|
TOP R&B PRODUCERS OF THE '80S (updated 2008 06 12)
By Francis Depuydt
R&B record producers often represent a musical force that is significant
in the success story of many celebrated black artists. Their productions
change the face of R&B music. On these pages the author gathered some of
the 1980s hottest producers and songwriters of the American black recording
industry along with their musical achievements in Soul, Funk, Boogie and
Disco music during the exciting young '80s and beyond…
In the '80s Soul and Funk got smoother and less live and acoustic than
in previous decades. The orchestral Philly sound was fading away and large
funkbands restructured into smaller economical entities. Music became more
keyboards-minded and soon turned high-tech as it gradually evolved into
sophisticated Urban Contemporary towards 1983. Many artists who had dominated
the previous twenty years struggled to find a place in this new chapter.
Their place was taken by a slew of fresh stars bringing fine tunes with the
help of a new generation of record producers and composers.
The early '80s is one of the most overlooked and prolific eras of R&B
music and reflected a very refreshing time. Musicality was on the rise again
after the monotonous reign of the Disco queens. At the end of the '70s,
Disco's pulsating four-on-the-floor beat was wearing thin and R&B music
was finding its way to the next rhythm. The music industry was no more
focused on the massive exploitation of Disco but shifted towards the new
profits of mainstream Pop culture. It seemed to be a period when audiences,
as well as radio DJs, were wide open to receiving all kinds of music. As a
reaction to the Disco over-saturation people were looking for alternatives
and this musical climate was perfect to explore new styles of dance music.
This new situation implied a welcome deathblow for the brainless sort of
Disco. At the same time it was a blessing for true R&B dance music that
was refueling musical energy and regaining credibility after the Disco craze.
Commercial success for many Disco-related artists indeed rapidly
declined in the '80s. The dance music industry was in turmoil by that time.
Sales were disappointing and record labels announced cutbacks in the number
of dance records they would release. The problem started with the major
record companies that were late getting into the Disco scene. When they woke
up, they released loads of Disco records and flooded the market which soon
led to the so called "Death of Disco". But of course there were
still buyers and radio stations playing many of the Disco songs. There exists
a misconception that "credible" Disco music wasn't being made and
released during the early '80s. Apparently only the silly Disco emanations
had reached their expiration date. In fact, after the Disco overkill of the
late seventies, this type of music was still popular during the year 1980 and
even to a limited extent until the summer of 1982. If Disco was dead, why
then did R&B acts as George Benson, Earth Wind & Fire, The Brothers
Johnson, Diana Ross, The Whispers, Kool & The Gang or Stephanie Mills
score some of their biggest "Disco" hits in 1980 and 1981?
Soulmusic aiming for the dancefloor got rid of the choking Disco trauma and
was given the opportunity to excite again! Disco wasn't really dead, it was
in a continuous evolution, as was music technology and music culture.
A different type of songs and productions shifted the sound genre towards
black R&B/Soul music. This renaissance mainly occured in the thriving and
hip underground clubscene where black dance music evolved into what we call
Boogie today, electronic dance music marked out by its soulfulness and
integrity. The early '80s was actually an exciting period in dance music
history, where all the seeds of now flourishing contemporary forms of
Hip-Hop, R&B and Dance music were really planted in the form of
technology. The Boogie dance tunes, with their super-catchy layers of vocals
and synths on top of machine-driven beats, totally redefined how dance music
would sound into the next decades. The Boogie phenomenon can largely be
summed up by the output of the larger New York Disco labels like Prelude,
Vanguard, SAM, West End, Salsoul and Radar
in the early '80s. It took a long-time for Boogie to surface from the
underground. It had been largely ignored or regarded as Disco's poor cousin,
perhaps too slow, too electronic, too R&B…too black even. But it kick-started
a musical groundswell which would see club music topping the charts all over
the world again, just like Disco had.
The post-Disco era represented by Boogie was a turbulent and creative time
for independent dance music in general and one where the early trends in music
technology are easy to spot. It was still a continuation of Disco, though
dressed up differently. Its rhythms weren't always the ubiquitous
four-to-the-floor. Boogie was all about the groove: tempo down or up, the
rhythm had to groove. It was a heady blend of Disco, Funk, Jazz, Soul/R&B
and Electro, fused by and for the party-heads of the day.
Boogie also introduced the creative and brilliant mixing techniques of
legendary DJs/mixers/producers like John Morales, Shep Pettibone, Larry
Levan, Jim Burgess, Nick Martinelli & David Todd and François Kevorkian:
alchemists who turned even basic tracks into complex sonic masterpieces which
can still turn heads now. Obviously the Boogie beat didn't remain the fresh
vibe of the underground scene only. Also the major record companies adopted
the slick, crisp and synthy club sound for their R&B artists and engaged
the services of a new batch of popular producers and mixers.
Throughout the early '80s, Disco music would not only reincarnate into
Boogie but also into other forms of dance music like Dance, Rap and even
New-Wave and Pop. The term "Disco" was banned but the phenomenon
and its energy remained alive and kickin'!
