Ben Mink
Benjamin Mink | |
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| Born | January 22, 1951 Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
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| Website | benmink |
Benjamin Mink CM (born January 22, 1951) is a Canadian songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer best known as a longtime collaborator of Canadian singer k.d. lang.[1] He plays several string instruments, notably the guitar, violin, and the mandolin.
Early life, family, and education
[edit]Born to Polish Holocaust survivors,[2] Mink was raised in Toronto, Canada.
Career
[edit]Beginnings
[edit]Mink began performing with the rock/country group Mary-Lou Horner, which became the house band at the Rockpile bar and nightclub[3] and acted as a backup band for Chuck Berry.[4]
He has been a member of the groups Stringband, Murray McLauchlan's Silver Tractors, and FM.[5][6]
With k.d. lang
[edit]Mink is best known as a longtime collaborator of Canadian singer k.d. lang, whom he met at Expo '85 while doing a gig with CANO.[7][8] He has performed on, along with co-writing and producing, several of her albums, which often combine voice with string arrangements.[9] Mink subsequently performed as violinist, guitarist, and mandolinist with lang's band, the Reclines. A performance for the Grammy-nominated album Ingénue was recorded as part of the MTV Unplugged series at the Ed Sullivan Theater, New York City, on December 16, 1992.[10] Mink was interviewed about his songwriting collaboration with lang on the British television show South Bank Show in 1996.[11]
With Rush
[edit]Mink was invited to play electric violin on the Rush song "Losing It", from their 1982 album, Signals, and contributed strings to the song "Faithless" from the 2007 album, Snakes & Arrows. He also co-wrote, produced, and played guitar on My Favourite Headache (2000), a solo project of Rush lead singer and bassist, Geddy Lee.[12][13][14] On June 19, 2015, he performed "Losing It" with the trio at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, as part of their farewell R40 Live Tour.
Other collaborations
[edit]Mink has also produced and/or performed on recordings by Barenaked Ladies, Anne Murray, Dan Hill, Mendelson Joe, Prairie Oyster, Raffi, Jane Siberry, Ian and Sylvia Tyson, Valdy, Bruce Cockburn, Murray McLauchlan,[15] Willie P. Bennett, Susan Aglukark, Methodman, Alison Krauss, Feist, Daniel Lanois, Sarah McLachlan, Roy Orbison, Elton John, and Heart.[citation needed]
He co-produced Red Velvet Car for Heart's Ann and Nancy Wilson, released in the fall of 2010,[16] and appeared onstage in the band's concert video Night at Sky Church.[17] Mink was back at the helm as producer of Heart's 2012 album Fanatic, which included the single "Walkin' Good", featuring Sarah McLachlan.
Mink co-produced and performed on Feist's Grammy-nominated hit single "1234", playing strings and guitars.[15]
He is a member of Black Sea Station, a North American klezmer supergroup. Their debut recording, Transylvania Avenue, is produced by Mink, and was released on Rounder Records in the Fall of 2010 as a digital download.[18] He has also produced other klezmer musical acts in the past, such as Finjan, the Klezmatics,[19] and Chava Alberstein.[20][21]
Soundtracks
[edit]Mink scored the 2007 biopic Confessions of an Innocent Man about British-Canadian engineer William Sampson, which garnered him a Gemini Award.[citation needed] He wrote the soundtrack to the film Fifty Dead Men Walking,[22] which has since received numerous awards and nominations, including a 2010 Genie Award nomination for Best Achievement in Music—Original Score, and a 2009 Leo Award for Best Musical Score for a Feature-Length Drama. The television soundtracks for Terminal City and Alice[23] both also garnered Leo Awards. In 2011, the TV series Glee used the 1992 song "Constant Craving", written by Mink and k.d. lang,[24] in the seventh episode of the third season, for its closing number (performed by Chris Colfer, Idina Menzel and Naya Rivera).[citation needed]
Other work
[edit]Mink has lectured on such topics as "The Music Business vs. the Creative Process" at the University of British Columbia, Western Washington University, and Simon Fraser University.[citation needed] He has also worked with students as an associate of UBC's Department of Mechanical Engineering (robotics) and is an associate member of the Institute for Computing, Information & Cognitive Systems.[citation needed] In 2006, he delivered the introductory speech to k.d. lang's Governor General's Performing Arts Award induction at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.[citation needed] He has also contributed to the Library and Archives Canada.[25]
Mink is one of few people to ever share a songwriting credit with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. In 1997, Mink and k.d. lang were co-credited as songwriters on the Rolling Stones single "Anybody Seen My Baby?" because Jagger-Richards felt the chorus was similar to "Constant Craving".[26]
Mink has one solo recording—the 1980 release Foreign Exchange, on Passport Records.[1]
Selected awards
[edit]- Grammy Awards: In 1990, Mink was co-nominated with k.d. lang for a Best Country Song Grammy for "Luck in My Eyes". Subsequently, as a producer and writer, he has been nominated for a total of nine Grammies, winning twice for his work with lang.[1]
- Juno Awards: He has received seven Juno nominations, winning three times between 1993 and 1994.
