Temperton, Q, Swedien & MJ, along with Phillinganes and crew did a Donna Summer album(titled Donna Summer). It didn't sell much at all, but it's the rarest of all there work, and it's great great stuff....technically.

Reading the list of musicians, singers and guest artists on that album looks like a Rock & Roll HOF dinner guest list. Take a gander

WHOA! No kidding! I have to hear that record? What kind of a budget allows you to involve all those people? Why does a record need a Phillingaines, Porcaro, Grusin, Paich AND Matthieson. And why not have a choir that includes Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen and MJ. L.A. used to be a crazy place!

look at this guys #1's... get your calculator

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson_singles_discography#Collaborations_and_other_releases

The entire clip is hella cool, but at 4:20 there's a brief clip of that amazing chior recording. Q, Brucie, and co

Arranged by David Foster.

The man's a miracle worker.

Not everyone can make an Habenero pepper taste like oatmeal.

Lots of good stuff on the MJ albums. I tend to buy Dangerous in the upcoming days. Not as impressive as Off The Wall, Thriller and Bad at the time, but for a trip down memory lane (my teens) it could be suitable. And I liked Black Or White even back then: great synth bass part, nice rhythm track.

There's some serious groovin' on Bad as well. I always had the impression that Bad is a bit underrated. The Way You Make Me Feel, Speed Demon (sick horns! like the synth string line towards the end), Another Part Of Me, Man In The Mirror (synth bass indeed), Smooth Criminal and Leave Me Alone, all great tracks. I like Liberian Girl as well. Just Good Friends and I Just Can't... are less favourite for me, but not 'Bad' at all (excuse the pun).

Off The Wall, great track... Wanna Be Startin' Something, wow. Well, there's lots to (re)listen, that's for sure.

I was listening to Anita Baker's "Compositions" CD quite some time ago. I heard this fantastic piano player. I had to play that CD over and over and over again.

It turned out to be Phillinganes.

WOW.

I've long loved Michael Jackson's music. Rock With You was my first favorite of his, and then pretty much the entire Thriller album when it came out. Crazy talent that guy had.

Phillinganes rig while with toto

http://www.toto99.com/features/equipmentgreg.shtml

note:yamaha logos covered... korg not

Oh, Phillinganes is a monster. Our friendly moderator dB and I, long ago, had him wander into our booth at a trade show and proceed to jam for awhile. "Sick" doesn't begin to describe it. And, in what seems like a really unfair aspect of life, he was also a complete gentleman and fun guy to be around. It seems that one shouldn't be both extraordinarily talented AND be a terrific person, but he is.

I bought this album specifically for his piano work knowing it would blow me away, and it did.

Favorite keyboard parts in MJ's songs:

Human Nature
PYT
Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough
Rock With You
ABC (ok, this is actually Jackson 5 but still...)

Not sure why you felt it necessary to point this out: Greg is a Korg Endorsee, not a Yamaha Endorsee; this is standard practice.

I would guess that the Motif ES8 that he had early in the tour had David Paich's programs in it, while Greg and his guys worked on getting the Toto performances set up in the OASYS that he did the remainder of the tour with. It might have even been David's.

I didn't know that the "organ" solo in Bad was played by Jimmy Smith. That's surprising, since nothing about that solo stands out to me. It's pretty underwhelming, really. Not that it's "bad" (play on words!), but to point where I'm wondering why they would see the need to go out get someone of Jimmy's caliber for that part. It's also surprising that Jimmy, purist that he was, would play a synth organ solo to begin with. Just odd all around.

Not really a keyboard part per se, but for some reason I always really dug those sort of Flight of the Bumblebee-ish chromatic strings on the intro to Don't Stop Till You Get Enough.

I remember a Keyboard Mag interview with Jimmy Smith where they asked him about that organ solo, and he refused to even talk about it. I don't remember why, but he was clearly not happy with how it came out. If anyone else can recall the details, please fill in what I've left out.

I'd be willing to bet that he laid down a slamming solo in the studio, but they ended up just chopping out the first 10 seconds or so for the song. That's what it sounds like to me any way. It's extremely short. It kinda sounds like he's just getting started up, and then bam, it's over. That's just a guess on my part though. Old school guys like Jimmy generally don't look too kindly on studio editing.

