by Rick Gianatos Guest Blogger
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My friend Music Producer Rick Gianatos has a new song out this week titled 'Brand New Day.' Many people believe this to be the finest song he's ever produced. The song is a powerful Gospel influenced Soul extravaganza! He wanted to tell the story of how it all came about, so I offered my blog to him this week as a guest blogger. This is his story. I also took some pictures!
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In 2007, I was hard at work on my http://www.dreamgirlsdanceproject.com/, featuring real girl group members doing favorites from the Dreamgirls Broadway show. I had a challenge finding the right vocalist for the showstopper, “And I’m Telling You I’m not Going.” I initially reached out to Martha Wash, who I had known since she was one of the Two Tons o’ Fun behind Sylvester.
“No,” she said. “I love you Rick, but I really don’t want to tackle that song.” Charlo Crossley, meanwhile, was standing in the wings, bringing the house down with her own showstopper in Hairspray. She was one of the original Harlettes who worked behind Bette Midler, and therefore was perfect. She did the song justice for me and I was happy and satisfied.
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Well, almost. I was determined to find a song for Martha to do.
Being a DJ going back to the beginning of the 70’s, I had made a To Do list of songs that were B sides of singles [45’s], the last track on Side 2 of a vinyl album, or any other song I thought was a hit, but was overlooked and didn’t receive the promotion it deserved. One of those songs was “Brand New Day,” a single by a group called Minds of Men, released in the mid-90’s.
I cut a track, but Martha and I could never come together on recording it with her busy tour schedule and her being in NY and me being in LA. The basic track got filed away on another To Do list, this one called “Unfinished Tracks.”
Fast forward a few years. Scherrie Payne and Freda Payne had turned me on to the stage productions of Mr. Don Welch. After seeing some great shows, including one of my favorites, 'The Divorce', which he is about to film starring Freda and Judy Pace, I went to see 'Hallelujah, Mahaliah', with Tamika Patton. Closing the first act was a recreation of The Clara Ward singers, which featured Kim Yarbrough as Mama Ward, in a character role complete with Mama’s famed skunk stripe beehive hair do.
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After that number, the light blub went off. Kim had done some background session work for me, we were friends, but I wasn’t sure what to do with her. Gospel style seemed like the key. I had had a great success in the 8o’s with a dance track that was an out and out gospel song, entitled “I Got It.” I thought about doing a new version. That idea went on my “To Do” list.
Fast forward to a major photo shoot for Pattie Brooks. Also on the photo shoot were Kim Yarbrough, Charlo Crossley, and Cynthia Manley. Besides the upcoming single release for Pattie, “It’s All About the Music,” and shooting a portion of her video during the day there, we took combinations of shots with Pattie and each of the others. As the shoot progressed, however, I noticed there was a chemistry there between the whole group. They were jamming to “It’s All About the Music” as if they had all been singing together for years. I decided it might be fun to put them together on a project, and I christened them DIVAS DELUXE.
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I thought about what to record, and “Brand New Day” popped back into my head. I thought I might do shared vocals on the lead, as I had done so many times with Jean, Scherrie & Lynda of the Supremes [“Stoned Love”] for the MotorCity Reunion Recordings and later with Scherrie, Lynda and Freddi aka F.L.O.S. [“Sisters United (We’re Taking Control)” – co-written by Scherrie Payne http://www.supremevoices.com/].
My mind started spinning on this one. I thought about these shared leads, but also bringing in just about everyone I work with to be in a gospel chorus, like I had on “I Got It.” I also wanted to have my videographer, Christopher Alexander, film the session documentary style, as he had on the DreamGirls Dance Project.
The logistics were a bit of a challenge. Every time I tried to schedule the recording, which would all be done in one day, someone seemed to have a scheduling conflict. Then, when I thought I had everyone on board, my engineer, the amazing Ashburn Miller, double booked himself. I had to concede to the other session, because it was an orchestral date for a movie for Warner Brothers.
