David Axelrod was born in Los Angeles on April 17, 1936. His first break-through came in 1959, with the release of Harold Land's "The Fox."
Largely self-taught in classical music, he began producing records for several small-time soul and jazz labels in the mid-fifties. Generally touted as the first 'serious' jazz LP to come out of the West Coast scene, it proved a great launching pad for Axelrod's career. In 1963 he signed to Capitol Records, where he would remain until the early seventies. Arguably the most creative and prolific pha
se of his career, he produced a string of albums for some of the label's biggest stars, including Lou Rawls, Cannonball Adderley and The Electric Prunes, as well as recording several highly regarded solo albums. Although relatively obscure at the time, Alexrod's popularity has undergone somewhat of a renaissance in recent years, due, in no small part, to his music being sampled widely throughout the hip-hop community. Most notably, his piece 'The Edge' provided the backing track for Dr. Dre's hit 'The Next Episode', and such luminaries as DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist, Madlib, and many others have latched onto his music as a great source of samples for their own material. It’s not hard to see why contemporary musicians, particularly DJs, are so fond of his work. Featuring heavy back-beats, swirling, funky bass-lines, and more than a handful of fuzzed out guitar solos, Axelrod’s trademark sound presented an exercise in contrasts; frequently shifting from sparse, improvised grooves, to full orchestral arrangements within a period of seconds. Add to this incredibly tight musicianship, with a genuine fusing of funk, jazz and rock, and you’ve got a sound that was relatively unmatched in the late sixties. Legendary producer Quincy Jones is on record as saying that Song Of Innocence, Axelrod’s first solo album (1968) may well have been “the true pre-cursor to jazz / rock fusion.”
Up until recently, many of these solo albums were quite hard to come buy, and tended to fetch some pretty crazy prices whenever they surfaced. But, thanks to the resurgence of interest in recent years, most of them are now available remastered and on CD. For newcomers, Capitol Records recently released a brilliant compilation of his early work, entitled The Edge: David Axelrod at Capitol Records. It covers the most prolific part of his career; starting with two of his more memorable productions for David McCallum, through to his work with Lou Rawls and Cannonball Adderley, and features a healthy cross-section of his solo releases. If it’s full albums you’re after, either of his works based around the poetry of William Blake, Song Of Innocence and Songs Of Experience, are completely essential. For more information, check out Axelrod's official website (listed above), or the unofficial, but highly dedicated David Axelrod Information Society:
