Greg Landau

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Greg Landau is a San Francisco-based music and video producer, and an instructor of music and Latin American Studies focused on the social movements that produced revolutionary music and art.[1] He is a five-time Grammy nominee who has produced over 40 CDs and numerous film scores including serving as Music Director of the film La Mission (film). He also produced the album "Songs from La Mission." [2]

Early life

Landau's parents are poet Nina Serrano and filmmaker Saul Landau. He was born in Madison, Wisconsin and grew up in San Francisco's Mission District.[3] He co-founded Round Whirled Records with Camilo Landau and Round Media along with his sister Valerie Landau and works with his father and Haskell Wexler making documentary films in Latin America.

Music career

During the 1980s, Landau toured internationally as a guitarist and tresero with the Nicaraguan Nueva Canción group, Luis Enrique Mejia Godoy and Mancotal, and shared stages with Silvio Rodríguez, Pablo Milanés, Mercedes Sosa, Chico Buarque, Amparo Ochoa and Nicomedes Santa Cruz in music festivals and concerts across Latin America and Europe.[4] He lived and worked in Nicaragua in the 1980s before returning to the US in 1991.[5]

Media production

Landau has produced work with PBS, Disney, Sony, Warner Bros., CNN, LucasFilm, Six Degrees Records, McDonald's and StarMedia. As Executive Producer at Starmedia,[6] he has produced videos with Christina Aguilera, Carlos Santana,[7] Los Lobos, and Sub-Comandante Marcos. He co-founded Round World Music with Robert Leaver, who owned an eclectic music store in San Francisco. .[5][8]

He has produced four Grammy-nominated albums: Carlos "Patato" Valdes's Ritmo y Candela and Ritmo y Candela II in 1996 and 1998,[3] and Peru Blue with Pamela Rodriguez in 2006.[9][10]

He has worked with artists including Buena Vista Social Club's Juan de Marcos Gonzalez, Susan Baca, Bobi Cespedes,[11] Dr Loco, Pete Seeger, Omar Sosa,[4] John Santos, Pancho Quinto, Quetzal,[12] Carne Cruda,[13] Los Mocosos, Maldita Vecindad, poet Piri Thomas,[14] and David Byrne's record label Luaka Bop. Landau, Babatunde Lea, and John Greenham composed and produced "The African Diaspora Suite" in 2005 for a permanent installation in the newly built Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco.[15]

He composed and produced the film score for Haskell Wexler's 2006 documentary film, Who Needs Sleep[16]and Peter and Benjamin Bratt's "La Mission", which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival.[17] He produced Salve a Bahia then Gente! for the Brazilian group SambaDa in 2009, who say he made their work “more fun, more work, more intense.”[18][19] He also produced work for Mexican singer and songwriter Arturo Ortega. His most recent work was producing a CD with Mexican rockers, Maldita Vecindad, titled Circular Colectivo that debuted with a splash in Mexico[20] In 2011 he produced the CD, Calma, for CUban pianist Omar Sosa, that was nomated for the Latin Grammys in the Instrumental Music Category.

Teaching

Landau received a doctorate in Communication from the University of California, San Diego.[21] He teaches at the University of California at Santa Cruz<ref name=ucsc and San Francisco City College,[22] and he researches the role of music in contemporary societies.

References

  1. ↑ http://lals.ucsc.edu/directory/details.php?id=61
  2. ↑ "Songs from La Mission"
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "'The Right Stuff': the many sides of San Francisco Bay Area producer, Greg Landau.". Latin Beat Magazine. 1 April 2008. Retrieved 24 January 2010. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "DO (featuring Omar Sosa and Greg Landau)". Six Degree Records. Retrieved 24 January 2010. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Navas, D. "Greg Landau". Latin Jazz Network. Retrieved 24 January 2010. 
  6. ↑ http://europe.streamingmedia.com/article.asp?id=6357
  7. ↑ "Case Study: StarMedia Brings Santana to the Web". Steaming Media Global. 20 October 2000. Retrieved 24 January 2010. 
  8. ↑ "Round World Media team". Round World Media. Retrieved 24 January 2010. 
  9. ↑ Colombo, Anthony; Ricardo Companioni (21 October 2006). "Latin Leaders". Billboard. Retrieved 24 January 2010. 
  10. ↑ "LALS lecturer produces album for Latin Grammy-nominated artist". Currents. UC Santa Cruz. 30 October 2006. Retrieved 24 January 2010. 
  11. ↑ "Bobi Cespedes: the cuban earth with a beat: singer Bobi Cespedes updates traditional Afro-Cuban prayers and so her debut outing for San Francisco's Six Degrees Records". Latin Beat Magazine. 1 February 2003. Retrieved 24 January 2010. 
  12. ↑ Lechner, Ernesto (April 2002). "Quetzal". Vibe. Retrieved 24 January 2010. 
  13. ↑ Mix Magazine, Band Profile: Carne Cruda
  14. ↑ Hernández, Carmen Dolores (1997). "Piri Thomas". Puerto Rican voices in English: interviews with writers. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0-275-95809-4. 
  15. ↑ Hamlin, Jesse (25 November 2005). "Faces of Africa create a tapestry of all humanity. A new museum traces threads of the diaspora". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 24 January 2010. 
  16. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1200272/
  17. ↑ McCarthy, Todd (26 January 2006). "Who Needs Sleep?". Variety. Retrieved 24 January 2010. 
  18. ↑ Miglieta, Halley (7 January 2010). "Get funky with SambaDa at the Blue Lamp". Sacramento Press. Retrieved 24 January 2010. 
  19. ↑ "Sambada's New Album "Gente!" and Release Party Dates". All About Jazz. 14 January 2010. Retrieved 24 January 2010. 
  20. ↑ http://opver.com.mx/opv/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46933:maldita-vecindad-rompe-11-anos-de-sequia-y-lanza-circular-colectivo&catid=37:getaways&Itemid=154
  21. ↑ "Greg Landau". Latin American & Latino Studies. UC Santa Cruz. Retrieved 24 January 2010. 
  22. ↑ "Cinefest honors Greg and Saul Landau". City Currents (Marketing and Public Information Office of City College of San Francisco). February 2005. Retrieved 24 January 2010. 

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