Compared To What Podcast

Welcome Michael Beinhorn to the Compared To What POdcast family. For those of you who don’t know who Michael is, here’s a brief rundown. A young boy in Queens sells ice cream from a cart, saves his money, buys a micro-moog. He then meets Bill Laswell and helps make one of the most important sampling/synth/drum programming records ever with Herbie Hancock. “Rock it” from “Future Shock” defined an era. Michael was an absolutely integral part of its creation. Then he decided to continue producing and making music ( why not, its fun right?) and went on to Produce The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Soundgarden, Korn , Hole, Marylin Manson , Social Distortion, The Verve Pipe , Ozzy Osbourne and Soul Asylum among many many others.Producing and laboring to make all of those artists best recordings. There, we said it. its true. (because we say its so ).  Michael is very up on the state of things in the music business. This episode is enlighting in many areas covering today’s shall we say “interesting” musical climate. Sit back and relax and enjoy the stories. If you can , try to listen to some late 19th century Russian string quartet music in the background. Michael would like that.  Welcome to the CTWP family Michael! So psyched to have you on the CTWP fun bus.

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Part 2 of the Tommy LiPuma and Matt Pierson Conversation. The fellas get started RIGHT where they left off. More stories from an incredible life in music. Tommy Lipuma!

Episode 27 had Matt Pierson joining the CTWP family when he sat down with Charlie and told some incredible stories. Now we get the absolute joy of having a former guest sit down with a new member of the CTWP crew. Matt sat down with music business legend Tommy Lipuma. Tommy has produced so many artists its hard to break it down. George Benson , Diana Krall , Miles Davis , Natalie Cole , Paul McCartney and Joe Sample just to name a few. The two sat down and recorded 3 ghouls of conversation this is part 1. Such an incredible history. Really excited to have Tommy join the family!

Question: Who has worked with Miles Davis,Roger Troutman,Marcus Miller,Meshell NdegeocelloJesse J,Kelly Clarkson and written 12 tone music/dodecaphonic jams with disco breakdowns?

Answer: The one and only David Gamson! (If you answered correctly please proceed to the bonus round!)

David Gamson is a song writer/Producer who first  came to fame as a major part of 80’s Synth Pop funk band Scritti Politti. With the smash hit “Perfect Way” leading the way Scritti made some astoundingly great albums. This conversation starts with Mowo! admitting he had obsessed over their song “Boom There She Was” while driving down to meet with David. Imagine the surprise Scritti Politti must have had when they learned that Miles Davis was covering “Perfect Way” for his “Tutu” album? That album was produced by Marcus Miller (a friend of CTWP Episode 42). The connections continue with Marcus having also played on the song “Boom There She Was”. That’s how we roll at CTWP. David Gamson also produced the majority of Meshell Ndegeocello’s absolutely classic first recording “Plantation Lullabies”. Mowo! and David sat down in David’s studio and covered everything from virtual synthesis,USB midi controllers,Hans Zimmer,our mutual friend Dave Porter (Episode 30 of CTWP) and Dave’s new TV show “Choose Your Wank” (this is not an actual TV show).  David  co-wrote Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” (which was nominated for 2 Grammy’s) and has worked recently with Jesse J. More importantly though David is capable of writing 12 tone music with disco beats. Do not SLEEP on that folks! Welcome to the CTWP family David! Very happy to have you in the fold!

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Johnny Vidacovich is a legend in New Orleans. Name any artist down there and he’s probably worked with them. He’s an Educator , a Poet , a philosopher and probably the only drummer we can think of that breathes like a horn player when playing through the melody. This year during some time down in New Orleans for a gig Charlie got to sit down with his old friend Johnny and talked about such a wide variety of things that we’d be actually hard pressed to explain it in any sort of sensical way. Johnny spent time playing on Riverboats so that’s one thing that you’ll take away from this episode. Also…….not many 16 year olds have played in strip clubs under the guise of staying late at school to take extra Algebra tutoring . That’s how Johnny rolled as a kid. Here’s a list of artists Johnny has played with just for some background Johnny Adams,Professor Longhair,Alvin “Red” Tyler, Mose Allison, Bobby McFerrin and our dear dear friend Charlie Hunter. Welcome to the CTWP Family Johnny.

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This episode marks the very first time we’ve opened up the show to a guest host. Please welcome Bassist,Producer and good friend Greg Bryant to the CTWP family. Very happy to have him sit down with Charles “Wigg” Walker…….take it away Greg!

Charles Walker is a soul singer and native of Nashville, Tennessee. He came up through the ranks and earned his stripes among the who’s who of cats. Charles recorded his first single in 1959 for Nashville-based soul label, Champion records. By the time he was 21 in 1961, he moved to Harlem, New York. During his first two years in the city, he went out on the road as the front man with the JC Davis Band on several tours opening for James Brown, Etta James, Little Willie John and Sam Cooke. By the mid 60’s, Charles had settled in NYC and formed his own group “Little Charles and The Sidewinders.” They recorded a singles for Decca and Chess, and held  residency in Small’s Paradise for nearly ten years.Since 2007, he’s toured the US and Europe as a member of Charles Walker and the Dynamites (sharing bills with Maceo Parker and Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings) and has recently formed a small group with a new release on the way.

It’s been great getting to know and play behind Charles over the past couple of years. He’s the real deal.

