My Integrated Life* (Part II)

Rootstalk | Volume V, Issue 2, Spring 2019 My Integrated Life* (Part II) BY DARTANYAN BROWN In Volume V, Issue 1 of Rootstalk1, Dartanyan Brown told the first of three installments in a remarkable story. A native Iowan and African American, born in the Midwest at nearly the exact middle of the 20th Centu- ry, he was front-and-center for many of American cul- PHOTO BY DAN WELK FOR CLICK PHOTOGRAPHY. EXCEPT WHERE NOTED, ALL OTHER IMAGES COURTESY OF DARTANYAN BROWN ture’s most defining struggles, particularly the Civil Rights movement and the advent of revolutions in music and Dartanyan Brown (https://www.dartanyan.com) is technology. Where many people content themselves with an Iowa musician, journalist and educator with a 40- one career, Brown has had at least four: in journalism, in year career in the arts. He is an inductee into the Iowa musical performance, in the tech sector and in education. Blues (http://cibs.org/events-programs/iowa-blues- The story Dartanyan began in our last issue told of hall-of-fame), and Rock ‘n Roll Halls Of Fame (https:// his musician parents, his early years as a journalist with www.iowarocknroll.com). Dartanyan and his late fa- the Des Moines Register2, and his adventures in the bur- ther Ellsworth Brown are both inductees of the Iowa geoning musical—and cultural—scenes of the 60s and Jazz Hall of Fame (http://dmcommunityjazzcenter. 70s, when he began playing Rock-n-Roll, blues and jazz org/HallofFame.aspx). He lives in Des Moines, Iowa, with various Midwestern bands. In the spring of 1973, with Visual Artist Paula Egan. he hit the big time when he was called to join Chase, the Jazz-Fusion band fronted by seminal trumpet player Bill Chase3. That’s where Dartantyan’s story picks up in this issue. Though he didn’t know it at the time, his story was destined to have a few more dramatic turns, and he was going to be at the forefront as our culture changed—dra- matically—yet again. s I write this, I realize that it’s 46 years ago this Amonth (April 2019) since I packed up my gear and headed for the Des Moines airport, ready to fly off to Chicago into what would be one of the most significant periods of my life. The flight from Des Moines wasn’t long, of course, and upon arriving at O’Hare Airport I was met by one of Bill Chase’s managers. With the late afternoon be- 1 My Integrated Life | Brown coming evening, we whisked down the Dan Ryan Ex- company to Chicago, where the Harmonicats12 record- pressway into Chicago’s storied North Side to the corner ed the first pop song featuring artificial reverberation: of Rush(!) and Walton Streets—the site of The Universal “Peg o’ My Heart.” The song sold 1.4 million copies, and Recording Corp4. the subsequent jump in income and new business also This is where the Chase band rehearsed and re- brought about a jump in Universal’s stature in the mu- corded their albums too?? Whoa! sic industry. Soon artists including Patti Page13, Vic Da- Once inside, we took an elevator to the second mone14 and Dinah Washington15 were recording there, floor where I was led down a short hallway and through and Al Morgan’s “Jealous Heart16” became the second a set of doors into the massive Studio A. There I saw my million-selling record the studio was associated with, hometown friend Tommy Gordon5 seated at the drums coming out on the in-house Universal Records label. in the center of what appeared to be a jungle of micro- Universal was central to the development of exper- phones and cables. On his left the four trumpet play- imental studio techniques including the first use of tape ers—Jerry Van Blair6, Jay Sollenberger7, Carl Haefli and repeat in a recording, the first isolated vocal booth, the Bill Chase, at six foot four, literally towering over the first recording with multiple overdubs of a single voice, other horn players who were warming up. On Tommy’s early 8-track recording trials, and the first experiments right was guitarist Tony DiCaprio8 and organist/elec- with half-speed disc mastering. tric piano/synthesizer player Wally Yohn 9 from Phoenix, Arizona. Surveying my new surround- ings, I saw a big window on the south wall behind which was the control room with its massive (for those days) 24-input Harrison Console, 16-track Ampex tape ma- chines, and, most importantly, one Murray Allen10. Murray was chief engineer and arguably one of the most experi- enced audio engineers in the world. He oversaw recording sessions with virtually every major recording artist