b. USA. Bob Power is a self-effacing yet prolific producer who has worked with the best east-coast R&B/hip-hop acts from the 80s onwards. Self-described as a ‘soul music producer/engineer’, Power began his musical career while at Webster College in St. Louis. Inspired by the great blues guitarists of the era (Buddy Guy, Otis Rush and Albert King), he switched courses to study music theory. He also studied composition and conducting, playing his own contemporary classical music as well as appearing on the St. Louis ‘chitlin’ circuit as the lone white boy in black bands covering Marvin Gaye and Temptations songs. He subsequently attained a master’s degree in jazz from Lone Mountain College in San Francisco. He stayed in California between 1975 and 1982, working on the television series Over Easy. He also began writing jingles, and eventually scored adverts for clients including Coca-Cola and Mercedes Benz. Power then moved to New York to work in the Calliope Studios on 37th Street. Asked to sit in as engineer on a hip-hop session, he found himself overseeing the breakthrough sessions for Stetsasonic. He continued his liaison with rap groups thereafter, linking with A Tribe Called Quest, the Jungle Brothers, De La Soul and Black Sheep. By the mid-90s he was given charge of a production suite at Sony Music Studios in New York. His profile as a producer continued to grow through work with Me’Shell N’degéocello, D’Angelo and Erykah Badu. The latter gave Power his first number 1 R&B single, ‘On & On’, while N’degéocello’s Peace Beyond Passion received a Grammy nomination for best engineered album.