Sometimes everything comes together– the planets align, the sax player you wanted to use is actually in town and you step up your game just at the right moment. Ebony Rain is one of those albums. Recorded in 1986 and released the following year—it was charmed from the beginning.

You see I did Jazz Life, my first LP, with all pop musicians. The guys I’d been demo-ing all my “publisher” songs with—except for Tom Ranier. But after Jazz Life I realized I needed to find the “jazz cats”—and I made up a list of the people I wanted to work with; David Benoit (just starting to receive airplay in Los Angeles), Joe Sample, Dianne Reeves and Grant Geissman. Well amazingly, all these people worked on the CD— and in the case of David Benoit, he co-wrote songs and became the co-producer of the LP.

But so many wonderful musicians worked on this CD it’s amazing—Tom Scott, Russ Freeman, Lorraine Feather, Eddie Arkin and Tony Morales to just name the room!

EBONY RAIN- I wrote this lyric while vacationing in Hawaii. One day I was walking and this “black rain” started falling out of the sky—and when I asked what it was they said it was the residue of the sugar cane fields burning down—which to my young ears seemed a great metaphor for making love! Voila- sultry, sexy song. David put a lovely melody to this- and Russ Freeman (of the Rippingtons) new to LA did a a hip guitar part on this.

It sold a lot of copies, I started touring—I remember a great gig in Detroit at Sam’s Jams record store (remember those!)… and the twin producers of Eddie Arkin and David Benoit couldn’t have been more talented! The planets had aligned, It was one of the first records that was a “mainstay” of both Quiet Storm and Smooth Jazz formats—and in those days even plenty of straight ahead stations played it.

Let me know what you think!!

I remember going to the old ABC Dunhill Office on Melrose—and going to a rehearsal room and meeting Walter, Donald, their drummer, and Skunk Baxter—and they asked me what I wanted to sing and I said Motown—well—they all loved Motown, so we did DANCING IN THE STREET and BACK IN MY ARMS AGAIN—it seemed to go well. Walter was a really sweet guy, Skunk Baxter played his ass off — and I was excited.

They gave me a 7” reel of some songs they were thinking of doing on their LP—the only one I can remember is PEARL OF THE QUARTER- asked me to learn them and to come back and see them. Well, I took them home with me—and to tell you the truth didn’t “get them”- but I remember my best friend at the time Myrna did—she loved the stuff -— and told me they were going to be huge (Smart Girl) -— I learned the 3 songs and the next week came back and sang it with the group—once again -– the band played great and I was getting to be pretty friendly with Walter and Skunk. Donald who was quiet and sort of was slinking next to the fender Rhodes—smoking cigarettes not saying much. The guys all had a vote to see if I made it into the band—and everybody raised their hand to let me in the group—everyone except for Donald Fagen. He said he needed to think about it.

Well, of course he should have been the lead singer—but that’s not what the label wanted. Of course I wound up not getting it. I did stay in touch with Walter Becker for a few years giving him updates on my career—and I sometimes think what would have happened with me- If I’d have become Dave Palmer (Who did sing some songs on their first LP inclduding Dirty Work) Would I have wound up a druggie, worn out at 26—but I do remember that they sure played good. Later on, I became a huge fan of their writing – and guess I just hadn’t caught up to their level of sophistication at 21!

Steely Dan – Pearl of the Quarter

Seeing Laura Nyro was sort of like seeing an apparition. She would walk out on the Troubadour stage in some Taffeta prom dress gone awry and literally soak in the adulation and then whisper her comments in a voice so low you could hardly hear her. But then when she would sing- she’d sound like a banshee– with more dynamics than anyone I’d every seen. A bomb could have dropped on that stage and she wouldn’t have noticed! And neither would her fans — who worshipped her.

Many times I saw Joni Mitchell sitting at the end of the row (it wasn’t a very big club) and she’d be mesmerized by Laura, or writing furiously in a little notebook she had. I often think that her piano stuff was influenced by Laura. Especially River or the stuff on For the Roses or Blue.

The other thing I dug about seeing Laura was she would pepper other people’s songs in with her songs- like Bacharach’s Walk on By or The Kingston Trio’s Tom Dooley– and she would sing songs she was working on. I heard Christmas In My Soul– first as just a lyric spoken, then half way finished, then done. She would work it out on stage. It was just her and the piano in those days. I later saw her at the Santa Monica Civic with LaBelle– but I believe she just had a conga player added to the three fantastic singers singing those great oldies with her.

Here’s Laura reciting “Christmas In My Soul”

And here’s Laura performing the same song …

Rip Van Winkle – Jackie Ryan
This is a lyric I wrote for a Jon Mayer instrumental (the jazz pianist folks) and it really is his story. He was a fantastic bebop pianist in NY who took a little snooze (the 70s– put the pieces together) and now is playing and living better than ever.

