Production-Distribution
My life's work is to aid gifted artists, domestic and global, at their point of critical need, to bring their work to completion for public enrichment and inspiration. A favorite quote is- "Art is not an end in itself. It introduces the soul into a higher spiritual order, which it expresses and in some sense explains."(Thomas Merton)
Here are some projects I have spearheaded, have been involved in, or co-created.
Originator, producer, co-writer, and interviewer of the public service, top-forty radio show, Rockscope
Co-author, Stairway to Heaven, Davin Seay and Mary Neely, Ballantine Books
Exit Records Founder-President, Executive Producer
Playwright, Theatrical productions-Johnson and Sons, Brian's Christmas Birthday
Renaissance Sacred Arts Foundation-Founder, President
Established Gallery W -a physical exhibition space in Sacramento, Ca.
Facilitated International art exchanges and conferences
Built Studio W, a recording studio to aid artists in musical production
Co-developed the Renaissance Channel Project for Cable TV- Vice-President
Current:
Azure Arts Foundation-Founder and President - azurearts.org
Contact: mary.azurearts@gmail.com.
Mary's Notes
Producer-Chuck Wild Producer Vector
Wild's career spans 50 years from 1972 to the present, including writing 125 songs and compositions used in TV, films, and music albums.He was signed to Warner/Chappell Music and Lorimar-Telepictures as a staff songwriter in 1987 nd co-wrote "You’re My One And Only" with songwriter Marti Sharron, a #1 hit in Germany for Jennifer Rush on Passion.
His catalog includes studio work and concert performances as keyboardist with the 1980s Capitol Records band Missing Persons on the Spring Session M (1982) and Rhyme & Reason (1984) albums, during which time he worked with vocalist Dale Bozzio, drummer Terry Bozzio, guitarist Warren Cuccurullo, and bassist Patrick O'Hearn.
Studio work with Michael Jackson from 1994 to 1998 includes drums, keyboards, percussion, programming, sound design, sound effects, soundscapes, synthesizer and synthesizer programming on the HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I album. Wild was mentored by the late five-time Grammy Award-winning engineer/producer Bruce Swedien from 1984 to 2021
Notable projects with other recording artists include studio work with Frank Zappa, Paula Abdul, and songwriting/studio recording for Philip Bailey, The Pointer Sisters and Tommy Page among many others.
Wild was signed to the Real Music record label from 2004 to 2014. They remain the exclusive distributor for all Liquid Mind albums. Wild is best known for his series of Liquid Mind albums, classified by music critics and listeners as therapeutic music, sedative music, ambient music, or new-age music. For example, Liquid Mind XI: Deep Sleep charted at #1 on the iTunes USA Top 100 New Age album charts after its release on February 5, 2016. Relax: A Liquid Mind Experience charted at #10 on the New Age Billboard charts on March 22, 2008.
Producer-T.J. Tindall
Robert Vaughn and the Shadows
"T.J. Tindall was not known as a producer but as a great blues player from Philadelphia. Joel Weber, A & Director at Island Records, talked him into working with Robert Vaughn and Shadows. He respected Robert’s songwriting talent but was firm on their song structure, lyric writing, and setting the groove, playing in the pocket. He polished them with his charm and knowledge. And he liked being in California in the winter."
Mary K. Neely
Biography
Thomas Joshua Tindall was an American guitarist. He was a member of MFSB and played on 38 gold and platinum funk and R&B records and more than 30 hits produced by Gamble and Huff in the 1970s and 1980s. Tindall is considered one of the architects of the Philadelphia Sound. He was inducted twice into the Philadelphia Music Alliance's Walk of Fame as a member of MFSB and the Salsoul Orchestra.
T. J. Tindall was born in 1950 in Trenton, New Jersey. During his career, Tindall played on hits produced by "Sound of Philadelphia" architects Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff for artists such as The O'Jays' Travelin' at the Speed of Thought, Teddy Pendergrass, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, the Intruders, and The Three Degrees' album International.
He also backed up and recorded with Bonnie Raitt (her album Give It Up), Lon & Derrek Van Eaton (their album Brother), the Jacksons, Robert Palmer's Double Fun, the Temptations, to name a few. He can be heard on The Trammps' 1976 hit "Disco Inferno" (US #46) and their album of the same name, Lou Rawls' "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine" (US #2), The Jackson 5's 1976 hit "Enjoy Yourself" (US #6, US R&B #2), Eddie Kendricks's "He's a Friend" single (US #36) and album of the same name and album Goin' Up In Smoke, Phyllis Hyman's album Prime of My Life, Loleatta Holloway's album Loleatta, Double Exposure's album Ten Percent, First Choice's album Delusions.
Tindall died of cancer in 2016 at age 65.
