I was going to post a tidbit on Pere Ubu, after listening to their amazing debut recording "The Modern Dance" this morning.   Digging around on the net, I noted this..sadly.  When I was living in Cleveland in around 79, 80, Ken was the legend in the recording industry there.   If you wanted your music recorded in a state of the art studio, there were only 2 places then: Suma and Cleveland Recording (Ken Hamann at your service at both; maybe they were the same place, I am not sure).   Most of Grand Funk railroads early records were done by Ken; I know the first two were, and perhaps Closer to Home as well.  He did James Gang, and of course, Pere Ubu.  I did not know until now, that he had passed away this January.   So long to a recording legend.

Ken Hamann
Ken Hamann, the engineer/producer for Pere Ubu's early singles as well as the Modern Dance and Dub Housing albums, died Friday, Jan 10.

"Ken Hamann, the Suma Recording Studio owner and engineer who died Friday, engineered some of the biggest rock 'n' roll hits to come out of Cleveland in the 1960s and '70s, from The Outsiders' "Time Won't Let Me," recorded in 1965, to Wild Cherry's "Play That Funky Music" in 1976. During his years with Cleveland Recording Co., he worked on the Lemon Pipers' gold single, "Green Tambourine," and the Human Beinz' hit, "Nobody But Me," both of which rocked the Billboard charts in 1968. Hamann also played a key role in engineering Grand Funk Railroad's first seven albums.

"The 74-year-old Willoughby resident experimented with cutting-edge and sometimes untried recording techniques, often creating his own equipment to achieve the peculiar sounds that artists, like the James Gang and Pere Ubu, wanted." -- The Plain Dealer, 1/13/03

Gene