February 2011.
- ^ "Optocore 'meets' Barbra Streisand on her first ever tour of Europe!". News Archive. Optocore. 27 August 2007. Archived from the original on 12 January 2011. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
- ^ "Olympic committee unveils its entertainment team". CBC News. 8 April 2009. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
- ^ "Spectacle" (PDF). Lighting&Sound America. Associated Buzz Creative. April 2010. pp. 40–48. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 July 2011. Retrieved 7 February 2011.
- ^ Collison, Paul. "Eye Opener" (PDF). AV (11). Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
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- ^ a b c d e Peterson, George (1 October 2005). "Apogee Electronics at 20". Mix Online. Archived from the original on 29 June 2011. Retrieved 4 February 2011.
- ^ Billboard's ... International recording equipment & studio directory. Billboard Publications. 1988. p. 32.
- ^ "1988 TEC Awards". Nominees and Winners. TEC Foundation. Archived from the original on 13 October 2010. Retrieved 4 February 2011.
- ISSN 0006-2510.
- ^ Morgan, David (1 August 2004). "Clair iO/Lake Technology Contour". Mix. Archived from the original on 29 June 2011.
- ^ McJunkin, John (1 July 2007). "Dolby Lake Processor: Information-rich front panel and control software join for easy loudspeaker management". Sound & Video Contractor. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 7 February 2011.
- ^ "Lab.gruppen & Dolby Lake join forces at PLASA". News. L&Si Online. 9 September 2007. Archived from the original on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 7 February 2011.
- ^ "Lab.gruppen Acquires Dolby Lake Processor Technology and Lake Brand". ProSoundWeb. 13 January 2009. Archived from the original on 12 August 2010. Retrieved 7 February 2011.
- ^ a b c Stewart, Andy (2 February 2011). "Australian Audio Legend, Bruce Jackson Dies in Plane Crash". News. AudioTechnology. Archived from the original on 19 February 2011. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ "Aircraft Registration, Sales, and Accident history for N50BJ". Aircraft Lookup. Archived from the original on 14 November 2022. Retrieved 14 November 2022.
- ^ Gorelow, Andy (31 January 2011). "Memorandum for the record: Aircraft accident". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
- ^ a b c "Preliminary Report Aviation: NTSB ID: WPR11FA114" (PDF). National Transportation Safety Board. 18 February 2011. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
- ^ "New Biography Celebrates Legend of Australian Pro Audio and Elvis' Sound Man, Bruce Jackson". RØDE. 2018. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
- ^ Grafton, Julius (3 October 2018). "Bruce Jackson – The Book. Amazing Australian Blazed Trails with Elvis". CX Digital Network. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
External links
- Bruce Jackson website
- "Bruce Jackson... A Life in Sound", front cover image of March 2003 Live Sound International
- Snapshots taken by Jackson of concert sound systems
- LSI Online – "Audio industry mourns Bruce Jackson"
- Photos of Jackson taking off from Santa Monica airport 10 January 2009