“Relatively few people today appreciate the talents of the late Jan Berry, a gifted composer, producer, and arranger whose musical vision guided all of Jan & Dean’s 1959-66 recordings . . . Rather than revisit Jan & Dean’s biggest hits, Parkes and Moore decided to dig deeper into the dynamic duo’s catalog as well as [...]
Jan Berry Encomium In Memorian Vol. 1 (CMP) This loving tribute was originally dreamed of as a collaboration between Berry and enough strings and brass and musical geniuses to give his complex arrangements of classic Jan & Dean hits, many that Berry based on classical music, the full orchestral treatment they deserved. Berry’s passing and [...]
GOLDMINEMAG.COM How strange it is that it takes a tribute album, of all things, to reveal the true artistry of Jan Berry, a primary architect of the West Coast sound who just may have been Brian Wilson’s equal as a songwriter and arranger. The funny little ditties about little old ladies, cars, girls and superheroes [...]
LUXURIAMUSIC.COM On March 18, 2009, producer Gene Sculatti spun a couple of cuts from Encomium on his radio show, Atomic Cocktail (Vic Tripp). The songs were “Ace of Hearts” and “Fan Tan.” But let’s step back and remember that Gene was writing about Jan Berry and Jan & Dean in the early ’70s. During the [...]
ARTIEKORNFELD-WOODSTOCK.COM “I will probably call 32 times today. The Jan Tribute made a tear or two come to these eyes that have seen soooo much.” Artie Kornfeld Co-Writer of “Dead Man’s Curve” 2009 is a big year for our friend, Artie. It’s the 40th Anniversary of Woodstock, and a number of projects are in the [...]
GENESCULATTI.COM — DJ Gene Sculatti (Vic Tripp) will play a track from Encomium on his radio show Atomic Cocktail — from Luxuriamusic.com. Wednesday, March 18, 2009 6:00-7:00 p.m. (Pacific) . . . 9:00-10:00 p.m. (Eastern). Tune in online . . . Gene is a rock journalist and veteran writer for Mojo, Crawdaddy, Creem, and the [...]
DR. DON ALTFELD “I spent hours and hours listening to your masterpiece [Encomium] . . . and want you to be certain that I really appreciated what you’ve done to honor Jan. Hearing those songs really took me back to the days . . . and you should be really proud of the excellent job [...]
THETIMEMACHINE.FM — Hau’oli Makahiki Hou ! Air talent Michael McCartney has been spinning Encomium from the Paradise of Hawaii. So far, he’s aired “She’s My Summer Girl,” “Anaheim, Azusa” (Tripsitter), “I Found A Girl,” “Ace of Hearts” (Vic Diaz of the Matadors), and “It’s As Easy As 1, 2, 3″ (Lisa Mychols). Says Michael: “Those [...]
SHINDIG-MAGAZINE.COM — The current print edition of Shindig! magazine (January-February 2009) features a half-page piece on Encomium. It’s a review of the album followed by Pat Curran’s Q&A with co-producer Mark Moore. Shindig! is published in the UK (London, England), and is available in the U.S. via Barnes & Noble bookstores. — Here it is [...]
SHINDIG-MAGAZINE.COM Produced by Jan Berry’s biographer Mark A. Moore and Cameron Michael Parkes and featuring a plethora of Jan and Dean cohorts like PF Sloan, Vic Diaz (Matadors), Jill Gibson, Mike Deasy, David Marks, Don Grady (Yellow Balloon) and Probyn Gregory (Brian Wilson band) and Lisa Mychols this is a wonderful tribute to the late [...]