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Greg Landau

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Greg Landau is an American, San Francisco-based record 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 has produced eight Grammy nominated records and has produced over 80 CDs and numerous film scores including serving as Music Supervisor of the film La Mission. He produced the album "Songs from La Mission".[2][3]

Early life

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Landau's parents are poet Nina Serrano and filmmaker Saul Landau.[4] He was born in Madison, Wisconsin and grew up in San Francisco's Mission District.[5] He co-founded Round Whirled Records with Camilo Landau and Round World Media along with his sister Valerie Landau. He worked with his father and Haskell Wexler on many documentary films in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Music career

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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.[6] He lived and worked in Nicaragua in the 1980s before returning to the US in 1991.[7]

Media production

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Landau has produced work with PBS, Disney, Sony, Warner Bros., CNN, LucasFilm, Six Degrees Records, McDonald's and StarMedia. As Executive Producer at Starmedia,[8] he has produced videos with Christina Aguilera, Carlos Santana,[9] Los Lobos, and Sub-Comandante Marcos. He co-founded Round World Music with Robert Leaver, who owned an eclectic music store in San Francisco. [1].[7][10]

He has produced eight Grammy-nominated albums: Carlos "Patato" Valdes's Ritmo y Candela and Ritmo y Candela II in 1996 and 1998,[5] and Peru Blue with Pamela Rodriguez in 2006.[3][11][12]

He has worked with artists including Buena Vista Social Club's Juan de Marcos Gonzalez, Susana Baca, Bobi Cespedes,[13] Dr Loco, Pete Seeger, Omar Sosa,[6] John Santos, Pancho Quinto, Quetzal,[14] Carne Cruda,[15] Los Mocosos, Maldita Vecindad, poet Piri Thomas,[16] 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.[17]

He composed and produced the film score for Haskell Wexler's 2006 documentary film, Who Needs Sleep[18]and Peter and Benjamin Bratt's "La Mission", which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival.[19] 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.”[20][21] He also produced work for Mexican singer and songwriter Arturo Ortega. His most recent work was producing an album called Mondongo (Sept. 30, 2015) with La Cuneta, and previously a CD with Mexican rockers Maldita Vecindad, titled Circular Colectivo, that debuted with a splash in Mexico[22] In 2011 he produced the CD, Calma, for Cuban pianist Omar Sosa, that was nominated for the Latin Grammys in the Instrumental Music Category.

He served as music supervisor for the HBO documentary "Mariela Castro's March: Cuba's LGBT Revolution" directed by Jon Alpert.[23]

Teaching

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Landau received a doctorate in Communication from the University of California, San Diego.[24] He teaches at the University of California at Santa Cruz[24] and City College of San Francisco,[25] and he researches the role of music in contemporary societies.

References

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  1. ^ "UC Santa Cruz - Latin American and Latino Studies - Directory - Greg Landau". Archived from the original on September 23, 2009. Retrieved January 24, 2010.
  2. ^ "Songs from La Mission"
  3. ^ a b "Greg Landau". Greg Landau. Retrieved December 2, 2016.
  4. ^ Moe, Doug (July 1, 2003). "Following activist parents footsteps". The Capital Times. Retrieved July 20, 2021.
  5. ^ a b "'The Right Stuff': the many sides of San Francisco Bay Area producer, Greg Landau". Latin Beat Magazine. April 1, 2008. Archived from the original on November 2, 2012. Retrieved January 24, 2010.
  6. ^ a b "DO (featuring Omar Sosa and Greg Landau)". Six Degree Records. Archived from the original on November 29, 2010. Retrieved January 24, 2010.
  7. ^ a b Navas, D. "Greg Landau" (PDF). Latin Jazz Network. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 30, 2008. Retrieved January 24, 2010.
  8. ^ http://europe.streamingmedia.com/article.asp?id=6357[permanent dead link]
  9. ^ "Case Study: StarMedia Brings Santana to the Web". Steaming Media Global. October 20, 2000. Retrieved January 24, 2010. [dead link]
  10. ^ "Round World Media team". Round World Media. Retrieved January 24, 2010.
  11. ^ Colombo, Anthony; Ricardo Companioni (October 21, 2006). "Latin Leaders". Billboard. Retrieved January 24, 2010.
  12. ^ "LALS lecturer produces album for Latin Grammy-nominated artist". Currents. UC Santa Cruz. October 30, 2006. Retrieved January 24, 2010.
  13. ^ "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. February 1, 2003. Retrieved January 24, 2010.
  14. ^ Lechner, Ernesto (April 2002). "Quetzal". Vibe. Retrieved January 24, 2010.
  15. ^ Mix Magazine Archived 2011-06-29 at the Wayback Machine, Band Profile: Carne Cruda
  16. ^ Hernández, Carmen Dolores (1997). "Piri Thomas". Puerto Rican voices in English: interviews with writers. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0-275-95809-4.
  17. ^ Hamlin, Jesse (November 25, 2005). "Faces of Africa create a tapestry of all humanity. A new museum traces threads of the diaspora". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved January 24, 2010.
  18. ^ "La Mission". IMDb. January 19, 2009.
  19. ^ McCarthy, Todd (January 26, 2006). "Who Needs Sleep?". Variety. Retrieved January 24, 2010.
  20. ^ Miglieta, Halley (7 January 2010). "Get funky with SambaDa at the Blue Lamp". Sacramento Press. Archived from the original on 15 July 2011. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
  21. ^ "Sambada's New Album "Gente!" and Release Party Dates". All About Jazz. 14 January 2010. Archived from the original on 16 January 2010. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
  22. ^ "sht.mx 208.80.153.24". sht.mx. Retrieved February 18, 2020.
  23. ^ "Greg Landau". Greg Landau. Archived from the original on December 2, 2016. Retrieved December 2, 2016.
  24. ^ a b "Greg Landau". Latin American & Latino Studies. UC Santa Cruz. Archived from the original on 23 September 2009. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
  25. ^ "Cinefest honors Greg and Saul Landau" (PDF). City Currents. Marketing and Public Information Office of City College of San Francisco. February 2005. Retrieved January 24, 2010.
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