Two top-notch studio professionals dropped by Berklee to give guest artist clinics in the waning weeks of the fall 1997 semester. More than one hundred Berklee students crammed into Studio B to hear career highlights and hints from great rock engineer/producer Eddie Kramer. The veteran studio master, who has engineered and/or produced albums for Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, David Bowie, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Curtis Mayfield, and Blind Melon, among many others, spent most of his clinic discussing his work on several Jimi Hendrix recording sessions. "Working with Hendrix is a big deal but you just get into the moment," Kramer remembered. "Sometimes Jimi would say something to me like, 'Hey, make the guitar sound green, man.'"
Kramer lamented about certain aspects of the music industry. "What we used to do for love of it is now big business...market research is killing us." Kramer's chief advice to students was to "think about how you can remodel yourself. If you can't get a job as a studio engineer, take a left-hand turn. Go into radio, TV, get some experience when you're young."
 In late November, bassist/producer Steve Rodby gave a clinic covering his broad perspectives on music, including producing, performing, recording, and business aspects. Rodby has been the bassist with the Pat Metheny Group for the past 15 years and has been coproducer of many of the group's recordings, including LETTER FROM HOME, STILL LIFE (TALKING) and SECRET STORY. During the clinic, Rodby told students in great detail about his role as the Metheny Group's coproducer, focusing on his work on the group's most recent release, IMAGINARY DAY. Rodby's production roles with the group range from producing inidvidual instrumental parts to acting as a catalyst in the writing process for the group's two main writers, Metheny and keyboardist Lyle Mays. After spending the afternoon with Berklee students, Rodby joined the Pat Metheny Group onstage for a performance at the Orpheum Theater, in downtown Boston.
Award-Winning Songwriting Team also Gives Clinics
The songs of Alan and Marilyn Bergman have earned a pile of accolades, including Grammys, Emmys, Golden Globes and Academy awards. But when the pair visited Berklee in December to give a series of clinics, they surprised two Songwriting students by giving away some awards of their own.
The Bergmans granted $1,000 scholarships to Andrea Debe and Phil Dubnick, two student songwriters whose songs were critiqued by the Bergmans during a master class at Berklee. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) gave the $2,000 to the Bergmans as a clinician stipend for their Berklee visit, and the lyric-writing team decided instead to give the money to the talented students.
During three clinics over two days, the Bergmans touched on a range of topics, including approaches to writing lyrics, composing collaboratively and writing for film. The master class gave students an opportunity to play their songs for the Bergmans and receive constructive criticism. After listening to the student compositions, the Bergmans debated with students and teachers about the merits of rhyming lyrics and other issues related to songwriting.
Among the many awards the Bergmans have won are Oscars for "The Windmills of Your Mind," "The Way We Were," and the score for "Yentl." They have been nominated for 15 Academy awards. Their long list of television credits includes the theme songs for "Maude," "Good Times," "Alice" and "Brooklyn Bridge."
Other late-semester clinicians included West African drummer and dancer Emmanuel Agbeli and trumpeter/arranger/educator Don Sickler, who gave a lecture entitled "The Business of Jazz Publishing."
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