Arif & I

Let me tell you about my very first session with the great Arif Mardin.  

It was somewhere around mid-1981. By this time, as a keyboardist, I was definitely the new kid on the block, so to speak. Yet, I was busy, and a lot of sessions were happening all at once.

Arif was producing Aretha Franklin and needed a piano part replaced. His office booked me for a night session. Earlier that day I had been at Hollywood Sound recording Charlie Dore with most of the boys from TOTO.  I rushed over for a 7pm start at Sunset Sound, also in Hollywood, and met Arif for the very first time.  

Needless to say, I was NERVOUS!!!  

Also present was engineer Jeremy Smith, one of the very best at the time. They were both extreme gentlemen, practically guiding my nerves through the date.

As I mentioned earlier, he wanted a piano part replaced. It was an overdub (not a tracking date).  I believe the song was called “Starlight, Starbright” or something like that.  I sat at the piano and Arif set this huge hand-written score in front of me.  It had the strings, horns, percussion, and everything else on the same pages.  

Now remember that this is Arif Mardin…one of the best arrangers/producers of all time.  His arrangements are legendary. You would think his scores would be beautifully written, right?  Not so. His writing was about as legible as a doctor’s handwritten prescription.  After looking at the sheet of paper before me, I became VERY nervous, assuming he was expecting me to sight read his score.  The score had 8 bars per page and aobut 20 staffs.  He had written a very nice intro and outro, and lots of fly____  in between.  YIKES!@!@!

Anyway, I did eventually get through the song, with a little stop-and-go, and Arif was very happy with it.  He had me stay late and play a little moog bass on a version of Hold On, I’m Comin’ (a cool arrangement on the old Sam and Dave hit), and from that night onward, we became very close friends as well as working together with him in the producer seat and myself arranging and playing on most of what he did for many years, including Bette Midler, Leo Sayer, George Benson, Chaka Khan, Phil Collins, etc. etc.  At some point in the future, I’ll write more about some of the cooler memories working with these artists.

Arif taught me a lot about the art of arranging, and was like a big brother to me.  We would be playing around with a song that he’d want me to arrange, and we’d eventually end up playing around with chords.  He loved chords and voicings, as I do, so the commonality in that alone had us grinning most of the time.  I remember him once showing me a Bela Bartok voicing.  It’s based on 5ths….eg – play LH low to high, D, A, E along with RH low to high F, C, G and you’ll have a fabulous inversion of a Dmi11 chord without any extra BS in there.  This voicing extends itself into many other cool chords, as you see when you play around with it.  I built that into my own repertoire, and still use it to this day.  I would show Arif a few things I had in my back pocket to share also, and we’d finish with a nice dinner out with some great wines.  He was also a real wine connoisseur, and would always take the time to tell me the great wines to send as gifts.  Of course, now I just drink them before sending.

Arif passed away about a year and a half ago, and I still think of him and his family almost every day.  He is truly a great friend and sorely missed.

Comments

[Eddy]

Thanks Robbie for a GREAT editorial! Great stuff on Arif!

Eddy

[Scott Gross]

Thanks so much Robbie for giving us a glimpse into the creative process with Mr. Mardin... I am a massive fan of his work and he is deeply missed.

More stories please as time permits... ;-)

With Gratitude,

Scott

[Don Black]

Robbie,

I'm familiar with Arif Mardin's work mainly with Chaka Khan, George Benson and Average White Band. After recently learning more about the man watching a Chaka Khan interview and now through your accounts, I’m now inpired to explore more of his legendary work and accomplishments over his forty-plus years in music. Thank You.

[Brian Hassan]

The name Arif Mardin appears on much of my music collection, he certainly had a magic touch on whatever he was involved in.

Would love to hear some more stories especially with George Benson. And on that subject have you heard the new George Benson album, it's rather good.

Best wishes

Brian