Mardin said he was pleased to get the nod because it gets him back to the city he first came to after leaving his native Turkey to attend Berklee College of Music in 1958. And it's an honor to be associated with the name Ertegun. It's also the first of two awards Mardin is set to receive this spring. The foundation supports the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Center where a program was developed using music as a means of communication and therapy for children with autism and other disabilities. He should also tell aspiring pop stars that in order to be successful, it will require doing better than their best.
All successful records have that.
If an artist is coasting, the record will not be successful. In concerts, I understand that sometimes an artist has to protect their throat. But making a record is something else. The great Aretha Franklin always takes chances when she's recording. Mardin recalled one time when he and co-producer Tom Dowd accidentally erased eight bars of Franklin's vocals during a recording session.