Showing posts with label united sound. Show all posts
Showing posts with label united sound. Show all posts

5.03.2017

DSC CELEBRATES IT'S 5TH ANNIVERSARY



The Detroit Sound Conservancy’s 5 year anniversary 
 Ferndale’s newest restaurant and performance venue Otus Supply.
Story by Tosha Owens

The Detroit Sound Conservancy (DSC) is an organization headed by Executive Director Carleton S. Gholz, PhD and made up of about 30 musicians that strives to preserve the music history of Detroit. 


They were established in 2012 and have since rallied to save the historic United Sound Recording Studio by making it a historical marker in 2015 and they are also responsible for rebuilding Veridian Sound Stage of the historical jazz club The Blue Bird Inn.


The stage has been shipped to France for this year’s Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Etienne festival. As far as I know, this is the only organization of its kind here in the D.

One member of the DSC is local musician James Wailin (The Reefermen) who also, preserves, repairs and sells old music equipment such as Turntables, Victrola’s, Jukeboxes, and Stereo HiFis just to name a few and many of which he had on display and demonstrated each item.


The event was well attended by many musicians and supporters and I got to catch up with friends. The Otus Supply is a great venue for dining or entertaining. They did it right with four different rooms in the ‘hollow rooms’ to dine in and a separate room, The Parliament Room, for live entertainment. Tosha Owens

Great work thank you so much Tosha and Jane!!


10.11.2015

BRUCE "BEEZER" NAZARIAN OF BROWNSVILLE STATION HAS DIED

 Brownsville Station

The world lost one of the sweetest men I have had the pleasure to meet....I just met Bruce recently via the phone...he graciously wrote 2 Brownsville Station stories for  Detroit Rock n Roll Magazine. I am just shocked...What a charming and wonderful man...My love and prayers to his family and many friends...rip my friend.....xoxoK

 

I had been a session musician in Detroit for years, but also had a thing for rock and rolL.somewhere along the way I met Al Nalli, the band's manager, and the rest was history... 

I joined the band in 1975 - just as they were finishing the Motor City Connection album - that was the first one I played on...

After the band split-up in 1979 I went back to playing sessions for a while, and started a new band call The Automatix, with some session buddies of mine, and Shaun Murphy, a killer singer from Detroit who was our secret weapon. Shaun left just before the band got signed to MCA. in 1980-ish. "Bruce Nazarian"


Bruce was a musician, author, Apple certified computer engineer "digital guy", audio/sound expert, book author and a list of other accomplishment that you can read on his huge WIKI page



Bruce Nazarian (born in Detroit, MI)

In 1975, a chance meeting with band manager Al Nalli would lead to his joining Brownsville Station (of "Smokin' in the Boys' Room" fame).[4] During the next few years, he participated in countless live shows and recorded several albums with Brownsville, including "Brownsville Station" aka 'The Red Album'  which included "Martian Boogie"  and "Air Special" for Epic.  This  was to be Brownsville's last recorded work. He remained a member of Brownsville Station until May, 1979.

http://www.detroitrocknrollmagazine.com/2015/07/the-making-of-martian-boogie.html



In 1988, he recorded vocals and produced some demos for Anita Baker's "Giving You The Best That I've Got" album, and provided Anita with her first experience with recording on a Direct-to-Disc digital recording system.

Anita would later call again on Bruce to record her vocals digitally. This would be one of the last projects recorded at the W. 30th Street NYC studio location.

http://www.amazon.com/Recording-Production-Techniques-Musicians-Nazarian/dp/0825611776/ref=la_B001KI5GO6_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1444580953&sr=1-1

Bruce also had a long involvement with the written word. From 1985 to 1986, he was a contributing editor to MIX magazine, where he created "In Sync", a monthly column devoted to computerized music production, sequencing and MIDI.

In 1988, the textbook he had written for his university class "Recording and Electronic Techniques for Musicians" was published as "Recording Production Techniques for Musicians" by AMSCO Press. The book and all artwork were created on an early Macintosh 128K using MacWrite and MacPaint, making it one of the first books printed from an electronic manuscript. Many of the topics in the book are still relevant to today's digital recording process.

In 2004, he wrote "DVD Studio Pro 2 - The Complete Guide to Authoring with Macintosh", published by McGraw-Hill. In 2006, he wrote "DVD Studio Pro 4 - The Complete Guide to Authoring with Macintosh", published by McGraw-Hill. Both books covered DVD authoring with Apple DVD Studio Pro in great depth.

In 2009, he wrote "Fast Path to Blu-ray for Mac", published by The Digital Guy Press.

The industry truly lost one of it's brightest stars....

6.06.2014

DON DAVIS DETROIT MUSIC AND BANKING LEGEND DIED AT 75

 
Don Davis
Photo Credit: John Urbanek

Sad news tonight....Don "The Don" Davis perhaps the most successful business mogul in Detroit history passed away yesterday at 75.

DETROIT (June 6, 2014) – The Wilmore Agency regrets to announce the passing of Detroit native Mr. Don Davis after a brief illness on Thursday, June 5th.

Don Davis was CEO and chairman of First Independence Bank, Michigan’s only African-American owned and operated commercial bank, with multiple branches around the City of Detroit. A notably, successful endeavor, Mr. Davis led First Independence Bank with $204 million in assets (as of December 31, 2013), and was ranked as one of the top ranked African American owned bank in the United States, according to Black Enterprise Magazine.

Don Davis famous for his early work as a pioneering Motown session guitarist, then his historic work at United Sound Systems. He produced and/or played on numerous soul hits with the greatest soul artists of the 1960's and 1970s. Don left USS in Detroit and went to work at STAX in Memphis.He produced hits too numerous to list here...but you can see them on BlackRadioNetwork

Don was also a well known philanthropist, Davis partnered with the Lawrence P. Doss Scholarship Foundation to launch The Don Davis Composition Scholarship Award, which assists Detroit's underprivileged students in their educational goals.

Our friend John Neff who worked for Don back in the day has shared many stories about the amazing accomplishments of Don Davis... Read more here

Don passed away after a brief illness yesterday...and more details will be released soon. Our thoughts and prayers are with Don's lovely wife Kiko and his three wonderful children.

12.17.2013

IN MEMORIUM: LEGENDARY BANKER/PRODUCER DON DAVIS

 

Don Davis had his hand in so many famous hit records that I would be here for a week trying to list them.. He worked with Motown but left (thankfully so..) and went on to a career that rivaled Berry Gordy's in every way. The difference, Don stayed under the radar. (can't even find any photos online of him). It would appear that Mr. Davis did not crave attention or fame. Smart move....smart man...



As a young guitarist Don Davis played on many of the earliest Motown sessions, including the hits "Money" and Mary Wells' "Bye Bye Baby." But Hitsville was only the beginning for the writer-producer..


Davis developed his craft with stints at seminal Detroit record labels Northern, Thelma, Golden World, Ric-Tic, Revilot and his own Groovesville imprint. In 1968 he was lured to Memphis to become head of production for Motown's primary soul music competitor, Stax Records.

Billboard magazine honored Davis as its 1976 producer of the year after his records with Johnnie Taylor ("Disco Lady," the first-ever platinum single) and Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis ("You Don't Have to Be a Star") went to No. 1. Don won so many Grammy Awards...

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