When Don Emerson asked me if I had heard of Tommy Dowd, the name sounded familiar, but I couldn't place it. He went on to say that he had a very interesting DVD that would tell the whole story.

Tommy Dowd was both a musician and a brilliant engineer.  As a high-school student, he was asked to participate in the Manhattan Project; the scientific undertaking that developed the atom bomb during WWII! After the War, he was drawn to the fledgling recording industry. Tommy participated in his first recording session in 1947, when they were still cutting records into wax with a needle!

A short time later, he joined Atlantic Records, and was responsible for keeping them on the cutting edge of recording-industry technology and techniques! However, Tommy was always available to free lance at other studios whenever a project intrigued him.

Tom Dowd & the Language Of Music profiles the extraordinary life and legendary work of music producer/recording engineer Tommy Dowd. This film shines a spotlight on a man whose brilliance, creative spirit and passion for innovative technology helped shape the course of modern music! Tommy Dowd was responsible for some of the most important R&B, Rock, and Jazz records ever made; recording some of the greatest music of the last half of the 20th Century!

This is a man who had a tremendous impact on the careers of such people as: John Coltrane, Ray Charles, Otis Redding, Ornette Coleman, Tito Puente, Thelonious Monk, Aretha Franklin, Booker T. & the MG's, Eric Clapton, Cream, Derek and the Dominos, Lead Zeplin, ELP, The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd and most recently Joe Banamasa!!

The most interesting and revealing part of the movie is when Tommy tells the story of how he brought Eric Clapton (and his band Derek and the Dominos) together with Duane Allman, and the Allman Brothers Band!! The interviews with Greg Allman and Eric Clapton reveal the respect, reverence and even awe that they felt toward Tommy Dowd.

The final piece to this sequence is when Tommy demonstrates how he mixed the guitar work of Duane Allman and Eric Clapton on Layla!! "They are playing notes that are not on the guitar!", he says. That is what Tommy Dowd inspired in musicians all of his life!

At the end, we learn that Tommy Dowd moved on to the Great Recording Studio In the Sky in 2002, which is a big loss to all of us who love music, however, when you see what he did during his 77 years on this Earth, you can't be sad. This guy had one hell of a ride!!

Unfortunately, Tom Dowd & the Language Of Music does not seem to be available at our local video rental stores, so you'll have to find it somewhere else. It will be well worth the effort to locate a copy, because everyone who reads this Blog will love it!!

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