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A
Tribute to Arif MARDIN
"Creativity and playfulness,
peace and love go hand in hand,
that kindness is a kind of intelligence."
Arif
MARDIN among
the 20th century's most important music
producers...
(1932
- 2006)
Speech by Julie MARDIN
The speech below was presented by Julie Mardin during the "Celebration
of an Extraordinary Musical Life"
memorial program in honor of Arif
Mardin, who is among the 20th century's
most important music producers.
The program hosted by Joe Mardin,
son of Arif, brought in highlights
of his musical life, and was held
at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center
on March 6, 2007 in New York City.
The artists and friends of Arif
Mardin who contributed to this program
were as follows:
Roger Brown, Joel Dorn, Engin Ansay
(Ambassador), Darly Hall and John
Qates, Eddie and David Brigati,
Michael O'Reilly, Judy Collins, Phil Collins, Bruce Lundwall,
Norah Jones, Lara Agar Stoby, Juliana
and John Yaffe, Barry Gibb, Julie
Mardin, Clive Davis, and Bette Midler.
Ahmet Ertegun, who had meant to be a part of the program, also
left us on December 14, 2006, but
was still represented via a pre-recorded
interview, taped for a documentary
about Arif Mardin and the project
he had been intensely working on
in the months before his passing.
This was an album of his original
compositions as performed by a long
list of some of the artists that
he had worked with through the years.
Also represented via taped interview
was Quincy Jones, who proved to
be a stroke of fate in Father Mardin's
musical life. |
Good evening. I'm
Julie Mardin, I'm Arif's daughter. I am so humbled to be on this stage with
all these incredible people who were a
part of my Dad's life. I've been approaching this speech with
such trepidation, cause it just feels
like no matter what words I put together,
or whatever angle I come at it from, he's
just too large, and it's going to pale
in comparison to how amazing he was.
But I would love to try to give you even
a tiny sense of what he was like as a
quote unquote "ordinary" Dad.
Of course nothing was ordinary about him.
This was a Dad who would regularly take
a flashlight, place it under his face,
and pretend he was Dracula.
Tell us tales of his astral projection and flying dreams.
Who dressed up funny every New Year's Eve.
Played lounge piano for his wife at the end of every party--without
fail.
And left his own martini
glass in your freezer when you got your
own place.
Arif
MARDIN, Portrait
Photo by: Julie MARDIN
One of the first memories is of the tiny musical phrases he composed
to illustrate us.
We each had these assigned musical
themes that we couldn't shake for a couple
of years.
Joe's, for instance, was a bolero
about not cleaning his room up. I must have been a cry baby, so mine was a dirge-like piece
entitled, You Hurt Me.
My mother's led off with a sweeping
glissando, that led into the grandest
theme of all, entitled, "Oh, leave
me alone."
This was one of the most important things my mom said he taught
her, was how to laugh at herself.
Whatever strains that might have
arisen out of being married to a musician,
were immediately assuaged by both their
sense of humor. Which was perfect, because my Dad seemed
to be happiest, for some odd reason, when
we were all making fun of him—but
especially when our mother was. "What timing!” he’d exclaim with great joy.
"The lady has such timing."
Their relationship was as unique as the two of them are as individuals.
For one thing their lives and understanding
of each other were intertwined all the
way back to childhood, but being such
dynamic personalities each in their own
right, they both embraced the future with
courage and imagination.
Once they were in the States, my Mom was his earliest supporter,
and I mean literally supported him, and
at many key moments, his invaluable instigator.
And my Dad? I've never seen anyone put a woman up
on a pedestal the way he did with her. All this obsession with film noir in the recent years? was
sparked by her depth and mystery, and,
I'm convinced, simply because, it was
the time period when they were falling
in love.
As we got older both my parents sustained this gentle, festive
environment, full of creativity and excitement
of the new. What's going on at the night clubs?
Julie, what is this new place called
the Palladium?
In fact, I think he might have
been the one to tell me about it, and
even take me there.
He was certainly the first person
to play me Laurie Anderson, or Sonic Youth. It was getting a little confusing, with my Dad this beautifully
dressed man in his fifties, hipper than
any of my grungy friends in college. How
could he be so larger than life, and the
youngest child in the family? as we had
all taken to calling him.
My mother says he was just getting started writing.
That is what made him all the more incredible. With his Casio in
the hospital room, we watched in amazement
as he finished arrangements for his latest
work.
He kept his wits by penning poems
about CT scans and MRIs.
He was tapped into his creativity
until the very end of this incarnation…
There is no more inspiring lesson that
he could have given us, as a father, as
an artist, as a human being.
Even after we lost
him, he comforted me.
I remember coming home on a particularly
low day and seeing a cassette with my
name on it.
I slipped it in, and rediscovered
a beautiful gem of a piano piece he had
written for my twenty fifth birthday.
He was still wrapping up his love
in music and giving it to us. It was simple and complex, light and dark, but more light than
dark.
It rekindled the fire that parents
can create inside you as a child, that
keeps you warm during dark moments as
you get older.
I don't know, it's almost like
a chemical that you can call upon when
needed, that keeps you from going insane,
and it is created out of plain and simple
love.
He gave us that in abundance.
Plain and simple: He taught me that creativity and playfulness,
peace and love go hand in hand, that kindness
is a kind of intelligence-the more kind
you are, the more evolved. I am so lucky in this imperfect world
to have had as perfect a father as is
humanly possible.
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"My
father, Count Dracula. (Clowning around
after our photo shoot.)" 
