Reverb #1 - Ted Onulak

Explicit content warning

03/15/24 • 51 min

Hey cherished listeners, Tim Rose here. In case you haven’t already heard, I’m re-releasing some of my previous episodes as I have discovered that these episodes are posted in mono as opposed to stereo. So, I bit the bullet and ponied up for the stereo version. Now prepare yourself for this Tim Tunes Reverb episode in stereo!
If you missed the first time around with Ted Onulak then you missed a treat. In addition to our conversation with the irrepressible Ted, there are recordings of a few of his original songs as well as bootlegs of his band playing live at Madam’s Organ in Adams Morgan in Washington, DC where Ted and his band Exit 10 continue to play on Monday nights. I’ve combined both episode 3-2 and 3-3 into a continuous conversation. Enjoy

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5-2 Mark Baxter - Vocal Behaviorist - Part 2 - Origin

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Back in the ‘60s and early ‘70s I lived in a suburb in Maryland just over the line from Washington, DC. As it happened when we moved there in 1964, the neighborhood was largely white. Around 1969 I started forming Rock Bands with my friends. We listened to top 40 and played the songs we liked, and could play. I was only 15 at the time and was too young to play in clubs, but that would come later.

When we first moved in only about 5% of the neighborhood was non-white. Over the next 7 years the neighborhood became almost completely black. Now, I had no problem with this except that crime began to rise. I was almost mugged twice. A neighbor was shot by undercover police when he pulled out a gun as they stopped him one night, not a block from my house.

While I was away at college, my parents decided to move to a different place. Almost everyone I knew from the old neighborhood had moved away. The old neighborhood just – dissolved.

So, you’ll see why this episode speaks to me as we continue our discussion with Mark Baxter – Vocal Behaviorist as he tells us his origin story. How a kid from New Jersey winds up as one of the premier voice consultants and teachers in the world.

I’m Tim Rose and this is the Tim Tunes Podcast. This episode is Part Two of my interview with Vocal Behaviorist, Mark Baxter. If you haven’t listened to part one, I highly suggest that you do so before listening to this episode. Mark lays out his philosophy and methodology in part one. In this episode Mark will tell us about his struggles to find his path and how he developed his dream.
This is Mark's site where you can contact him and find his free voice lessons - voicelesson.com

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5-3 Yaron Gershovsky - Pianist, Composer & Band Leader

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In this episode we’ll interview Yaron Gershovsky. As bandleader for Manhattan Transfer for 44 of their 50 years, he has a treasure trove of knowledge and experience around performing and composing which he will share with us on this episode. Get ready for a fun ride as we discuss his origins, career and what’s next.
In the spring of 2006, I was in a production of the musical “City of Angels” by Cy Coleman, David Zipel and Larry Gelbart with the Burlington Players in Burlington, MA. The musical is a story about a novelist whose book is adapted into a movie and about the entire LA movie scene. As the novel is turned into a screenplay the movie moves further and further away from the novel’s original purpose and meaning. This causes a sort of schism in the mind of the novelist where he ends up having arguments with his lead character. There are lots of transitions from reality to scenes from the movie and so forth.
At any rate, I was a part of a quartet that served as kind of a chorus that commented, amplified and clarified the action of the play, as choruses do. The whole play had a sort of film noir feel about it and the music for the chorus was very challenging jazzy close harmony type singing. I noticed that the vocal arrangement was written by one Yaron Gershovsky. I was curious about this fellow, so I Googled him. Now back in 2006 Google was primarily a search engine and not the GOOGLE that it is today. But regardless, I found out that Yaron was the band leader of Manhattan Transfer. That made so much sense in the context of the sound of the arrangements.
Skip ahead to the early twenty teens. I was at Sculler’s, a jazz venue in Boston, to see Manhattan Transfer when who should I see walking down the hall toward me but Yaron himself. I introduced myself to him and told him that I had sung the Bass part in a production of “City of Angels”. In his quiet, understated way he looked at me and, I assume referring to the difficulty of the part, said, “I’m so sorry.” So began our acquaintance.

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