Typewriter-repair stores are gone. So are most camera shops and sign painters. But songwriting is still going strong. Everything you see on TV, on streaming services and at the movies needs original music drifting in and out. This includes ads. A look at the weekly Billboard pop charts shows that top songs have six or more credited writers attached. But plenty of songs are still written by songwriting duos—a lyricist paired with a music composer. Like great dancers, these duos can read each other, feel where a song is supposed to go and come up with puzzle halves that fit together seamlessly. As someone who writes about songwriting and songwriters, I can tell you that the craft remains a fascinating creative process.
One of those dream teams is Joel Evans and Adryan Russ. I discovered them a couple of weeks ago when researching Larry Dunlap, the subject of yesterday's post. Larry played on their 2011 album Changing My Tune. All of the songs on the album are by Evans and Russ. The tunes swing, they're hip and they're catchy. The album features the songwriters' singer friends: Dante Marchi, Bart LeMat, Tami Tappan Damiano, Adam James, Michael Dees, Patrick Maier, Mark Winkler and Jenna Mammina. I know, they have a lot of vocalist friends.
Evans wrote all of the musical arrangements, except for There's Never Been a Love Like This. That one belongs to Dave Stout, who orchestrated the tune for the Marquee All Stars Band. The jazzy studio musicians on the rest of the tracks are Chris Tedesco (tp), Noel Jewkes and Terry Harrington (saxes), Larry Dunlap and Joel Evans (p), Brian Kane, Brad Buethe, Brian Pardo, Mark Vincent and Eddie Pasternak (g),Tommy Kesecker (vib), Dan Feiszli and Mario Suraci (b) and David Rokeach and Alan Hall (d).
The album's original songs are Changing My Tune, The Night We Left the Ground, Mirage, Out on a Limb, There's Never Been a Day Like This, The Moments in Life, Watercolor Love, The Devil's Daughter, Boogie With My Baby, Whispers in the Night, Who Needs Love?, Is It Me? (from the movie Doubt), Do That! and You Made a Believer Out of Me.
The choice of singers is interesting. Dante Marchi has a Tony Bennett feel on There's Never Been a Day Like This, Michael Dees on Is It Me? sounds a bit like Sammy Davis Jr., and Do That! with Patrick Maier clearly was inspired by Jon Hendricks's Gimme That Wine. Which makes sense, since albums like this one are recorded by songwriters with hopes of attracting marquee singers to record and perform the songs. Speaking of which, my singer readers may want to shop this album for material.
So who are Joel Evans and Adryan Russ? Both live in California and met at a Society of Composers & Lyricists confab in Los Angeles some years ago. Joel had been writing for film and television and was there hoping to find lyricists. Adryan had been writing pop tunes and songs for musical theater and was looking to write lyrics for catchy composers. Both wound up seeking water in the lobby at the same time and struck up a conversation.
Joel composes in San Francisco and Adryan composes in Glendale, Calif. They work together via computer. Joel will record his music for songs in mp3 files and send them to Adryan, who then sends back lyrics. Which is how most songwriting duos work today. As long as music continues to be the lifeblood of our happiness, songwriters like Joel and Adryan will be open for business.
More on Joel Evans here.
More on Adryan Russ here.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Joel Evans and Adryan Russ's Changing My Tune here.
JazzWax clips: Here's Out on a Limb...
And here's Mirage...
