You told me that you did that record over the initial objections of Feliciano’s manager, which was understandable considering you had no track record and you were being asked to produce one of the pop world’s biggest stars. When you flew to L.A. to do the record, were you intimidated?
Very! But as a musician, I was always into reading the [album] credits, and I knew the guys I wanted to work with, like David Foster and Robby Buchanan and Mike Landau, and the studios, like Sunset Sound and Ocean Way and Conway. I knew I was walking through big doors. But José was really behind me as the producer, and I got to work with great engineers, like Mick Guzauski, who was sleeping on a mattress under the console at Conway.

I have to ask this question about working with José Feliciano. How do you keep a blind singer on mic?
We used to tape a music stand in front of him so he knew that when he grabbed both sides of it, the microphone was in the middle. But also I was always in the booth with him when he sang, not in the control room. He liked the vibe of me being out there with him, and the engineer appreciated having someone keep José centered on the mic, ’cause when he starts singing he really gets to rocking around.

What mics did you like on José?
José has a very sharp and powerful midrange. So I would try to warm it up with a tube [Neumann] U87 or U47, sometimes a U49.

Working with Feliciano led to a whole succession of calls from great Latin artists. What’s it like working in the studio with Julio Iglesias? He seemed to love the studio—he had his own lounge at Criteria for years...
Julio really suffers in the studio, because he is such a perfectionist. He can’t always explain what he hears in his head, so he just keeps going on and on until he finds it. And you’d think it would drive you crazy to have to be in the studio with him during all of this. But the truth is, you can see how much he suffers to achieve what he wants, and all you want to do is make this man happy by helping him find what he’s looking for in the music. So when people say to me, “You produced Julio,” I say, “No one ever produces Julio. We are only there to capture his moments.” He’s sold 200 million records doing it that way.

And Arturo Sandoval? He seems like such an inspired madman onstage; what’s he like in the studio?
Pretty intense there, too. I did the I Remember Clifford record with him [a tribute to jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown], and I remember watching him play four trumpet parts in harmony on one track, and that was after he had transcribed all the solos. Punching in overdubs on these parts is more than just engineering; he’s playing at 380 bpm, and he says to you, “Punch me in on the third beat of the fourth bar.” It’s almost magical getting those punches. It’s not about just having good ears. That’s one of the reasons I engineered and produced that record. You have to have good time as well as being musical. Musicians at Arturo’s level don’t tolerate people who can’t make those punches the first time, because great musicians will usually give you the best stuff on the first take, and they don’t like to have to play it twice. That’s another thing I try to teach young engineers I work with: to learn some sense of rhythm. Don’t just be punching in on the downbeat, especially in Latin music, where there is much syncopation.

Christina Aguilera is one of the teen idols of the new Latin movement. But she’s not Latina in the way the previous generation of Latin artists were, is she? You mentioned her mother is American and that her Spanish is far from perfect. People still say a record’s not country if it’s not made in Nashville or if the artist isn’t wearing a hat. In this changing demographic, what makes an artist Latin or not?
When I met her, I asked [RCA A&R person] Ron Fair if she can speak Spanish, and he says, “Not really.” She could once; her father was from Ecuador and her mother was American, but they separated. I knew she could sing, though. That’s for sure. The thing that makes the difference is the Hispanic last name. That makes a big difference for Latino. If you’re Celine Dion, that’s great. But that doesn’t mean you can sell records to Hispanics. If she was named Celine Rodriguez…

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Reprinted with permission from Magazine, February, 2001
© 2001, Intertec Publishing, A Primedia Company All Rights Reserved