Steven Ray Allen

The bassist and arranger Steven Ray Allen has maintained a long relationship with composer and pianist David Lanz, working in the style most often classified as new age. Allen is highly in demand with artists throughout this genre, and it is sometimes said that if it was possible to hire only one musician to work on such a project, it would have to be Allen. Between his abilities at creating arrangements for any type of orchestral accompaniment, including strings and horns, and his skill at utilizing all types of bass instruments, plus acoustic and electric guitar, Allen can connect all the dots. His typical working relationship with Lanz, with whom he has cut about a dozen releases, might involve the latter artist bringing Allen a freshly recorded demo of piano solos. Several sessions are spent simply in the process of audition and discussion -- opponents of new age music might use the occasion to drift off to sleep. Finally, Allen is ready to create a rough version of the eventual orchestral accompaniment using computer and midi keyboards. Allen usually knows how things are going to turn out from these models, Lanz does not; "I crossed my fingers and prayed it turns out!" is a Lanz quote about preparing for one of their typically ambitious sessions. Here is where more flesh-and-blood musicians come into the picture, and Allen and Lanz work with some of the best, including producer Hugh Padgham, Sting's guitar partner Dominic Miller, drummer Manu Katche from Peter Gabriel's band, and top European session drummer Pino Palladino. Allen wears his rhythm-section pajamas first in sessions such as this, often working with the other players for several days until satisfactory band tracks are assembled. The next step involves ovedubbing these tracks with the orchestral arrangements, an area where this artist is considered one of the best in the business. He is known for establishing great rapport with studio orchestras, not always an easy task, and his arranging skills are such that rewriting or similar tinkering is rarely necessary. Lanz tracks involving orchestral arrangements are often done in one take. Allen has also worked with players as diverse as Matthew Fisher, the organist from Procol Harum, and Gerald Fahy, a traditional player of the uilleann pipes who is featured in the Riverdance show. ~ Eugene Chadbourne