When I finally sat down with Leslie Ann Jones at NAMM it felt like the end of a very long running joke. We had been trying to do this since 2019 and I have to give full credit to my co creator in life and chaos management Kasia who somehow managed to herd schedules flights and general madness to get us into the same room.
It was worth the wait.
What makes Leslie’s story even richer when you are sitting with her is the knowledge of where she came from. She grew up around the Los Angeles TV and music scene and is the daughter of two musical parents. Her father was the legendary novelty drummer and bandleader Spike Jones and her mother Helen Grayco was a stunning vocalist who sang alongside him. Through her mum she grew up listening to Mel Tormé Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand. Through her dad she heard everything from classical to comedy to high end big band arrangements.
She told me in the interview that she used to listen to those exquisite vocal arrangements on her mum’s eight track player in the car and said all you need is one name when talking about hearing Frank or Barbra. Those singers shaped her taste early and it explains why to this day big band remains her favourite music.
She was musical from day one. Sears Silvertone guitar at fourteen. All girl bands. Playing Top 40. Arranging for her friends’ bands. Building PA systems in garages. Making basement recordings on an early Tascam four track because she wanted to be another Peter Asher and produce bands.
And by 1974 she was already out on the road as Fanny’s road manager and live sound mixer. She was barely out of her teens and already flying by instinct.
Early visits to Abbey Road and the first big leap
When she told me she had only ever been to Abbey Road once before our interview I nearly fell off my chair. It was when she was road managing Fanny as they opened for Jethro Tull across the UK.
She said the stages were raked steeply and she was terrified of heights. Getting up to the consoles was a feat in itself.
I told her if Fanny were out now they would be one of the biggest bands in the world and she smiled and said she was sure of it and that the landscape has changed so much that they would finally get the credit they deserved.
From there she walked straight into her first studio job. ABC Recording Studios in Los Angeles. And like we covered in our conversation it started in the least glamorous room in the building.
The tape duplication room.
Her shift was four till midnight. Making EQ copies. Making cassette runs for executives. Preparing European mastering curve versions. It was meticulous work but it gave her an understanding of the signal chain that very few people get anymore.
The moment she raised her hand
Her break came when an assistant engineer refused a schedule change. Leslie told me she simply stuck her hand up and said she would do it. The session was Michel Polnareff. It got her into the control room as an assistant for the first time.
From there she trained with people like Roy Halee Barney Perkins and Reggie Dozier. Not bad company.
And then came John Mayall who asked her to engineer his Lots of People live album in 1977. That was her first full engineering gig and she told me she asked him why he chose her.
He said he liked that she got on her knees and fixed tape machines while other engineers walked in wearing loafers.
That work ethic became her calling card.
The Automatt, innovation and women’s music
In 1978 she moved to San Francisco and joined The Automatt. The place was already famous for innovation in mixing automation and new technologies. They had one of the earliest digital multitrack systems and Leslie became one of the first engineers anywhere to use the 3M digital machine.
Her training there came directly from Fred Catero and David Rubinson. She recorded cues for Apocalypse Now. She recorded Carlos Santana with Tony Williams and Ron Carter. She engineered Maze Confunkshun Angela Bofill and a series of albums for Holly Near and Cris Williamson.
She told me in our interview that her experiences with women’s music at The Automatt were transformative. Women owned labels women distributors women only festivals women running the business end. She said it was the first time she saw music and activism fused in such a powerful way.
Freelance and the end of an era
When The Automatt closed in 1984 she freelanced for Windham Hill and Olivia Records and engineered some of the last releases Olivia ever made. And then in 1987 she returned to Los Angeles and joined Capitol Studios.
Capitol Studios and the big band years
Her ten years at Capitol were foundational. She engineered Rosemary Clooney Michael Feinstein Carmen McRae Betty Carter and an enormous amount of orchestral and jazz material. She told me that working with arranger Peter Matz was surreal because she had grown up listening to his arrangements on her mum’s eight tracks.
She still remembers Diana Krall playing a piano solo and sitting there thinking I hope the mics do not distort please let the preamps be right.
She also said something that stuck with me.
“You need a little fear so you do not become complacent.”
That says everything.
Arrival at Skywalker Sound
In 1997 she moved to Skywalker Sound and has never left. She is now the Director of Music Recording and Scoring and spends her days recording orchestral scores film elements and producing or mixing albums.
She even plays on one of Skywalker’s intramural softball teams because of course she does.
When we talked about how she got the job she said she believed she was hired for her film contacts as much as her skill. For her first few years she barely touched a console. Instead she rebuilt the scoring stage culture and the technical staff bringing up engineers like Dan Thompson and hiring techs like Aaron Reiff.
She shaped the culture to match her own ethic.
Everyone is treated the same. Big budget or independent. No hierarchy of worth.
She said that might be her real legacy there.
Major awards, leadership and promoting women
Leslie has won an extraordinary list of Grammys across jazz classical and immersive recordings including Ask Your Mama Sun Rings and Soundtrack of the American Soldier. She has been nominated in both classical and non classical engineering categories something very few engineers ever achieve.
In 2018 she was inducted into the TEC Hall of Fame at NAMM.
She was also the first woman hired as an assistant engineer at ABC Studios the first woman National Officer of the Recording Academy a Trustee a past Chair of the Board of Trustees and a lifelong advocate for women in audio.
She serves on the advisory board of Women’s Audio Mission teaches at the Institute for the Musical Arts and has produced numerous landmark recordings by women including Holly Near Cris Williamson Ronnie Gilbert Margie Adam and the Montclair Women’s Big Band.
Oh and she co produced one of Jane Fonda’s workout albums in the eighties and earned a platinum record for it.
There is nothing she has not done.
Film sound and games
Her film work includes Apocalypse Now Zodiac Happy Feet Ballets Russes and Requiem for a Dream.
She has also recorded scores for games like Star Wars The Force Unleashed Gears of War 2 Prototype Dead Space and Beowulf.
When we talked about film scoring she emphasised how much pressure sits on the engineer.
“You have to know what will work. You cannot stop a ninety piece orchestra while you try another microphone.”
And when something fails the cost is huge. That is why she loves Andrew Watt’s line about being quick not fast. Quick means correct. Fast means sloppy.
Could someone repeat her path today
When I asked her whether a young person could follow a similar path today she paused.
“I do not know the answer,” she said.
Her opportunities were built on an industry that looked very different. But she offered one piece of guidance she believes still works.
Find a songwriter composer singer or artist and become the person they cannot live without. Grow together. Build a relationship.
Our industry has always run on relationships. That has not changed.
AI and Napster
Leslie compared AI to the Napster moment. When Napster arrived the industry panicked instead of learning to guide the change.
Twenty years later streaming is the centre of the business.
She hopes we will do better this time. Put up guard rails. Use AI as a tool. Let it help without letting it replace craft.
She said she already finds AI style search useful for distilling information. Not a shortcut. A tool.
“I cannot imagine how AI will plug in a patch cord,” she said laughing “but it might suggest an idea I need.”
Final reflections
Sitting with Leslie you feel like you are talking to the living timeline of modern recording. From Spike Jones to Steely Dan to Apocalypse Now to Rosemary Clooney to Kronos Quartet to immersive audio and game scores she has seen every reinvention and stayed curious through all of them.
That is the key.
Raise your hand. Do the work nobody else wants. Stay just scared enough to stay sharp. Keep the little kid alive inside you who loves music.
That is the lesson of Leslie Ann Jones.
