Posts Tagged ‘music news’

By Joe Klein

Today, in an email sent out to fans that signed up a few weeks ago to hear the first new Jackson 5 track from the upcoming release “I Want You Back! Unreleased Maters,” Motown Records announced that four more tracks were available for “preview” online.

This brings a total of five tracks now unveiled to the public, of a total of twelve that are on the new album, which will be released on November 10. The project is being produced and marketed by UNIVERSAL MUSIC ENTERPRISES, the division of the Universal Music Group that is responsible for repackaging and marketing of most of UMG’s back catalog product, including the Motown label.

In an exclusive story we broke online back in mid-September (weeks before the “official” press release about the new album), and in a subsequent article we posted online, we wrote about our friend Russ Terrana, the engineer who mixed these newly-discovered “lost tracks” of the Jackson 5 over a month-long period from the end of August until the end of September.

(***UPDATED 10/23/09*** A press release about the new J5 songs was issued by UME and hit the wires early today and appeared on the Reuters news service a short time later.)

We also published three blog posts about the project here on our own company blog over the last month. In those articles, we mentioned how Russ worked tirelessly and diligently in a state-of the-art digital recording facility in Scots Valley, California called ROCKER STUDIOS, owned by his good friend, RICK VIERRA. Russ and Rick employed a battery of digital tools and tricks to bring the 40 year-old analog audio master tapes back to life and recreate the very same sounds Russ achieved when mixing the original Jackson 5 hits forty years ago! The result is a collection of tracks that sound like clean, digitally re-mastered versions of J5 songs recorded and mixed back in 1970. But these tracks were, in fact, mixed down just last month!

Recreating the classic Motown “sound of the sixties” with such precision and accuracy is most definitely a feat to be marveled at, deserving of praise from the most experienced recording engineers, pop music historians and fans alike. That it was accomplished on the earliest recordings of the legendary Jackson brothers makes these new recordings that much more notable.

Of the tracks just made public, the song I’LL TRY YOU’LL TRY (MAYBE WE’LL ALL GET BY) is particularly worth a listen, as it features a truly “classic” Motown style and sound, eerily reminiscent of hits like I CAN’T GET NEXT TO YOU by The Temptations and the version of I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE recorded by Gladys Knight and The Pips. Russ mixed both of these classics as well back in the old Detroit Motown studios (before Motown moved their entire label operations and studios out to Hollywood in the early seventies).

Check out the sound of these two late sixties chart-toppers in the videos below, then listen to the new Jackson 5 track “I’ll Try You’ll Try” and you’ll hear the similarities! Of course the new J5 mixes perfectly emulate the sound of the early Jackson 5 hits. But by listening to these two other tracks, it becomes clear how Russ really did achieve a signature “Motown Sound” that carried over between artists and evolved through the years. The audio style and textures Russ molded in the sixties, seventies and eighties really did influence recorded pop music in many ways that few appreciate to this day!

You can hear the four new J5 tracks mixed by Russ online now, by clicking on the photo of the group at the top of this post, or click here to be taken directly to the page where you can preview the four new tracks and order the new album online.

As Motown’s chief recording engineer for over twenty years (up until the very end of Berry Gordy’s ownership of the label), Russ is credited for having mixed and recorded no less than an incredible 89 number one hit singles, hundreds of additional charted singles and many hundreds (if not thousands) more tracks from hundreds more Motown albums. This is a feat unequaled by any other pop music recording engineer in history, making Russ a true “living legend” in the history of pop music!

All of us at New Media Creative take our collective hats off to Russ Terrana! We plan to release an extensive follow-up article (or two) about about our gifted, old friend to coincide with the release of the new Jackson 5 album on November 10. So do stand by for that.

RUSS TERRANA AND RICK VIERRA IN ROCKER STUDIOS

Meanwhile, coming up next on the company blog, extensive coverage and commentary about last week’s Blogworld and New Media Expo and all the big new media and social networking news to emerge from that conference and the just-ended Web 2.0 summit in San Francisco. There’s so much to report that it’s taken us a couple of days just to gather all the information! Now that we’ve taken it all in, we’ll try to boil it all and make sense of it all here on the company blog over the next several days. As always, STAY TUNED!

