Christmas in St. Paul: The world premiere
In the spirit of the season, we proudly debut "Christmas in St. Paul" by Clive, Call Nigel. The band is made up of Twin Cities lawyers and bankers for whom music is a passion. The band teamed up with producer Matt Fink of Star Vu Studios in Savage, Minnesota. Fink is the former keyboard player for Prince and the Revolution. According to the band, Fink lent taste, talent, engineering expertise, a disciplined approach to recording, and jazz piano to the effort.
Steve Beck is a health lawyer at Fredrikson & Byron and the principal composer of the song. Steve writes:
I came up with the idea last year of trying to create a new song that would be a throwback to some of our favorite Christmas tunes, such as "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "The Christmas Song." These are pop songs more closely aligned with jazz than with rock or folk music. Working on a Christmas tune gave me the opportunity to write something that musically resembles a jazz standard, which comes with a whole different set of rules and expectations from the band’s usual alternative rock material. It seems to us that there is always room for another song to make the Christmas song catalog a little richer. We hope that we have created a song that people will like, but we also really want to give the song to the community. So it’s a bit like "We Are the World," but produced by regular people who live and work in the Twin Cities rather than celebrities.Steve also explains the origin of the band's name:
Several of us like to watch American Idol on TV, and last year, a contestant who was leaving the show made a farewell speech to the audience in which she declared that she still planned to make it in the music business. In the middle of this goodbye, she looked into the camera and said, "Clive, call Nigel," meaning that Clive Davis, the music industry mogul, should call Nigel, the producer of the show, to work some kind of deal. It seemed to us that this was a sentiment that must be echoed in the minds of everyone who wishes he or she could be a music star. We all want Clive to notice us and to call Nigel.A bit about the band members:
Aside from Steve, two of his law partners, Laurie Hartman, the band’s lead singer, and Ryan Johnson, its lead guitarist, are band regulars. Laurie’s singing is what really creates the group’s sound – her voice has a pure, smooth quality, sounding a little like Karen Carpenter, and she can sing in a low, alto range but also reach up to handle soprano parts with power. Bob Rubenstein, a managing director of Marquette Asset Management and President of Trust Operations for Marquette Trust, is the band’s drummer and provides the group with a very solid rhythm base. All but one of the band members live in Highland Park in St. Paul, and practice there, in Bob’s living room. Charlie Broadnax, a senior vice president at U.S. Bank, is a very fine guitar player, and handles the bass in the group.I believe that Steve himself also plays guitar in the group and plays on the recording. He advises us that the saxophone work on the recording is by Walter Chancellor.
Ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it for Clive, Call Nigel and "Christmas in St. Paul."
