Dec 2001
Meeting Review
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Dec 2001 Meeting Review |
An Evening with Canadian Music Hall of Famer and Legendary Record Producer JACK RICHARDSON
A review of the meeting will appear on this page in the future. On December 4th 2001 producer and Canadian Hall of Famer, Jack Richardson lead us through his remarkable career spanning 50 years. The man who launched the Guess Who to international stardom, began his talk explaining that as record producer, he is 80% child psychologist.
Richardson explained that he started life as a player and began producing records in the '60s during a very exciting and explosive time in music. He also made a name for himself in advertizing, where is was no slouch. He worked on the famous Coke campaign, "things go better with Coke".
Richardson's career as record producer spanned the Guess Who, Five Man Electrical Band, Alice Cooper, The Irish Rovers, to name a few. He also started his own studio, Nimbus 9, Toronto's own "hit factory" to help facilitate his dream and the dream of like producers and engineers. In it's day, Nimbus brought of the likes of Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel to Toronto and put Toronto on the map in the International recording community.
As a producer, Richardson learned very early the credo: treat your players well and they will pay you back in kind. He sited an example where he learned of the players in Nashville's pension for Canadian brew and he arrived at his session in Nashville with a couple of cases under is arm.
In fact Ricahardson was in such hot demand that the record company actually took out an ad in Billboard apologizing to his wife for keeping him so busy and away from home for long stretches. Richardson explains that for years his neighbours must have thought that his wife made him up. He would work Monday to Friday in either New York or Chicago, sneak home early Saturday morning to spend 48 hours with his family before setting off again early Monday morning.
The Toronto Section was also very fortunate to premiere a documentary on Jack Richardson, which will air in the near future on Much. As Richardson explained, seeing 50 years summed up in 47 minutes is rather bizarre. The documentary was testimony from veritable who's who in the music bus to Jack and his contributions.
Today Richardson is a highly respected member of the facility at Fanshawe and Harris Institute for the Arts where he is inspiring the next generation of musicians and producers.
Thank you Mr. Richardson for giving us a wonderful evening and thank you to our hosts at Harris Institute.
by Anne Reynolds, Executive Committee, Toronto Section
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