look & listen
Here you'll find excerpts and full tracks from various interesting parts of my career, with a little bit of background to each. I have generally avoided giving examples of my Pop work because that's pretty easy to hear elsewhere. Here is stuff you probably haven't heard, unless you've spent any time in my kitchen. There is a LOT of music here because, rather than work in one style, I have worked in many (while giving each a Niles twist!) I hope you enjoy listening half as much as I enjoyed working on them!
Another Pet Shop Boys thing I enjoyed doing was "Somewhere", taking the Bernstein/Sondhiem theme from West Side Story and blending it with PSB's trademark style .
How nice it is to do a track without drums at all! I produced & arranged this Winans song, "Still In Love With You"
Although I've had my songs recorded by Ray Charles, Tina Turner, Deniece Williams, Clive Griffin and Silje Nergaard, I'm not particularly known as a songwriter, although songwriting was my primary reason for becoming a musician.
A couple of years ago I put together a project called KATALYST (vocals: Katherine Gang, Drums: Chris Dagley, White Fender Jazz Bass: Stefan Redtenbacher (of FUNKESTRA fame!) 5-String Electric Bass: Janek Gwizdala, Guitar: Richard Niles, and sax: Nigel Hitchcock). "Start Out Ending" was actually one of the first songs I wrote at the beginning of my career in 1976. Like many of my songs, it concerns the hopelessness of hope.
Another fun little tune is "Why Is This World So Strange?" It was recorded by Katherine Gang for her album of my songs entitled Laughing At Lonely (33 Records). She is accompanied by one of the most musical pianists on earth, the charming Clive Dunstall.
Last year Bob James introduced me to YOUNEE, 
a phenomenally talented pianist, composer and singer from Seoul, Korea. He had done a concert with her and recommended we work together as she was looking for a producer and co-writer. The result was the album True To You, available from CD Baby! http://cdbaby.com/cd/younee
Come see the band live at the Pizza Express Jazz Club, Dean St. London 27-29 October 2009. If you miss those gigs, we're on the following night )ct. 30th at Pizza On The Park.
A single "Home To You" was released at the end of 2008 and reached the Top 20 of the US independent radio charts.
Here's the title track "True To You"
This is an arrangement of "It's A Man's World" for Cher, produced by Steve Lipson. The lyric is rather more ironic coming from a female singer, which I tried to reflect in the arrangement.
"Shiver Me" is a composition from my 2nd guitar album, Club Deranged. I could describe the tune as Henry Mancini and Frank Zappa doing a gig at a lounge on Melrose Blvd. with the Figrin D'an Band. These are the hep-cats who play in the Mos Eisley Cantina from Star Wars (Episode IV - May The Fourths Be With You). Musicians include the versatile Danny Gotlieb on drums and the brilliant Steve Hamilton on piano. For the guitarists in the audience, my sound is created with The Wobulator, a wonderful stereo vibrato box created by some genius English guys who flatly refuse to go digital.
"Please Be Kind" arranged for Jane Monheit, one of my favorite singers! Unlike the previous tune, this shows me in a rare 'straight-ahead' jazz mode. Broadcast live by the BBC Big Band.
An arrangement I did for Kylie Minogue's world tour, a big band jazz treatment of "Better The Devil You Know". When I played it for Pete Waterman I was glad that he enjoyed it as he's had a hit or two (hundred!).
I co-wrote three songs for Ray Charles penultimate album, Strong Love Affair. This is "No Time To Waste Time". The title was something Ray used to say to his band, "C'mon guys, no time to waste time!" Instead of the phrase being about work, I wrote the lyric thinking that when you get to be as old as Ray was, you become acutely aware of the preciousness and scarcity of time.
Dylan Sings Niles
"Tame Thy Pen" is my greatest jazz 'hit'. It was in the original Real Book, and is now in the LEGAL Real Book published by those fine, hairy chested fellows at Hal Leonard! The lyric is my lament at being told to write less throughout my career. ("Shakespeare must have had the same problem...") The tune was originally written for Pat Metheny in 1974, when I was at Berklee and he was teaching there. (The title is an anagram of his name - work it out!)
