Now, A Jazz Moment...

MUSIC: "Footprints" (from Wayne Shorter RVG session), CD: Blue Note Perfect Takes, Blue Note Records: RVG Edition 724347322709 (cut 8))

NEA Jazz Master Rudy Van Gelder has spent 50 years recording giants of jazz -- Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Sonny Rollins -- and many, many more.

Rudy Van Gelder: I think I had a good rapport with all of them. They trusted me. And they still do.

Van Gelder is revered for the warmth and presence he brings to his recordings. He has a knack for creating the perfect balance and making instruments sound the way the musicians want them to sound on record.

Rudy Van Gelder: Musicians would come to me, not all, but often enough that they'd say, "That's just the way I want to sound" and believe me when they said that -- and often -- that stuck with me and I said, "That's exactly -- that's my goal."

MUSIC: up and fades

This Jazz Moment with recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder was created by the National Endowment for the Arts.