Posted on Wed, Apr. 21, 2004
MICHAEL PEREZ / Inquirer
Vidal Davis (left) and Andre Harris have worked their musical magic on recordings by Usher, Mary J. Blige, Michael Jackson, Jill Scott, Alicia Keys and Will Smith. The duo will receive a Philadelphia Heroes Award from the Recording Academy.
Star brighteners
Local music producers Andre Harris and Vidal Davis, being honored next week, give the singer and the song just what they need.
By Tom Moon
Inquirer Music Critic
Play any track produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, one of the most successful production duos in pop music, and whether it's Janet Jackson or Mariah Carey out front, there are some constants underneath.
You can count on hearing the same basic drum sound. The same ideas for refrains, very similar song structures, and the same use of samples for instrumental embellishment.
Cue up some tunes handled by Philly's far-less-visible Andre Harris and Vidal Davis - say, "So Simple" from the latest Alicia Keys, "A Long Walk" by Jill Scott, or "Caught Up" on Usher's new multiplatinum Confessions - and the first thing you notice is how strikingly different they are.
Usher sings "Caught Up" over a blatty brass section. But on Scott's debut, the backing is nearly transparent, a breeze that gently propels the vocals.
Unless you read the credits, it's almost impossible to tell that the songs are all from the Dre & Vidal production team. And that, says Davis - who, with Harris, will receive a Philadelphia Heroes Award from the Recording Academy on Monday - is the whole idea.
"We call ourselves 'the chameleons,' " Davis said the other day, between sessions at A Touch of Jazz studios near Fourth and Callowhill Streets, the temporary base for the duo's two-year-old production firm, Rockstar Entertainment.
"We pride ourselves on not having a 'sound.' To us, the more important thing is doing whatever the song needs. That can be a bigger challenge, because it forces you to not fall back on what worked last time."
And, Harris adds, it might just help in the career-longevity department: "When you have a sound and people want that sound, everything's great. But what about when [tastes] change?... You're stuck."
That approach informs the duo's discography, which in the last few years has grown from scattered cool projects to a who's who of urban talent that includes the deeply spiritual soul of Scott and the sedate balladeering of Ruben Studdard, the coy sweetness of Michael Jackson's "Butterflies," and the wrenching proclamations of Mary J. Blige, who has lined up the duo for several songwriting and production assignments on her next project.
In each case, Davis and Harris, Center City residents who have been friends for 18 of their 27 years, work to bring out an artist's essential quality. The songwriters and multi-instrumentalists - they handle nearly every sound on their recordings, right down to the vinyl crackle that adds old-school warmth - tread lightly. They favor terse bread-and-butter sounds over the keyboard adornments and other grabby sounds that distinguish (or, if you will, clutter) the efforts of many urban-music producers. And they make sure the vocals aren't too heavy.
Darrale Jones, one of the Arista executives responsible for Usher's Confessions, says he knew after talking with Usher that Davis and Harris would be the perfect fit.
"Usher wanted to step up his vocal game, and become more personal. The way they write, the songs just light up an artist. They brought 'Superstar' and 'Caught Up' to my office the first day we talked, and I flipped... . These were songs that can stand the test of time."
Many artists have had similar reactions. Glenn Lewis, who moved here from Toronto several years ago, had the duo handle most of his still-in-progress second effort, Back for More.
"These guys... the way they play off of one another creatively, they operate like one person," says Lewis, who appreciated the duo's lighthearted vibe in the studio.
"It was crazy when we first met them," Marsha Ambrosius of Floetry recalls. "We had all these ideas, and we're talking and singing to try to get them across. They probably had ideas, too, but they were very tolerant while we did our little thing. They wanted to hear where we wanted to go; they weren't going to push us someplace. They had patience, and we needed that."
Among the projects Harris and Davis did with Floetry was a song called "Butterflies." After they finished it, they heard that Michael Jackson was looking for material. "We played [his] manager the Floetry version over the phone, and he was very definite about it: 'Michael is going to do that song.'
"Now, we've had our share of disappointments in this business, so I didn't even believe it," says Harris, who cowrote the song with Ambrosius. "Then we get this call: Can we come to New York?
"The first day we get there, and I'm still thinking that something's going to mess this up. Sure enough, we walk in and they say, 'Come back tomorrow.' After a few days... he's finally ready, and I can remember sitting in the control room paging people like crazy on my two-way: I'm in the studio with Michael Jackson! Oh my god, we're producing Michael Jackson!"
The novelty wore off quickly. Because Jackson wasn't able to sing every day, recording even one song was a "long, drawn-out process" that lasted three weeks. "He'd do 16 measures and stop, sing a chorus and stop," Harris says. "And from those pieces we had to compose one lead vocal."
Harris and Davis met when they were both around 9 years old and their fathers played together in pickup bands and church ensembles. Though they attended different high schools - Harris graduated from Bartram in Southwest Philly, Davis from Overbrook - they hung out, sometimes visiting friends' home studios where, because both started as drummers, they tried to make basic drum patterns.
Harris was shy about music: "I didn't play in school, I was too cool to let people know I was into music the way I was. I played at church, that was it. Now when people I went to school with see me, they're like, 'I had no idea.' "
Davis' career path was cemented the year he graduated from school and received thousands of dollars in a car insurance settlement.
"I said 'Dre, what should I do?' " Davis recalls. "I was trying to decide whether to buy a car or get a little studio setup."
"I told him, 'Get the car,' " Harris says with a laugh.
Davis bought the studio gear, and remembers spending weeks in the basement creating productions. By 1995, the two had learned their way around a studio, and were part of the team of producers "DJ Jazzy" Jeff Townes set up at A Touch of Jazz. It was in that pressure-free workshop that Davis and Harris blossomed.
The pair - who have also worked with Will Smith, Mariah Carey, Ronald Isley, Bilal and Musiq - developed the unique collaborative method that enables them to crank out a prodigious 10 or so tracks a week. The key is identical keyboard and recording rigs placed side by side, Harris explains, "so if I have an idea, Vidal can jump in and pick up on it... . Part of why we work so well is we're really open about improving and changing whatever is going on."
"There's no room for ego," Davis chimes in. "It's never about who-does-what with us. The challenge is figuring out what the song needs. Somebody hits us with an idea, whether it's old-soul or neo-soul or whatever-soul, we'll work together, and it's like second nature. Before you know it, it's not just an idea anymore. We're there."