I met singer/songwriter/producer Dylan Bell through Myspace. We dug each other's music and met when he was in London, producing The Swingle Singers (a long-running basically British vocal group). When I knew he was coming to London, I suggested we have a little FUN in the studio. So I did an arrangement for 6 voices. Dylan is a seriously talented fellow, and a rare commodity: HE CAN READ! Yes! Little dots on paper! The voice of an angel and the ears of an elephant! (And for ye of technical minds, he's singing 3.5 octaves on this baby! After we finished, he completely destroyed me and my talented engineer Ben Fenner by recording a vocal drumtrack! Yes, that's HIM!
The really crazy thing about Dylan is his UNCANNY resemblance to Pat Metheny (when he was about 29). His speaking voice even sounds like Pat. Having said that, there's only one of Dylan Bell. To know him is to cover him in clotted cream and have him for dessert! Let me & Dylan know what you think.
The title track from my cd "Club Deranged" was sung by my genuinely crazy friend KID CREOLE, 
a talented man who sleeps in silk monogramed pyjamas and wears a zoot suit to the Post Office. The song was to be the theme tune for an idea for a TV series set in a surrealistic night club where "lycanthropy is commonplace". Danny Gottlieb lays down a hipper hop groove while I am in uncharacteristically wah-wah mode. The sleazy organ belongs to Michael Ruff, best known for his work with Chaka Khan, Rickie Lee Jones, Bonnie Raitt and me.
BANDZILLA was formed after I arranged "Slave To The Rhythm" for Grace Jones. The idea was to modernize the big band. As International Musician & Recording World said, "Bandzilla is a 19-piece band that brings the house down wherever it plays - an exciting and exacting reassesment of a time honored musical style." Crescendo International was moved to rhapsodize about "stunning dynamics, stratospheric brass figures and cathedral-tall chords galore. Great contemporary stuff and beautifully played. Thoroughly recommended."
From the one and only album, a dangerous little tune (for the sax section!) called "Alligator Stomp"
BANDZILLA performed many live gigs featuring the dynamic vocals of Pat Kane, best known as lead singer for Hue & Cry. Here are a couple of examples of the noise we made. The first, my arrangement of "Luck Be A Lady" features fellow Scottish jazz guitarist Jim Mullen. On the gentler side, this is my arrangement of "In The Wee Small Hours of The Morning" featuring solos by Dave Bishop (Bari sax) and Gerard Presencer (trumpet) - live at London's Jazz Café.
I produced and co-wrote 3 albums for talented Norwegian singer Silje Nergaard (1990-1993). Introduced to me by Pat Metheny, we had a number one hit in Japan with the song "Tell Me Where You're Going".
One of my favorite things we recorded was on the 2nd album, a song called "What Is Bobby Doin'?". It features Michael Ruff on piano, Neal Wilkinson on drums, a burning brass section and my keyboards and guitar. The unique backing vocals were by the amazing Maryanne Morgan.
is a phenomenally gifted Scottish pianist/composer. His album Portrait of a Woman is utterly ravishing. David asked me to write string arrangements for six of the tunes and it was one of my favorite projects of last year. This tune is "Pacific Heights".
In the late 1970s I produced and arranged an album for the great guitarist Laurence Juber (who happens to be my ex-brother-in-law!) He was in Paul McCartney's WINGS at the time, and Paul asked him to do an album of songs from the MPL (McCartney Publishing Ltd.) catalogue. One of the songs we chose was Stormy Weather. I arranged it for a large orchestra with Laurence as the blues guitar soloist. I think you'll agree that this is a rather unique take on the Harold Arlen standard, recorded live at the old Air Studios with Laurence playing with his typical taste and chops against my other-worldly textures. Before the take, one of the musicians was heard to mutter in an extremely upper-class accent, "He's simply GOT to be kidding!"
My most recent productions are two very talented girls, who are both blonde, both great singers, writers and piano players! But they are quite different!
The first is NINA and here is her self-penned song, Record & Play:
The next track is from the uber rock chick Jen Armstrong, a song we co-wrote called Screw You Too:
PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK of this music. Comments, and even offers of employment are always welcome!
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