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"chaka khan, laura branigan, willa ford, buster poindexter" chaka khan's latest platter, classikhan (sanctuary records), showcases some unusual songs for a disco diva. well-worn tunes like "hey big spender," "to sir with love" and "crazy" are reinterpreted to a dramatic effect. complete with lush backing by the london symphony orchestra, the a lbum is a bold move on the part of khan, who needed an equally courageous producer. enter eve nelson, a classically trained dynamo who graduated from berkelee college of music in just two years. though relatively new to production, nelson is a longtime fan of khan's. she also understood that this session represented something new for the singer. "it's a concept album," declares the producer. "there are a lot of personal stories behind these songs." most essential of all was nelson's ability to understand khan's way of communicating artistic sentiment. "she said to me, 'eve, i need a lot of purple.' and i think what she meant was this deep experience, this complicated mirage of colors." nelson, who also writes, engineers and composes, provided khan with the demos she created at her midi studio in the hamptons. having mapped out and agreed upon a template before recording was critical, especially given the logistics involved in hiring an entire orchestra. though working with khan was a dream come true for nelson, she'd already tasted some significant achievements. she's a graduate of the prestigious eastman school of music in rochester, ny, and the winner of the first-ever ascap scholarship. before graduating from berkelee, she penned the theme song for the boston bruins, which led to gigs composing riffs for boston's other teams, the patriots, celtics and red sox. though nelson failed to collect royalties on these audio snippets, a regret she blames on youthful inexperience, the gigs served as a career launching pad that has included an armful of jingles with clients as diverse nbc news, the nba and inside edition. these assignments ultimately helped her land a gig as a full-time composer. when nelson's company merged with universal in '89, she decided to move to new york. as a recording gun-for-hire, word of her talent spread quickly. nelson's notoriety led to working with and learning from the late keith diamond, author of "caribbean queen." a publishing deal with zomba followed and it was there that she was first asked to helm an entire album, in this case for latin pop queen angela bofill. nelson's production company, formed with talent scout bernadette o'reilly in '96, was initially established as a way to launch the career of their client, billy crawford, who has since become a star in europe. despite the company's origins, nelson continues to release everything she does through the outfit. a jack-of-all-trades, nelson is able to act as her own support system, giving her a rare sense of security within a fickle industry. "there's a nice feeling [in knowing] that i can program, arrange, contract, record and mix. that's exciting, to know that i can do the whole thing." a typical nelson production involves the artist singing on a skeleton track and then composing around the vocal. nelson also likes to experiment by mixing the old with the new; for example, filtering the sound of a dusty wurlitzer through modern plug-in effects. but nelson believes that unique recordings require unique approaches, so she meditates on each project before starting. "my approach is to close my eyes and let it come to me. i try to do it in a very cerebral way." nelson isn't the type of producer who can spit out album after album; even though it may mean she'll make less money. she's content doing "what's right for the artist," taking her sweet time with each record. another way she does well by her clients is in providing different options from which they may choose.
top40-charts.com, november 11, 2004 new york (www.nelsonoreilly.com) - producer/songwriter eve nelson (eva cassidy, willa ford, sandra bernhard, heather nova) has just outdone herself, producing the new chaka khan cd 'classikhan.' nelson also arranged 10 of the 13 songs and conducted the london symphony orchestra for the album. while the rhythm section was recorded at clinton studio nyc, the strings and vocals were recorded in london's famous abbey road studio and whitfield studios. the album was just released last month on the agu/sanctuary label. nelson formed nelson-o'reilly productions in 1995 with business partner bernadette o'reilly. recently, o'reilly, president of nelson o'reilly productions, announced the addition of ray cervenka to the company as a staff producer/ remixer. cervenka handled additional production and editing on the khan cd. as a producer, engineer and songwriter, cervenka has been associated with such superstar artists as whitney houston, busta rhymes, wyclef jean, harry connick jr. and la face records in the capacity as engineer/project consultant. 'among his unique talents is his real ability to bring out the best in young talent, o'reilly stated. she continued: 'after ten years as our company's primary composer/ producer, my partner eve nelson needs to share her workload. ray is ready to bust out as a bona fide producer.' cervenka is currently working with unsigned rock sensation lourds, international pop foursome uneti, amy victoria, r&b crooner x.a.v.r., and newcomer nicole g. 'classickhan' was recorded and mixed by grammy winner cynthia daniels in addition to cervenka joining nelson-o'reilly productions, the company has retained 7th street music to scout talent, pitch songs, and shop artists. 7th street music is a newly formed company headed by sherrie fell and john garrett. o'reilly said: "it's great having a street team keeping the company abreast of the latest trends. one of the many projects brought in by sherrie and john is s-curve records reggae-pop act osx, and we're thrilled to be working them." nelson o'reilly recently relocated their offices to the flatiron district of manhattan. their new address is 20 west 22nd street, suite 617 , new york , ny 10010 . for more information, visit www.nelsonoreilly.com billboard, june 19, 1999 while billy crawford's opening opus, "urgently in love," scored in pockets of the u.s., it should have been one of the major hits of the spring. radio's curious failing, however, can be made up with airplay for this sensational follow-up, a midtempo, latin-influenced jam with bold hints of earth, wind, and fire's "september." crawford, while only 16, is suave, confident, and shows a precocious talent for songwriting, glorious singing, and moving through some pretty serious dance steps in the fired-up videoclip, which should be rewarded by nurturing of pop radio. if radio programmers have any interest left in playing the real thing, they've got a hype-free summer-time smash here. anything less than fully realized success would be just plain daft.
