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09.10.09
STYLE & CLASS
Boogie, Soul-Funk & Disco
DJ's Frank Ryle & Sohail
Barbarellah, Nørre Farimagsgade 41
KBH K.
22.00 - 04.00 (gratis adgang)
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Der er nu 7 gæst(er) og 0 medlem(mer) online
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James Ingram (E)
(1698 total words in this text)
(read: 1753 times)
Since leaving Akron, Ohio for the promise of a hopping Los Angeles funk music scene in 1973, one talented R&B keyboardist and singer hasn't looked back. Instead, multiple Grammy award winner James Ingram has helped shape the voice of urban music while remaining a member of a select group of musicians lucky enough to write their own future. Armed with a relentless "stick-with-it" attitude, the now 40-year-old Ingram has quietly amassed an impressive collection of songs that demonstrate an ever-growing mastery of urban music. But the common thread linking Ingram's work -- which spans five solo albums as well as numerous collaborations with artists such as Quincy Jones and Michael McDonald -- is an educated, yet humanistic approach to the art of song craftsmanship.
Ingram first came to the West Coast with his band Revelation Funk in 1973, but after six months, the group disbanded. "The band got discouraged and went home," Ingram said about the experience. "But I stayed out (in L.A.)." And his commitment paid off when he went on the road with Ray Charles, providing backup vocals and keyboards. He also successfully played behind the Coasters on Dick Clark's oldies revues, and went on to being Leon Hayward's musical director. "I played keyboards on I Can See Clearly Now," Ingram said about the famous Charles' tune. For Ingram, playing keyboards, singing, and writing songs are equally important components in his musical life. "The music often comes first and the vocals later," said Ingram, who usually watches a song develop from a small musical idea or riff. "Sometimes we will work from a song title." According to Ingram, although Revelation Funk had fun with cover songs, he always preferred writing original music and vocals. "Creating music is always a more powerful thing than just copying someone else's music," He said. "You are bringing something into the world that didn't exist."
Ingram spent the 1970s writing and collaborating with many different artists, working on the new sounds of urban expression. As it is today, being in the right place at the right time was always important. We shared the same studio as Ray Charles, and he liked my playing," Ingram said. "It was kind of a combination, a lot of people were playing together."
Ironically, the break up of Revelation Funk strengthened the young singer, forcing him to find his own voice. "I was a lead singer in Los Angeles and then the group broke up," Ingram said. "After that it was survival, suddenly I had to do everything."
That strength and vocal talent impressed Quincy Jones, who pulled Ingram from obscurity after hearing a demo tape. Ingram went on to sing on Just Once, One Hundred Ways, and the title track on Jones' The Dude (1981).
Not Just Once Quincy signed Ingram to his Qwest Label and Just Once was released in 1981. The album contained the Grammy Award winning ballad Just Once as well as the Top-40 duet (U.S.A. and U.K.) Yah Mo B There recorded with Michael McDonald. The McDonald tune, still one of Ingram's favorites, went on to win two Grammies and many more nominations. Quincy and Ingram continued to work together on what would become P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing), which was recorded by Michael Jackson on 1982's Thriller. In 1983, after the album produced by Keith Diamond, Never Felt So Good, was released, Ingram signed to Warner Brothers. Several years later, It's Real Hard (1989) produced by Ingram, Gene Griffin, and Michael Powell, was released on Warner Bros.
During this time Ingram continued to work with Quincy Jones on his album Back on the Block featuring the song Secret Garden. Throughout the '80s Ingram sang on many commercially successful duets, including Somewhere Out There with Linda Rondstadt, Baby Come to Me with Patti Austin, as well as Yah Mo B There, but his solo efforts failed to reach the same level of success. In 1990 Ingram changed that with the solo hit I Don't Have the Heart. The difference between It's Real Hard and 1993's Always You is that the latter marks the first time Ingram wrote with producers. "I wrote with Thom Bell and Benny Medina, it was different for me to write with producers," he said. Not a lack of confidence but simply a desire to try something new were the motivating factors behind Ingram's decision to write songs with producers," he said. Not a lack of confidence but simply a desire to try something new were the motivating factors behind Ingram's decision to write songs with producers. "People make the production," he added. For Ingram, a solo album is not something completed in a vacuum, but rather with the friction caused by real human interaction. It is this philosophy, apparent on all Ingram recordings, that makes the music human, and thus accessible.
