David Axelrod (musician)
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David Axelrod (born April 17, 1936, Los Angeles) is an American composer, arranger and producer, across a wide range of musical genres.
His father was active in radical labour union politics, and Axelrod was raised in South Central Los Angeles, where he grew up listening to R&B and jazz music. After a stint as a boxer, he found studio work in the booming film and television industry, and was soon in demand as a drummer, producer and arranger. He produced his first album in 1959, saxophonist Harold Land’s The Fox, which was seen as a landmark record showing that West Coast musicians could play top quality hard-edged jazz.
In late 1963, he joined Capitol Records as a producer and A&R man, and encouraged the label to develop their black artists. He began working with Lou Rawls, producing his successful Live album and a succession of gold albums and hit singles including "Love Is A Hurting Thing", "Your Good Thing Is About To End" and "Dead End Street", which Axelrod wrote and produced. He also began working with Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, one of the most successful jazz crossover artists of the 1960s. Axelrod produced Adderley’s 1967 album Live At the Club, which spawned one of the biggest jazz hits of the period, the funky "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy”, written by the band’s pianist Joe Zawinul, which reached # 11 in the US pop charts.
Around this time Axelrod also began working with a regular group of leading session musicians, notably Howard Roberts (guitar), Carol Kaye (bass) and Earl Palmer (drums), first using them on records by David McCallum and then on two seminal records released as by the Electric Prunes, Mass In F Minor and Release Of An Oath. These used sweeping strings, booming sound and heavy beats in a way that was unique for the time and became highly influential many years later. Axelrod’s success also encouraged Capitol to allow him to produce solo albums, the first two of which, Song Of Innocence (1968) and Songs Of Experience (1969), were homages to the mystical poetry and paintings of William Blake. His third solo album, Earth Rot (1970), warned of the impact of environmental pollution and degradation.
At the same time, Axelrod continued to work with Adderley and Rawls, and with the South African singer Letta Mbulu, bandleader David Rose, and unsuccessful psychedelic groups Common People and Hardwater. In 1970, he left Capitol to set up his own production company, and over the next few years issued a rock version of the Messiah and further solo albums, as well as continuing to work with Adderley on several albums until the latter’s death in 1975. His approach fell out of fashion for a while, and three solo albums he recorded in the 1980s went unreleased.
His work as arranger and composer began to be rediscovered in the early 1990s, and to be sampled by artists such as DJ Shadow and Lauryn Hill. In 1993 he released his first album for over a decade, Requiem:Holocaust. Several compilations of his earlier work were also released. In 2000 he released David Axelrod, which used rhythm tracks originally recorded for a proposed third Electric Prunes album, with new arrangements. Dr Dre used a David McCallum cut ('The Edge') for "The Next Episode" from 1999's 2001.
David Axelrod appeared at the Royal Festival Hall, London, on 17 March 2004 as part of the Ether festival where he conducted a one off performance of his solo work. He was joined on stage by Richard Ashcroft. At the end of this rare concert he informed the audience that he was suffering from ill health. Audio and video were professionally recorded but have yet to be released. Madlib covered "A Divine Image" as part of his Sound Directions project.
Axelrod signed with Blue Note Records in 2005.
[edit] Discography (solo albums only
- 1968: Song of Innocence (Capitol) (later re-released as Songs of Innocence in the 1970s) [1]
- 1969: Songs of Experience (Capitol)
- 1970: Earth Rot (Capitol)
- 1971: Rock Messiah (RCA)
- 1972: The Auction (Decca)
- 1974: Heavy Axe (Fantasy)
- 1975: Seriously Deep (Polydor)
- 1977: Strange Ladies (MCA)
- 1980: Marchin’ (MCA)
- 1993: Requiem: the Holocaust (Liberty)
- 1995: The Big Country (Liberty) [Unreleased]
- 2001: David Axelrod (Mo' Wax)
- 2005: David Axelrod: The Edge (Blue Note)
