Three-time Grammy award-winning engineer and producer Russell Elevado started his studio career in 1986 interning at Shakedown Studios in NYC owned by producer Arthur Baker. Over the years his career has so far lead to 50 full albums from the over 100 albums in his discography.
He’s widely recognized for the sound he created for D’Angelo’s “Voodoo” album which he recorded and mixed and earned him a Grammy Award for “Best R&B Album” in 2000. His use of vintage recording equipment and analog tape gave the album an “old school” sound but with a modern approach inspired by hip hop production and sampling. in 2009, he was nominated for Best Engineered Album (non-classical) for his recording of Al Green’s “Lay it Down". in 2015 he won another Grammy for "Best R&B Album" as engineer/mixer for D'Angelo's "Black Messiah" album, the long awaited follow up to Voodoo. and in 2020 Elevado won a third Grammy in the Best World Music category for mixing Angelique Kidjo's "Celia" album. and the same year he also received a nomination as producer/engineer/mixer for the band Lettuce in the Best Jazz instrumental album category.
His work with Questlove, the Roots and Common is also very notable, pushing the limits of organic hip hop with creative mixing. he's worked with some of the most popular and influential artists and producers of his era like Alicia Keys (Elevado mixed her hugely successful debut single “Fallen”), Jay-Z, Rick Rubin, Tony Visconti, Roy Hargrove, Mark Ronson, Erykah Badu and J Dilla to name a few. What sets him apart from his peers is his commitment to analog. He’s been quoted in many interviews about his dissatisfaction with the digital recording medium and the way it has changed the industry and the creative process of artists and production. Elevado doesn’t use any plug-ins (digital effects and processing) and uses analog equipment exclusively for processing. His dedication to analog has defined his career attracting a wide range of artists from different genres.