A revered name in rock

It can be argued that rock ‘n’ roll isn’t nuclear physics. Yet one man fluent in both certainly helped prove that they aren’t mutually exclusive.

That man was Tom Dowd, the longtime staff engineer and producer for Atlantic Records who entertainingly yet humbly recounts his career in the affectionate documentary “Tom Dowd and the Language of Music.” It gets its television premiere tonight at 9 to kick off the Sundance Channel’s annual October music and film series on Friday nights.

Among pop fans, Dowd’s name is probably familiar only to the most dedicated liner note readers, but among musicians and veteran record industry executives, it’s justly revered, placing him not far below Beatles producer George Martin, Sun Records founder Sam Phillips and Wall of Sound master Phil Spector.

Singing their praises of the often-unsung studio knob twirler, who as a teenage physics prodigy became part of the Manhattan Project team that developed the atomic bomb, are Ray Charles, Eric Clapton, Gregg Allman and other rock, jazz and R&B; greats.

Director Mark Moormann followed the easygoing Dowd around his old haunts in New York and to his latter-day residence in Florida, finishing the film shortly before Dowd died last October at 77.

Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun praises Dowd’s foresight as an early supporter of magnetic recording tape, snagging the label one of the earliest multitrack recorders when the industry was geared to mono. He also is credited as the architect of the Atlantic sound, which was cleaner than most ‘50s rock and pop labels, particularly in the way he allowed the bass and drums to come through more prominently.

Celebrated Atlantic producer Jerry Wexler says in the film: “Tom’s contributions to the development and evolution of Atlantic Records were inestimable.” Those contributions weren’t, however, remunerated in kind. There’s a fleeting reference in the film to Dowd’s disappointment that for all their accolades, Ertegun and Wexler never treated him as an equal financially. He remained a staff engineer, drawing a regular salary while Ertegun and Wexler became rich from the hits that resulted from the tapes Dowd supervised.

But the ever-genial Dowd says he reaped great rewards from the relationships he established, consistently helping aspiring musicians find their voices and helping give birth to some of the most popular and influential recordings of the 20th century.