Joel Moss dead: Hollywood legend who worked with Talking Heads dies

Joel Moss, a seven-time Grammy-winning producer, engineer and mixer, has died at the age of 79. His family confirmed he passed away on September 15 in Saratoga Springs, New York, but did not specify a cause of death. Throughout his six-decade career, he had worked on some of Hollywood's most popular movies as well as with numerous legendary artists, including Eagles, Little Richard, Johnny Cash, Joe Cocker, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Talking Heads. His work with the latter was considered groundbreaking as he was the first person to transfer analogue recordings to 24-track digital for the band's iconic 1984 documentary, Stop Making Sense.

He was a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and became a go-to engineer for recording many top film scores. His movie credits include Pretty in Pink,Little Shop of Horrors, City Slickers, A Few Good Men, Chicago, Footloose, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Sister Act, Sleepless in Seattle, Mosquito Coast, Dead Poets Society, Gorillas in the Mist and dozens of others.

Throughout his career, he garnered 11 Grammy nominations, in total winning Album of the Year and another for Ray Charles' 2004 swan song, Genius Loves Company.

He also won for Broadway's Beautiful: The Carole King Musical and In the Heights, along with the Chicago film soundtrack and Tony Bennett's Playin' With My Friends - Bennett Sings the Blues.

He also earmed three other Grammy noms for Broadway cast recordings for Hair, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and The Drowsy Chaperone.

In his later years he dedicated his time and talent as a writer, sound designer and archivist to friends and local musicians who performed at Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs.

Paying tribute his family said he was known as "the biggest mensch in the recording industry who created the best sounds in town."

Caffe Lena also paid ribute with a lengthy Facebook post. "It never failed to amaze us that a man who produced records for Johnny Cash, Tony Bennett, The Talking Heads, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and hundreds of others, believed so much in the community of Saratoga Springs and the value of Caffe Lena, that he spent his evenings running our livestream cameras and recording our shows," they wrote.

"He was passionately committed to recording every show that happened at Caffe Lena because he felt that Lena's stage is a national treasure and what happens on it is important. You never know when you'll capture lightning in a bottle. When he saw that special spark in an artist, he told everyone--whether the artist was 10 years old, was playing their first show, or was an under-appreciated treasure who had put in decades on the road. Joel's presence and faith elevated the Caffe in the eyes of many, and we are forever richer because of our time with him."

He is survived by his wife, Terri-Lynn Pellegri; daughter Rachael Moss; grandchildren Zuzu Booth and Griffin Booth; brother Gary Moss and sister-in-law Andrea; and sister Karen Hale and brother-in-law Richard; along with many nieces and nephews.