Nile Rodgers
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Nile Gregory Rodgers (born September 19, 1952 in New York City) is a prolific and influential musician, composer, arranger, guitarist and music producer, and co-founding member of the seminal multi-platinum hit R&B band CHIC, with influential bassist, the late Bernard Edwards.
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[edit] Biography
Rodgers began his career as a session guitarist in New York, playing with the Sesame Street band in his teens, and then working in the house band at Harlem's renowned Apollo Theater, backing artists like Aretha Franklin, Ben E. King, Nancy Wilson, and Parliament Funkadelic.
[edit] 1970s
He met bassist Bernard Edwards in 1970. They formed a rock band called The Boys (later known as the Big Apple Band) and played numerous gigs around New York City, but despite interest in their demos, they could not get a record contract when the music companies discovered they were black; the discrimination of the day said black artists couldn't play "rock".
These experiences, in addition to activist tenor of the times, led to Rodgers' active involvement in the Black Panther Party in New York City. The 1999 documentary film Public Enemy contains history and interviews with Rodgers about these times. Not the type to give up on their musical dreams, in 1977 Rodgers and Edwards joined forces with drummer Tony Thompson to form the funk/R&B band CHIC (NB: There is a degree of controversy over CHIC being referred to as disco), and went on to score numerous top ten hits and helped propel disco to new levels of popularity. Their songs Everybody Dance, Le Freak and Good Times remain among the most sampled songs of the late 1970s/early 1980s R&B era.
Good Times signals the start of the take-off of hip hop music as its sample immensely contributed to the success of SugarHill Gang's Rapper's Delight, the first rap hit ever. CHIC dissolved in 1983. As CHIC's tight sound and yet rich composition became increasingly popular and sought-after, Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers began doing record production, sometimes together, sometimes apart. Rodgers and Bernard Edwards produced, wrote, and performed with the band Sister Sledge.
[edit] 1980s
In 1980 they produced for Diana Ross, yielding the smash hits Upside Down and I'm Coming Out (which remains Ross' best selling album).
In 1981, Deborah Harry worked with Rodgers on the unpopular album Koo Koo.
In 1983, they produced David Bowie's album Let's Dance (to date Bowie's best sales album) with several hit singles, and in 1985 produced Madonna's blockbuster album Like a Virgin Madonna's breakthrough album, spawning her two signature hits ("Material Girl" and the title track). Rodgers helped develop Madonna's career significantly. Duran Duran worked extensively with Rodgers after he produced the hit single, The Reflex, in 1983 and followed up with "The Wild Boys" for inclusion on their 1984 live album Arena. He worked with members John Taylor and Andy Taylor on their side project Power Station in 1985, which produced two hit singles.
In 1986, he produced the entirety of Duran Duran's Notorious album, which yielded a #2 title track hit. During a live set, Simon Le Bon introduced Rodgers to Skin Trade, saying "Well, this band went through a difficult time [during Notorious]. The band might not have made it if it weren't for this gentleman..." He contributed to numerous other projects and appearances with members of the band throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and in 2002-2003 helped to produce Astronaut, the new album by the original five members of the band.
Let alone unofficially, Rodgers officially produced, or was credited by, or played with, (sometimes all at the same time) and influenced significantly so many major artists and genres that it is difficult to keep an up-to date record. It ranges from Soul with Joss Stone to pop with Britney Spears, to Dance with the Shapeshifters, and even to rock with guitar heroes like Stevie Ray Vaughan or Eric Clapton.
His legacy to the music art and business is of utmost significance, and while this is acknowledged by the industry and the artists, Rodgers remains an unknown to the mainstream public who, however, know about the CHIC name, which no individual was fronting. This band, however crucial and influential it remains to the music (while it is difficult to keep counts, it is likely that chic has been as much sampled as James Brown, or if not comes close second) Chic only describes partially the multi-faceted talent of Rodgers.
He formed the short-lived experimental band Outloud in 1987 with acclaimed French session musician/producer/keyboardist, Philippe Saisse; they released a single album, Out Loud, on Warner Bros. Records. Saisse has often played with Rodgers during in the CHIC tours.
[edit] 1990s
After a 1992 birthday party where Rodgers, Edwards, Paul Shaffer and Anton Fig played old CHIC hits to rapturous response, Rodgers and Edwards organized the reunion of the old band. They recorded new material and played live all over the world, to great audience and greater critical acclaim. In 1996, Rodgers was honored as the Top Producer In the World in Billboard Magazine, and was named a JT Super Producer. That year he performed with Bernard Edwards, Sister Sledge, Steve Winwood, Simon Le Bon and Slash in a series of commemorative concerts in Japan which provided a career retrospective. Unfortunately his longtime musical partner and close friend Bernard Edwards died of pneumonia during the trip, a blow that Rodgers took very hard.
In 1998, Rodgers founded Sumthing Distribution, the largest African-American owned independent music label distribution company in America. Sumthing currently focuses on the distribution in a fast-growing new genre: video game soundtracks.
