Jun 25, 2020
Legendary record producer Mitchell Froom
(Crowded House, Sheryl Crow, Randy Newman) joins me to unpack ‘The
Genius of Ray Charles’, the audaciously titled
classic album where Charles took his first ambitious step outside
of R&B into full on jazz. We unpack Charles’s brilliant piano
solos, Quincy Jones’s arrangements, the combining
of Ray’s band with musicians from Count Basie and
Duke Ellington’s orchestras, how to breathe new
life into songs that have been recorded many times and how Mitchell
bonded with Randy Newman over their shared love of
this record.
Plus, Mitchell talks about writing and producing ‘Tomorrow Never
Dies’ with Sheryl Crow, why he won’t write his
memoirs, what it’s like to hear songs he’s produced while out in
the world and gives insight and updates on the new upcoming
Crowded House record he and the rest of the band
have been working on during isolation.