of the late 1950’s, and until his passing in 2006 he was the chief sound engineer for the Grammy Awards Show. To digress for a moment, Uni- versal Studios was the brainchild of Bill Putnam, Sr.11 who founded Uni- versal Recording Corporation in 1946 in Evanston, Illinois. Putnam founded the company to investigate new recording techniques and to de- velop specialized recording equip- DARTANYAN BROWN ONSTAGE WITH CHASE IN 1973, “EXPLORING THE LYRICAL QUALITIES ment. In 1947, Putnam moved the OF HIS AX” 2 Rootstalk | Volume V, Issue 2, Spring 2019 On the spring day of my arrival, as I looked around I learned then and there that Chase was a jazz- Universal’s massive studio—with its once-white walls ROCK band. now a time-worn beige—I drank in the art, culture and That meant that we could play as subtle as we want- technology that resided in this hallowed audio creation ed—at 120 decibels! Oh god, the little jazz club-type space. As an innocent kid out of Iowa, I really had no amp that I pushed my bass through was less than inad- idea of the actual business of music, but looking around equate. (Imagine a kazoo with the Chicago Symphony you could tell they were recording a lot more than just Orchestra) The road crew went out and found a bigger rock bands. amplifier for me and then came the next problem…. As I later learned, Universal turned out soundtracks I knew “Get It On” because I had heard it a million for movies and television shows, orchestral performanc- times but what about the rest of Bill’s compositions? es, radio plays with sound effects, commercials for tele- Time signatures of 9/4, significant solo spaces, and vision, radio, limited distribution recordings for busi- very intricate rhythmic and harmonic devices demand- ness, public service announcements and hundreds of ed full attention (and sometimes that wasn’t enough). other applications for Here I was in sophisticated, cutting Chicago thrown edge sound recording, headlong into mixing and distribu- the deep end of tion techniques. This the talent pool, would be my work- and if I didn’t place for the next 15 get it together months! fast…well…go- At the time, ing back to Des though, I realized that Moines wasn’t a the next 15 minutes fun thought. were the real chal- The band lenge... The time had lived at the Mar- come to pick up my ilyn Hotel less instrument and make than a block sense of the charts from the studio. that were placed in It was a busy front of me for my place where first rehearsal session. traveling mu- The first chart we sicians stayed BILL CHASE ONSTAGE WITH KEYBOARDIST WALLY YOHN played was the band’s during their hit song “Get It On.17” Chicago runs. I’d heard it countless times. Beneath all the fury It was there that I met guitarist Barry Finnerty18 and and energy, it’s really just a souped-up blues structure. I woodwind master Arnie Lawrence19. Both of them were looked at the chart and was able to recognize the overall playing and recording in Chicago with the great drum- piece, but as we kicked it off I realized two things: mer and composer Chico Hamilton20. Barry and I were both 23, and while this was his first ‘big time’ gig, a few 1. These guys played really fast, and years later, in 1978, he would record with the Brecker 2. My bass sound disappeared in the mix due to my Brothers21 jazz-fusion band on Heavy Metal Be-Bop22, lighter ‘jazz’ approach to the chart. and then, in 1981, with Miles Davis23 on The Man with the Horn24. 3 My Integrated Life | Brown Arnie, born in 1938, was a veteran woodwind play- shouters you could find in that day. These two guys had er who had played with Charles Mingus25, Thad Jones126, all the blue-eyed soul you could ask for. Maynard Ferguson27, Clark Terry28 and Duke Pearson29, Me? I weighed 145 soaking wet and my voice, while and was first recorded in 1966, playing on Chico Ham- scat-singing-capable, was about as far as you could get ilton’s The Dealer30. from a classic “soul” voice. As the three of us became friends, I related how When I arrived on my first day at Universal studios, tough it was for me I noticed that while we to learn some of Bill’s were playing the songs, music. there was nobody sing- “Come on over ing the songs. Curious. to my room, I’ll Later, I found out show you some ways why: Bill had decided to learn faster,” said (aided and abetted by Arnie. And boy, did Tommy Gordon) that I he. He was a natu- should be the new lead ral teacher, and his singer for Chase.

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