By Joe KIein

Last weekend in Detroit, Michigan, Motown Records celebrated its 50th ANNIVERSAY with a star studded gala, attended by many of the fabled label’s most well known stars and the legendary founder of the company BERRY GORDY. The night after the Motown celebration, MICHAEL JACKSON was posthumously awarded four AMERICAN MUSIC AWARDS, making him the most celebrated artist in that award’s history. To see coverage of the anniversary event as aired by WXYZ-TV in Detroit, click on the image above or CLICK HERE.

My close friend of nearly 35 years, RUSS TERRANA didn’t attend the big Detroit event but, had he been there, he certainly wouldn’t have been out of place! Russ is the brilliant and gifted sound recording engineer who recorded and mixed no less than 89 number one hits for the Motown family of labels, nearly half of the company’s chart-topping singles! If that isn’t enough, he engineered hundreds more songs that made the top 40 and worked on thousands of individual album tracks during his twenty years at the storied record label. Included in the list of hits Russ touched are nearly all of the early classic recordings of the JACKSON 5 and MICHAEL JACKSON.

To say that Russ spent decades “standing in the shadows of Motown” would be a potent understatement. But, despite his immeasurable role in truly shaping the Motown sound, the modest and gifted engineer I have known for decades didn’t warrant a mention in the 2002 documentary of the same name that chronicled the core musicians behind the company’s legendary music. Russ truly is, pardon the pun, one of the real “unsung heroes” of Motown—and the pop music world!

A little over two weeks ago, Universal’s Motown Records released the first “new” Jackson 5 album in decades. I WANT YOU BACK! UNRELEASED MASTERS. The album is a collection of twelve never-before-heard recordings of the Jackson 5, recorded nearly forty years ago, that feature a young, pre-teen Michael Jackson singing the lead vocals alongside his brothers. The tracks on the new album were recorded at the same time as the early Jackson 5 smash hits and had been cast aside rather than released nearly forty years ago.

The producer of the new J5 release is HARRY WEINGER, vice president of A&R for UNIVERSAL MUSIC ENTERPRISES. It was Weinger who tapped Russ to mix down several tracks for the new J5 album. Russ was the very same recording engineer who mixed down the original Jackson 5 hit singles and albums, beginning in 1969 and up until the time the Jackson 5 departed the label for Epic Records in 1975.

Russ is a brilliant and naturally gifted sound recording engineer, whose accomplishments go way beyond Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5. He has mixed down a mind-boggling total of 93 number one singles, most of which were for the Motown family of labels, but there were others outside of the label as well, including superstar WHITNEY HOUSTON, NATALIE COLE and ISAAC HAYES. Russ’ storied career as a sound recording engineer dates back to Detroit in 1966 and runs up until 1991, when he left the music business and moved on to other endeavors. He remained with Motown until Berry Gordy sold the label to Polygram in 1988 and then closed down the Hollywood Hitsville recording studio.

Russ had already mixed a stack of hits for Motown by the time he was assigned to mix down the original Jackson 5 tracks in 1969. The tracks for the first J5 album had been recorded in Detroit and Los Angeles, and the first mix of the album was performed in L.A. Gordy wasn’t satisfied with the mixes, so he sent them back to Detroit to have his “#1 Mix-Meister” remix the tracks. Sitting behind the mixing board four decades ago in Detroit, Russ really had no way of knowing that we was about to make pop music history as he turned the knobs in Motown’s mixing room in Detroit.

But Berry Gordy did know. Russ had already mixed dozens of smash hits for the label, first when he started working for Motown in 1966 and then in the months since he had returned to Motown after working at another Detroit recording studio owned by his brother, Ralph. It was already a given that Russ knew how to blend and mold raw audio tracks into solid gold Motown hits, so Gordy had no reservations putting Russ to work on mixing the tracks of his most promising new group.

The “mix” of a song can mean the difference between a “hit” or a “miss” on the record charts. For decades, Russ mixed hit after hit, playing a major role in establishing the renowned “Motown Sound.” Russ mixed a mountain of hit records for virtually every star in the Motown family, including DIANA ROSS AND THE SUPREMES, STEVIE WONDER, THE FOUR TOPS, THE TEMPTATIONS, MARVIN GAYE, SMOKEY ROBINSON, MARTHA REEVES AND THE VANDELLAS, THE COMMODORES, LIONEL RICHIE, BILLY PRESTON, THELMA HOUSTON and a long list of others.

