Ben Mink

Last updated

Benjamin Mink
Born (1951-01-22) January 22, 1951 (age 73)
Toronto, Canada
Occupation(s)
  • Musician
  • songwriter
  • producer
InstrumentMultiple instruments
Website benmink.com

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.

Contents

Early life, family, and education

Born to Polish Holocaust survivors, [2] Mink was raised in Toronto, Canada.

Career

Beginnings

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

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

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

Mink has also produced and/or performed on recordings by the 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 "1-2-3-4", playing strings and guitars. [15]

He is a member of the 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

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

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

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Ben Mink" - Canadian Encyclopedia.com
  2. ↑ 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
  3. ↑ Quill, Greg. "Led Zeppelin's Toronto memories". Toronto Star .
  4. ↑ "Chuck Berry – The Rock Pile – May 15, 1969". NashTheSlash.com. Archived from the original on December 24, 2011.
  5. ↑ 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.
  6. ↑ "Ben Mink – FM Fiddle Flash" (PDF). Frets Magazine. January 1982 – via web.ncf.ca.
  7. ↑ "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.
  8. ↑ "Life Is a Highway: Canadian Pop Music in the '90s". Doc Zone. CDC.
  9. ↑ The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. Simon and Schuster. 2004. p.  474. ISBN   978-0-7432-0169-8.
  10. ↑ "MTV Unplugged: k.d. lang Episode Summary". TV.com. Archived from the original on February 2, 2014.
  11. ↑ "Tube and Twang" The Advocate . Here Publishing; February 6, 1996. ISSN   0001-8996. p. 56–.
  12. ↑ "Roland Interviews Ben Mink" – Reverb Roland Canada
  13. ↑ Sharken, Lisa – "Rush RX for my Favorite Headache" – VintageGuitar.com
  14. ↑ Popoff, Martin (June 2016). Rush – Updated Edition: The Unofficial Illustrated History. Voyageur Press. p.  81. ISBN   978-0-7603-4995-3.
  15. 1 2 Finkelstein, Bernie (2012). True North: A Life Inside the Music Business. McClelland & Stewart. p.  186. ISBN   978-0-7710-4793-0.
  16. ↑ Ragogna, Mike - "Red Velvet Car: A Conversation With Heart's Ann & Nancy Wilson, Plus Introducing Theo Shier" - Huffington Post
  17. ↑ "Legacy Recordings Releasing Heart's 'Night At Sky Church,' an Electrifying Full-Length Live Concert Film, Available Everywhere Tuesday, March 8, 2011" - PRNewswire.com
  18. ↑ "The Black Sea Station". theblackseastation.com. Archived from the original on September 29, 2017.
  19. ↑ "The Mix". Vol. 22, no. 7–12. Mix Publications. 1998. p. 214 – via Google Books.
  20. ↑ Boehm, Mike (May 10, 1999). "A New Tap on Yiddish Tradition". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  21. ↑ "The Klezmatics & Chava Alberstein Biography". LabelBleu.com.
  22. ↑ Schaefer, Glen. "Ben Mink is movie music king". Victoria Times Colonist . Archived from the original on November 18, 2011 – via canada.com.
  23. ↑ Brodsky, Katherine - "The go-to music people" - Variety.com
  24. ↑ Babich, Babette (2016). The Hallelujah Effect: Philosophical Reflections on Music, Performance Practice, and Technology. Routledge. p.  180. ISBN   978-1-317-02955-7.
  25. ↑ "Ben Mink fonds" - Library and Archives Canada
  26. ↑ Richards, Keith. Life. New York: Little, Brown & Co., 2010. p. 457.
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