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“From the eclecticism of Laurie Anderson and Peter Gabriel, to the heavy metal of Kingdom Come, from the jazz of Michael Brecker to the reggae of Jimmy Cliff, from the minimalist funk of Nile Rodgers to the orchestral bombast of Jim Steinman... Jimmy Bralower’s wide ranging musical skills show no boundaries...” - Music Sound & Output

If you were to sum up Jimmy Bralower’s music career in one word... it’s “versatility”.  From his start as a studio musician to his work as an arranger, writer and producer, Jimmy has found success in a wide spectrum of popular music.  His work has been heard on numerous #1 records, over 70 gold & platinum albums and his name appears on over 250,000,000 recordings sold.

Jimmy’s f

irst band ‘The Young Ones” was signed to Columbia Records when he was 14, recording at the Columbia Records Studios with producer John Simon. Spending his years immediately after college on the road and in the studio as a drummer with bands that came “this close” to making it, his first break came as part of the creative team for legendary rap & hip hop pioneer Kurtis Blow. As a performer, writer and arranger, on songs like ‘The Breaks” (the first go

ld 12” record ever) and “Basketball”  (resurrected as the main theme of the recent film “Like Mike”), Bralower was an early believer in the burgeoning electronic technology and was the first studio drummer to adapt programming into his work. He’s responsible for crafting sounds and exploring previously uncharted territory, paving the way for contemporary hip hop and innovating techniques that are firmly established as part of the lexicon of modern recording.

Power Station

Jimmy became a fixture at the legendary Power Station studios in New York, working with owner Tony Bongiovi, where he officially began his full time studio career. His work caught the attention of producer Nile Rodgers, with whom he spent four years making hit records with likes of Madonna (Like A Virgin), Duran Duran (The Reflex, Wild Boys), Chic, Mick Jagger, Peter Gabriel, Jeff Beck and many more

. His profile rising, he  became a first call musician and arranger, putting his stamp on recordings with Cyndi Lauper (True Colors), Hall & Oates (Say It Isn’t So, Out Of Touch), Steve Winwood (Grammy Record of the Year “Higher Love”), Carly Simon, Billy Joel, James Taylor, Eric Clapton (Tears in Heaven), Brian Wilson (Love & Mercy) and a veritable Who’s Who of music icons.

Honing his craft by working closely with mentors as diverse as Rodgers, Russ Titelman, Phil Ramone, Jim Steinman and Bernard Edwards, prompted one magazine to dub him, “the producer’s secret weapon”. His reputation as someone who could comfortably adapt to man

y diverse styles and be relied upon to help crystalize the creative visions of high visibility artists in high pressure situations made him a fixture on many prestigious recording sessions, as he amassed a broad palette of styles and solutions to draw from... which would come to serve him well in his future endeavors.

In the mid 1990’s, Jimmy expanded his career into the world of mixing and re-mixing, adding production touches to records that were not quite “radio ready”. His production and remix of Jimmy Cliff’s “I Can See Clearly Now” and his production of Diana King’s “Stir It Up” landed on

the soundtrack to the movie “Cool Runnings”. His co-production with Cyndi Lauper of “Hey Now, Girls Just Want To Have Fun” was an international hit and he produced Nicki Holland’s “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself” for the soundtrack to “My Best Friend’s Wedding”. He was tapped by producer/A&R executive Russ Titelman to re-work some tracks of Michael McDonald’s, leading to his Adult Contemporary/Smooth Jazz hit “Hey Girl”... and his mix of Donna Lewis’ “I Love You Always Forever” went straight to the top of the charts.

Always keeping his hand in songwriting, one of Jimmy’s co-writes, “Misled”, became a top hit

for Celine Dion... paving the way for his contributions on four of her albums, including co-arranging the chart topping ”It’s All Coming Back To Me Now” with longtime keyboard partner Jeff Bova and Jim Steinman.

The following year, a call from old friend and band mate Andy Goldmark brought Bralower out to LA to co-produce a track for new artist Jennifer Paige. The result was her debut single “Crush”... climbing to #2 on the Pop Charts.

Atlantic Records

The world of teen pop began to explode in the late 90’s... and Bralower was there. After working on a couple of tracks for Britney Spear’s debut album, he was summoned Oslo, Norway, working with Atlantic’s

newly signed teen singer-songwriters M2M. The first song he produced and co-wrote with them, “Don’t Say You Love Me” became the hit debut single from the soundtrack Pokemon - The First Movie and went gold. He went on to co- and executive produce their debut album. He stuck around Oslo long enough to co-produce records by classic rock band Babel Fish and boy band Midnight Sons... all for Atlantic Records.

His talent development and record making skills caught the attention of the powers that be at the label and in September of 2000, Jimmy was named Vice President of A&R and Staff Producer for Atlantic Records. With young artists like M2M & LMNT, he forged relationships with Teen People magazine and Radio Disney at the earliest stages of what would become a huge pre-teen market for the entertainment business.   Signing freezes, attrition and mergers were the order of the day, leaving Bralower’s balance of time tilted toward administrative work. It was time to get back to the studio.

Today

Years at Atlantic and many conversations with the great Ahmet Ertegun rubbing off on him led Bralower to explore the idea of resurrecting classic soul music for new audiences. He got together with his friend, composer, arranger, guitarist extraordinaire Johnny Gale to begin mapping out a plan. With Gale, a renowned expert in the authentic stylings of classic soul, doo-wop, r&b, blues and rock, Bralower once again found a perfect catalyst to explore uncharted territory. While many today rely on prerecorded loops, Bralower and Gale are comfortable creating original music in any combination of styles, employing modern technology to keep it fresh.

As they began to create tracks and ideas, they were missing one thing... an artist to front the project.

Gale mentioned he had worked with a young soul singer named Ryan Shaw, and invited Bralower to check him out. Within weeks, he was in Jimmy’s studio putting his voice on some tracks and the results were encouraging enough for the three of them to continue working together in everyone’s spare time. Looking high and low for authentic obscure songs to record, Bralower and Gale carefully crafted a record around Shaw’s unique vocal strengths. After signing Shaw to his production company, Bralower played the tracks in a chance meeting with A&R executive Michael Caplan and the wheels were in motion to release “This Is Ryan Shaw”.

Their original composition, “We Got Love” found its way on to ABC-TV’s “Brothers & Sisters” before it was even released. It  was also cast in the movie “My Blueberry Nights” and the “Sex In The City” Vol. 2 soundtrack. Their music was featured on “Dancing With The Stars” & “So You Think You Can Dance”. Ellen DeGeneres and Carson Daly became fans and showcased Shaw on their TV shows. The record received a 2008 Grammy nomination.

Bralower currently serves on the Board of Trustees of The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (home of the Grammy Awards)  and recently launched 45 Records, a new recording company whose first releases are albums from Ryan Shaw and Philadelphia's legendary Soul Survivors.