Early Professional Recordings

By 1951 Rudy had befriended Lennie Tristano, a pianist well-connected to the New York City jazz scene. Both Rudy and Tristano had tape recorders at this time, and Rudy would bring his portable to Tristano’s Manhattan studio to create overdubbed recordings there (Shim, 2007). The use of both recorders allowed them to create the effect of two Tristanos playing at the same time.

A fall 1951 recording date at the studio produced “Juju” and “Pastime”, which appeared on the only 78 to be released by the pianist’s own Jazz Records label (Sickler et al., 2011).

Lennie Tristano, “Pastime” | 1951

Also during this time, Van Gelder had a working relationship with an accordionist and organist from Paterson, New Jersey named Joe Mooney. Van Gelder recorded Mooney as early as 1949, but a Hackensack home studio recording of him done in late 1951 for the Carousel label became the first instance of a Van Gelder recording being played on the radio (Myers, 2012).

Joe Mooney, “We’ll Be Together Again” | 1951

Al Collins, a DJ for WNEW in New York at the time, fell in love with Mooney’s version of “We’ll Be Together Again” and played it regularly as background music during his afternoon show, Collins on a Cloud (Sickler et al., 2011).

Main photo: The Hackensack control room, 1953 (Source: The Van Gelder Estate)