The Recording Academy will celebrate the 25th anniversary of its Producers & Engineers Wing (P&E Wing) and honor producer, engineer and mixer Jimmy Douglass at its annual Grammy Week Celebration, which is set for Wednesday, Jan. 28 evening in Los Angeles.
Douglass, who is also known as “The Senator,” was initially set to be honored at the 2025 P&E Wing event, prior to the Recording Academy’s decision to condense Grammy Week programming to prioritize the L.A. wildfires response. That resulted in several events, including the P&E Wing event, being canceled. This is the second canceled Grammy Week event from 2025 that has been put on the schedule for 2026 so the honoree can finally get his flowers: On Monday (Dec. 8), it was announced that WMG’s Paul Robinson will be honored at the 2026 Entertainment Law Initiative Event on Friday, Jan. 30 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif., after that event, too, was called off last year.
“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,” Maureen Droney, vp of The Recording Academy’s P&E wing, said in a statement. “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.”
Douglass has helped scores of artists transcend genre restrictions and create unique records. He is credited with bringing a raw edge and a heavy funk-bass sound into rock music.
Douglass started his career at Atlantic Records studios in New York City as a part-time tape duplicator while still attending high school. 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.
During the 1980s, Douglass continued to hone his engineering skills while also taking on the role of producer. He engineered and produced artists including The Rolling Stones, Slave, Odyssey, Roxy Music and Gang of Four.
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Douglass started the first half of the 1990s working mainly on jingles and in post-production. In 1994, he began working with Timbaland and served as his main engineer for more than a decade. The two musicians collaborated on projects for 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 Justin Timberlake. He also mixed work from artists including Rob Thomas, Sean Paul, Kanye West, Ludacris, Al Green, John Legend and Duran Duran.
Douglass has won five Grammys for his work on Justin Timberlake’s “SexyBack” (best dance recording, 2007); Timberlake’s “Love Stoned/I Think She Knows” (best dance recording, 2008); John Legend & The Roots’ Wake Up! (best R&B album, 2011), CeCe Winans’ Let Them Fall in Love (best gospel album, 2018) and Andra Day’s The United States vs. Billie Holiday (best compilation soundtrack for visual media, 2022).
Douglass has received five album of the year Grammy nominations, for his work on Missy Elliott’s Under Construction, Timberlake’s Justified and FutureSex/LoveSounds, Pharrell Williams’ Girl and Jay-Z’s 4:44. He has additionally notched two record of the year nods for Timberlake’s “What Goes Around…Comes Around” and Jay-Z’s “The Story of O.J.”
In addition to paying tribute to Douglass, the event will celebrate the year-round work of the P&E Wing and its members. 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.