By Joe Klein

Three weeks ago, New Media Creative associate BRETT BUMETER and I broke an exclusive story online about the upcoming release of a collection of never-before-heard recordings of MICHAEL JACKSON and THE JACKSON 5 that were being mixed down by my close friend, RUSS TERRANA. Early this morning, Universal Music Enterprises put out the “official” press release about the tracks and the mainstream media stories about the release of the new Jackson 5 album hit the wires almost immediately. “I WANT YOU BACK! UNRELASED MASTERS” is set for release on November 10 and the first single from the album, “THAT’S HOW LOVE IS” was released for download today on iTunes.

I received an email from Russ just as the “official” story was about to break worldwide. The email simply said, “It’s done!!” I wasn’t the least bit surprised that Russ was very excited with the release of the first new MOTOWN tracks he’s mixed in decades!

In fact, these Jackson family tracks are the first major releases that Russ has mixed since working his magic on WHITNEY HOUSTON’S 1990 album, “I’M YOUR BABY TONIGHT.” (Russ also recorded vocals for and mixed several earlier Whitney Houston hits, including the smash “DIDN’T WE ALMOST HAVE IT ALL.”)

Upon reading the email (a couple hours after he sent it), I grabbed the phone and immediately punched in Russ’ cell number. As soon as he answered I could hear the happiness in his voice. After congratulating him on completing this monumental project, I instinctively switched to my blogger/reporter mode to get a cool “behind the scenes” story about the mixing of these historic Jackson family tracks and, hopefully, a few exclusive quotes from my friend, the legendary Motown engineer!

Russ was recruited to mix the long lost Motown gems by Universal Music Enterprises director of A&R, HARRY WEINGER, who has known Russ for years and consulted with him on previous compilations of Motown catalog material. Russ started mixing the first of eleven multi-track masters he was sent by Weinger about a week before Labor Day. The 16-track analog tapes, discovered in the Motown Records vaults shortly after Michael’s sudden passing, had been converted by UME engineers to digital audio for the mixing process.

(***UPDATED ON OCTOBER 26, 2009*** UME’s Harry Weinger contacted me with a clarification of facts in this post. it was actually early this year that the additional masters were first found, as UME, already in the midst of the year-long 50th anniversary celebration of Motown Records, was preparing for the 40th anniversary of the Jackson 5 this fall. Of course, the untimely passing of Michael put the newly-discovered J5 tracks into a “bigger spotlight,” according to Weinger. We appreciate this updated information!)

I started our little impromptu interview by asking Russ how long it took to complete all the mixes. “Well, the final mixes were approved ten days ago,” he said. “So, I guess the whole process of preparing the tracks and doing all the mixing took about four weeks to get done. But we did a lot of stopping and starting, waiting for approvals of the mixes or comments from Harry about changes he wanted made.” This lead to my next question. I asked Russ how many mixes he did on each of the eleven tracks. “Wow, I can’t remember exactly,” he said. “Some of them we mixed twice or three times, others four. We mixed one of the tracks eight times, trying to get it right for Harry, but he ended up using the fourth mix. This kind of thing used to happen all the time with Berry (Gordy) and the different producers back at Motown.”

I had noticed that the new Jackson 5 album listed twelve tracks, but Russ had only told me about mixing eleven songs over the last month. So I asked him about that. Russ said that the twelfth song, called “Buttercup,”was a collaboration with Stevie Wonder, who wrote the song. This track was recorded and mixed back in 1974, but never released until now. “But I’m pretty sure I mixed that one too, back then!” Russ quipped with a laugh.