Creatures – Jeffrey Gimble
This is a song I co wrote with Jeffrey from a new CD that I also produced. The song is a fun litany of exotic, slimy, briny creatures one can eat– from the sea. Jeffrey and I did the music too- and it’s loads of fun. Jeffrey is the gourmet- so all the real intricate phrases are his.

Mon David – Jazz is a Special Taste
Just an exquisite singer- doing my song with just guitar. So beautiful. I wrote this one with Phil Swann and it’s from my musical PLAY IT COOL. Other versions of this much recorded tune by Dolores Scozzesi, Phil Swann, Jessica Sheridan, Sally Mayes and Mark Winkler.

Things I’ve Learned- Shelly Markham
One of my favorite co-writers — whose written songs with me for NAKED BOYS SINGING! and TOO OLD FOR THE CHORUS- wrote this one with me. It’s about the wisdom that comes with age. Just the things we all learn the hard way. Great duet with vocal powerhouse Karen Mason.

Jan Shapiro – I Keep On Loving You
An old song of mine- first recorded by Nancy Wilson (but never released)- and co written with the fantastic Eddie Arkin. Jan actually has recorded this before- but this time you can tell she’s lived with this song awhile. She really lives it. She does a beautiful job on it.

Mark Winkler: One of our favorite jazz cats is out with a new CD – a tribute to Laura Nyro titled “The Laura Nyro Project.” On this podcast, Winkler talks about his latest “project” and gets us up to date on all the other projects he’s been involved with in the last 5-6 years, including his jazz musical “Play it Cool”, and his Off Broadway musical “Naked Boys Singing”, among others.

When Mark Winkler, a quintessentially West Coast swinger, filled an album with Bobby Troup tunes a decade ago, it was a blissful marriage of hipster sensibilities. Winkler and Nyro seem stranger bedfellows-California Cool meets East Coast Boho-yet Winkler, a gifted writer himself, makes the union work equally well. Nor was Nyro all dark basement angst. Less hard edged than such contempories as Dylan and Paul Simon, she like Joni Mitchell tended to float beyond category, blending a heady potpourri of folk, pop, jazz and show tunes. When that crazy mélange is filtered through Winkler’s laidback aesthetic, the results are quite magical.

Winkler draws exclusively from Nyro’s first four albums, spanning the years 1967 to 1970, when many of the songs became known via Top 40 Cover versions from the likes of Blood, Sweat and Tears and the Fifth Dimension. Ably supported, by a shifting cast that includes pianists Eli Brueggemann and Eric Reed and guitarist Larry Koonse, all of whom also contribute arrangements, he follows the lead of those long ago pop groups by making each of these 11 tunes distinctly his own. So, “Time and Love” is reinterpreted as a dreamy ballad; “He’s a Runner” emerges as an intensely personal tale of betrayal and the wine-steeped “Sweet Blindness” erupts in a riotous party worthy of Louis Prima; and the jaunty post Kennedy politics of “Save the Country” become a salve for various postmillennial malaises.

Chris Loudon –  April 2013

Related show

• Artist: Mark WInkler
• Date: Sunday, April 7th 2013
• Time: 8:00pm
• City: Mark WInkler in Los Angeles, CA
• Venue: Catalina’s Bar and Grill
• Address: 6725 Sunset Blvd.
• Venue phone: 323.466.2210
• Country: United States
• Admission: $20
• Notes: CD Release Party for The Laura Nyro Project
• Add to Google Calendar | Download iCal

One of the best singers in the biz, Cheryl D Barnes, is finally gracing us with a new CD in the next few months—and I’ve got two songs on it—Like Jazz (written with Larry Steelman) and That Afternoon in Harlem (written with one of my fave songwriter collaborators Marilyn Harris. I think she did definitive interpretations of the tunes—can she sing.

Then, my pal Shelly Markham, who wrote Too Old For the Chorus with me and Marie Cain is finally putting out a CD of his songs.  My song is the title cut: “Things I’ve Learned Along The Way” and he sings it as a duet with that Broadway powerhouse Karen Mason. Coming out on LML Records.

And if that wasn’t enough, Dina Valenz is releasing an EP in April that I produced and featuring a song I co-wrote with Dina called “My Favorite Pair of Jeans.” Dina is the real thing:  she sings great, she writes the best melodies and is one sweet person. I got the concept from my tune from my Yoga Teacher, Linda Eifer, when she said “when love is good, it’s like a favorite pair of jeans, a little worn and a little sewed up, but so comfortable.” So before you could say Namaste I was writing the tune.