[edit] 2000s
The September 11, 2001 attacks prompted Rodgers to found the We Are Family Project. To begin, he organized a re-recording of the Sister Sledge song We Are Family by over 200 celebrities, and another recording involving over 100 beloved children's characters, each with accompanying videos and documentaries. He has prompted the United States Congress to create a "National We Are Family Day" to be celebrated on March 11 each year ([1]). In July 2002, he officially created the We Are Family Foundation to promote tolerance and multiculturalism and to support victims of intolerance.
Rodgers has received a Lifetime Achievement Award and a Heroes Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. On September 19, 2005, Nile Rodgers was honored at the Dance Music Hall of Fame ceremony in New York when he was inducted for his many outstanding achievements as a producer, along with former fellow band mate Bernard Edwards. In the winter of 2005, Rodgers opened a state-of-the-art recording studio at Amanyara, the first Aman Resort in the Caribbean, on the Turks and Caicos Islands. In the summer of 2006 Rodgers organised most of a tribute concert to Ahmet Ertegun at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. This included performances by CHIC, Robert Plant, Steve Winwood and many other artists who had performed for Ertegun's Atlantic Records.
[edit] Selected discography
[edit] CHIC
- CHIC (album) (1977)
- C'est CHIC (1978)
- Risqué (1979)
- Real People (1980)
- Take It Off (1981)
- Tongue in CHIC (1982)
- Believer (1983)
- CHIC-ism (1992)
- Live At The Budokan (1999)
[edit] Solo
- Adventures in the Land of the Good Groove (1983)
- B-Movie Matinee (1985)
- Out Loud (1987)
- Chic Freak and More Treats, (1996)
[edit] Official Production (partial)
- Norma Jean, Norma Jean Wright (1978)
- We Are Family, Sister Sledge (1979)
- King Of The World, Sheila B. Devotion (1980)
- Love Somebody Today, Sister Sledge (1980)
- Diana, Diana Ross (1980)
- I Love My Lady, Johnny Mathis (1981) UNRELEASED
- Koo Koo, Debbie Harry (1981)
- unknown title, Fonzi Thornton (1982) UNRELEASED
- Let's Dance, David Bowie (1983)
- Situation X, Michael Gregory (1983)
- Invitation To Dance, Kim Carnes (1983)
- Trash It Up, Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes (1983)
- "Original Sin", INXS (1984)
- Like a Virgin, Madonna (1984)
- "The Reflex", "The Wild Boys", Duran Duran (1984)
- Flash, Jeff Beck (1985)
- She's The Boss, Mick Jagger (1985)
- Here's to Future Days, Thompson Twins, (1985)
- Do You, Sheena Easton (1985)
- When The Boys Meet The Girls, Sister Sledge (1985)
- Home of the Brave, Laurie Anderson (1986)
- Notorious, Duran Duran (1986)
- Inside Story, Grace Jones (1986)
- Inside Out, Philip Bailey (1986)
- L Is For Lover, Al Jarreau (1986)
- "Moonlighting Theme", Al Jarreau (1987)
- Cosmic Thing, The B-52's (1989)
- Slam, Dan Reed Network (1989)
- Decade: Greatest Hits, Duran Duran (1989)
- So Happy, Eddie Murphy (1989)
- Workin' Overtime, Diana Ross (1989)
- Family Style, Vaughan Brothers (1990)
- Move To This, Cathy Dennis (1990)
- The Heat, Dan Reed Network (1991)
- "Real Cool World", David Bowie (1992)
- Good Stuff, The B-52's (1992)
- Black Tie White Noise, David Bowie (1993)
- Your Filthy Little Mouth, David Lee Roth (1994)
- Us, Taja Sevelle (1997)
- Little Wonder, David Bowie (1997)
- Samantha Cole, Samantha Cole (1997)
- On And On, All-4-One (1998)
- Just Me, Tina Arena (2001)
- Dellali, Cheb Mami (2001)
- We Are Family, Nile Rodgers All Stars (We Are Family Foundation) (2001)
- Only A Woman Like You, Michael Bolton] (2002)
- Shady Satin Drug, Soul Decision (2004)
- Astronaut, Duran Duran (2004)
- Evolution, MorissonPoe (2007)
[edit] Soundtracks
- Soup for One (1982)
- Alphabet City (1984)
- Coming to America (1988)
- Earth Girls Are Easy (1989)
- White Hot (1989)
- Beverly Hills Cop III (1994)
- Blue Chips (1994)
- Public Enemy (1999)
- Halo 2 (2004) Game
- Perfect Dark Zero (2005) Game
- Rise of Nations
[edit] Biographical reference work
- "Everybody Dance: CHIC and the Politics of Disco", book by Daryl Easlea, Helter Skelter Publishing (24 Oct 2004), ISBN 1-900924-56-0 [2]
