Rudy Van Gelder (born November 2, 1924 in Jersey City, New Jersey) is a recording engineer specialising in jazz. Van Gelder is one of the legendary behind-the-scenes figures in Jazz. He first recorded friends in his parent's Hackensack, New Jersey living room, while working during the day as an optometrist. One of those friends, baritone saxophonist Gil Melle, introduced Van Gelder to Blue Note Records producer Alfred Lion around 1952. Wikipedia
The definitive Wikipedia entry for Rudy van Gelder. Wikipedia is the biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_Van_Gelder