Bit by bit as the '80s era progressed, R&B (dance) music entered the
field of Urban Contemporary music: technically advanced and sparkling
USA-Soul/Funk fabricated by very sollicitated producers and production
companies as Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis' Flyte
Tyme Productions on Tabu records (S.O.S. Band, Alexander O'Neal), Vincent
Calloway & Reggie Calloway (Midnight Star, Teddy Pendergrass), Kashif's New Music Group Productions (Melba Moore, Stacy
Lattisaw), Paul Lawrence Jones' Stone
Jones Productions (Lillo Thomas, Freddie Jackson), Lonnie Simmons on his
Total Experience label (Gap Band, Yarbrough & Peoples), Keith Diamond
(Billy Ocean, Melba Moore), Dennis Lambert (Commodores, Natalie Cole), Barry
Eastmond (Freddie Jackson, Jonathan Butler), Leon F. Sylvers III and his Silverspoon Productions (Rockie
Robbins, Glenn Jones), Nile Rodgers (Madonna, Al Jarreau), Richard Perry on
his Planet label (Pointer Sisters, Greg Phillinganes), Nick Martinelli's Watch Out Productions (Loose Ends,
Phyllis Hyman) and The System's Science
Lab Productions (Jeff Lorber, Pauli Carman). Also
important in the '80s was Hush/Orpheus
Productions, the innovative company of the brothers Beau and Charles
Huggins that was highly successful through collaborations with an impressive
array of top producers (Kashif, Howard King, Keith Diamond, Barry Eastmond,
Rahni Song, Paul Laurence, Morrie Brown, Gene McFadden, John Whitehead, Amir
Bayyan) and elite artists (Lillo Thomas, Freddie Jackson, John White, Ray
Goodman & Brown, Meli'sa Morgan, The Controllers, Melba Moore, Beau
Williams, Eric Gable, Najee, Alex Bugnon, Vaneese). Especially in the second
half of the '80s Hush/Orpheus Productions was largely responsible for adding
the classy Soul vibe back into R&B music.
On the threshold of the '90s, R&B music welcomed a new musicstyle called
New Jack Swing that introduced new artists and producers. Simultaneously the
importance of Rap music and Hip Hop culture firmly increased and ultimately
gained worldwide recognition, achieving the status of a vital part of today's
R&B music.
Technology in the '80s played a bigger part, synthesizers and music
computer systems were getting cheaper and allowed musicians and producers to
experiment with innovating ways of musical expression. Although the influence
of electronic instruments was already immense at that time, early '80s
Disco/Funk music still retained the warmth and charm of artists really
playing the instruments. That was the period in which musicians still took
the lead in actually embroidering music, as opposed to fully programming it.
It was also an amazingly productive era for R&B music in general. It
wasn't unusual that hot R&B acts cut two albums in the same year as did
the Whispers, Fatback, Ozone, Skyy, Gene Dunlap, The Detroit Spinners,
Starpoint, Richard 'Dimples' Fields, The Dazz Band, Bill Summers, Con Funk
Shun, One Way, The Isley Brothers, Lakeside or Cameo. The abundance of
quality output during this time was to a large extent the merit of a new
generation of producers/songwriters who would mark the '80s and even the '90s
sometimes. They helped constructing the matrix of sophisticated Soul, a
formula whereby Soulmusic could be massive on the dancefloor while still
maintaining the highest standards of composition and musicianship.
The dawn of '80s R&B was clear when Michael Jackson's Off The Wall
peaked the black album charts during the whole of 1980. It was the perfect
record to introduce the post-Disco era with an impeccable production,
brilliant songs, tasteful arrangements and a captivating artist to truly give
them life. The man behind this project was the legendary producer Quincy
Jones who proved pivotal in connecting post-Disco to the present. But he
wasn't the only figure who redefined the sound of Disco/Dance and R&B. A
bunch of young, busy studiocats who surfaced in the late '70s also
contributed to the new outline of Black Dance Music. The likes of Randy
Muller, Dexter Wansel, Nick Martinelli, Kashif or the partnership James
Mtume/Reggie Lucas employed an efficient synthesis of Soul, Funk and Disco,
new recording technologies and synthesized instrumentation on top of a strong
musical foundation. Remember the luminous work of writer and producer Leon F.
Sylvers III. His fusion of guitar, strings, tight harmonies, infectious
melodies, funky bass lines, handclaps and a smattering of synthesised sparkle
created the fresh Solar sound.
Some long-established producers as Michael Stokes, Arif Mardin or Allen A.
Jones, who all started their careers back in the deep seventies, stayed in
the game. They distinguished themselves by the soundness of their '80s output
and the bright adaptation of their production patterns to a contemporary
standard.
Whereas most of the instrumentation on the earlier productions was live and
authentic, drum programming, synthesizer arrangements, sequencing and
overdubs entered the picture in the '80s, and certainly in a big way around
the mid '80s. Soulmusic became increasingly keyboard-based and computerized.
Not everyone was keen on this electronic and digital turnabout but the
application of revolutionary music technology was an inevitable phase on the
way to the the R&B music of the next generation.
