Mad Professor Explained

Mad Professor
Birth Name:Neil Joseph Stephen Fraser
Birth Date:1955 3, df=yes
Birth Place:Georgetown, Guyana
Occupation:Record producer, engineer
Genre:Dub, reggae, jungle
Years Active:1979–present
Label:Ariwa
Background:non_performing_personnel

Neil Joseph Stephen Fraser (born 27 March 1955, Georgetown, Guyana) known by his stage-name Mad Professor, is a British dub music producer, engineer and remixer.[1] He has collaborated with reggae artists Lee "Scratch" Perry, Sly and Robbie, Pato Banton, Jah Shaka and Horace Andy, as well as artists outside the realm of traditional reggae and dub, such as Sade, Massive Attack, The Orb, Gaudi, the Brazilian DJ Marcelinho da Lua, Grace Jones, and Perry Farrell.

Early life

Fraser became known as Mad Professor as a boy due to his fascination with electronics. He emigrated from Guyana to London at the age of 13 and later began his music career as a service technician. He gradually collected recording and mixing equipment, and in 1979 opened his own four-track recording studio, Ariwa Sounds, in the living room of his home in Thornton Heath.[2]

Career

Fraser began recording lovers rock bands and vocalists for his own label (including the debut recording by Deborahe Glasgow) and recorded his first album after moving the studio to a new location in Peckham in 1982, equipped with an eight-track setup, later expanding to sixteen. Fraser's Dub Me Crazy series of albums won the support of John Peel, who regularly aired tracks from the albums. Although early releases were not big sellers among reggae buyers, the mid-1980s saw this change with releases from Sandra Cross (Country Life), Johnny Clarke, Peter Culture, Pato Banton, and Macka B (Sign of the Times). Fraser moved again, this time to South Norwood, where he set up what was the largest black-owned studio complex in the UK, where he recorded lovers rock tracks by Cross, John McLean, and Kofi, and attracted Jamaican artists including Bob Andy and Faybiene Miranda. He teamed up with Lee "Scratch" Perry for the first time in 1983 for the recording of the album Mystic Warrior (1989).[3]

Recordings

Mad Professor has created 12 instalments of the Dub Me Crazy series and 5 albums under the Black Liberation Dub banner. The following is a partial discography of his original releases including collaborations with other artists and remixes.

Original recordings

Dub Me Crazy series

Black Liberation series

Dub You Crazy With Love Series

Collaborations

With Lee "Scratch" Perry

With other artists

Remixes

Since the 1990s he has remixed tracks by Sade, The Orb, The KLF, Beastie Boys, Jamiroquai, Rancid, Depeche Mode, Perry Farrell and Japanese pop singer Ayumi Hamasaki. In 1995 he produced No Protection, an electronic dub version of Massive Attack's second album, Protection. He has also created a version of I&I for New Zealand reggae band Katchafire, three versions for New Zealand electronic group Salmonella Dub and twelve remixes for Japanese musician Ayumi Hamasaki.

A second remix album with Massive Attack is slated for release in 2018

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug07/articles/madprofessor.htm Mad Professor Interview – Sound On Sound magazine (UK)
  2. Larkin, Colin (1998) The Virgin Encyclopedia of Reggae, Virgin Books,, p.13-14
  3. Huey, Steve "[{{Allmusic|class=artist|id=p2906/biography|pure_url=yes}} Mad Professor Biography]", AllMusic, Macrovision Corporation
  4. Web site: Jah9 – Mad Professor Meets Jah9 - In The Midst Of The Storm. 8 September 2017 . Discogs.
  5. Web site: Soul Coughing - Sugar Free Jazz. Discogs. 13 December 1995 .

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