Al Schmitt, Grammy winning engineer and producer, dead at 91.

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Twenty-time Grammy winner Al Schmitt, whose extraordinary career as a recording engineer slotxo xo and producer included albums by Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra and many other of the top performers of the past 60 years, has died at age 91.

Schmitt's family announced on Facebook that he died Monday, without identifying a specific cause. Schmitt lived in the Los Angeles area. A relative, who did not want to be identified, confirmed Schmitt's death to The Associated Press.

“The world has lost a much loved and respected extraordinary individual, who led an extraordinary life,” the Facebook posting reads in part. "The most honored and awarded recording producer / engineer of all time, his parting words at any speaking engagement were, 'Please be kind to all living things.'"

He won his first Grammy in 1963, then collected 19 more competitive awards and the honorary Recording Academy Trustees Award, in 2006.Schmitt worked on more than 150 gold records, in a wide range of styles. He engineered Henry Mancini's “Moon River” and Sam Cooke's “Another Saturday Night,” Steely Dan's “Aja” and Madonna's “This Used to be My Playground.” He engineered Natalie Cole's blockbuster “Unforgettable” album and Barbra Streisand's “The Way We Were.” He produced “Volunteers” and several other Jefferson Airplane albums, helped produce Neil Young's “On the Beach” and more recently Dylan's “Shadows in the Night” and Paul McCartney's “Kisses on the Bottom.”

Brian Wilson, whose album of Gershwin songs was remixed by Schmitt, was among those Wednesday offering tributes, tweeting “Al was an industry giant and a great engineer who worked with some of the greatest artists ever, and I'm honored to have worked with. him on my Gershwin album. ” Michael Bublé, Journey's Steve Perry and Michael Bolton also praised him.

Schmitt's other credits included Sinatra's final studio recordings, “Duets” and “Duets II,” and Charles' final album, “Genius Loves Company,” which won Grammys in 2003 for best album and for best record, the Charles-Norah Jones duet “ Here We Go Again. ” Years earlier, he engineered the duet album “Ray Charles and Betty Carter,” a personal favorite despite Charles' struggles with heroin addiction.

“At that point, Ray was having a major drug problem,” he told Billboard in 2018. “So every time (there was) a 10-minute break, they would take him off into the bathroom, and God knows what happened, what. went on. It was sad to see that, but when he opened his mouth and sang, and (with) Betty, I mean, I got goosebumps. It was just unbelievable. ”

Schmitt was married twice, and had five children, eight grandchildren, and five great grandchildren.

Born in Brooklyn, he was the nephew of recording engineer Harry Smith and as a boy would take the subway into Manhattan and head for his uncle's studio, where anyone from Sinatra to Art Tatum might be in session. After serving in the Navy, he found work through his uncle at Apex Studios, where one of his first assignments was recording Duke Ellington. He would also soon befriend Tom Dowd, who as an engineer for Atlantic Records later worked on classic songs by Aretha Franklin, Eric Clapton and many others.