Biography
Dae Bennett was born Daegal Benedetto in the Bronx, NY, NY in 1955, and was raised in northern NJ. Being the son of singer Tony Bennett, he was exposed to music and the entertainment industry from an early age. There was even a small recording studio in his family’s home installed by Rudy Van Gelder, a local resident, family friend, and legendary audio engineer for many of the greats in the Jazz world. It was on this equipment Dae got his first visceral feel of recording gear and later learned how to operate and maintain it.
Learning to play drums at age 9 during the British invasion, he became a working musician while still in high school. In 1970, Dae joined Quacky Duck, an eclectic rock band that became an early 70’s fixture at Max’s Kansas City in New York City and the east coast club scene. The band was signed to Warner Bros. Records when Dae was 17, and he spent his 18th birthday in the studio working on the group’s album, his first as a professional.
Working years as a musician, Dae built many small studios along the way. In his late 20’s he built his first professional studio, Hillside Sound. It was in the early days of what would come to be known as the “home studio scene”. Unlike most, Hillside was outfitted with professional gear and quickly became a popular studio in the NY metro area. Many international hits came out of Hillside in the early days of Rap and Hip Hop from artists such as Rob Base, Naughty by Nature, Salt n Peppa, and producer Teddy Riley with Guy and Wreckx-n-Effect. They all had many hits and some of the early Grammy nominations in, what were at the time, new Rap and Hip Hop categories. Hillside Sound was also home to many greats in the Jazz and Rock worlds during the mid 80’s and throughout the 90’s. It was during the late 90’s when Dae began to take an active role in the production of his father’s recordings.
During this period, the transition from analog tape to digital audio workstations was well underway. With the advent of the new technology, it became practical for smaller studios to do post production audio editing and mixing for video. Having always been involved in live recording and mixing, Dae gravitated towards this field and ended up working on many shows through the years. Some highlights of his work are a 10-year run recording and mixing the Newport Jazz Festival for JVC/PBS from 1994-2004, the Trey Anistasio concert at Red Rocks DVD, and in 2006 Dae was awarded a primetime Emmy for “Outstanding Mixing for a Variety or Music Series” for the Rob Marshall directed NBC special ”Tony Bennett- An American Classic”.
After 20 years at Hillside Sound, Dae decided to expand his studio business and, in 2001, opened Bennett Studios in a 100-year-old railroad station. It was a multi-room complex that also had a 64-channel fiber optic connection to a 1,400 seat theater a block and a half away. Many records and concerts were recorded and shot at both the studio and theater locations. In the 10 years of Bennett Studios’ existence, projects recorded and mixed there received over 20 Grammy Awards, 3 Emmy nominations and 1 Emmy win. These projects and awards ranged across many musical genres from Classical to Hip Hop, Jazz, Rock, Bluegrass, and everything in between. Dae’s ability to work on such a wide variety of genres has become a hallmark of his career.
In 2011, having been a studio owner/operator for over 30 years, and with the evident downturn in recording budgets, Dae decided to close Bennett Studios to become a freelance audio producer/engineer/mixer. He dedicated the initial period of this time to focusing on projects with his father, as his catalog of over 70 albums had to be re-mastered and preserved to the digital realm. During this time together, they also managed to “squeeze in” album projects with both Lady Gaga and Bill Charlap. Both were Grammy winning Traditional Pop albums on which Dae was credited as Producer, Engineer, and Mixer.
In 2016, Dae completed construction of his new private workspace, Studio At Flat Rock. In the new space he’s worked on numerous projects, won two more Traditional Pop Grammys and mixed the 2018 Grammy-winning Best Gospel album by CeCe Winans. Most recently, in 2022, Dae won Grammys for Best Engineered Non-Classical Album and Traditional Pop Album for his father’s last recording with Lady Gaga, Love for Sale.
Being based in the New York City metro area, Dae records in different studios, usually decided by a project’s budget. He is doing most of his post production and mixing from his Flat Rock studio, collaborating in person and virtually with clients. No longer tethered to a studio facility, Dae is now available to travel to studios and locations worldwide.