Robert Musso is a New York City-based guitarist,[1] composer,[2] engineer,[3] and producer. He is the founder of the independent record label MuWorks as well as the record label - MussoMusic.com. Over the course of a 40 - year career, Musso has produced, mixed, remixed, played on, written, or contributed to over 2000 records, CDs, movie soundtracks, on every continent in the world except Antarctica.
After graduating from Rutgers University with two degrees (Economics and Recording Engineering), Musso began obtaining studio work as a musician, engineer and producer. During this period, he worked with a wide variety of artists, including Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, the Dalai Lama, Miles Davis, Al Green, Bob Marley, Herbie Hancock, Sting, Carlos Santana, Jimi Hendrix, The Seventy Sevens, David Bowie, George Clinton, Dave Matthews, Ornette Coleman, John Zorn, Peter Gabriel, The Ramones, Iggy Pop, Blondie, Whitney Houston, Sly & Robbie, Fine Young Cannibals, Pharoah Sanders, William Burroughs, Julian Schnabel, Bootsy Collins, The Last Poets, Ozzy Osbourne and Steve Vai.[6]
In 1981, he began a long and fruitful association with Bill Laswell. These projects included Material's Hallucination Engine, Sly and Robbie's Rhythm Killers (1987), One Down with Whitney Houston, and the multinational Method of Defiance project. He has also recorded with Tom Waits (Raindogs), Ginger Baker (Horses & Trees) and P.M. Dawn (The Bliss Album).
Steven Soles is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and guitarist
Known also as J. Steven Soles, he was asked by Bob Dylan to join the band for his 1975–1976 "Rolling Thunder Revue" tour, he appeared on Dylan's album "Desire" and he also played with Dylan on Street Legal and the following tour, including the live album Bob Dylan at Budokan. When that tour ended, Soles and two other members of Dylan's band, T Bone Burnett and David Mansfield, formed The Alpha Band.
Like most of the musicians in The Rolling Thunder Revue, Soles appeared in the 1978 film, Renaldo and Clara, in which he played the rôle of Ramon.
During its time, The Alpha Band released three albums, The Alpha Band in 1977, Spark in the Dark in the same year and The Statue Makers of Hollywood in 1978.
Steven Soles released two solo albums of original material, The Promise in 1980, and 1982's Walk By Love. All music gave the first an album rating of three stars and the second four stars, commenting of Walk By Love that, "more commercial than The Promise, this second solo album features catchier songs and fuller pop arrangements.” Allmusic pointed out that the albums had both been critically acclaimed, "if little heard”.
Soles went on to produce or perform on albums by Dylan, Burnett, The Washington Squares, Bob Neuwirth, Steve Poltz, Peter Case, Elvis Costello, Roger McGuinn, Don McLean, The Monkees, The 77s, Olivia Newton-John, Roy Orbison, Tonio K, Victoria Williams, Steve Scott and others.
He was part of the highly acclaimed Cinemax special Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night. As J. Steven Soles, he is credited as "Music Supervisor" in the movie Space Truckers (Stuart Gordon, 1996).
Soles was married to actress P.J Soles from 1973 to 1975.
Nigel Gray, Medical Doctor, Producer
Island Records recommended Nigel Gray to produce Charlie Peacock. He traveled to Sacramento, from England, met Charlie and myself, and looked the studio situation over before saying yes. He became friends with my family, and I recall one wonderful. occasion when he brought his wife and kids to the Hyde Park Hotel where we were staying, for high tea with us.
He came with accomplishments, His album credits include Outlandos d'Amour (1978), Reggatta de Blanc (1979), and Zenyatta Mondatta (1980) for the Police,[2] Kaleidoscope (1980) and Juju (1981) for Siouxsie and the Banshees, as well as five albums for Godley & Creme.[3]
Gray was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album for Zenyatta Mondatta (1981) and also won two Grammys for producer of Best Rock Performance ("Don't Stand So Close to Me") and Best Rock Instrumental ("Behind My Camel”).
He passed away in July, 2016. Tthe members of the Police, Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland, reacted on a social network to Gray's death, writing: "Nigel Gray recorded the first three Police albums, the first two in his converted studio above a dairy in Leatherhead in Surrey. Nigel was a qualified medical doctor who followed his passion into music and was able to use his kindly bedside manner to coax three extraordinarily successful records from a band operating at the time on the tiniest of shoestring budgets. We simply couldn't have done it without him, that's the truth".
Artists for whom Nigel Gray produced or engineered include:
Simon Ådahl ,Alternative TV, Code Blue, Paul Brady, The Escape, Euroglidersm Girlschool, Godley & Creme, Klark Kent, a pseudonym, of Stewart Copeland, Sonja Kristina, Lotus Eaters, Craig McNeil, Hazel O’Connor, The Passions, Charlie Peacock, The Police, Polyphonic Size
The Professionals. Siouxsie and the Banshees. Glacier Georges, Tank, The Viewers, Wishbone Ash, The Work,
Two People.