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How do you start off a new year of episodes?? With a bang so without further ado please welcome…….(Cue dramatic  Las Vegas show room tympani roll)…..Marcus Miller to the Compared To What Podcast Family. Mowo! sits down with Marcus and the two cover a wide range of topics. The two have been friends since late 1986. Mowo! first reached out to Marcus as a fan at the age of 15 writing him a letter only to be astonished about 8 months later when he received a phone call from his idol (run on sentence alert!).Now today in 2015 that seems quite normal as Marcus has cemented himself as not only one of the greatest bass players of his generation but also as one of the best MUSICIANS of his generation. At the time though we’re not so sure he was getting lot’s of fan mail from 15 year old annoying bass players like Mowo! so the timing was great.  After an informal audition of Mowo!’s ability as a young bass player during a break at the mix session of E.U’s “Da Butt” where Marcus played drums and Mowo! played ONE million notes, Marcus invited Mowo! to come to any session he was producing to sit,watch and learn. Sit , watch and learn he DID! Those sessions included albums for Miles Davis , David Sanborn , Joe Sample , Luther Vandross , Roberta Flack  and Marcus’s group The Jamaica Boys.But enough about Mowo!, lets talk about his childhood……sigh…..So who is this Marcus Miller you may ask? (Thanks for asking)(how on earth do you not know who Marcus Miller is btw?!!?). Just listen to the conversation.That’s him on bass on “Just The Two of Us” ……He co produced and co wrote just about Every Luther Vandross album….. He joined Miles Davis’s band at the ripe old age of 20 isn’t that enough already?!?!??  Chances are he’s scored a film you love, played bass on hit record you love or tap danced his way into your heart somehow by now…..What more do you people need?!?!?!?  Please visit his wikipedia page! A not well known fact: Marcus is a huge fan of Gluten Free crackers! That’s all we’re gonna give away from this episode. Very excited to have Marcus in the CTWP family we hope you are too!

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Your fearless leaders meet up again in Los Angeles and discuss a world of topics. A state of the union if you will. CTWP is rapidly approaching its first birthday and Charlie and Mowo! sit down to discuss what’s coming,what’s happened and government cheese. Charlie happens to be in LA playing with his good buddy, drummer Scott Amendola so why not take this time to sit down and talk about Mowo!’s dearly departed Nigerian Uncle Linus. Charlie’s shares his love of mankind with all. A magical series of moments that you the takers and users get……..for nothing! Sop it up dear listeners………sop away! it’s short but boy is it sweet.

Howard Smiley……..what  can we say? He was so behind the scenes in the record business that the only photo we could find of him is one in the kitchen of him making some fried matzoh! Without further ado let us introduce you to Mr. Howard Smiley the man behind the man next to the guy behind the guy…….but don’t let his anonymity fool you. Howard worked some of the biggest records ever as a one man wrecking machine for Henry Stone’s TK Records.The  home of  artists such as George McCrae , Betty Wright , K.C. And The Sunshine Band , The Village People , Latimore , Ralph Macdonald etc etc…..Howard saw the birth and explosion of Disco happen and he was a big part of it.  Howard grew up in south Florida in the late 50’s and 60’s. A nice jewish boy who decided sort of to go into the record business.Kind of by accident as his record business job during college just happened to fit in between classes.  He also  batted (or attempted to)  against hall of famer Steve Carlton in high school but that’s an entirely other story. After an incredible run as the swiss army knife of a gigantic indie label  Howard moved to New York from Miami to basically invent the licensing and cross marketing of music for a plethora of other uses. Over the last 40+ years Howard has had his hand in just about every aspect of the music business expect for maybe playing bongos on an album but we hear that’s in the works. He can also hit a jump shot at will from just about anywhere on a basketball court. So here you go folks stories about an incredible time and what used to be an incredible industry filled with stories and characters. Howard was and is one of those amazing characters. Welcome to the CTWP family Howard…….now fry us up some matzoh!!!

Joining us this week is the incredible pop songwriter and  actual writer,writer Shelly Peiken.She recently had a piece on Huffington Post cause a big stir and her blog “Confessions Of Serial Songwriter” (she’s also writing a book with the same title) http://www.shellypeiken.com/confessions-of-a-serial-songwriter/  is a read you’ll always look forward to after you visit the site (THIS IS NOT A PROMOTION but a tool for creatives to find inspiration) .She writes from her heart. You may know Shelley for hits she’s written for  The Pretenders , Natalie Cole , Brandy , Britney Spears , Celine Dion , Backstreet Boys , INXS , Selena Gomez , Backstreet Boys , Keith Urban , Ethel Merman and Phil Silvers (ok…..not Merman and Silvers but you get the drift! ……we just love Merman and Silvers round these parts). Or you may not know her but you will now.  She also co-wrote the song “Bitch” for Meredith Brooks. A gigantic hit. A funny story about “Bitch” ……..but you’ll have to listen to the episode to get to that little chestnut. Shelly and Mowo! talk about the state of things. She’s kinda fascinating. She’s worked with so many different types of pop artists in so many settings. A real songwriter in the pop mold. From the older (she is NOT old) school. This episode is a look into the area of the music business you just don’t get to see very often that we’re very happy to share with you.  For the first and probably time in the history of this podcast Rhianna and Sam Smith will be spoken about. Fear not, it’s in a context that makes sense. Shelley speaks to writing songs today and staying in your lane. She’s driven. Do NOT let the calm nice voice fool you. She has found success in a “Game Of Thrones” environment. She’s also fun to sit down and talk to. You’ll enjoy this episode. Welcome to the CTWP family Shelley.

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