I co-produced a CD that I am so proud of—it’s by Jazz and Blues Legend Barbara Morrison and it’s called A SUNDAY KIND OF LOVE coming out on March 26^th on High Note/Savant Records. She is joined on the CD by sax great Houston Person. Working with her was like a master’s class in great singing. Check it out!

My friend and label mate on Café Pacific Records, David Basse, is just finishing up a new CD—a follow up to the altogether terrific UPTOWN (featuring the songs of Mike Melvoin) and I’ve got two songs on it. Trio (co-written with Emilio Palame) and Easy the Hard Way (co-written by me and Don Grusin). This cat is the King of Kansas City and I can’t wait to hear the results.

In the meantime, a song I wrote a few years ago “Somewhere in Brazil” has become quite the staple in the Cabaret World—with versions by Cheryl Bentyne, Keri Kelsey, Candace Hincks, Deb Colvin-Tenner among others.

I was working as a waiter at this crazy restaurant in Beverly Hills and Steve March Torme would always be coming in- he was Mel Torme’s son and a very talented singer-songwriter. He knew that I sang and wrote songs too, so one day he informed me that he was producing an album for Liza Minnelli and did I have any songs she might like. Well, I thought my song sort of being an old fashioned ditty was just the ticket for Liza. I remember making him a cassette (remember those?) and then not hearing anything back from him. Nothing unusual about that, In those days, with my three or four songs I never heard anything back from anyone–

Until one starry night this musician friend of mine called me up at midnight and said Liza Minnelli was doing my song TROPICAL NIGHTS right that minute  with a 30 piece orchestra in Hollywood– and it was fabulous! So fabulous that it was going to be the title of her new album. Well, let me put this in context, Liza had just finished NEW YORK, NEW YORK and was one of the biggest stars on the planet and I’m living in a single apartment somewhere above the Capitol Records Bldg - my apartment was so small, everynight when I went to sleep my head was just inches from the front door. So I was pretty excited!

Later, from my friend I learned that they’d turned my little 3 minute shuffle into a 6 and a half minute disco extravaganza with a rainstorm, a conga line and the melody of BALI HAI opening it all up. The label read (Winkler/Rodgers/Hammerstein)– But in the tradition of Hollywood I didn’t hear anything back from Liza or Steve March Torme for two months.  In the meantime, I had been working with this wonderful publisher who was starting up a new publishing company and was desperate for some credibility. So when I told him Liza had just recorded my tune, he plopped $500 on the desk in front of me, and he said that I could have the money if I gave him half the publishing. Well, remember at the time I was living on Tuna casseroles and diet cokes, so faster than you can say Bob Fosse I took him up on the offer. Good thing I did– because the record label tried to get my publishing saying they were “thinking” of putting my song on the album. We knew they’d already spent $65,000 hiring ace photographer Reid Miles to create the whole world of Tropical Nights for the album cover so were not dissuaded. But it was nice to have some Hollywood muscle backing me up.

Well, the album came out- it didn’t set the world on fire– but it was a smash at Studio 54 and because it was Liza for years afterwords it was sung by every drag queen from Studio City to Tokyo! And it was featured in an infamous Oscar Nite special with Cheryl Ladd and Ben Vereen- that is like some crazy out take from a Village People meets Bob Fosse video.  Thru the years there was a revue that played in Australia that featured it, and it was even done as a ballet by a prestigious NY dance company! Wow!

Here’s my original shuffle demo of TROPICAL NIGHTS-Mark Winkler w/ the Canary Sisters:

And this is Liza’s Disco Extravaganza TROPICAL NIGHTS/BALI HAI:

Here’s the Cheryl Ladd/Ben Vereen interpretation:

The first reason is I love her music. It’s daring and sophisticated, sort of like Burt Bacharach if he would taken off the Carnaby suits and run with the Gypsies. It mixes soul and jazz and Broadway in a tantalizing brew just made for a kid who liked Ella Fitzerald and The Drifters and the Broadway cast recording of WEST SIDE STORY.

Then, I realized that I found her music at a time in my life when I was a young man, about 18, breaking away from my family and discovering the world. Her music is like the perfect soundtrack for that young man-  The high, the lows– The drama!- everything meaning so much- she mixed heightened emotion, fantastic imagery and altered chords in a heady concoction- that still speaks to me to this day.

But, the thing I liked most about Laura is she was “the real thing”. There wasn’t a phony note or line in her songs. She meant it. And she did it brilliantly.

Four decades later, I still listen to her more than anybody– she’s timeless.

I hope I’ve honored her music, and I hope that I can turn some new people on to her wonders.