David Axelrod DAVID AXELROD - composer,lyricist,arranger/producer - was born into the 1936, multiculture of the growing black crenshaw district of L.A. & naturally absorbed & reflected it in his musical vision that would follow.As a teenager he spent time in the hot bed of L.A.'s legendary Central Avenue jazz/r&b scene.The inspiration of musicians around him led him to study music composition & by end of the cool jazz 50's he would produce his first record for saxophonist, Harold Land.By 63' he was producing successful jazz/r&b records for Capitol,such as Lou Rawls & Cannonball Adderly for whom he won a Grammy for his production.He was at the heart of the 60's music industry where jazz,rock,pop,classical,folk & soon psychedelia would begin to fuse into each other.His arrangement for The Electric Prunes showed his unique vision of this new musical hybrid & he continued on this path for his own records.68's "Song of innocence" & the second chapter "songs of experience", which were based on mystic poet, William Blake's work, displayed this well.Cut Chemist sampled "Song of innocence" for J5's "day at the races" & Dj Shadow sampled "Human abstract" on "Midnight in a perfect world" from "experience".Dr.Dre sampled "The edge" by David Mccallum for his "Next episode".The list of axelrod sampled productions is long & partly due to there being many sample-friendly open breakdowns.He also often used the heavy back beat of the drums on most of these & other productions provided by New Orleans bred drum master Earl Palmer.Following the 90's hip-hop rediscovery, he would see the release of unreleased tracks from that late 60's era & In 06' he conducted a performance of his compositions at the Royal albert hall in London.It's now available on dvd.He lives in L.A. to this day.Respect to the Axe! |