- Genie/Gemini Awards: Genie Award – Best Original Score for 50 Dead Men Walking; Gemini Award – Best British Columbia Film for Confessions of an Innocent Man.
- Leo Awards: Best Musical Score 2006, 2009, 2010.[1]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d "Ben Mink" - Canadian Encyclopedia.com
- ^ Geddy, Geddy. "Geddy Lee Tells His Family's Holocaust Story (Full Interview)". Archived from the original on January 27, 2019 – via YouTube. Also archived at Ghostarchive
- ^ Quill, Greg. "Led Zeppelin's Toronto memories". Toronto Star.
- ^ "Chuck Berry – The Rock Pile – May 15, 1969". NashTheSlash.com. Archived from the original on December 24, 2011.
- ^ Weigel, David (2017). The Show That Never Ends: The Rise and Fall of Prog Rock. W. W. Norton. p. 161. ISBN 978-0-393-24226-3.
- ^ "Ben Mink – FM Fiddle Flash" (PDF). Frets Magazine. January 1982 – via web.ncf.ca.
- ^ "Lunching with Bonzai – k.d. and Ben Mink – Food for Thought". Mix Magazine. January 1996. Archived from the original on June 21, 2011 – via kdlang.org.
- ^ "Life Is a Highway: Canadian Pop Music in the '90s". Doc Zone. CDC.
- ^ The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. Simon and Schuster. 2004. p. 474. ISBN 978-0-7432-0169-8.
- ^ "MTV Unplugged: k.d. lang Episode Summary". TV.com. Archived from the original on February 2, 2014.
- ^ "Tube and Twang" The Advocate. Here Publishing; February 6, 1996. ISSN 0001-8996. p. 56–.
- ^ "Roland Interviews Ben Mink" – Reverb Roland Canada
- ^ Sharken, Lisa – "Rush RX for my Favorite Headache" – VintageGuitar.com
- ^ Popoff, Martin (June 2016). Rush – Updated Edition: The Unofficial Illustrated History. Voyageur Press. p. 81. ISBN 978-0-7603-4995-3.
- ^ a b Finkelstein, Bernie (2012). True North: A Life Inside the Music Business. McClelland & Stewart. p. 186. ISBN 978-0-7710-4793-0.
- ^ Ragogna, Mike – "Red Velvet Car: A Conversation With Heart's Ann & Nancy Wilson, Plus Introducing Theo Shier" – Huffington Post
- ^ "Legacy Recordings Releasing Heart's 'Night at Sky Church,' an Electrifying Full-Length Live Concert Film, Available Everywhere Tuesday, March 8, 2011" - PRNewswire.com
- ^ "The Black Sea Station". theblackseastation.com. Archived from the original on September 29, 2017.
- ^ "The Mix". Vol. 22, no. 7–12. Mix Publications. 1998. p. 214 – via Google Books.
- ^ Boehm, Mike (May 10, 1999). "A New Tap on Yiddish Tradition". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
- ^ "The Klezmatics & Chava Alberstein Biography". LabelBleu.com.
- ^ Schaefer, Glen. "Ben Mink is movie music king". Victoria Times Colonist. Archived from the original on November 18, 2011 – via canada.com.
- ^ Brodsky, Katherine - "The go-to music people" - Variety.com
- ^ Babich, Babette (2016). The Hallelujah Effect: Philosophical Reflections on Music, Performance Practice, and Technology. Routledge. p. 180. ISBN 978-1-317-02955-7.
- ^ "Ben Mink fonds" - Library and Archives Canada
- ^ Richards, Keith. Life. New York: Little, Brown & Co., 2010. p. 457.
External links
[edit]
- 1951 births
- Canadian male songwriters
- Canadian rock violinists
- Canadian record producers
- Canadian mandolinists
- Musicians from Toronto
- Canadian emigrants to the United States
- Canadian people of Polish-Jewish descent
- Musicians from Cleveland
- Living people
- Juno Award for Songwriter of the Year winners
- Songwriters from Ohio
- 20th-century Canadian guitarists
- 21st-century Canadian guitarists
- Electric violinists
- Jack Richardson Producer of the Year Award winners
- 20th-century Canadian violinists and fiddlers
- 21st-century Canadian violinists and fiddlers
- 20th-century Canadian male musicians
- 21st-century Canadian male musicians
- Jewish Canadian musicians
- Canadian male violinists and fiddlers
- Canadian male guitarists
- Members of the Order of Canada
- Musicians from Vancouver