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The Producer Series: Narada Michael Walden

He was a jazz-fusion drummer with the Mahavishnu Orchestra before he produced "I Wanna Dance with Somebody." Twenty-five tracks of Narada Michael Walden's improbable career.

From Mahavishnu to Whitney

Michael Walden — given the name Narada by the spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy — began as a drummer of formidable technical ability. He joined John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra in the 1970s, one of the most demanding gigs in jazz fusion, and played with Jeff Beck and Weather Report.

Then he became a pop producer, and one of the most commercially dominant of the 1980s. His touch was a specific thing: enormous gated drums, bright synth textures, a chorus that hits hard, and an ability to get a career-defining vocal out of a singer.

He produced Whitney Houston's biggest uptempo records, launched Mariah Carey with "Vision of Love," and won Producer of the Year at the Grammys. It is a genuinely odd trajectory and one very few musicians have managed.

What to listen for

Whitney Houston dominates and deserves to. "How Will I Know" and "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" are two of the most joyful pop records ever made, and "All The Man That I Need" and "One Moment in Time" show the ballad craft.

Mariah Carey's "Vision of Love" is the most consequential record here. It introduced a vocal approach — the melismatic runs, the whistle register — that reshaped how a generation of singers approached a song, for better and worse.

Aretha Franklin's "Jimmy Lee" is the one to play for anyone who thinks he only made gloss. It is a hard, funky record and Aretha sounds delighted.

Lisa Fischer's "How Can I Ease the Pain" won a Grammy and is one of the great vocal performances of the decade — Fischer is best known as a backing singer for the Rolling Stones and was the subject of the documentary 20 Feet from Stardom.

Shanice's "I Love Your Smile" and Jermaine Stewart's "We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off" are the pure pop moments, and Stacy Lattisaw's "Let Me Be Your Angel" the earliest.

Al Jarreau's "If I Break" and George Benson's "Kisses in the Moonlight" are where the jazz background shows.

Go deeper

Mahavishnu Orchestra's Apocalypse and Jeff Beck's Wired feature his drumming, and hearing that alongside "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" is one of the stranger experiences available in pop.

Whitney Houston's Whitney (1987) is where his production is most concentrated.

And Lisa Fischer deserves following — So Intense is her only solo album, and it is very good.

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