I was bitten by the music bug really early in life.
I used to get Downbeat and Metronome magazine and catalogs
from the instrument companies, and paste my face over
the photos of the great players who were influencing
me. Sadly I lost all of those magazines in a flood,
but I still have the photos taken of me at different
stages of my life and with various instruments.
I
would have given anything to play the vibes like Lionel
Hampton or Terry Gibbs. Believe it or not, I took my
own picture of me playing the vibes (right). First I
moved all of the furniture out of the way in my living
room so that I could use the drapes as a background.
Then I moved the ironing board and placed the Manhattan,
Brooklyn, Bronx and Queens telephone books on top of
it. Then I put the camera on top of the phone books
and set the focus. I took a quick shower and put on
my tuxedo and combed my hair. Back then I had a lot
of it. I set the camera for automatic, and ran back
to the vibes and waited the twenty seconds for it to
flash automatically and take the picture.
Pretty slick huh? You might be interested
in knowing that I no longer have the ironing board,
the vibes.. and all of that hair.
__________________
Listen to my very first professional recording as a
13-year-old singer.
Can you believe it?
Lock Stock &
Barrel backed with Naughty
Little Angel
I was a real enterprising guy when I
was a youngster. Here is a flyer (right) I made up for
washing cars. I was destined to be the first Bill Gates.
Obviously destiny had different plans for me.
Leiber & Stoller
I
do not even know how to begin to express the amount
of respect and gratitude I have for Jerry and Mike.
I met them in the early sixties when I was working at
Bell Sound Studios which was one of the busier recording
studios in New York. My job was setting up the studios
for recording sessions and assisting the engineers during
the sessions. Leiber and Stoller were one of Bell Sounds
biggest clients.
One day they were recording with a large orchestra
and the piano player couldnt play the part properly.
I offered to overdub it (add it afterwards) once they
dismissed the orchestra. After I played it, they asked
me to come to work for them and play on all of their
recording sessions. That very minute was the birth of
my recording career. I actually remember that I sensed
my musical journey was about to start. I stayed up all
night thinking about the possibilities that lie ahead.
I stayed at Bell Sound long enough to train someone
new and then I went to work for Jerry and Mike.
Their
office was located at 1619 Broadway in the famous Brill
Building, right in the heart of New York's theater and
music business district. It was interesting to me because
I knew that this area of about fifteen or twenty square
blocks was going to change my life forever.
I had walked by this building hundreds of times delivering
tapes from Bell Sound Studios. Never in my wildest dreams
did I ever think that I would be going to work for someone
in the building, let alone become a part of its musical
history. As I walked to their office I remember thinking
to myself what a great opportunity this was, and I was
going to make sure that I was ready for it in every
way.
I showed up at their office and began to learn from
the minute I got there. I watched them as they rehearsed
various recording artists and prepared for upcoming
recording sessions with the arrangers. It was like going
to high school and college at the same time. I learned
something new every day just being around their office.
These guys were unbelievable. Mike would play the piano
and Jerry would sing. There was a creative ambiance
in that office that was just magic, and lucky me every
day I got to watch the magic show.
Before long I was playing on lots of sessions in many
different styles of music. I had a lot of on the job
training. The arranging started to happen as I got interested
in and learned more about the process of making records.
I found it to be absolutely fascinating and creatively
fulfilling. It let me execute the musical ideas I was
hearing in my head that just playing piano did not allow
me to do. While I was living in New York, I was fortunate
enough to work with some of the finest musicians in
the business.
In 1967, I moved to Los Angeles and started working
almost immediately on records. Movies and TV started
to happen a few years later. I have said many times
that whatever success I may have attained, or whatever
awards hang on my wall, there can never be enough words
to say thanks to Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller for helping
a young kid piano player from Brooklyn chase his dreams.
The truth is
Im still dreaming.
Jeff Barry
& Ellie Greenwich
When
I left Bell Sound Studios to work for Leiber and Stoller
I met Jeff and Ellie who were writers signed to Trio
Music their publishing firm. They were writing hit songs
and making hit records, and I became their arranger
and pianist on many of them. Ellie sang back-up on many
of the records as well. She had a great sound and real
good musical instinct. Whenever I worked with them we
always had a lot of fun together.
Jeff was great in the control room. He
was very professional and had real good focus and knew
exactly what he wanted to hear. This made it easy for
the arranger and musicians to give him what he wanted.
There were many times I walked out of a recording session
we had just finished and I could not stop singing the
song we had just recorded. That was Jeff's secret weapon.
He really knew how to write songs people could remember
and wanted to walk around singing.
I have said in many interviews and lectures that I have
given that I learned so much about making records from
Jeff Barry. What I learned from Jeff is something that
you do not learn in any school anywhere. He taught me
how to throw away the rules and go for the feel.
We were recording Connie Francis for MGM Records and
had been in the studio for about two hours working on
one song. Jeff said he loved what we were playing but
he was not happy with the sound of the kick drum (bass
drum back then). The drummer tried everything he knew
to make it work.
Jeff was looking for something that he
could not describe to us. He gave the band a break.
On the break, Jeff was walking around the lounge with
a timpani mallet in his hand banging on everything he
could find that could perhaps give him the sound he
was looking for. A desk drawer, a chair, a pillow etc.
I actually remember him taking a Manhattan phone book
and trying it also. About fifteen minutes later he said
Artie bring the band back in. Ive got it.
Jeff walked into the studio with a plastic
trash can which he had emptied. He turned it over and
hit it with the mallet. It was just the sound he was
looking for. It sounded great. It had a deep tone and
it had enough attack to it so it would punch through
the guitars and bass. He knew exactly what he wanted
to hear. We made another take or two and Jeff ended
the session. He was delighted. On that day I learned
a very valuable lesson. Never stop reaching for and
trying new things, and never ever settle. Stay creative.
Sometimes a musical problem can be solved in a very
unorthodox way.
After all these years I still think back
to that session and with a smile I thank Jeff for the
unorthodox, but very valuable lesson. Although we have
not worked together in quite a long time, we have remained
friends and still stay in touch. He is also one of the
nicest people I have ever met in the music business.
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