The Long and Winding Road – in memory of Sir George Martin

Since I was a kid, much before I knew I wanted to be a producer, and probably much before I knew what a producer is, I wanted to be George Martin. I didn’t know exactly what he did, or how he did it, but I understood it was him that made my favorite Beatles songs sound so special. As I got a bit older, I started understanding why it was George Martin I wanted to be – it was the combination of great theoretical and technical knowledge, with keen artistic bravery, in an otherwise commercial popular music world, that made his character so interesting to me. The fact that he took the most popular rock band in the world and super-imposed chamber orchestras, brass bands, and indian flavors on their simple and communicative songwriting, all the while utilizing classical counter-point arrangement, jazz and marching band riffs, and oriental sounds and nuances, was groundbreaking at the time, but sir George did it so well, that today we take it for granted.

So here is for sir George, the first cross-genre, multi-cultural producer, who paved the way for all of us, and will continue to give inspiration for many to come.. a small sketch, recorded whilst traveling many long winding, and lonely roads, in a great world of beautiful music. He will be dearly missed.

And one other small historical gesture: a hundred years on, and we’re still rising, a modest tribute to the homeland, with a small harmony exercise I did for “The town I loved so well”