Producer’s Chair: Master Percussionist Bashiri Johnson Explores Global Soul with Anjali

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN: Role reversal can be a beautiful thing in the music world. When world-class musicians step out of the live room and into the producer’s chair, the possibilities are tantalizing.

All-world percussionist Bashiri Johnson produces from his Brooklyn HQ.

One of the elite players of NYC experiencing this fluid situation is Bashiri Johnson, a highly sought-after percussion maestro who gets the call when it’s GOT to be right: A microsampling of his no-nonsense clientele includes James Taylor, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Angelique Kidjo, Madonna, Jay-Z, Sting, Bob Dylan, Herbie Hancock, Rancid and Black Uhuru.

Tune into the Grammy Awards or any other top-tier gala and you can count on seeing Johnson in the orchestra pit. And yes, that’s him completing the rhythm section in the riveting documentary of Michael Jackson’s final tour preparations, This Is It – need we say more?

With thousands of sessions under his belt – hundreds of which have become platinum or gold-selling recordings – Johnson has been constantly exposed to the best practices of the world’s great producers, and the lessons have stuck.

“A common thread of great production, that stands the test of time, is having a clear and an exact vision of what you’re shooting for in the project,” he says. “The road to that vision might have some twists and turns — you may have to get out of the vehicle and climb into another one – but they all have a definite vision of how that project is supposed to sound.

“I also I think a producer is someone that is able to assemble greatness and then realize it into an end result,” he continues. “They can say, ‘I need this bassist, because they give me this vibe. I need this drummer, this percussionist, this vocal team, this studio, this mixer…’ A great producer is someone who’s able to assemble all of those great elements into his pot, and then they’re the one stirring it. At the end of their process they come out with an incredibly tasty product.”

Johnson points to icons like Quincy Jones, David Foster, Gamble and Huff, Colonel Tom Parker, and George Martin as standard-setters that he actively studies. “I try to decipher and decode records. I’ll put on a Beatles record and break down specifically what the rhythm section or the vocal choir is doing, and say, ‘Why did they place the reverb only on the right, or suck out the EQ so its sounds like an AM radio?’ All of this affects the listener in a deep psychological way – all of the great producers know that, and I’m constantly studying that.”

Applying it to Anjali

The latest outlet for Johnson’s hard-earned studio lessons is the Bayside, Queens-based vocalist Artiste Anjali. Classically trained in Indian vocals, harmonium, and sitar, Anjali is emerging in the U.S. after a fast start in the world of Bollywood.

Her self-titled debut album was made in the buzzing cultural hub of Chennai, Madras India with the musicians of the extremely prolific Indian producer/composer A.R. Rahman. Working with Rahman’s drummer Sivamani, Anjali created “a bouquet of Bollywood” with the collection.

The first English language release for Anjali will be the EP Big Human, dropping on May 12th. The songs evoke the universal connectivity of Sade and the thick immersion of Portishead, interwoven with space, advanced world sounds, and often-aggressive electronic elements. Deep within are Brooklyn whispers of her earliest childhood (she was born in Bushwick), and the Latin rhythms and Soca vibes of her parents’ native Guyanna.

The sun shines on Bashiri Johnson's Park Slope studio: (l-r) Anjali, Bashiri Johnson, and Darren Moore.

In 2011 Anjali was in search of a producer for Big Human, and was directed to Johnson by mutual friend Darren Moore, one of the head engineers at midtown’s Manhattan Center complex. With his own deep roots in world soul music, Johnson and Anjali quickly clicked, then got to work refining her adventurous concepts into full-fledged songs.

“Having such a great experience producing an album with a drummer lead me to the door of Bashiri Johnson for my second offering,” Anjali explains. “I knew my second album had to be a crossover project. I wanted to communicate with the entire universe.

“I had recently met Darren Moore from the Manhattan Center and his exact words were… ‘He’s the best I know.’ Bashiri was right for this EP because I wanted to capture something classic — I wanted these records to stand the test of time. Timeless music is hard to create.  One has to be so open and honest. These qualities of his, to be true, is what I admired the most. His work is also visually stimulating and I am always directing the video in my head.”