Before focusing on the 'Producer facts in short' and the 'Producer
discographies' it's important to know what a record producer really is. Most
people imagine that this is the musicbiz equivalent of a film producer, a
person who finances projects and invests in upcoming artists with the
ultimate motivation of generating money. This perception is wrong because the
word 'record producer' is a misleading term that can be confused with the
function of an 'executive producer'. The word 'record director' would be far
more accurate. The record producer has three simultaneous functions. He's a
director, a consultant and a catalyst. To know when to switch from one role
to another becomes the record producer's primary goal in the studio. Some
artists will require far more of one aspect than another, but the producer
should always be ready to give enough creative space to let the unexpected
happen. His challenge is to bring out the best in an artist and to improve
the chance to have a successful if not an outstanding product. Therefore he
can often rely on a team of trusty collaborators like musicians, songwriters,
vocalists, arrangers and engineers who make up the keystones of a
characteristic production sound. Complementary to their role of studio
captains, producers are often qualified musicians, arrangers, songwriters
(e.g. Jimmy Jam/Terry Lewis, Nile Rodgers/Bernard Edwards) or even artists
themselves (e.g. Prince, Narada Michael Walden, Ray Parker Jr.).
The creative control enables the producer to develop a personal style that
eventually becomes his trademark sound. Black music has always played a major
role in the field of commercial dance music. Because this type of music is
still regarded as a producer's medium par excellence it is quite common that
the artist's position is inferior to the production concept. Also during the
'80s the actual artists were often an instrument of the producer's
creativity. The success of Solar Records was mainly based on the production
and songwriting wizardry of one influential musician: Leon Frank Sylvers III.
Leon Sylvers and a tight knit crew of Solar associated musicians and writers
effortlessly provided quality music for a stable of seemingly interchangeable
labelmates. They were the vehicles of the glorious Solar sound. Morrie
Brown's company Mighty M Productions, that at a certain time comprised the
triumvirate of Kashif, Paul Lawrence Jones III (a.k.a. Paul Laurence) and
Brown himself, developed a ground-breaking sound that played a significant
role in the careers of Howard Johnson, Lillo Thomas, Kashif, Evelyn King and
Melba Moore as well as in the evolution of urban electronic contemporary
music in general. The fact that a recognizable production style was shared by
different artists wasn't necessarily a minus as long as the artists benefited
from an inspiring collaboration with skilled top producers who had a clear
vision.
Self-contained R&B bands and autonomous black acts beyond compare such as
One Way, Prince, The Isley Brothers, Zapp, Maze or Earth Wind & Fire
followed a more personal course. The evolution of their unique styles was an
inner process of natural renewal subtly influenced by the trends in the world
of black music.
The achievements of all these remarkable sonic architects gave R&B music
a new zest, lifting it up to a higher level of sophistication and enjoyment.
The '80s R&B producer's craft was individual, private and behind the
scenes. An obscure control room job virtually unknown to the general public.
Their under-appreciated contribution to the development of black music was so
substantial that they deserve an introduction. All to be discovered in the
following digest that brings the merits of the often unsung '80s heroes of
the black recording industry into the limelight...
The author wishes to emphasize that the following survey doesn't
intend to be complete. Any suggestion, comment, idea, remark or additional
info regarding this article is more than welcome.
Please feel free to contact the writer francis.depuydt@versateladsl.be
or the webmaster Patrik B. Andersson: 
12 INCH and 7 INCH
single releases are only listed if the productions never appeared on a
corresponding album by the artist or if the track appeared on a soundtrack
album. Also mind that the Producer Discographies are restricted to the 1970s
and 1980s. The '90s is another story…
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | O | P | R | S | T | V | W
PRODUCER DISCOGRAPHIES
A
Patrick Adams
Productions, co-productions (and songs) appear on:
Art
Webb: LP Mr. Flute (Atlantic 1977)
Ben E. King: LP Let Me Live In
Your Life (Atlantic, 1978)
Black Ivory: LP Don't Turn Around
(Today, 1970)
Black Ivory: LP Baby, Won't You
Change Your Mind (Today, 1972)
Black Ivory: LP Feel It (Buddah,
1975)
Bumblebee Unlimited: LP Sting Like
A Bee (RCA, 1979)
Bumblebee Unlimited: 12 INCH "The
Bumblebee Rap" (1981)
Candi Staton: LP/CD Young Hearts
Run Free (Warner Bros.,1976)
Caress: LP/CD Caress (PAP, 1977)
Claudette Polite: 12 INCH "I'll Come
When You Call" (ScorpGemi, 1987)
Claudja Barry: 12 INCH "Your Sweet
Touch" (Personal, 1984)
Cloud One: LP/CD Atmosphere Strut
(P&P, 1976)
D.K. Dyson: 12 INCH "Leave Your
Key On The Table" (Ravin, 1986)
Daybreak: 12 INCH "Everything
Man" (PAP, 1977)
Daybreak: 12 INCH "Everybody
Get Off" (Prelude, 1980)
Debbie Taylor: LP/CD Comin' Down
On You (Today, 1972)
Destiny: 12 INCH "Young, Fine
& Single&q |