Before I was able to try again to schedule the session, something happened that was devastating to me. Loleatta Holloway, a voice that I treasured both as a DJ and a producer, passed away. Her biggest success, in fact her only No. 1 pop hit, was a lyric sampled to from Marky Mark’s giant hit, “Good Vibrations.” Unlike other sampled vocals (Martha Wash in “Gonna Make you Sweat”) and (Loleatta and Martha on different Black Box tracks), Mark Wahlberg had the class to get Loleatta involved, and she performs In the video. This is a link to live performance with Loleatta and the group http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFzinoft6hY. I had the pleasure of remixing one track for her, “That’s What You Said”, Unfortunately never met her or saw her live. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4BVX0Za8Wc
I revisited my “Brand New Day” track and decided I was going to incorporate music that would give me the opportunity to give my respect to Loleatta. Dan Hartman had created a lovely dance/pop track called “Relight my Fire”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i--HyjCsX8. The highlight of this track came in the middle of it, when out of the blue on this very slick pop vocal, Loleatta comes in. In the clubs, this would bring dancers to a frenzy, and I would get chills every time I danced to it or listened to it. The lyric of this section of the song tied in perfectly to “Brand New Day” lyric. I inserted a breakdown section in the middle of my track that would allow for this as a gospel call and answer, which allowed me to recreate this Loleatta performance without mimicking it exactly. I also determined that I would start the recording with an a slow capella version of it, flavored almost like a dirge, to lead into the up-tempo song.
Then, finally, in October, 2011, my Brand New Day came. The stars were aligned, both in the skies and in the studio, as all my musical colleagues were able to attend my latest session booking.
First, at 10 am, Kim came in to lay down a scratch lead for me. This would be my guide to put together all the chorus vocals. Later, shared vocals would be done, with Pattie Brooks, Charlo Crossley, doing different parts of the lyric. Cynthia was going to specifically put down ad libs during the Loleatta section to add her flavor.
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Kim, who never wants to do a lead vocal in the morning, ran through it almost effortlessly. I didn’t get too specific, touching up sections, because it was not going to be final, or so I thought.
As were finishing this, Pattie and Charlo came in. We were going to start on the a capella portion. As we ran down Kim’s scratch vocal, Pattie and Charlo looked at me and between them said, “There’s nothing for us to do here [beyond the a capella portion]. Listen to this. Kim’s got it. She is owning this track.” I concurred with them. The scratch vocal became the final vocal with a couple of ad libs added at the end of the day.
After Charlo led a prayer between us for the success of the session, we did the a capella part, which took about three takes to get what we wanted. The third take is the keeper, all done live non stop after my suggestions as they did the earlier takes. Here is a private link to that part of the song, not seen in its entirety in the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__ytUrYhmlI&list=PLoyej9GrGEdk0j0YNgIGqCUO_i1qq0VE8&index=1
After a short break, at 1 PM, the rest of the cast arrived for the gospel chorus. What a great pleasure to have all my musical friends there. The energy in the place was overflowing. Under the direction of Pamela Vincent, the arrangements were superb and everyone sounded amazing.
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The voices are [l to r]: Ernie and Celeste Jefferson, Theresa Ford, Trina Lykes [from my first group, d’Llegance], Joyce Vincent, Scherrie Payne, Kim, Me [no I did not sing!], Pattie Brooks, Jim Gilstrap, Charlo Crossley, and down front Cynthia Manley.
Came the evening, and we all were about ready to fall out. Ashburn played a mix down. Everyone came alive. We knew we had something very special.
Charlo came to me and said, “When we finished the a capella opening, I pictured the three of us for the video coming out of the fields, tired, feeling down, and looking off in the distance, walking into the light of a Brand New Day.”
That sparked an idea to do some story footage for the video. I was also strongly affected by the movie The Help. So, I decided to bring these ladies through time, starting back in the Color Purple early 20th century period, with Kim alone, then bring them forward to the 60’s for The Help, and then finally up to modern times and a time of celebration, which I felt should be at a church. The church cast also included some great actors, including Danny DeLoyd, Duane Avery, Marvin Mathews, Perry Moore.
Last but not least, my Facebook friend, Dayna Newman, took the photo taken by Alan Mercer, we were using for the CD cover and created an iconic piece of art with it! Dayna is now part of my team!
![]()
So, it all came together, not overnight, but when it did, there were great voices, fantastic performances in the video, and hopefully, everyone who sees and hears our project will feel the energy and join us in celebrating a BRAND NEW DAY!
The one stop location for downloads, CDs, and viewing the video, is http://www.kimyarbrough.biz/
Also, please like Nu & Improved Records Facebook page for all the latest news.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nu-Improved-Records-Altair-Records/127461060690227?ref=ts&fref=ts
www.rgpentertainmentgroupinc.com
Photo: Alan Mercer
My friend Music Producer Rick Gianatos has a new song out this week titled 'Brand New Day.' Many people believe this to be the finest song he's ever produced. The song is a powerful Gospel influenced Soul extravaganza! He wanted to tell the story of how it all came about, so I offered my blog to him this week as a guest blogger. This is his story. I also took some pictures!