As a producer and sound engineer myself, I wanted to know how difficult the mixing process was, and how it compared to mixing the original tracks. “Of course there were challenges, and some of the tracks were definitely more difficult than others.” Russ told me. “Probably the biggest issue was that these tracks are forty years old and the sound quality wasn’t anywhere near as clean and pristine as the digital tracks recorded today. But, now, we have all sorts of digital tools to clean up the sound, so we used lots of them to enhance the audio." I asked Russ which particular track, if any, was the most difficult to mix and get to sound right. He answered that the song “Man’s Temptation,” the track that he mixed eight times, was the biggest challenge, because of the sound and other complexities of that particular multi-track recording. Interestingly, the first published track listings of the new Jackson 5 album list the song as the first cut on the CD.

I wanted to talk with Russ more about some of the technical details of the processes he used to mix these vintage old tracks, but he was already into his work-day at his current “day job” (he now directs and produces advertising for an online job site based in Santa Cruz, CA). I knew his time was limited and he may want to end the conversation at any time, so I decided to hold off on the technical questions and move on to a few more questions about the overall experience of mixing the resurrected recordings. Russ had mixed all the original Jackson 5 and Michael Jackson solo hits and recorded the vocal and instrumental tracks for many of them as well. Knowing that my friend had spent, literally, hundreds of hours in the Motown Hollywood Studios with Michael and his brothers recording and mixing the songs, I just had to know what he must have been thinking when he went back into a digital studio forty years later with some of the same tracks he may have actually recorded way back when.

I posed the question to Russ, “What went through your mind when you hit the “play” button on the software and heard these old tracks for the first time in decades?”

“Joe, it was like stepping back in a time machine,” he told me. “All I could think was, ‘OH MY GOD! This is Michael and his brothers. These guys were SO talented. How did this kid Michael have so much talent to be able to do all this?’ Hearing the tracks was like being in the control room with them again, sitting around me goofing off while I did my thing. Except this time they weren’t here. It was just their voices coming out of the monitors, kind of like they were coming from heaven.”

All I could say was, “Wow.” Russ went on. “It was a very emotional experience for me, but, at the same time, very rewarding to be working with these tracks, because of my past relationship with Michael and his brothers. We spent a lot of time in the studio together for all those years and became very close.” I detected a few cracks in my old friend’s voice as he uttered his words.

I have to admit that I never really heard Russ get emotional about anything before. In all the years we hung out at the Hollywood Motown studios and my (two different) studios, it was all good times, recording hit records, partying and loving life back in the seventies and eighties. So, hearing Russ speak, almost reverently and with such respect and even gratitude about his involvement in this project, was making me a little misty-eyed myself.

I asked Russ what was the best thing about working on this latest piece of pop music history and, just as he has been so many times before, being such an integral part of the finished project. Always the modest and humble master, Russ replied, “What can I say? It really was a labor of love…..I did this for Michael. Anyone who worked with him knew he was more than just a recording artist. He was one of a kind, truly special and a very special friend to me.”

I wanted to know if anyone in the Jackson family had contacted Russ recently. Russ said that he couldn’t even remember the last time he spoke with any Jackson family member, but then said that JERMAINE JACKSON recently requested that Russ confirm him as a friend on Facebook!

Knowing it was about time to end our call, I still had one last question for my old friend who is, himself, a living legend in the world of recorded popular music. (Lest we not forget that this is a man who has mixed at least 89 number one records and hundreds of other hit singles and albums!) I asked Russ to tell me what, personally, was his own “take-away” from getting this awesome gig and working on this historic project. Russ paused for a moment and then replied, “I’ve worked on SO many albums and with SO many artists. But this project was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and, you know, I’d like to be doing more.”

Something tells me that there will be much more for Russ Terrana.

But wait, there IS more! A new collection of Jackson 5 Christmas songs, called THE JACKSON 5 ULTIMATE CHRISTMAS ALBUM will be released next week, on October 13. Of course, most, if not all, of the tracks on this new album were recorded and mixed by Russ. This new compilation features 18 holiday songs performed by the group, including a great song called LITTLE CHRISTMAS TREE, written by our good friend ARTIE WAYNE and George Clinton, Jr. The track features a twelve year-old Michael and was supposed to be the follow-up single to the smash hit “BEN.” You can read Artie’s story about the song here.

