Nile Rodgers

DDW: the united memory of all the fans

Nile Gregory Rodgers (born September 19 1952 in New York City) is a prolific and influential musician, composer, arranger, guitarist and music producer, and co-founding member of the seminal multi-platinum hit R&B band Chic, with the late Bernard Edwards.

[edit] Chic

Rodgers began his career as a session guitarist in New York, playing with the Sesame Street band in his teens, and then working in the house band at Harlem's renowned Apollo Theater, backing artists like Aretha Franklin, Ben E. King, Nancy Wilson, and Parliament Funkadelic.

He met bassist Bernard Edwards in 1970. They formed a rock band called The Boys (later known as the Big Apple Band) but had trouble convincing record companies that black artists could play "rock". In 1977 Rodgers and Edwards joined forces with drummer Tony Thompson to form the funk/R&B band Chic, and went on to score numerous top ten hits and helped propel disco to new levels of popularity. Their songs Everybody Dance", "Le Freak and Good Times remain among the most sampled songs of the late 1970s/early 1980s R&B era. Chic dissolved in 1983.

He formed the short-lived experimental band Outloud in 1987, and reunited with Chic from 1992 t0 1996.

[edit] Duran Duran

Duran Duran worked extensively with Rodgers after he produced the hit single, "The Reflex" in 1983 and followed up with "The Wild Boys" for inclusion on their 1984 live album Arena. He worked with members John Taylor and Andy Taylor on their side project Power Station in 1985, which produced two hit singles.

In 1986, he produced the entirety of Duran Duran's Notorious album, which yielded a #2 title track hit. During a live set, Simon Le Bon introduced Rodgers to Skin Trade, saying "Well, this band went through a difficult time [during Notorious]. The band might not have made it if it weren't for this gentleman..." He contributed to numerous other projects and appearances with members of the band throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and in 2002-2003 helped to produce Astronaut, the new album by the original five members of the band.

[edit] Production

After Chic's demise, Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers began doing record production, sometimes together, sometimes apart. In the 1970s and 1980s Rodgers and Edwards produced, wrote, and performed with the band Sister Sledge, Diana Ross, Deborah Harry, David Bowie, and Madonna. In the 1990s and 2000s he has worked with Joss Stone, Britney Spears, the Shapeshifters, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Eric Clapton, among many others.

In 1998, Rodgers founded Sumthing Distribution, the largest African-American owned independent music label distribution company in America. Sumthing currently focuses on the distribution in a fast-growing new genre: video game soundtracks.

Rodgers has received a Lifetime Achievement Award and a Heroes Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, and has been inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame.

[edit] References

• Eslea, Daryl. Everybody Dance: Chic and the Politics of Disco, Helter Skelter Publishing (24 Oct 2004), ISBN 1-900924-56-0

[edit] External links

• Official Site
• Sumthing Distribution
• We Are Family Foundation
• chictribute.com
• Collected Facts
• Amanyara

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Nile Rodgers. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with the Duran Duran Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.