DAVID BIANCO,
1954-2018

David Bianco, the Grammy-winning engineer, mixer and producer behind albums such as Tom Petty's Wildflowers and Bob Dylan’s bluesy Together Through Life, died Thursday. He was 64.

Beginning in the late 1980s, Bianco frequently worked with Rick Rubin, engineering debuts from Glenn Danzig and Masters of Reality, songs by LL Cool J and Roy Orbison for the Less Than Zero soundtrack and recording/mixing Mick Jagger’s Wandering Spirit.

He engineered Dylan’s bluesy Together Through Life and Christmas in the Heart, Ozzy Osbourne's Ozzmosis and three Lucinda Williams albums. He also produced, recorded and mixed Teenage Fanclub’s breakthrough album Grand Prix; he won his Grammy for engineering Petty’s Wildflowers.

Among the dozens of albums he mixed are works by The Jayhawks, The Posies, Del Amitri, Buffalo Tom and Maria McKee.

“Highly respected in his field, Bianco contributed his expertise to many distinguished artists' recordings,” said Recording Academy President/CEO Neil Portnow. “Bianco will be deeply missed but remembered for crafting brilliant records for a diverse range of artists.”

Bianco got his start at L.A.’s Record Plant, answering phones at night and on weekends and working as a janitor while learning how to use the studio during off-hours with young unknowns. He worked his way up to assistant engineer and got his first engineering credit recording Nazareth in concert (Snaz), which led to him doing remotes with artists such as Bruce Springsteen and Joni Mitchell.

In the 1980s, after nearly a decade at the Record Plant, Bianco started working with established stars such as Fleetwood Mac, Petty and the Heartbreakers and Rod Stewart. Most recently, he engineered recordings by Williams, Meghan Trainor, Judith Owen and Trombone Shorty.