Tuesday, December 07, 1999
'Smooth' songwriter
Two hit melodies put Walnut Hills grad Itaal Shur in demand among major labels
BY LARRY NAGER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Itaal Shur's little white lie turned into a very big platinum record.
When the Cincinnati-raised songwriter heard that one of his musical idols was making a new album, he called the artist's management and told them he had the perfect song. Since he'd written Maxwell's 1996 chart-topper “Ascension,” his offer was readily accepted.
Only problem — there was no song. So he took the weekend and wrote one.
The result was “Smooth,” at eight weeks and no end in sight, the longest-running No. 1 single of 1999. The song, rewritten with Matchbox 20 singer Rob Thomas, brought guitar great Carlos Santana the biggest hit of his 30-year-plus career and turned the 1985 Walnut Hills High School grad into one of today's most in-demand songwriter/producers.
But it all started, he says with a laugh, “Just 'cause I love Santana, dude. Who doesn't? He's one of my favorite artists, ever.”
As a result, Mr. Shur, 33, is fielding offers from a host of major labels eager to sign him to a production deal.
He's writing the theme for Osmosis Jones, an upcoming film comedy starring Chris Rock. He has a song slated for Anita Baker's new record and has been working with several new artists. Plus, he adds, speaking by phone from his Manhattan loft, “I'm probably going to be working with Ricky Martin next year.”
@subhed:House of music
@rbody:
It's a long way from the Tristate's underground club scene of the Jockey Club and Sudsy Malone's, where he played in such bands as Kalahari and Sleep Theatre in the late '80s. Born in Los Angeles, he and his family moved to Cincinnati from Seattle when Itaal (pronounced “ee-TAHL”) was 8.
By then he was already playing piano. His father, Bonia Shur, is Hebrew Union College's director of liturgical arts. His mother, Fanchon Shur, is a dancer/choreographer and movement therapist. He and his siblings grew up in a house filled with music.
Trained in classical piano, he says he didn't really like playing until he was around 10 and he got some pointers from older brother Ophir, now deceased.
“He sat me down and taught me how to play the blues scale, and that changed my life. Because, if you can play the blues scale, you can pretty much improvise. I started doing walking bass lines, and it was like, "Wow, I can make music!' Once I figured out I could make up my own stuff, that's when I realized I wanted to be a musician.”
Starting in junior high, he played in a series of local bands, often with Chris Sherman, the bassist currently known as FreekBass.
“We grew up playing music together,” Mr. Sherman says. “His whole family is just breathing art. When we were kids, I just felt so lucky I got to meet him. He'd just gotten his first synthesizer, and I remember all he could do at that point was just make weird sounds with it.”
Didn't fit at CCM
He learned fast. Before he got out of high school he was backing the local R&B band the Movies. His love of urban music rubbed off on Mr. Sherman, who credits Mr. Shur with inspiring him to play funk.
After high school, Mr. Shur's father encouraged him to attend the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He took a few classes, but the academic world was not for him.
“I never really fit into any sort of structured environment,” he confesses. “I was listening to jazz and some avant-garde music and I was interested in pop.
“I've always had this thing about music that whatever I like, I don't put judgment on it. If I like it, if it captures my interest, that's it. I don't like associating history or identity of the music or what it stands for with just the physical sensation of hearing it.”
In 1989, his eclectic musical spirit led him to New York to attend the New School, but when some planned funding fell through, he kicked around the city's music scene until he became a member of acid-jazz band the Groove Collective. With Mr. Shur on piano and keyboards, the group toured the world and cut two critically-acclaimed major-label CDs, 1994's The Groove Collective (Reprise) and 1996's We the People (GRP).
Mr. Shur left the Groove Collective after the second album and formed a group of his own. The new band is on hold until he gets his production company, Itaalavision, up and running. He hopes to follow the example of Butch Vig, who parlayed success as a producer with such groups as Nirvana, into his own band, Garbage.
Melodies that last
Mr. Shur says his strongest inspirations remain his family and the Cincinnati music scene.
“My dad writes for the Jewish synagogue, but the thing that's always been influential is that he's a real melody person. I really believe in songs that have great melodies, songs that can last the test of time. And usually that means having a really strong melody and some good chord changes, something that sounds musical.”
He credits his love of R&B with growing up in the city that produced James Brown's classic hits and was the home of Midnight Star, the Deele and Bootsy's Rubber Band.
“A lot of my influence on that comes from there. I've grown up as a funky white boy. There's just a lot of it around there.”
Mr. Shur's “Smooth” run is far from over. As the song continues to top the charts, Grammy nominations are coming in, with “Smooth” a sure bet to appear in several categories, including song and record of the year.
If Mr. Santana pulls a “Bonnie Raitt,” sweeping the awards after his Grammy-less career, look for Mr. Shur's star to rise even higher. No matter what happens at the Grammys, the songwriter/producer should be around awhile, as the music industry tries to cross over other Latin artists.
And while it may have taken just a weekend to write, a hit like “Smooth” doesn't come out of nowhere, Mr. Shur says, citing the example of his favorite musician, Stevie Wonder. “What I loved about Stevie is that he was able to make a lot of musically exciting music but you always were able to sing along.
“I think that's the real trick. Burt Bacharach and great composers in jazz like Duke Ellington, even the Beatles (wrote songs that are) musically interesting, but you never lose sight of the melody, you're always singing along. And I think that's the real gift of music. You've got to always remember you can't only do it for yourself.”
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