LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Veteran record producer Joel Dorn, who worked with such artists as Roberta Flack, Max Roach and the Neville Brothers, died of a heart attack on Monday in New York. He was 65.
Dorn, a one-time disc-jockey at a Philadelphia jazz radio station, was perhaps
best known for his work with Atlantic Records’ prestigious jazz stable between 1967 and 1974. Working alongside the label’s jazz chief, Nesuhi Ertegun, he brought a pop sensibility to works by musicians such as Roach, Herbie Mann, Les McCann and Eddie Harris, Mose Allison and Rahsaan Roland Kirk.Dorn once said his two biggest influences were songwriting duo Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, and producer Phil Spector.
“To this day before I go in and make a record, I’ll throw on ‘Be My Baby’ or a Coasters record,” he said. In the pop field, he helped set Bette Midler and Flack on the course to stardom, producing their debut albums. He and Flack won consecutive record of the year Grammys, for “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” (1972) and “Killing Me Softly With His Song” (1973). MORE
THE FUGEES: Killing Me Softly