gavin, october 5, 2001, issue 2351
hometown: miami
music connection, july 30, 2001-august 21, 2001m the latest press release sent out about eve nelson can be forgiven for using the old cliché hot as a pistol to describe the songwriter/producer's whirlwind studio life these days her recent schedule included producing and co-writing various tracks on the new cd ride by billy crawford, whom she and her partner bernadette o'reilly (who run studios in manhattan's flatiron district and another in the east hampton long island, artist colony called the springs). discovered six years ago when he was 12 years old. nelson also co wrote, produced and mixed two songs for willa ford's debut cd on lava records, co produced heather nova's song "like lovers do" with bryan adams, did three tracks for an upcoming laura branigan comeback album, and others for a second motorbaby release. on the purely songwriting side, "i know you by heart," a tune she co wrote some years ago, is now riding high on the charts thanks to the posthumous success of singer eva cassidy's songbird album "my favorite thing is to begin a production assignment by co-writing songs with an artist, get in their heads in order to figure out the best way to have a voice in what they want," says nelson, who launched her writing career in the early nineties with donna summer and angela ruth, "i don't have one specific technique for all artists because i prefer to treat each artist as an individual with a unique vision. it works two ways. i rely on the artist to guide me and yet i'm also their voice in the studio." of all the artists nelson has worked with, billy crawlord is unique in that she and o'reilly launched their production company by signing the multitalented pop singer and dancer. nelson explains that o'reilly is the visionary who can practically see ahead and figure out if the development of a certain artist will pay off, while nelson (who taught herself to engineer by recording songs at night while working as a post production composer by day) is the nuts and bolts person in the studio "we wanted to teach billy how to write, and we included him in sessions with other collaborators as we came up with material for the new album," she relates. "lyrics are a very important part of the process for me. with billy, willa and heather, we asked them what they wanted to write about. with a new artist, i come up with two or three rudimentary track ideas to begin with, and i let him or her decide on one they like. then it begins to takes on a different shape. then we build the production around the song. i love to use a combination of organic instruments and machine generated sounds, a combination of old and new school." although nelson's studios are state-of-the art and the new york facility features a full pro tools 5 setup, she prefers multiple live vocal takes (up to tour or five) over auto tuning via computer; she'll use the machines for special sonic effects whenever necessary. her approach to getting the best vocals is like that of an acting coach striving to bring out the most emotional performance. "with billy, i asked him to close his eyes and concentrate on what he was singing," she explains. "the goal was to get him to hone in and act out the lyric, actually become the character in the story rather than lust a singer who does great rifts and is simply good technically. i'm really after powerful, heartfelt performances. i am very selective about the projects i pick to work on, and he bottom line is that the singer has to move me i have to connect both creatively and personally. i love the joy that comes out of that working experience."
from spin, august 1999 never send a boy to do a man's job. butter-throated seventeener billy crawford rooks an album of pop grooves older than he is like each is a new power generation and we were all born yesterday. okay, he never jacks as frenetically as [ricky] martin, but he delivers equal justice for all tempos, from the motown breakdown "urgently in love" to the addrisi brothers' corn-syrup classic "never my love." at his most adorable he lives for the prince-afied midtempo bounce, from "roll with it" to latinate "como te llama" and "mary lopez." and he's not even spanglish! but he is a filipino who grew up in texas! ah, multiculturism--you make our love come down. billboard, june 19, 1999 while billy crawford's opening opus, "urgently in love," scored in pockets of the u.s., it should have been one of the major hits of the spring. radio's curious failing, however, can be made up with airplay for this sensational follow-up, a midtempo, latin-influenced jam with bold hints of earth, wind, and fire's "september." crawford, while only 16, is suave, confident, and shows a precocious talent for songwriting, glorious singing, and moving through some pretty serious dance steps in the fired-up videoclip, which should be rewarded by nurturing of pop radio. if radio programmers have any interest left in playing the real thing, they've got a hype-free summer-time smash here. anything less than fully realized success would be just plain daft. pulse, june, 1999 he's 16, he's cute and he sings like he was raised on off the wall and thriller. young billy crawford may be the next big winner in the teenybopper revival (if the boys in fresh step don't beat him to the pop charts). out june 15. filipino reporter, october 20-26, 1995 the beloved child actor and entertainer billy joe crawford, who has starred in 12 movies in his native philippines and was featured in the weekly variety show "that's entertainment" moved to america last year and landed in midland texas (his dad's hometown). billy entered a national talent show there where he was a virtual unknown. manager vickie frankmano of cuzzin's nyc happened to be in the audience that day. on her return to new york, ms. frankmano made a phone call that led to billy joe's contract with record producer eve nelson (who has worked with such acts as sybil, donna summer & expose). billy has been recording material for his first record over the last nine months and preparing for his first full length american live show under the direction & choreography of robin dunn who has worked with many popular acts including u2, raven simone & shabba ranks. ms. dunn also spent better than a year as director of "amateur night at the apollo." since billy has been in new york he has performed live at city center, opening the 1995 children's choice awards honoring queen latifah, brandy & john starks: he's done a live television appearance on lifetime network's "biggers and sommer's" show and most recently appeared on stage at the mtv awards with superstar michael jackson. billy joe is a star about to be born.again. he was recognized in his country and now it's time for the the u.s. and the rest of the world. the team surrounding billy hope to have the full support of the filipino community. as billy's first goal is to go home and perform again in his country once his record is released. frankmano says "it's time for new ethnic groups to take their place in commercial music. i think billy can start the trend." billy will be performing his first full length show on thursday, october 26, at new york's supper club. billboard august 5, 1995 weeks has evloved into a saucy vamp with the seasoning to take her rightful place next to dance music mainstays like jocelyn brown. the problem is this song does not match her interpretive skills. still, her flair for drame makes it all worthwhile--as does a plethora of house-hooked remixes. italo-disco producer constantino "mixmaster" padovano hits the home run with a version armed with a muscular bassline and wriggling percussion. |
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