DEATH VALLEY, CA – Legendary sound pioneer and Parnelli Audio Innovator Award honoree Bruce Jackson was killed after his Mooney M020 single engine piston prop engine plane crashed Jan. 29 near Furnace Creek, CA, in Death Valley National Park. The Federal Aviation Association is investigating the cause of the crash and currently lists it as "unknown circumstances." Jackson was alone, flying at 11 p.m. He was 62.
Barbra Streisand herself described Jackson as "the best sound engineer in the world." Yet he was much more than that, and his innovations are wide and deep. From his development of parametric EQ for live mixing boards to his groundbreaking work in digital sound, he spent his life improving the live event experience, earning a Grammy and a Parnelli among many other awards along the way.
Speaking for many who had the honor of knowing and working with him, Gene Pelland, executive VP of Clair Bros., said: "I am so saddened by his loss because he had so much to live for and gave so much to all of us. My heart goes out to his wife [Terri] and children. There are not enough words to express the loss of this man, but he was my friend and I will miss him." Pelland and Jackson started at Clair about the same time in 1973.
"I have to say the news is devastating," said audio engineer Howard Page, another Clair alum and fellow Aussie friend of Jackson's. He heard the news late on Jan. 31, after mixing for Sting in the Sydney Opera House. "He's been a friend of mine since the very beginning when he started JANDS and we use to record Australian pop festivals in the back of a rental truck together." Page adds that while he was a "very laid back guy" he was also one who "stuck to his guns.
"I remember that when he was designing for Dolby Lake, he didn't listen to the naysayers who said what he was working on would never work. But he pressed forward and came up with innovative and revolutionary concepts. He compromised at no point."
"Bruce Jackson was the absolute Gold Standard of the Sound Mixer Artiste," says Patrick Stansfield, of Stansfield & Associates and Parnelli executive director, and one who toured with Jackson. "He was a warm, humane, funny, ironic, ethical, and handsome figure of a man. Born in Australia, he came to love so very many things American (including his wife Terry), so very much that he spent over half his life here," Stansfield continues.
"And oh boy, did he know his stuff too! It seemed like he was born with a mic in one hand and an EQ slider in the other! Having started young, Bruce was adroit technically without being even slightly "nerdy" (far from it!)
"He had that soothing Aussie way with which he could calm the most highly strung of Artists, the top tier Super Star Diva & her consort or manager," Stansfield noted. "He was fearless for his Artists and their audiences. He would simply not allow poor quality sound to be heard. Bruce was the best friend an artist or a fellow touring professional could ever hope to have, on the road or off."
"Bruce and I have been close friends for almost 40 years," noted Michael Tait, founder of Tait Towers. "His passion for sound was only matched by his love of airplanes. He inspired me to take up flying as well. In fact when he upgraded to a Mooney 201, I bought his old Grumman Tiger. We had many good times flying our planes together up and down the East Coast.
"The industry has lost a great pioneer," Tait added. "Indeed he was the Isaac Newton of sound."
Jackson grew up on the harbor side of Sydney, Australia with a love of electronics and the patience and curiosity to experiment. In 1967, at the age of 18, he and friend Phil Storey threw in $50 each and founded JANDS out of Jackson's bedroom. The company was an instant success, building guitar amps, mixers, and column PA's. While he sold his part of the company two years later, that JANDS is going strong today is a testament to his vision.
In 1969 he hopped a fence at a Blood, Sweat & Tears concert and introduced himself to Roy Clair, who was operating the biggest sound system Australia had ever seen. He would end up working that exact system for a Johnny Cash tour, and later still, go to work in the Clair Bros' shop in Pennsylvania. With the Clairs, he developed the first fold-out console because he was "tired of lifting them out of the case," he told FOH in 2005. More substantially, he was behind the first console to have plasma bar-graph meters, which also displayed simultaneous RMS and peak levels. Also, prior to this revolutionary console, EQ options were limited, and this mixer was the first to feature parametric EQ. This board was in use long into the 1980s.
Jackson would go on the road with the Elvis Presley, serving as sound engineer and designer for hundreds of shows up to Elvis' death in 1976. The pressure to increase seat sales led Jackson to being one of the first to hang loudspeakers on chain hoists for live concerts. Then, in 1978, he went to work for Bruce Springsteen. It was a good partnership, as Springsteen was notoriously particular about the sound quality of his show, and would have his band play while he walked arena floors with Jackson. Jackson would field questions like, "why can't I hear the high-hat from this spot?" Jackson thrived in this environment, using high frequency drivers and designing an overblown set of delay systems, with eight delays up on a pole to solve such issues. He set a new standard for live PAs in stadiums.
After a decade with Springsteen, he started Apogee Electronics Corporation out of his garage in Santa Monica. As he liked to tell, he had gone to Japan in the early 1980s and got his hands on a new device called a CD player, and was sorely disappointed. Most would have merely shrugged it off, but that's not how Jackson's mind works. Through Apogee, he started addressing the shortcomings of digital audio. "We studied the way the Japanese were converting the music to digital," he told FOH Magazine. "And they were doing it textbook perfect, but weren't taking into account the negatives of what the process was doing to the sound." He delivered filters that made radical improvements in the sound quality, and soon his work was standard with every digital recording device.
In 1993, he was approached about handling the sound duties for Barbra Streisand – her first tour in decades – and while it took some convincing, he eventually signed on to the formidable task. He later said he did it because he was intrigued by the assurance that he could do whatever was necessary to create near aural perfection. This included laying the carpets and hanging drapes, and bringing other innovations he had developed into the mix, including custom monitors with soft dome mid range and tweeters. He would be called on to do her 1999 tour as well. In 2000, he had the mammoth gig that was the Sydney Olympics.
During the late 1990s, he formed yet another company with Dave McGrath, Lake Technology, which today is owned by Dolby. There he continued innovating, with his gear adopted by engineers working on many of the top tours.
Page also points out Jackson's well-known generosity. "He wasn't afraid to share his knowledge," he says. "He did a lot of consulting and teaching. That's [he's gone] is beyond belief."
Along with his wife, Terri, and their daughter, Brianna, Jackson is survived by a son (Lindsey) and daughter (Alex) from a previous marriage, and a stepdaughter, Aja.
