sous-chef

the thing about some promo lists is that once you’re on them, you can never get off. it could be a good thing i suppose - that’s how i first heard esthero’s sly r+b electronica, for instance – but i’m not sure if i deserve three copies of the latest michael buble or cher single, on vinyl as well as cd.

i was, however, curious about the remixes of “season of love” from the upcoming film version of jonathan larson's “rent” i got in the mail the other day. there were the usual suspects like george morel and eddie baez, but there was also gomi.

kazuhiko gomi belonged to a small, elite coterie of programmers/session players who helped shape the new york house sound of the 90s. names like peter daou, satoshi tomiie, eric kupper, james preston, peter "ski" schwartz, and gomi frequently graced label copy of major label and indie 12 inch singles, and were often as synonymous with club credibility as their high-profile dj employers.

while junior vasquez had other programmers during the height of his sound factory reign, most notably joey moskowitz, gomi’s handiwork are all over some of his higher profile mixes, including madonna’s “frozen” (1998) and mariah carey’s “heartbreaker” (columbia, 1999).

i’ve always had a particular fascination with new york session musicians. i first got into the scene following the works of drummer steve gadd, guitarist eric gale, bass wunderkind marcus miller, and numerous affiliates of the super session group, stuff. i was particularly impressed by gadd, who kept time on everything from early creed taylor releases to paul simon’s multicultural explorations. he was legendary in the business for his ability to double track his own performance in perfect unison.

players like gadd helped define a distinctively new york-flavored rock ‘n’ soul fusion, some of which, for better or for worse, eventually found a wider audience if not the mainstream via high profile acts like steely dan and chuck mangione, or television and film works of bob james (“taxi”) and dave grusin (“baretta”, “tootsie”). while you may not know their mugs from holes in the wall, their slightly greasy, laid-back but surgically precise groove was unique and ubiquitous.

the same can be said for gomi at. al., except they have to be engineer, cheerleader, musician, and shrink all at once, which is probably why the programmers are arguably more essential to the creative process, at least in dance music, than a gadd or a miller.

i’ve hung out with david morales and tomiie in the studio a couple of times. david would arrive in the studio, with or without specific mix ideas, several hours after satoshi had prepped the gears and mapped out the vocals. after a brief chat with david, satoshi quickly laid down several grooves and multiple instrumental parts, and arrayed them across individual channels on a mixing board. david would listen to each part, picked the ones he liked, and familiarized himself with their positions on the board. after getting nice and toasty, he would dim the lights and run the track, arranging the mix on the fly by muting/unmuting channels like the captain of a spaceship, with swirling smoke and blinking diodes dancing around him.

it’s a dj’s sensibility that shapes the final mix, but it is the programmer who provides the ingredients that enable this creative process. if the dj is the chef, the programmer is both the green grocer and the sous-chef. sure, the dj knows what works in the clubs, but most of them couldn’t even find their way around a kazoo, much less sort out a chord progression or arrangement to enhance a groove or a chorus. not surprisingly, most programmers i know had formal training and are, i suspect, either masochists or saints for putting up with the shit they do sometimes.

it is often a difficult gig that takes its toll. gomi’s true passion, for instance, is vintage r+b; we have spent hours talking about the finer points of luther’s vocals or the songwriting skills of gamble and huff. all that, of course, is lost on junior, who doesn’t stray too far from just one chord. i have seen gomi after he had spent several nights locked in a studio with junior. in addition to being clearly physically exhausted, he was so apathetic that he couldn’t give a shit about the music.

depending on your perspective, of course, such gigs can be seen either as paying dues or living hell. gomi used to talk wistfully about making a name for himself so he can make the music he loves. the reality, however, is that most of them would never go on to enjoy the same marquee status as their former employers. while a few more astute ones, like gomi and satoshi, have managed to eke out a modest dj career on the side, most remain nothing more than a footnote on a label copy.

the irony i guess is that after all the fuss i've made about gomi’s contribution to dance music, i couldn’t bring myself to post his mix of “season of love”. it’s such a bloodless hack job that i don’t want to waste the bandwidth. instead, the basement jaxx-like take by newcomers monkey bars wins the slot and suggests a promising remixing career for the duo.

peter daou, the musical chops behind many classic nugroove releases and one of the few who were able to parley his underground cred into a more maintream career, his wife vanessa’s upper west side pseudo-literary prentensions not withstanding, breathed life into “theme from change” by daphne on claudia cuseta’s maxi records (1995). incidentally, the daphne in question is daphne rubin-vega, who created the role of mimi in the original broadway production of “rent”.

billie ray martin’s “your loving arms” (sire, 1995) was a sound factory smash. i remember junior driving the girls wild at peak hours by working multiple copies of his mix. but i’m more partial to the roger sanchez “hands in the air” version where programmer james preston added swing and soul to the mix and further cemented roger’s rep as superstar remixer.

Posted by cellpharmer at December 22, 2005 09:06 AM