Trace Ellington has helped craft songs for some big names in music. The son of a Milwaukee auto body shop owner, Ellington went to Milwaukee Trade and Technical High School and then dipped out to the West Coast as a young man and created Mood Indigo Recordings in the mid-1980s. Early in his career as an audio engineer, he recorded and produced some of the first music from hip-hop legends like Digital Underground, Too $hort and even Tupac Shakur.
The mixmaster’s skills and network grew larger over the years, as he worked with other musicians like Blues Traveler and Jamie Foxx, while also releasing his own soulful R&B albums and honing his craft as a songwriter and producer. By necessity of the job, he’s stayed on the cutting edge of sound recording technology and techniques.
And recently, Ellington – now 61 and tall, fit and always freshly dressed – brought all that expertise and experience back home to help develop artists here in Milwaukee…