Just days before the 2026 GRAMMY Awards®, the Recording Academy®will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Producers & Engineers Wing® (P&E Wing) at its annual GRAMMY® Week Celebration. Taking place on Wednesday, Jan. 28, the event will honor producer, engineer, mixer, and five-time GRAMMY winner Jimmy “The Senator” Douglass. With credits ranging from Aretha Franklin and Foreigner to John Legend and The Rolling Stones, as well collaborations with four-time GRAMMY winner Timbaland on projects by JAY-Z, Justin Timberlake, Missy Elliott, and more, Douglass’ versatility and unconventional techniques have helped countless artists transcend genre restrictions and create truly unique records. Douglass was initially set to be honoredat the 2025 event prior to the Recording Academy’s decision to condense GRAMMY Week programming to prioritize Los Angeles wildfire response.
“Since 2001, the Producers & Engineers Wing has helped further the Recording Academy’s mission to serve music creators by amplifying the perspectives of craft professionals working across the industry,” said Maureen Droney, Vice President of the P&E Wing. “Our industry thrives when boundary-pushing visionaries help drive us forward, and as we kick off this anniversary year during GRAMMY Week 2026, we are thrilled to finally honor Jimmy Douglass and celebrate the groundbreaking contributions he has made to our industry over the course of his career. Jimmy is an icon who represents the best of the art and craft of recording, and the community of those who work behind the scenes blending talent, creativity and hard work to make great music.”
A Recording Academy membership division that is currently home to nearly 6,000 members, the P&E Wing represents an international network of producers, engineers, remixers, manufacturers, technologists, and other related professionals across the music industry. Over the past 25 years, the P&E Wing has stayed at the forefront of changing technologies, focused on innovation, education, best technical practices, and keeping the sonic bar high for recorded music.
ABOUT JIMMY DOUGLASS
Jimmy Douglass (also known as The Senator) is an American five-time GRAMMY-winning, 11-time GRAMMY-nominated recording engineer and record producer, whose prolific career has spanned more than four decades.
Douglass started his career at Atlantic Records studios in New York City as a part-time tape duplicator while still attending high school. There, he learned how to operate the studio’s custom-made 16-channel console and observed, was trained by, as well as worked with some of the greatest engineers, producers and record moguls including Tom Dowd, Arif Mardin, Jerry Wexler, and Ahmet Ertegun. For his first time behind the faders, he was encouraged by Wexler to engineer the session recording for a demo of a new band. He went on to work with major Atlantic Recording artists such as Aretha Franklin, Hall & Oates, Roberta Flack, Donny Hathaway, Foreigner, Led Zeppelin, and AC/DC, to name just a few.
During the 1980s, Douglass continued to hone his engineering skills while also taking on the role of producer. He engineered and produced established artists including The Rolling Stones, Slave, Odyssey, Roxy Music and Gang of Four.
Douglass started the first half of the 1990s, working mainly on jingles and post-production. This style of work taught him the importance of working efficiently and capturing the vibe, which would greatly benefit him in the years to come. In 1994, he began working with up-and-coming contemporary R&B/hip-hop producer Timbaland and served as his main engineer for more than a decade. They would eventually collaborate on classic projects from artists such as Aaliyah, Missy Elliott, Ginuwine and JAY-Z.
Beginning in the new millennium, Douglass continued engineering and mixing more Timbaland-produced projects from artists including Snoop Dogg, Björk and GRAMMY-winning albums for Justin Timberlake. Among the artists he also mixed are Rob Thomas, Sean Paul, Kanye West, Ludacris, Al Green, John Legend, and Duran Duran.
Presently, he continues to display his versatility by remaining current while drawing from his years of experience. Douglass is best known for bringing unconventional techniques into the studio and encouraging artists to transcend genre restrictions. He is credited with bringing a raw edge to sound and specifically bringing a heavy funk-bass sound into rock music. His hard work and immense talent has carved a place for him among some of the most respected producers, engineers and mixers in the world.
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