Elliot Mazer, a producer and engineer who worked on albums including Neil Young‘s 1972 classic ‘Harvest’ has died, aged 79.

Mazer has over 200 production credits across four decades of work, and has also produced the likes of Linda Ronstadt, Janis Joplin, Dream Theater, Emmylou Harris and Dead Kennedys.

The news was confirmed to Rolling Stone by his daughter Allison, who confirmed that Mazer died of a heart attack. She also said that he had been battling dementia for several years.

“Elliot loved music,” his sister, Bonnie Murray, said. “He loved what he did; he was a perfectionist. Everybody has so much respect for him, and he’s been suffering for a couple years.”

Mazer’s family have asked that donations in his memory be made to MusicCares, a charity run by The Grammys in aid of artists affected by the pandemic.

After producing ‘Harvest’, for which he also assembled the band of session players, Mazer went on to work with Young on a number of subsequent records including ‘Tonight’s The Night’, ‘American Stars And Bars’, ‘Hawks And Doves’, and the ‘lost’ album ‘Homegrown’ which was recorded in 1975 but released last year.

Mazer began his career after being hired by his neighbour Bob Weinstock, owner of the jazz label Prestige Records, to organise tapes and deliver records to radio stations.

The first album he worked on was a compilation of John Coltrane outtakes he assembled, 1962’s ‘Standard Coltrane’.