Bob Weinstock, who was their neighbor and owner of Prestige Records, employed Mazer at the age of 21 to sort tapes and transport them to radio stations.
[2] He soon worked his way into the production process, ultimately creating the album Standard Coltrane in 1962 from a series of outtakes he had identified.
[2] There, he produced albums from artists such as Chubby Checker, Big Brother and the Holding Company (Cheap Thrills), and Linda Ronstadt (Silk Purse).
[5] Young was visiting the city to appear on The Johnny Cash Show and attended a dinner party hosted by Mazer, where the two conversed about artists and studios.
[4] Mazer was somewhat acquainted with Young's music only because his girlfriend at the time played After the Gold Rush incessantly.
[7] Young soon asked Mazer to work on Harvest, which was released the following year and began a decades-long partnership between the two.
[2][8] This consisted of Tim Drummond on bass, Kenny Buttrey on drums, John Harris on piano, and Ben Keith on pedal steel guitar.
[9] Aside from record producing, Mazer served as a consultant to Stanford University's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics from 1976 to 1984.
[5][6] He went on to credit him for his work on Harvest, noting how the album "is one of my most recognized recordings and it all happened because of Elliot Mazer".