VERY SAD NEWS.

Today ,

My father passed away. Those of you who know anything about me or my life and family know that my father was easily my best friend. I spoke with him daily and I loved him without question. Without a single regret or word unsaid.

I always joked with him about having gone into the wrong business as he was easily the funniest person I've ever been around. As great as a record producer and record man as he was, he easily could have written for Seinfeld or Curb Your Enthusiasm. Easily. Too easily.

He and I had both gone through a weird run of health issues of late , he had beaten Prostate cancer and I had spent the whole of last summer keeping my eye on him making sure he was cool.He, in his typical style was far more concerned and interested in my well being than his own. My health was far more important, thats just how he was.

I even recently moved back into his neighborhood in Manhattan so that we could spend more time together. For the 2 or so weeks since the 28th of November,I spent a grand total of about 9 days in my apartment after moving in before doing some traveling. I spoke with him everyone of those days I was in my new place and hung out with him for lunch or dinner including my birthday ( Nov 29th ). Im glad I have those experiences. They sound simple and sort of mundane, but guess what? They aren't. Im really numb writing this right now.

Here are a couple of facts about my father's career you should know. He signed Roberta Flack , Bette MIdler and made classic albums with them. Regarding Roberta Flack he made her only classic albums actually. He also co-produced the Roberta Flack Donny Hathaway duet record. Before he produced pop / r&b stuff he was a jazz guy and he worked with and produced Joe Zawinul , Chick Corea, Les McCann , Eddie Harris ,Stan Getz, David Fathead Newman , Rahsaan Roland Kirk,Keith Jarret,Gary Burton,Charles Mingus , Charles Lloyd, and so many other artists I cant even begin to list them all.He is also the only person ever to do a session that had Dr. John and Kate Smith in the same room. For those of you who even know who both of those people are , you know that that's about as hip as it gets. I didnt even mention Aaron Neville , The Neville Brothers, The Allman Brothers or Leon Redbone. The names are just popping into my head as I type.Nothing about my fathers work was safe, straight down the middle or compromised. Was every album a hit? No. Did he ever work on crap for a check? No.( well once but Buddy Rich was a prick and the check was big and he got yelled at for a solid week..so you know what?..fuck you buddy rich...how's that you prick? Lets see what you and your black belt think about that? ) My old man was a straight up guy. He didn't understand or have any interest in playing into the business politics of the record business. He just wanted, and did , make great music. he was in the RECORD business. Not what we know today as the record BUSINESS.

He was the kind of guy that would jeopardize his career to help someone. After Rahsaan Roland Kirk suffered from a stroke a record executive at the major label he was signed to ( both the label and the executive will remain nameless ) refused to pay Rahsaan/ Keep in mind, Rahsaan was a blind man who had just suffered a debilitating stroke. My father, Rahsaan's producer , but more importantly Rahsaan's friend, locked the executive in his office the old fashioned way by jamming a chair under the doorknob and then proceeded to shall we say convince the executive in question to make sure a certain check was delivered that afternoon to Rahsaan. My old mans career in fact suffered from that passion and that event, but at the end of the day. I wouldn't want things any other way. He didn't take any shit and he did the right thing for his friend in need.

From middle period of his career until his dying day he only cared and dealt with the legacy of unissued recordings (with the exception of producing Jane Monheits first couple of albums).He had the unique experience of being able to reissue recordings of not only many of the Atlantic artists he loved but many of the recordings he had in fact produced ( maybe he was a smart business man? ) Major labels dont really care about music for the most part ( a fact we now know to be true and see on a daily basis ) My father and I actually ran a reissue label together called 32 Records at the and of the 90's that also acted as a conduit for a lot of those Atlantic Records reissues. He loved Atlantic.

On the day of his death He was literally working on a 60th anniversary box set for Atlantic Records which he was dedicating to Neshui Ertegun ( I've never known how to spell their names ,I'm sorry if I messed it up again, I do love that BIG MAC, the studio manager at Atlantic Studios back in the day used to call Ahmet, OMLETTE!!!.......genius ), . I will now be taking over that project and dedicating it to my old man , with the thought that the idea was to have it honor Neshui,but now it will honor both of them. Nobody else ran the jazz at Atlantic. If you think you did, Im sorry if im insulting you, You did not. He was the living steward of that collection and its number one fan. It was a two man operation. Neshui and Joel.

The interesting thing about my father is that , unlike a lot of his peers who got caught up in grammies and making millions of dollars and career goals is the following. He really only cared about his family and our well being. Im not painting the man out to be a saint here. He was a terrible business man, something we always laughed with him about.He'd make 50 and spend 51...and I loved him for it.I used to think it was something that was a big deal , but you know what. It doesnt mean a single fucking thing. He really only cared about us. His kids. Business isn't for everyone. I'll never forget him paying for my first semester of college in cash from a car he sold , he then borrowed a car and san legal license drove me to school and paid the nice people in the bursors office in cash. He'd also fed ex me walking around money while I was in school as well. He'd literally stick cash in the envelope and send me $40 of his probably $80 bucks to his name at the time.He wasn't a guy that gave a fuck about rules or cared what anybody thought save me and my brothers. He wanted me to have bass strings and food money. He was just that kind of guy. Wouldn't hesitate to give me anything he had on him.

Some fun fathering facts about joel dorn

he liked to tell strangers I was adopted ( I always got a huge laugh out of that )

He liked to ask me if I wanted to go to the local toy store in philly and then change his mind everytime I said yes. ( I was 7....and knew it was funny )

He liked to whistle/sing in public at the most awkward times ( I hear larry david does the same thing. Larry, my old man and you would have been great friends )

He once asked a woman my mother worked for if she could cash a check for him, she responded by saying yes but wanted to know how much was the check for , he said "A penny" she said ( totally missing the joke) "why on earth do you need to cash a check for a penny? He said " I need some walking around money"

he turned me on to Laurel and Hardy , WC Fields , Fellini , Miles, Motown , Wagner , Tex Avery , Seinfeld , Sam Cooke and Lenny Bruce and to me he was as hip , cool and funny and soulful as any of them.

Always, he just liked to laugh with us, his sons, and hang and make sure we were cool.

Even while going through radiation treatments for prostate cancer, he made it down to everyone of my gigs last summer. If I was doing something. He was there. Period.

At the end of the day......grammies? snore........hit records?........snore.....schmoozing with record business weasels to help his career , snore........( my father actually snored btw)....he was just about us and always there for us. That's what I loved most about him and will continue to always love about him. He made things right, he always let you know you were loved.

My old man and I both love sports and I take delight in knowing he went out still being able to throw a 98 mph fastball. He still had it, Luckily I didnt have to see him lose it. He went out strong as a bull.

My father was the fucking best. Joel Dorn 4-7-42 - 12-17-07 best father ever.

That's all I gotta say for the time being.

be well,

or rather as my father liked to sign off,

"keep a light in the window"

adam dorn.

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