Phil Ramone/Grammies
Kapeman
Getting Behind the Music
By LINDA LEE
F it's cool to be in the band, it's almost as cool to be the man behind the
band. And Phil Ramone has been behind many.
He can say things like "Elvis Costello and I. . . ." and "I was walking down
the street with Hugh Jackman. . . ." (Yes, Mr. Jackman, the hunky Australian
actor, also sings.) Mr. Ramone named one of his sons B. J. after Billy Joel. He
has produced Elton John, Frank Sinatra, Arlo Guthrie, Peter Paul & Mary, Paul
Simon, Quincy Jones and Sinead O'Connor.
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Sartorially, he is not the most stylish guy, although he wears Armani, Bruno
Banani and Hugo Boss. (He does dress in a slimming monochrome: "I turned to
dressing all in black because of Bob Fosse," he says.) But he has met and
worked with the biggies, and is known to many as the Pope of Pop. He is also
the go-to guy when it comes to the technical end of doing a
three-and-a-half-hour live show with 18 live performances, and to do it all
from a truck parked outside Madison Square Garden. That would be the Grammy
Awards, which will be shown tonight on CBS.
Wednesday night, as a break from making music, talking music, selling music and
arranging music, Mr. Ramone, who lives in Bedford, N.Y., went for a busman's
holiday with two old pals, Daniel Carlin, a music supervisor for the movies,
and Hank Neuberger, head of the Chicago Recording Company, along with Mr.
Neuberger's son, Jeff, who studies jazz composition at N.Y.U. They caught the
show at the Oak Room at the Algonquin, starring the 19-year-old jazz singer and
pianist Peter Cincotti.
Mr. Cincotti sang the words to the theme song from "The Godfather," with an
occasional nod to Table 1. That's where Mr. Ramone, who says he stopped
counting at age 59, was sitting, doing his signature shoulder wiggle, as much a
sign of appreciation as one comic telling another, "That's funny."
After the show, in the throng of well-wishers and fans, Mr. Ramone had a chance
to catch up with Tony Bennett. (He produced Mr. Bennett's album "Playin' With
My Friends," which is up for a Grammy against another record he produced, Rod
Stewart's "It Had to Be You.")
He was especially pleased that Mr. Bennett had come to hear Mr. Cincotti. "I
first heard him a year ago," Mr. Ramone said. "I was sitting at Feinstein's.
Regis Philbin was next to me, saying `This is incredible, an unbelievable
package.' " Mr. Ramone has turned that package into an album coming out next
month.
And then Mr. Ramone led his party out into the lobby to gab some more about
music and musicians and to have more drinks.
The subject of naming children came up. "When Prince Michael is older, what is
he going to do?" Mr. Neuberger asked the others, referring to one of Michael
Jackson's children.
Mr. Carlin said, "You know that Jermaine Jackson named one of his kids
Jermajesty?"
All three men know Phil Spector. Mr. Ramone said, "Remember A&M, the old
studio? Herb Alpert had a chandelier, and one time Phil was lying on the floor
with a gun, trying to shoot out the bulbs. He was a loose cannon."
And, he added, "I still get people calling me and saying, Wall of Sound!' and I
say, `No, no, no. That's the other Phil.' "
Mr. Neuberger said, "And when the Ramones died. . . ."
"I get the calls," Mr. Ramone said. (He is no relation to the punk rockers Dee
Dee Ramone, who died last June, or Joey Ramone, who died in 2001, or any other
member of the Ramones, none of whom were actually born with the name.)
At midnight they left. Mr. Ramone, who is known for his technical wizardry and
musical clarity, was facing days of sound check rehearsals. The show, he said,
would come in at exactly three and a half hours. "We're under contract for
that," Mr. Ramone said. "And we're much more disciplined than the Academy
Awards."