We've investigated the timeline on your website, but give us a sense of your journey in your own words: How does a kid with a guitar from Chicago end up working with some of the most innovative hip-hop and R & B artists out there?

You left out the "moved to New York at 3 years of age to be closer to the waning 52nd St. bebop scene." That one slips by a lot of people.

My karma in the recording scene has been interesting. The short form is that I love making good music with good people.

The long form? Well, when I first started engineering for outside clients (other than myself), it was in a studio, Calliope, that was seminal in the development of what I call the Second Wave of Hip Hop.

Up until that point, I had been scuffling, playing (guitar) every gig and session I could, and writing and producing music for industrials, with an occasional jingle. At Calliope, I'd often engineer three sessions a day: a jazz quartet direct to two track in the morning, a three hour mix of two thumping dance tracks in the afternoon, and a Hip Hop session in the evening. On Saturdays I would come to the studio early with my tuxedo, guitar or bass, and an amp. My clients (bless them) knew that at 6pm I was out the door to play a mafia wedding in Brooklyn, a gig in a rock club, or…

Anyway, people like A Tribe Called Quest, De la Soul, Queen Latifah, and the Jungle Brothers were just starting to percolate then. We got along well, and in a way, my association with those forward-thinking Hip Hop artists paved the way (years later) for my working with people like D'Angelo and Erykah Badu.

There was a LOT in between; as I became more in-demand as an engineer, my scoring and jingle writing career started to take off as well. For a while (eight years plus or minus), I was trying to do both, but as things started to click, it was exhausting. Ultimately I left advertising music for a career exclusively in the record business.

You do more things related to music than we could possibly list here. How would you best describe what you do to our readers?

Again, with all the things that I do, the common denominator is making good music with good people (I had to think for some time to figure that one out about 10 or 15 years ago).

Since you asked, currently I am primarily a mixer and producer. Depending on the year, I may do more of one than the other. I haven't done any scoring in quite some time. I occasionally consult for facilities or manufacturers. I may teach an advanced production course at NYU in the fall.

What makes a great song?

There are a few things, and it's important to remember that there is no great song without a great performance.

Song-wise, there are a few things that may put it in the ballpark; first and last, a great hook. Whether it's a melodic anthem that people sing in their cars on the way to work, or an odd sound in a sample based track, it's usually has a hook that, at the first listen, you feel like you've known the song for years.

After that, there are a lot of things NOT to do – I'm a big believer in economy. Verses should always be working toward the hook – too many different sections tend to dilute the impact. Keep in mind that I'm speaking of a "radio friendly" type of thing. There are certainly some great songs that have a bunch of contrasting sections. It really depends on what the artist feels compelled to do. My job, in either case, is to sus out what the artist wants to do and facilitate that.

In recent years, you've been working with artists (such as Erykah Badu, India.Arie, De La Soul, and The Roots) who could be roughly described as coming from an urban, African American musical tradition but who are not afraid to push the boundaries of their tradition. What attracts you to these artists and what attracts them to you?

Again, at the beginning it was pure fate. On the other side of the coin, everyone I've worked with knows that I will go to the wall for them (and sometimes expect the same in return).

After I'd been engineering a bit, my work ethic, fanaticism about things musical and sonic, and interest in helping people along their path – I guess those were some of the things that brought people my way.

I had played in predominately Black bands for quite a while, especially in college, and generally had been around the Black community a lot. But the real issue was (is) my respect for people and their vision.

As far as my attraction to them, I love to work with musicians who have something unique to say, and a unique way of saying it. After that, despite the fact that people may dress or talk differently, it is all the same thing – helping people realize their vision. I suppose that my taking that concept - the artist's vision – very seriously has been a factor.

Do you remember any particular artist, song, album, or experience that drew you to hip-hop music? What kind of an influence do you think that your early interest in jazz and R&B had on your career path?

Wow. There have been SO many. For some reason, I've always been drawn to soul music, even when I was learning how to play in the late Sixties.

I do remember, though, one afternoon sitting on my friend Anne Rosenberg's floor with a bunch of 15 year old friends, and having my mind blown by a live recording of Otis Redding singing "Try a Little Tenderness." I was never the same after that.

Being a guitarist, I listened to (and copied) a lot of blues – Albert King was a big influence, as with many players. Curtis Mayfield, Earth, Wind and Fire, Bobby Womack, Willie Mitchell – people like that influenced my growth in soul music.

What drew me to Hip Hop was really the people. I just happened to be working in one of the cheapest studios in town and met the folks I mentioned earlier. It's odd, but the music was not my draw to Hip Hop – the people were. Certainly my experience in soul and jazz gave us something of a common musical vocabulary.

Hip-hop seems to be one of the most potent influences in popular culture and music in the past couple of decades. As someone who's been directly involved in the music, do you have any ideas as to why hip-hop has been such a vital genre?

Again, I'm really not the authority on Hip Hop, its history, or the players. But one thing is for sure; Hip Hop is the most important music to come out of the African American community since jazz. It was born on the streets, and was constructed by people using the only production tools at their disposal; a turntable and a mic.

Arguably (an important word in this context), it was by, of, and for the Black community. Reality is a bit different, but conceptually, I think that it's true.

Your training was initially as a musician and a composer. What attracted you to the engineering and production side of music?

For engineering, it was both a gig and the chance to learn - something that has always driven me. As for production, from the first time I set foot in a multitrack studio I was nuts about it. I found it so fascinating how records were put together. Writing, playing, and recording are really all about the same thing: the music. I will say, though, that even when I was playing for a living, the way things sounded was something that always drew me in.

Tell us a bit about how you've been using iZotope products in your recent work.

I've been mastering a bit (master Cuban percussionist Pedro Martinez, singer/songwriter Andrea Wittgens, bass and funk legend Meshell NdegeOcello), and I saw so much positive feedback about Ozone in forums. This is a hard question to answer, because almost every track I master, I find a new use for one of the modules in the program.

I first went to the EQ, and jumped right in immediately. Very analog sounding, but without so much phase shift. Very smooth. Easy to get into immediately.

On subsequent jobs, I discovered that the other modules were actually very useable, and quickly. For example, I generally don't use width enhancers, but after a very small bit of experimentation, I was able to use the Multiband Stereo Imaging to open up mixes that sounded a bit small and narrow. The bypass for the individual bands, and the adjustable bandwidth are very helpful.

"Exciters" fall into that same camp for me – as my mixes have gotten better, I really never use them. That said, I experimented with the Multiband Harmonic Exciter, and was actually able to get results pretty quickly. Again, having monitor and bandwidth access to the individual bands is key.

The loudness maximizer – what can I say. Jam it in, turn it up, and it's loud. Period. Of course, there are artifacts if you hit it too hard, but all in all, a very friendly and easy to use module.

And I NEVER add reverb to a full mix – but I was able to enhance the spaciousness of a recent acoustic track with just a touch of the Mastering Reverb.

As with any piece, it's really the skill with which one uses it – but, unlike most software, I've found uses for all the features of Ozone. Also, the utility of features like multiple bypass switches, multiple display choices, etc. show that this was designed by people who actually do this a lot.

You may be the only person to walk the planet who has worked with both Ethel Merman and The Roots. Has the significance of this fact struck you before?

That's really funny. I think I'll save that one so I have something to talk about to people over a cup of coffee.

To learn more about Bob Power visit bobpower.com.