"We had six kids in my family and everybody tried to play an instrument," Ingram said of his Ohio days. "We listened to a wide variety of music including James Brown, The Beatles, Jimmy Smith, Motown, and Gospel." Ingram remembers being in competition with his four brothers in music, particularly his older brother Philip.
"Everybody would sit down at the piano and try to play," said Ingram, who was the only kid to go on to play music professionally. "Then Philip would walk by and make it sound like an orchestra."
Through years of touring and more recently, professional vocal instruction, Ingram has learned how to circumvent some of the pitfalls that cause other artists to not always sound their best. By far the most strenuous activity you can do to your voice is bring it on tour, according to Ingram. And whether he's on the road with his band or solo, the issues are the same. "Sometimes you find yourself singing too hard," Ingram said. "You don't feel good in the morning; you can't even talk."
The problem is often that the vocalist gets caught up in the excitement of the performance and sacrifices the voice in the process.
The solution, according to Ingram, is proper pre-show vocal preparation. "The band gets happy, you get happy, and you press down on the medal and don't stop yourself", he said, adding that warm-ups can start the morning you wake up for a show. "A good warm-up is good insurance." According to Ingram, who never formally studied music, it was a conversation after the Grammies that convinced him of the value of vocal training.
"I was asking Michael Jackson how he does it (vocally)," Ingram said about the moment after Thriller won a Grammy for best vocal. "He said two words... Seth Riggs." The introduction of the vocalist to Riggs, who has taught everyone from Michael Jackson to Bette Midler, proved to be a turning point for Ingram. "What I learned above all else, is that you can not perform if you have not properly warmed up," Ingram said. "The strain is in the down time."
The vocal chords are not unlike any other muscle in the body, according to Ingram, they also need exercise. "You (the vocalist) are like an athlete, you need to pull it out," Ingram said, adding that he has suffered from a damaged vocal chord and usually waits a few days before singing again if that happens. According to the vocalist, the instrumentalists in the group have it easy. "As a musician you get tired, but as vocalist you get tired as a dog."
Rhythm and Blues and the Future With such an emphasis on the hierarchy of musical development -- the end result of that education being the ability to compose a great song -- it is no wonder that there is a small measure of discontent among those who saw the birth of modern music.
"I'm not going to comment on who," Ingram exclaimed. "But these days it seems that cars aren't made as well as they were, clothes aren't made as well, and ..."I don't think there is any doubt about it," Ingram said. "With sequencers and stuff, you just pop the stuff off, it's not the same kind of thing." According to Ingram, many producers in today's crop of R&B artists don't have the skills that producers had back then. The problem doesn't so much lie in education and schooling as it does in the interaction of people. "The artist society is not made as well," Ingram said. "It is a sign of where we are today."
Asked who he does like today, Ingram is able to name at least two. "Babyface has good melodies. I like Boys II Men" he said. "There are a few people."
"You can tell them (quality musicians) because you can tell they are listening to the real cats," Ingram said. "They are tuned into the music that preceded our culture before now." The difference between now and then for Ingram is in the attitude of the music.
"There is less music that is dominating," Ingram said. "Maybe there are fewer people who want to hear good music." But once in a while, something comes along that is reminiscent of the old music.
"I hear something like Peabo Bryson's "Beauty and the Beast" soundtrack song and it's like 'I want to be a part of this'", Ingram added.
"Some of my material outlives me," Ingram added. "I want to continue to be a part of good music."
The Finer Points As Ingram gets ready to head to the studio, he offers a few pointers for up and coming singers. "A lot of people want to sing today," Ingram said. "My advice is to also learn the piano. The piano should be an integral part of your education." If both are learned, then the artist has a much greater chance of being able to work without producers and thus more independently, according to Ingram.
"Just singing, that is the damnedest thing," he added. "The best singers are always piano players."
Ingram's best advice for singers, however, is not to smoke. "Singing or playing with smoke, it gets all up in the throat," Ingram said. "If you don't smoke, you are like a Jaguar (the automobile) with two gas tanks."
Source: Get Music
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