Photo of Rick Gianatos: Alan Mercer
In 2007, I was hard at work on my http://www.dreamgirlsdanceproject.com/, featuring real girl group members doing favorites from the Dreamgirls Broadway show. I had a challenge finding the right vocalist for the showstopper, “And I’m Telling You I’m not Going.” I initially reached out to Martha Wash, who I had known since she was one of the Two Tons o’ Fun behind Sylvester.
“No,” she said. “I love you Rick, but I really don’t want to tackle that song.” Charlo Crossley, meanwhile, was standing in the wings, bringing the house down with her own showstopper in Hairspray. She was one of the original Harlettes who worked behind Bette Midler, and therefore was perfect. She did the song justice for me and I was happy and satisfied.
Photo of Charlo Crossley: Alan Mercer
Well, almost. I was determined to find a song for Martha to do.
Being a DJ going back to the beginning of the 70’s, I had made a To Do list of songs that were B sides of singles [45’s], the last track on Side 2 of a vinyl album, or any other song I thought was a hit, but was overlooked and didn’t receive the promotion it deserved. One of those songs was “Brand New Day,” a single by a group called Minds of Men, released in the mid-90’s.
I cut a track, but Martha and I could never come together on recording it with her busy tour schedule and her being in NY and me being in LA. The basic track got filed away on another To Do list, this one called “Unfinished Tracks.”
Fast forward a few years. Scherrie Payne and Freda Payne had turned me on to the stage productions of Mr. Don Welch. After seeing some great shows, including one of my favorites, 'The Divorce', which he is about to film starring Freda and Judy Pace, I went to see 'Hallelujah, Mahaliah', with Tamika Patton. Closing the first act was a recreation of The Clara Ward singers, which featured Kim Yarbrough as Mama Ward, in a character role complete with Mama’s famed skunk stripe beehive hair do.
After that number, the light blub went off. Kim had done some background session work for me, we were friends, but I wasn’t sure what to do with her. Gospel style seemed like the key. I had had a great success in the 8o’s with a dance track that was an out and out gospel song, entitled “I Got It.” I thought about doing a new version. That idea went on my “To Do” list.
Fast forward to a major photo shoot for Pattie Brooks. Also on the photo shoot were Kim Yarbrough, Charlo Crossley, and Cynthia Manley. Besides the upcoming single release for Pattie, “It’s All About the Music,” and shooting a portion of her video during the day there, we took combinations of shots with Pattie and each of the others. As the shoot progressed, however, I noticed there was a chemistry there between the whole group. They were jamming to “It’s All About the Music” as if they had all been singing together for years. I decided it might be fun to put them together on a project, and I christened them DIVAS DELUXE.
Rick & the Divas Deluxe photo: Alan Mercer
I thought about what to record, and “Brand New Day” popped back into my head. I thought I might do shared vocals on the lead, as I had done so many times with Jean, Scherrie & Lynda of the Supremes [“Stoned Love”] for the MotorCity Reunion Recordings and later with Scherrie, Lynda and Freddi aka F.L.O.S. [“Sisters United (We’re Taking Control)” – co-written by Scherrie Payne http://www.supremevoices.com/].
My mind started spinning on this one. I thought about these shared leads, but also bringing in just about everyone I work with to be in a gospel chorus, like I had on “I Got It.” I also wanted to have my videographer, Christopher Alexander, film the session documentary style, as he had on the DreamGirls Dance Project.
The logistics were a bit of a challenge. Every time I tried to schedule the recording, which would all be done in one day, someone seemed to have a scheduling conflict. Then, when I thought I had everyone on board, my engineer, the amazing Ashburn Miller, double booked himself. I had to concede to the other session, because it was an orchestral date for a movie for Warner Brothers.