I didn’t even listen to “That’s How Love Is,” the first of the new mixes, just released today as a single, until after speaking with Russ on the phone. The track sounded so strikingly similar to the original Jackson 5 hits we all remember so well, that I just had to smile. Russ still has the magic touch and those solid gold ears!

All of us here at New Media Creative consider Russ to be a good and valued friend and we’re happy to have broken the story about this project and his involvement in it. Stand by. There will be much more in the weeks to come! You can listen to the first single from the new Jackson 5 album, mixed by Russ, in its entirety here.

RUSS TERRANA IN ROCKER STUDIOS MIXING THE NEW JACKSON 5 TRACKS

Copyright 2009 New Media Creative

 

By Joe Klein

There has been a whole lot of hoopla over the last couple months about the existence of so-called “lost” Michael Jackson songs or recordings. One of the biggest and widely-circulated rumors was that Michael’s sister Latoya Jackson had “smuggled out” a hundred or more recordings contained on hard drives, CD’s or cassettes from the mansion rented by the King Of Pop in the hours following his sudden and unexpected death. LaToya denied this allegation in an interview with Barbara Walters that aired last week on ABC’s 20/20 telecast.

Almost immediately following Michael’s passing in June, the lust for songs and anything and everything recorded by Michael Jackson has been building, almost to a frenzy not seen since the glory years of MJ in the late eighties and early nineties. A frantic search has been on for new, undiscovered or otherwise “lost” material.

Besides all the gossip surrounding Latoya, rumors have also been circulating of the existence of a library of unreleased material at Epic Records, the label that Michael Jackson and The Jacksons recorded for following their departure from Motown Records in the mid-eighties. However, until now, there has been little buzz about the existence of “lost tracks” of Michael or the Jackson 5 in the most obvious “lost and found” department of all, the vaults of Motown, Berry Gordy’s storied Detroit label where their fabled and historic careers began.

The day after the MTV Video Music Awards played homage to MJ, we posted a story online that broke the news about a cache of early recordings of Michael and the his brothers had been found! We released a second story the following day.

Apparently the old multi-track analog master tapes, which are early recordings of the Jackson 5 with a pre-teen Michael Jackson singing lead vocals, were uncovered at some point over the summer and converted to digital audio data. At the end of August, Harry Weinger, a senior executive at Universal Music Enterprises (who markets the old Motown catalog product) contacted my old friend Russ Terrana, the highly respected and gifted engineer who mixed and recorded most the early Jackson 5 and Micahel Jackson Motown hits. Weinger asked Terrana if he would be interested in digitally mixing several newly-discovered Jackson 5 songs, and Russ jumped at the chance.

I posted the story here on our company’s blog just after the second breaking news story appeared online. I was thrilled for Russ when I first learned of the project back at the end of August and asked if I could blog about it. I was even more excited to break the story to the world and help get Russ some newly found attention and much-deserved recognition for the mountain of success and accomplishments he’s achieved over the years, plus his unquestionable contribution to the history of recorded pop music.

Terrana is currently mixing down eleven songs never before released in a small facility in Scots Valley, California called ROCKER STUDIOS, owned by a good friend of Russ’ named Rick Vierra. Russ hopes to have the mixes done at some point over the next week or two. Meanwhile, Weinger told Russ that UME is planning to release the tracks as a “new” Jackson 5 album in November, just in time for the holiday buying season, and this seems consistent with another story that appeared online just after our first story broke. This item reports that the new collection will be called “I Want You Back” (a pretty good, an appropriate title for the package) and that UME has scheduled a release date of November 10 for the new album! This seems consistent with what Weinger told Russ a couple weeks ago.

As far as the existence of more “hidden gems,” nothing further has been confirmed at this point. But there’s little doubt the rumors, speculation and reports of more discoveries of MJ and J5 material will continue for some time, and the story of “lost tracks” of Michael Jackson will go on for months, if not years, to come.

