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Steve Tyrell.jpg
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"My Life"
As a teenager growing up in the heart of Houston, Texas, Steve Tyrell was drawn to the sound of the..."
More about Steve Tyrell
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Schools (Other):
University of Texas, (Bacharach University)
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Occupation:
Singer, Producer
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Affiliations:
I'm a Christian..
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Hobbies and Interests:
I like to sing.. and produce Movies..
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Favorite Books:
charlote's web
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Favorite Movies:
All the movies that you like... maybe.. ah.. "You've Got Mail", "Cast Away", "The Terminal", "The Time Machine", "Bridge To Terabithia", "Residen't Evil", "Charlotte's Web", Epic Movie", "Doctor T." Silly... hhahaha.. all the great movies... some dramatic or comedy or action..
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Favorite Music:
All Sinatra's and Baharach's songs...
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Favorite TV Shows:
Twins Spica, Tonight show, Late show with David letterman, Today show, Grey's anatomy, Fallen, House M.D. Oprah, Doctor Oz and many more..
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Zodiac Sign:
Scorpio
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About Me:
"My Life"
As a teenager growing up in the heart of Houston, Texas, Steve Tyrell was drawn to the sound of the region's special brand of borderland blues and R&B from the start. A skilled singer long before he had his drivers license, those days frequently found him onstage or in any number of local studios with such acts as CL & The Pictures or the Art Boatwright Band. At the same time, the devout music fan was enthralled by the music of Ray Charles, Otis Redding, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Ben E. King, Chuck Jackson, Jerry Butler, and Jimmy Reed.
"Those guys were my heroes," says Tyrell. "I guess that's where I got my more blues-oriented instincts. As a singer, I had those guys in the back of my mind every time I picked up a mic."
His passion for music led him to a promotion gig with a Houston record distributor while, at the same time, he expanded on his recording experience as a producer for local artists like Sonny & the Sunglows and Barbara Lynn. He also spent many of his early years traveling to the famed Cosmo's Studio in New Orleans where he worked at the control board alongside his early buddies Mac Rebennack (in his pre-Dr. John days), Allen Toussaint, and Aaron Neville.
"Working in distribution back in those days, I was often getting calls from Jerry Wexler at Atlantic," says Steve with a laugh. "Jerry was just making the calls to help break his records in Texas. I loved what Atlantic was doing -- they were making my favorite music at the time. When I first heard strings on those Ben E. King and Drifters records, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Man, we didn't have anything like that in Texas. It completely changed my concept of R&B music altogether. So, of course, I was always happy to get a ring from Jerry and always did my best to help break those Atlantic records in Texas."
By the time he was 20 years old, Tyrell had moved to New York City to begin a job in A&R and promotion for the hit-making independent Scepter Records label. It wasn't long before Tyrell was in the studio, working behind the control board with Dionne Warwick, the Shirelles, Maxine Brown, former Dell-Vikings vocalist Chuck Jackson, and taking fellow Houston compadre B.J. Thomas under his wing.
Thomas was soon thrust into the limelight with his smash recording of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David-penned "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head," as heard in Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. When the tune scored a best song Oscar at the 1970 Academy Awards, Tyrell was jubilant -- but he was also paying serious attention to the lesson behind the success.
Having achieved great success over the course of four decades as a songwriter, producer, and performer, Steve Tyrell confidently builds his musical dream in 1999 with "A New Standard" -- his Atlantic Records debut.
Beginning with a simple love of the tune and a rich, soothing voice, Tyrell brings engaging arrangements -- marked by his flair for unique phrasings -- to such notable album moments as Ray Noble's "The Very Thought Of You," the Harold Arlen/Ted Koehler tune "I've Got The World On A String," Irving Berlin's "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm," and the Billie Holiday classic "The Mood I'm In."
More than the fabric of our shared musical heritage, these seventeen stellar songs remain unrivaled in their ability to touch hearts and define the emotions that otherwise elude concise explanation. Without exception, Tyrell delivers the material with a sense for the original sentiment behind each song while rejecting any impulse to dress them up in the well-worn suit of nostalgia. After all, timeless doesn't necessarily mean dusty.
Tyrell -- the author behind such pop hits as the chart-topping "How Do You Talk To An Angel" and producer of Linda Ronstadt's Grammy-winning "Don't Know Much" (a duet with Aaron Neville) and "Somewhere Out There" (a duet with James Ingram) singles -- approached the project as an outgrowth of his standards recordings for the popular Charles Shyer-directed Father Of The Bride movies.
