When Jimi Hendrix recorded "Purple Haze", the man behind the board was Eddie Kramer.

When Led Zeppelin recorded "Whole Lotta Love", the man behind the board was Eddie Kramer.

Over the course of a production and engineering career that has spanned more than four decades, Eddie Kramer was the man behind the board for the biggest names in music.

Jimi Hendrix | Led Zeppelin | The Beatles | Kiss | The Rolling Stones | Traffic | Peter Frampton | Carly Simon | Joe Cocker | Johnny Winter | David Bowie

Eddie Kramer not only helped create some of the most important music of the rock era, he set standards for rock production that gained him a reputation as a true innovator, and his work continues to influence musicians and producers to this day.

Born in South Africa, Eddie studied classical piano, cello, and violin at the prestigious South African College of Music. At a young age, his interest switched from classical music to jazz. By his early 20s, Eddie made his way to England and eventually landed a position at Pye Studios, where he had the opportunity to record a variety of high-profile artists including Sammy Davis Jr., Petula Clark, and The Kinks.

Kramer’s next stop was Olympic Sound studios where he developed a sterling reputation among the bands of the time. But by far, his association with Hendrix was the most powerful one, and the one that lasted the longest. Kramer engineered every Hendrix album from Are You Experienced? to Cry of Love, and after Hendrix’s death co-produced the posthumous releases War Heroes, Rainbow Bridge and Hendrix in the West.

In 1969, Kramer went independent, and was soon recruited to engineer Led Zeppelin II, acknowledged by fans and critics alike as perhaps the band’s most influential work. He went on to work with them on five additional albums, including Houses of the Holy and Physical Graffiti, as well as both the album and movie versions of The Song Remains the Same. Eddie was behind the board when half a million people gathered at Woodstock for 3 days of peace and music (or “3 days of drugs and hell”, as he puts it). From Derek and the Dominos in Concert to Frampton Comes Alive to The Rolling Stones Love You Live and David Bowie’s Live at the Spectrum, Kramer went on to establish himself as one of the most important producer/engineers of the rock era.

In the early ‘70s, Kramer was director of engineering at Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios. In 1975, Kramer went to work with what would become one of the most popular bands in America: Kiss, producing their smash hits Kiss Alive!, Rock and Roll Over, Love Gun, Alive II and Double Platinum albums.

Kramer has spent more than four decades producing, engineering, and mixing albums for leading artists such as Anthrax, Blue Cheer, Buddy Guy, Curtis Mayfield, Eric Clapton, Humble Pie, John Mayall, John Mellencamp, NRBQ, Santana, Triumph, and Vanilla Fudge.

In addition to Eddie Kramer's involvement in books, tutorial DVDs and lecture tours, in recent years he has been busy producing, engineering, mixing, re-mixing and re-mastering numerous artists and projects, such as Jimi Hendrix for Guitar Hero, the Woodstock 40th Anniversary Collector’s Edition for Warner Home Video, the six CD box set for Rhino, and the re-mastered five CD box set for Sony Legacy.

In 2000, Eddie formed Kramer Archives, Inc. (www.kramerarchives.com), featuring his photographic images of the legendary artists with whom he has worked.

To this day, Eddie Kramer remains one of the most groundbreaking and influential sound makers in contemporary music.

“As a producer/engineer, my main function is to interpret the artist’s vision, and give them the sonic palette to help realize their dreams. If I can make that happen, then I’ve done my job.”