Before I was able to try again to schedule the session, something happened that was devastating to me. Loleatta Holloway, a voice that I treasured both as a DJ and a producer, passed away. Her biggest success, in fact her only No. 1 pop hit, was a lyric sampled to from Marky Mark’s giant hit, “Good Vibrations.” Unlike other sampled vocals (Martha Wash in “Gonna Make you Sweat”) and (Loleatta and Martha on different Black Box tracks), Mark Wahlberg had the class to get Loleatta involved, and she performs In the video. This is a link to live performance with Loleatta and the group http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFzinoft6hY. I had the pleasure of remixing one track for her, “That’s What You Said”, Unfortunately never met her or saw her live. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4BVX0Za8Wc
I revisited my “Brand New Day” track and decided I was going to incorporate music that would give me the opportunity to give my respect to Loleatta. Dan Hartman had created a lovely dance/pop track called “Relight my Fire”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i--HyjCsX8. The highlight of this track came in the middle of it, when out of the blue on this very slick pop vocal, Loleatta comes in. In the clubs, this would bring dancers to a frenzy, and I would get chills every time I danced to it or listened to it. The lyric of this section of the song tied in perfectly to “Brand New Day” lyric. I inserted a breakdown section in the middle of my track that would allow for this as a gospel call and answer, which allowed me to recreate this Loleatta performance without mimicking it exactly. I also determined that I would start the recording with an a slow capella version of it, flavored almost like a dirge, to lead into the up-tempo song.
Then, finally, in October, 2011, my Brand New Day came. The stars were aligned, both in the skies and in the studio, as all my musical colleagues were able to attend my latest session booking.
First, at 10 am, Kim came in to lay down a scratch lead for me. This would be my guide to put together all the chorus vocals. Later, shared vocals would be done, with Pattie Brooks, Charlo Crossley, doing different parts of the lyric. Cynthia was going to specifically put down ad libs during the Loleatta section to add her flavor.
Photo of Kim Yarbrough: Alan Mercer
Kim, who never wants to do a lead vocal in the morning, ran through it almost effortlessly. I didn’t get too specific, touching up sections, because it was not going to be final, or so I thought.
As were finishing this, Pattie and Charlo came in. We were going to start on the a capella portion. As we ran down Kim’s scratch vocal, Pattie and Charlo looked at me and between them said, “There’s nothing for us to do here [beyond the a capella portion]. Listen to this. Kim’s got it. She is owning this track.” I concurred with them. The scratch vocal became the final vocal with a couple of ad libs added at the end of the day.
After Charlo led a prayer between us for the success of the session, we did the a capella part, which took about three takes to get what we wanted. The third take is the keeper, all done live non stop after my suggestions as they did the earlier takes. Here is a private link to that part of the song, not seen in its entirety in the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__ytUrYhmlI&list=PLoyej9GrGEdk0j0YNgIGqCUO_i1qq0VE8&index=1
After a short break, at 1 PM, the rest of the cast arrived for the gospel chorus. What a great pleasure to have all my musical friends there. The energy in the place was overflowing. Under the direction of Pamela Vincent, the arrangements were superb and everyone sounded amazing.
The voices are [l to r]: Ernie and Celeste Jefferson, Theresa Ford, Trina Lykes [from my first group, d’Llegance], Joyce Vincent, Scherrie Payne, Kim, Me [no I did not sing!], Pattie Brooks, Jim Gilstrap, Charlo Crossley, and down front Cynthia Manley.
Came the evening, and we all were about ready to fall out. Ashburn played a mix down. Everyone came alive. We knew we had something very special.
Charlo came to me and said, “When we finished the a capella opening, I pictured the three of us for the video coming out of the fields, tired, feeling down, and looking off in the distance, walking into the light of a Brand New Day.”
That sparked an idea to do some story footage for the video. I was also strongly affected by the movie The Help. So, I decided to bring these ladies through time, starting back in the Color Purple early 20th century period, with Kim alone, then bring them forward to the 60’s for The Help, and then finally up to modern times and a time of celebration, which I felt should be at a church. The church cast also included some great actors, including Danny DeLoyd, Duane Avery, Marvin Mathews, Perry Moore.
Last but not least, my Facebook friend, Dayna Newman, took the photo taken by Alan Mercer, we were using for the CD cover and created an iconic piece of art with it! Dayna is now part of my team!
The stars were in alignment for the release date of this recording.
It is my partner, Carla Marlowe’s birthday, which I had intentionally selected for good luck.
It is also the anniversay of the opening of Entourage Studios, where I have been recording exclusively for 23 years. Their opening date was March 16, 1986. www.entouragestudios.com.
So, it all came together, not overnight, but when it did, there were great voices, fantastic performances in the video, and hopefully, everyone who sees and hears our project will feel the energy and join us in celebrating a BRAND NEW DAY!
Here is a link to the video http://youtu.be/jsaw1PM8iq8
The one stop location for downloads, CDs, and viewing the video, is http://www.kimyarbrough.biz/
Also, please like Nu & Improved Records Facebook page for all the latest news.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nu-Improved-Records-Altair-Records/127461060690227?ref=ts&fref=ts
www.rgpentertainmentgroupinc.com