Jessica Thompson

GRAMMY-nominated mastering and restoration engineer, audio preservationist, and educator based in the SF Bay Area

I am a mastering & restoration engineer, audio preservationist, studio owner, and mom.

I have remastered, restored and revived historic recordings from the Bottom LineCaffè LenaWoody Guthrie, Erroll Garner, and Barbara Dane Archives. I have cleaned, digitized and restored rare vinyl and cassette recordings for Awesome Tapes from Africa (Ata Kak, Hailu Mergia, Nahawa Doumbia), Smithsonian Folkways (Barbara Dane), RVNG Intl (Michele Mercure, Pauline Anna Strom), and Numero Group (Margo Guryan, Duster, Gary Davenport, Pot Valiant). And I have mastered new records for Kurt Vile, Pachyman, Michael Daves, Chris Riffle, Occurrence and many more (see discography).

I am a former President (and current Governor) of the San Francisco Chapter of the Recording Academy, a member of the AES Diversity and Inclusion Committee and the technical committee of the Association For Recorded Sound Collections. I have taught at SAE Expression; written for Tape Op; and contributed a chapter to Music Preservation and Archiving Today (Rowman).

My work on Erroll Garner’s iconic live performance The Complete Concert By the Sea (Sony/Legacy) was nominated for Best Historical Album GRAMMY, 2015. I also remastered Garner’s Dreamstreet, A New Kind of Love and several other classic Garner albums for the Octave Remastered Series. My restoration of Ata Kak's Obaa Sima was FACT Magazine's Reissue of the Year, 2015, and my remaster of Mickey Newbury’s seminal albums for the box set An American Trilogy (Drag City/Cargo UK) was Mojo Magazine’s Reissue of the Year, 2011.

In my previous career as a radio producer and announcer, I interviewed drummer Max Roach and the organ player at Fenway Park for WGBH and spun records and CDs on the airwaves of WGBH, WFMU, WZBC and WESU.