I remember reading somewhere that Smith tracked it on a midified B3 and that the sound (and pitch-bend) we hear on the album were done in post-production. I can imagine a slightly distorted B3 wasn't the hippest sound in '87.

Re: synth parts, I love the synth comp on "Baby Be Mine". "P.Y.T." is also one of my favorites. The synth bass and the rest of the keys on "Man In The Mirror" are sick, and "Human Nature" is just off the charts.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE5601BS20090701

incredible...

Not surprizing in the least bit.

I've heard it mentioned that Hendrix's estate is worth 500 million. You can just imagine the sales numbers alone for the king of pop music.


Regarding great keyboard parts, after reading this thread, I must say that from all the tunes mentioned, the synth bass from 'PYT' and the piano from 'ABC' won't leave my head. So I'll count those 2 as my favs so far.

As a teenager, I can remember listening to "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" in between 2 stereo speakers. Talk about mesmerized! Everything from the panning of the vocals(He-Haw!) to the 3D-like stereo field of the strings, horns and the backing vocals had a hypnotic effect on me, the same with "Billy Jean".

The synths in "Human Nature" still amazes me to this day. It's a terrific song all it's own, but the lush strings and the smooth synth arpeggios at the beginning of each verse are just plain brilliant, a huge departure from your typical pop song. But then again, so is most of Thriller. I absolutely love what Teddy Riley did with "Remember The Time", with that New Jack Swing groove. Nasty synth work

I did a show with a Nashville based blues act called the Stacy Mitchhart Band. They came out and did Big Boss Man. They sang it over the riff from Billie Jean.

When you listen to the old BB King version it is very close.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJRshdNugEA

I didn't know Michael Jackson listened to blues.

I'm surprised no one's yet mentioned how great the rhodes on Rock With You is. That's always been one of my favs and a part I often use to test out rhodes patches on keyboards. If I remember correctly that was tracked by Philangaines as well.

And I imagine that there are a lot of things we didn't know about Michael Jackson.

...Just sayin'.

Your right your right. To me it's not just the rhodes thats great, its the freaking awesome fact that the chords go where they do, with that surprise Db sus! But the lead is the winner for me as far cool parts go on that song.

Also the quirky lead that comes in after the bridge and before the keychange. MMMM!

OH YEAH!!!!! That Dbsus just opens up man makes me fall on my ass everytime.

Love that quirky lead as well, especially after the bridge. Just thought the rhodes was too often overlooked.

What sound was that? That lead sound as well as the Rhodes made put this song in my top 4 MJ keyboard part list. And it's probably the same Rhodes, I'm guessing, used in another top 4 pick of mine - Off The Wall.

I've also wondered about the equally quirky lead at the end of PYT.

The Rock With you lead is probably some kind of mono synth, ie Minimoog or ARP 2600. Then again, Q and his crack staff must have been using the days latest technology so maybe a Yamaha CS-80, Prophet-V? I'm not familiar enough with those old synths to be able to discern their subtle characteristics.

The lead at the end of PYT, if it's the same one I think (there's so much shit going on those tracks) sounds to me like either a Talk Box or Vocoder. This is the part Kanye West sampled I believe.

Mono synth/french horn combo.

I'm guessing it's the Prophet v since it's been said one was on the session, and that french might have been doubled with a flugel horn if weve learned anything from Quincy J.

It cannot be overstated that MJ songs were produced by A-list musos. Talented people committed to making music.

The best songs were not created in sessions with one muso and a room full of KBs, drum machines, samplers, etc.

That came later with folks like Teddy Riley and Rodney Jerkins who are bad mofos in their own right.

Still, it was a collective effort to come up with the great parts mentioned here in addition to recording expertise.

Cats like Greg Phillinganes played the parts but other ultra-bad musos provided a nice foundation for him to lay the carpet.

Based on things I've seen, or even stories I've heard from various engineers along the way.. My production motto has always been..

The best records come from a room full of people.