The story about the first confirmed “find” of “lost tracks” featuring Michael Jackson is sure to build excitement to fans the world over and is already starting to create a stir among fans of the King Of Pop and his storied family as it starts circulating around the net. The first story we published online is here and our follow up story, released a day later, can be found here.

By Joe Klein

Earlier this week, New Media Creative associate Brett Bumeter and I teamed up to write and post a cool blog story about the release of new recordings of Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5. A friend of mine for over three decades, recording engineer Russ Terrana, was recently asked to mix a collection of newly-discovered, never-before-heard tracks that were unearthed from the vaults of Motown Records over the summer. It turned out to be the first story to be blogged about the project and we ended up with an unplanned breaking news story online!

Russ was the chief recording engineer for Motown from 1966 until the closing of Motown’s Hollywood studios in 1988. During his two-decade tenure at the label, Russ mixed and recorded a large percentage of Motown’s hit records, In fact, he mixed 89 number one records, more than any other recording engineer in history. Throw in over 300 additional charted hit singles and many more hundreds of tracks from hit albums, and my old friend truly ranks as a music business legend!

Near the end of August, Russ was asked by HARRY WEINGER, a senior executive in charge of A&R at Univesal Music Enterprises, the division of the Universal Music Group that oversees the creation and marketing of Motown’s catalog product, to mix the collection of vintage tracks. They are early recordings of the Jackson 5, featuring an energetic, pre-teen Michael Jackson performing lead vocals, as he did on all the early Jackson 5 hits. The songs have never-before been released to the public, and, apparently had sat buried deep in the Motown vaults, unnoticed for decades. Weinger had eleven songs contained on the old analog multi-track masters converted to digital audio and sent to Russ the week before Labor Day.

(***UPDATED ON OCTOBER 26, 2009*** UME’s Harry Weinger contacted me with a clarification of facts in this post. it was actually early this year that the additional masters were first found, as UME, already in the midst of the year-long 50th anniversary celebration of Motown Records, was preparing for the 40th anniversary of the Jackson 5 this fall. Of course, the untimely passing of Michael put the newly-discovered J5 tracks into a “bigger spotlight,” according to Weinger. We appreciate this updated information!)

Russ went to work on the process of mixing the tracks just before the holiday weekend, working in a digital recording and mixing facility in Scots Valley, California called ROCKER STUDIOS, located not far from Russ’ home in Santa Cruz. The state-of-the-art facility is owned by Rick Vierra, a local sound engineer Russ has been friends with for several years. According to Russ, the mixes are proceeding smoothly. Using a high-end, top-of-the-line ProTools digital audio system, a vast array of software “plug-ins” in and some very cool vintage “outboard gear” (visible in the picture to the left behind Russ), Russ says he’s getting some really great mixes. Many of the tracks sound, he says, are sounding as pure and pristine as if they had been recorded last week!

Russ is hoping to have all eleven songs completed over the next few weeks, in time for a fall release now being planned by UME. This “new” Jackson 5 album is the first to be released from the legendary group in decades and, as such, has a historical significance unlike any other yet-to-discovered treasures of later-day recordings of MJ or his brothers that may have been recorded in the seventies, eighties or nineties. The package is yet to be named, and should be available in mid-November, just in time for the holiday buying season.

With the sudden and unexpected passing of the King Of Pop at the beginning of the summer, anticipation of and interest in the project is expected to be at a very high level. This could very well turn into new ‘”Motown Gold” and most definitely marks a new chapter in the recorded music of the fabled Jackson family.

I’ll be posting more stories about the project, the sound mixing process (then and now), and Russ himself, who is the subject of a recently completed and yet-to-be-titled book about his accomplishments and storied career as a major influence in the recording of pop music of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s.

I couldn’t be more excited and thrilled for my old friend and cohort Russ Terrana, who, to this day, is still not widely known for all his major accomplishments. As I sit and pen this posting, I’m grinning “ear-to-ear” (audio reference) with pride over the fact that this modest and gifted genius of recorded music and sound should now be getting the attention and recognition he so truly deserves! Stand by for more stories that will be posted here in the days and weeks to come!