Famed for his late eighties, early nineties remix and production work for Madonna and other major league pop stars, Pettibone's early origins lie in hip hop. Together with Arthur Baker he was behind Afrika Bambaata & The Jazzy Five's groundbreaking 'Jazzy Sensation'. He also pioneered the 'mastermixes' of Kiss FM Radio, introducing a new methodology by segueing records to build 'sequences', almost like movements in classical music. It was a parallel development to hip hop's scratching and DJ innovations, which were undoubtedly an ungoing influence. 1982-1983 saw Shep moving into another musical area, reviving the sounds of people like Loleatta Holloway, Rochelle Fleming and Jocely Brown to great success, which ensured his status as an in-demand mixer for large budget studio sessions.
In 1981, he gave Tony Humphries radio access on New York's Kiss FM, after hearing the latter's demo cassette.
Tom Moulton in an interview by Claes Widlund:
Claes Widlund: Cool! So, when talking about Salsoul... You told me earlier about when you mixed First Choice's "Dr.Love" in 1977. But then SalSoul had Shep Pettibone remix it in 1982.
Tom Moulton:"Yes, which was dreadful...
Claes Widlund: Yeah. That was actually my next question, but what did you think about that?
Tom Moulton"Well, I don't know Shep... I had signed a exclusive deal with Casablanca so I couldn't work for Salsoul any more. And I know when Shep wanted to do it, somebody said to me "Won't you get offended?" I said "No, I wish him all the luck in the world." 'Cause I know it would be a nightmare for him to do."
Claes Widlund: Because I love your mix of it and I don't like Shep's mix of it. But how did that make you feel when somebody told you - he is going to remix this or when you heard the result?
Tom Moulton: "It didn't bother me, I just said "Boy, these guys really like punishing themselves." 'Cause I know how difficult it is. I knew that they were gonna try to add things - they wanted to be able to have synther code on there and things like that. In the days I was mixing we were just starting to do that, but I still didn't - I still used the real musicians. I didn't use anything like that. So there was no synther code on it anyway."
<Full Interview>
From: "bruce baron"
To: jahsonic@yahoo.com
Subject: Unreleased Madonna Songs with Shep Pettibone - Article Link
Date: Wed, 09 Feb 2000 10:10:59 PST
Hello,
Found your great site on Shep Pettibone. Thought I would send you a link to an article of mine that mentions some unreleased
Madonna/Pettibone productions from the "Erotica" and "Bedtime Stories" albums. - ENJOY
For a transcription of my July'99 article in Goldmine Magazine on
Unreleased Madonna Songs, travel to:
excerpts from interview by Steven Harvey in Collusion magazine, 1983:
Shep Pettibone [in Collusion magazine 1983?]: " [...] strangely enough, all these computer records started after "Thanks To You". It was kind of like that computer sound within a black vein.
Steven Harvey: "Thanks to You and "Don't Make Me Wait" came out and started the whole dub thing in disco.
Shep Pettibone: "Peech Boys started that - like what are the handclaps doing? You never heard handclaps used. Not always - Witch Queen was one group to use wild handclaps. It was a sense of dub. Now what seems to creat excitement is "Planet Rock" type music is the dub factor. If you just let the record sit through all the way it would be a bore.
Steven Harvey: If you're a mix conscious producer you can do what the Peech boys are trying to do with Larry Levan - use the mixing board as a sixth instrument in the recording process.
Shep Pettibone: There are a lot of producers out there thinking that way now. I think the one who really started was Arthur Baker The first record he ever did, I worked on.
Steven Harvey: "Jazzy Sensation"
Shep Pettibone: A big garage record. It was the beginning of that sound. There weren't any records that sounded like Kraftwerk, except Kraftwerk.