Reflecting Tyrell's reverence for the material and its origins, "A New Standard" features performances from the legendary likes of the late Harry "Sweets" Edison, best known for his work with Count Basie, Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday; "Toots" Thielemans, a pioneer in jazz harmonica; famed big band drummer/composer Louie Bellson, much touted for his key role in the stand-out bands of Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Harry James, and Duke Ellington; horn player Clark Terry, celebrated for his work with Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Oscar Peterson and the Tonight Show Orchestra; bop trombone hero Bill Watrous, who has played with Quincy Jones, Kal Winding, Maynard Ferguson, and Woody Herman; and Plas Johnson, the tenor sax great who made The Pink Panther soundtrack so unforgettable while performing with the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, the Beach Boys, and Frank Zappa.
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Who I Want to Meet:
"My Life"
"I've always considered myself a song man," says Tyrell.
Self-financed prior to its coming to Atlantic, the album was one that Tyrell had long been encouraged to make by friends, family, business associates, and total strangers. As an artist used to working on the the other side of the studio glass and generally behind the scenes, Tyrell was taken aback by the positive outpouring that followed his high-profile performances on 1991's Father Of The Bride remake -- with "The Way You Look Tonight" -- and 1995's Father Of The Bride, Part II, with "Give Me The Simple Life" and "On The Sunny Side Of The Street."
"I wasn't looking to make a solo record and wasn't out for some pure ego trip," says Tyrell, whose three Father of The Bride tracks are also included on "A New Standard." "It was nice to have so many people calling about the work I've done on those films but it didn't seem like enough to build a whole album around." Then came the fortuitous encounter....
"I was running in the park in Sherman Oaks and - by pure chance -- I ran into Louie Bellson," says Tyrell, a Houston native who now makes his home in the Los Angeles area. "Louie is a legend, one of the great drummers of all time. We got to talking and eventually I played him some of the Father Of The Bride stuff I'd done. He told me he loved it and genuinely encouraged me to do this record." With that inspiration struck.
"I started asking Louie about some of my heroes from that era, y'know the ones that played his music in the first place. If I could, I wanted to track down those guys, the incredible soloists from the day, and see if they'd be willing to play on the album."
What Tyrell had previously regarded as a project without a real heartbeat had suddenly found a racing pulse. Along with his wife, partner, and album co-producer, Stephanie, Steve began researching material and rocking the phones to track down the right players to bring the record to life.
"I thought, if I could get the original performers from some of my favorite standards, then that would make the record truly special," says Tyrell. "I thought, if I record 'A Kiss To Build A Dream On,' which is a Louis Armstrong classic, who the hell's going to play the trumpet solo? It's got to be somebody from that era, right? And the only person in my mind that could really play that solo was Clark Terry. After all, 'Pops' Armstrong - as he'd call him - was Clark's mentor."
Tyrell went ahead and recorded "A Kiss to Build a Dream On" to near completion, with space only for a horn solo, and sent it off to Clark Terry. In tracking the Sinatra classic 'I've Got The World On A String,' Steve likewise decided to seek out the incomparable horn player Harry "Sweets" Edison to handle that song's solo. It was the legendary Edison who was featured on so many of Sinatra's most-famous recordings and was always right there on stage with him.
After locating Edison and completing the number - sans solo - he similarly dropped a tape in the mail. It wasn't long before things began to move.
"I was in the studio with Joe Sample and Bob Mann at the time," recalls Tyrell. "We were trying to figure out this Duke Ellington song, 'Don't Get Around Much Anymore,' and Joe gets this idea. He says, 'Well shit, we've got both Ellington and Basie's trumpet players here -- let's just take this Ellington tune and put it in a kind of Basie bag, y'know.As it turned out, both 'Sweets' and Clark played on the track for us and it became a kind of historic recording. With that song and those guys - yeah, there was a lot of history going on. Clark told me he played that song the first time it had ever been played."
The End.
Performances:
November 1, 2008, 8:00pm
Bergen PAC
30 North Van Brunt Street Englewood, NJ
(201) 227-1030
November 4, 2008,
Cafe Carlyle
35 East 76th Street New York, NY
(212) 744-1600
Cafe Carlyle
Nov 4th through Jan 2nd
two shows per night
35 East 76th Street
New York, NY 10021
T: 212.744.1600
February, 5 2009 08:30 PM - Catalina’s Bar & Grill Jazz Club
, Hollywood, California -
My New Album "Back To Bacharach"
Order Now.
Or Go To My Website:
www.stevetyrell.com
And In Myspace:
www.myspace.com/stevetyrell
"I'm too handsome to do paperwork "
"ALEX: "So, O'Malley, how did that happen?"
CALLIE: "Hmm, so you're a surgeon, how did that happen?" "
"Lois: I think I died and went to heaven.
Clark: Well I'm glad you're back. "
  View the complete Steve Tyrell tour schedule
Don't Forget to go to my website..
Website: www.stevetyrell.com
Myspace: www.myspace.com/stevetyrell
Friendster: www.friendster.com/stevetyrell
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