female contributors on roots archives??

[leggo rocker]

Strictly speaking, anbessa, that is exactly what a producer should do.

Producers are the source of finance, leadership and business direction.

Musical direction and arrangement should stictly speaking be left in the hands of the mixman, the engineer, the musical director and the musicians.

Of course, the reality is that many, many producers were more than just business managers, having normally climbed the greasy pole of artistic achievement before branching out into Producership.

So you end up with two types of producer, the Sonia Pottinger was a producer of the literal type, a business manager, whereas Linval Thompson, for instance, was a singer, musician, musical director, producer, businessman, so he had the lot.

I wonder which type of producer artists, engineers and musicians actually prefer?

As a writer, I have always hated artistic intrusion from the management of publishing houses, from people who are generally bigged up salespeople - and have no artistic lean at all!

[anbessa]

Very interesting point of view Leggo.
About the question you ask, which type of producer artists prefer, I can only talk about my small and humble experience. I produced one tune in JA last year. I knew exactly what I wanted, in terms of music (chords, instruments) and rythm. But when I was in the studio with people like Sly, Ansel Collins, Dwight Pinkney or Nambo, I was feeling ashamed, as a likkle nobody, to go see these legends and ask them : "I'd like you to play more this way or that way...". I did apologize, because these people are geniuses to me. But to my surprise, all told me that they loved to work with somebody who knows what he wants, and expresses it clearly. Same thing during the mixing session, first I was feeling bad to ask Errol Brown to bring the picking or the shuffle up, to add some reverb. But he said : "You're the producer". So maybe other artists will hate that, but the ones I was blessed to work with didn't.
It's not my goal to tell you I'm right and you're wrong, not al all, it's just sharing my small experience. I definitely consider producing (in music at least) as an artistic activity, not only business. To me, the others are sponsors, they bring the dunza. They are very important too, but I cannot consider them on the same level as people who have an artistic vision, and not only smallers.
Respect.

[mike andyy]

isnt this forum about.....
female contributors on roots archives??
lets stay on track, not talk about producing

thanks

[Jah Chicken]

Ites Anbessa,
I think it is nice to have a producer that does more than simply sign the checks. Someone like Lee Perry, who took a very hands-on approach to all the music recorded in his studio, could really develop a signature sound. And it sounds like the musicians understood and respected that. I'm sure that had a lot to do with the fact that he was doing most of the mixing himself as well. Someone not as hands-on, like Joe Gibbs or Sonia Pottinger (as mentioned above) probably relies on their highered studio engineers to develop a sound for their studio. In that case, should they be called an Executive Producer? I'm not really sure of the difference. Sorry to stay off topic.

Roots,
Jah Chicken

[leggo rocker]

OK Mike, threads tend to wander, and Sonia Pottinger got this one off thread!

... but one quick point please!

@ anbessa

Thanks for that input.

I would love to hear your music you've produced!


I am not a musician (although I once fronted a punk band as a'singer') so I can only view this from the point of my experiences as a writer in magazines and websites. Here I can definitely say artists don't like the money men poking their noses in, as they ALWAYS do.

Obviously a very different situation to musicians.

But if the producer had little or NO artistic talent or feeling for the vibe, I guess the musicians might be less willing to follow his input!

[leggo rocker]

Back on thread...

Where are the sistren?

Not one has even added to this thread!!

[sean]

tut tut...thanks mike andyy for at least trying to get people to stay on track with the thread..mens club indeed...now what other "mens clubs" exist in this world? well you have football fans but even there female contributions on messageboards outnumber the ones here 10 to 1 ..you have misogynist wealthy prats in boardrooms....and you have..er ..roots archives!!!dont try the one about girls dont like reggae either

[leggo rocker]

The sistren them love to wind up their waist to the reggae beat!

[utodd]

anbessa, nice experience to share with us, thanks kindly. I've noticed most women do seem to prefer music sung by women better. Sinead O'Connor must know this?

[sean]

pity really that no women contribute to the board here, it would be a nice mix of yin and yang then i feel