He has also served as editor-at-large for SPIN magazine and as a contributor to OMNI.
He also spent a decade asan advertising director, pianist, arranger, and composer in New York, Paris, and Madrid. Dean currently lives in Beverly Hills, California.
Good day to you. Thanks for your interest. I much appreciate your appreciation, and wish there were more of it going around!
You appear to be uncommonly insightful. To satisfy your curiosity, yes, I did that easy-listening album on Mainstream for the late great Bobby Shad (he actually passed away during a recording session a number of years later; a real pioneer). That’s from my earlier incarnation as a studio musician. (In 1990, after an extended absence from music, I returned to playing and composing jazz, which continues to this day. One of the great joys in my life.)
Where are you copywriting? That can be great fun, provided you have a good client — which is rather rare, as you may have discovered.
Comment by admin — July 16, 2009 at 12:07
Hi Cheeba (that is your name, I take it?),
And again, thanks for continuing the exchange. I appreciate your ordering the Discover book (“20 Things …” ). For that volume I had to rein in my natural inclination to going a bit over the top. In the more recent one (“The Loser’s Guide to Personal Failure”), which I wrote after prodding by a small publisher I know in nearby Venice, CA, is under no such constraints.
Canajun there, eh? My maternal grandmother was from St John, NB. So from babyhood I have felt a keen fondness for Canadian civilisation (look — I even spelt it correctly! … Come to that, I have spelt “spelt” correctly, too!). Of course, being from an older generation, I still call July 1st “Dominion Day,” but that aside, I stand on guard for you.
Do not be disheartened by the hack chores being heaped upon you by dull clients; at least you do get to use your tools and practice your craft. It was much the same for me during my recording studio days. Whenever I was hired by others as a sideman (or as an arranger), the deal was simple: unless they want what I’d prefer to do, and ask for it, I saw my job as delivering what they were paying me for. They want corny? You got it, pal. You want tasteless? Coming right up! Louder? Fine with me. The, um, wrong chords? Well, there I might have to control my gag reflex, and would certainly take the producer aside and suggest that there may — just may — be an alternate perspective on the harmony at bar #41. And again at #63. And for that matter, from #84 through #109. If they went blank on me, because they couldn’t hear it was the wrong chord, I’d simply nod and give them what they wanted. (I hate to admit it, but some of those records with “wrong chords” actually became hits! So much for my Daddy Cool hot-dang voicings.)
Comment by admin — July 17, 2009 at 13:24