jeffdunn

Jeff Dunn, (son of Duck and June Dunn) was born in 1962 and his younger brother Michael was born in 1964. As young boys June would occasionally bring them to Stax while Duck was working, "I used to love going there to visit because we would spend most of the time in the lounge or offices but whenever we went into the control room I would look at those big Altec multi-cell horns like they were monsters, then I would stare at the tape reels because I knew when they started to turn it would be LOUD!" says Jeff. He started to play bass at the age of 13 playing along with records and eventually in garage bands with other kids he knew in high school.

Michael took up the guitar at about 13 or 14 years of age and advanced quickly, "he took that Telecaster with him wherever he went around the house, playing along with commercials on TV or whatever music happened to be playing on the radio" says Jeff. They started to play together with a kid who played drums down the street from them and would play at keg parties or wherever they could in front of an audience every chance they got. January 29,1983 was a sad day though as Michael fell victim to a fatal car accident in Memphis. Duck was in Portland Oregon at the time rehearsing with Eric Clapton for the "Money and Cigarettes" tour, and flew home for Mike's funeral. Duck asked Jeff if he would like to come out on the road with the tour to help out and to get away from it all after the tragedy. "I needed to get away from all the people and things that reminded me of Mike for a while. At first I thought I would be dad's bass tech, but John Godenzi, the sound engineer for the tour, asked if I was interested in sound, I had always had a love for amps, speakers and mixing consoles so I said YES!"says Jeff.

There was a lot to learn and the work was hard but Jeff stuck with it and soon found himself behind the console assisting Godenzi. At the end of the tour Godenzi asked Jeff if he wanted to go out with him on the "Black Sabbath" tour. Jeff then worked for several years as a sound technician for a company called Tasco Sound. Eventually Jeff started to mix bands on his own and strived to get out on tour as a house engineer. He hit paydirt with a band called "Femme Fatale" and from there went on to mix countless other acts. Jeff's longest tenure with one group was when he worked with the Black Crowes from 1990 to 2000 ending with the "Jimmy Page and the Black Crowes" tour.

Over the years Jeff would dabble in recording using the skills and some techniques he learned mixing live shows. Jeff also has tour managed and mixed for a number of bands as well."I am basically producer and engineer when I mix live with one chance to get it right so recording just came naturally, but the difference is, if I or the artist don't like something we did, it can be fixed" says Jeff.

One observation that Jeff has noted is "I think that theres a lot of groups who get into the studio and get carried away with laying down too many tracks, just because a studio's capable of recording 72 tracks doesn't mean you have to use all of them. Then when it's time to take the show on the road, they find that they can't reproduce the music live unless they employ a 'magic box', which is either a multi-track tape machine or computer based multi-track device" says Jeff. He recently moved from NYC to the West Palm Beach, Florida area with his wife Samara to be closer to Duck and June and Samara's parents as well.

In October of 2005 Jeff and Samara became proud new partents of a baby boy and named him "Michael" after his brother.

The Hellhounds are now managed by "Been There Dunn That Entertainment", Jeff's management and production services company. To contact BT/DT Entertainment email, Btdtent@aol.com .

For more information contact Jeff at jd@duckdunn.com