The pair started out in Johnson’s personal studio in Park Slope, a well-equipped artist’s haven overlooking Prospect Park. “She came in with different sketches,” he says, “but many of them weren’t complete songs. I’m good at putting the frame around the sketch so it can exist as one piece of work. Take a song like ‘No Need,’ which is a rock/power pop song. When she came to my studio and first performed it for me, it was an almost mystical, slow lullabye at first.

“I said, ‘This is the way we should look at it’ – we gave it a power pop groove, I showed her how I thought she should sing it, and that’s when the song came alive and made sense. My strength is in helping an artist to realize a vision which is under construction. I’m kind of a good contractor who can see what the final work will look like.”

Running Pro Tools 9 and equipped with Neve mic pres, mics like a Neumann U-87, Microtech Gefell M-92 Tube mic, various Audix and Sennheiser mics, an array of soft synths and – of course – percussion instruments galore, Johnson’s studio space is ideal for songwriting, as well as the numerous TV, film, commercial and video game projects that he works on.

But even though he has the front end and expertise to capture a perfectly clean vocal in Brooklyn, Johnson felt it was important to book Anjali into Manhattan Center’s Neve VR72-equipped Studio 4 for lead vocal tracking. Teaming up inside the environs of “The Log Cabin,” Johnson and Moore took advantage of more than just the superior acoustics in the sizable live room.

“If you give the artist the sense that they’re in a million-dollar facility, then they feel they have to give a million-dollar performance,” he observes. “If they’re in an indie studio, they may feel they only have to give an indie studio-performance. But at a room like Manhattan Center’s Studio 4, they’re more likely to say, ‘I have to dig deep here, because the Empire State Building is right outside the window.’”

Preview the entrancing first single from Big Human, “Lali Lai” right here:

“Lali Lai” by Anjali

Staying in the Lane

With Johnson’s intergalactic expertise as a percussionist, you’d expect to hear djembes, shekeres, cajons, and gourds galore beefing up the rhythms in Anjali’s Big Human EP – and you’d be wrong. Many of the songs highlight the singer’s uniquely intense vocals with a lean-and-mean electronic backdrop, noticeably absent of the bells and whistles that Johnson could have easily provided.

The Studio 4 "Log Cabin" at Manhttan Center was where everybody upped the ante.

“I looked at the project from a production standpoint, as opposed to looking at it as a musician with an opportunity to groove on someone’s record,” says Johnson. “I had to utilize some restraint and discipline, and not make it an Anjali-and-Bashiri record, because the hat I was wearing was the production hat.”

Johnson’s ability to strike that balance between ace musician and music producer is a key achievement. Its one that numerous studio pros must master as superstar sessions become further and farther between, and the players adapt by making themselves available as producers for the next round of ambitious artists.

“In my tradition this is how music is passed down, through the guru/student relationship,” Anjali reflects on the experience of making Big Human. “Someone who was in the presence of greats like Michael (Jackson) and Whitney regularly was enough for me! I took every minute with Bashiri to learn how he would arrange and choose sounds and tones. I wrote the melodies and lyrics to the material and he made them come to life.

“I learned above all else that it takes the right ‘performance’ of the song, delivered with the right emotion and honesty, that makes a record. Bash made sure we were ready for it when it came, and always urged me to go deeper into my emotions to find the right expressions for things.”

Start Again — Again

Applying his wisdom to producing is a natural thread in Johnson’s career fabric, which also includes musical mobile app design, master classes, and motivational speaking for people in creative fields.

Anjali's "Big Human" arrives on May 12th

“The challenge for me is daily reinvention – we have to constantly recreate, reinvent and redesign our careers, our services, our roles, our revenue streams and our voice,” Johnson confirms. “Sometimes that can be frustrating. Change is constant and you have to keep up with it on a daily basis. But I like that fact that the playing field has been leveled, and that everyone who has amazing talent can get on that playing field today.”

With a discography that starts in 1977, Bashiri Johnson’s experienced ears have heard the changes washing over music as so much of its creation and production goes inside the box. He can program with the best of ‘em, but Johnson also emphasizes maintaining natural components as sound marches forward.

“I think that as long as we continue to include organic performances in all of our music, then our music will be relevant, and we will get a following who want to consume that music,” he says. “When we keep human interaction and live performance in the mix, people really feel that.”

— David Weiss

Experience a remix from Artiste Anjali’s Big Human:

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