In the case of the Jackson 5, Russ’ mixing efforts resulted in a great debut album that featured the group’s historic and classic first single, I WANT YOU BACK. The song began rocketing up the record charts immediately after its release at the end of 1969 and, on subsequent albums, other classics, including THE LOVE YOU SAVE, ABC, I WANT YOU BACK, I’LL BE THERE and NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE enjoyed stellar, chart stopping success as well. The group’s phenomenal rise to success spawned the breakout of the group’s youngest brother Michael as a solo artist, setting the stage for his rise to media superstardom.

Russ Terrana mixed and recorded nearly every Jackson 5 and Michael Jackson Motown hit, and HUNDREDS of other hit singles and albums during his years with the label in Detroit and Hollywood. He truly was a wizard in every sense of the word when it came to the recording of pop music!

With the holidays now upon us in this year marking the 50th anniversary of Motown Records and the 40th anniversary of The Jackson 5, I couldn’t think of a better gift to all than this incredible story about my very talented friend! It’s a fresh look at a piece of pop music history, filled with new information provided by Russ and his brother, Ralph Terrana, who was, himself, an integral part of the Detroit music scene through the 60’s and 70’s.

It’s  been months in the making, and now, in the first installment of an exclusive three part story appearing only here in the NEW MEDIA CREATIVE BLOG, you’ll learn about the man who helped mold pop music through the years. Here’s PART ONE of BEHIND THE MOTOWN MIXING BOARD WITH RUSS TERRANA…..

THE HISTORY OF THE WIZARD BEHIND THE BOARD

Detroit native RUSS TERRANA started in music by playing in what may have been one of the earliest "boy bands" of all with his brother Ralph Terrana.  Russ and Ralph started in music very young. In 1954 they formed a group called the GLO-WORMS. The brothers first played music at various family and local events, then at talent shows and shows for army troops sponsored by the USO.

By the early sixties, the Glo-Worms had grown older, and changed from a boy-band to a rock and roll band. The group’s name was changed to THE SUNLINERS, named after a late fifties Ford convertible model. The Sunliners became pretty well known and were regularly playing some major venues in the Midwest and the East, including the famed Peppermint Lounge in New York City.

The group signed a recording contract with a small but successful Detroit record label called GOLDEN WORLD in 1965. That year, they  recorded several tracks and released a few records on Golden World before Russ and Ralph made separate decisions to leave the band a short time later.

Russ and his brother had both decided to leave The Sunliners to work on “the other side of the glass” in the recording studio. Fascinated by the recording process while recording at Golden World’s studio, Russ started thinking seriously about become a recording engineer. To learn about the electronics involved with the recording process, he attended a Detroit area technical school. Meanwhile, Ralph had decided to trade in his dream of being a rock star to that of managing and owning a studio of his own.

THE SUNLINERS IN TIMES SQUARE

By the beginning of 1966, Ralph was in the process of trying to acquire a recording facility called RAINBOW STUDIO, which was owned by a Detroit music producer named ERNIE STRATTON. Stratton was a friend of musician FRED SAXON, who had been another member of The Sunliners (and the first band member to leave the group in 1965).

Russ, having left the band himself, and armed with his new technical knowledge, made the life-changing decision to actually become a recording engineer. He had no way of knowing that this choice would ultimately lead to a significant improvement in Motown’s sound, and play such a major role in pop music history!

In 1966, Motown Records was on fire. Russ decided to try and get a job at the label which was definitely the biggest in town at the time. He applied for a job at Motown, and was immediately asked if he had any contractual relations with other studios. Russ told the label that he was still signed to Golden World Records, but as an artist (as part of The Sunliners) and not an engineer. It didn’t matter. Motown didn’t want to hire Russ as long as he was signed to a contract with anyone else.

Luckily, Golden World Records happened to own their own recording studio in Detroit, just a few miles from Motown’s legendary West Grand Boulevard studio and mixing room. So, Russ strolled on over to Golden World and asked the label’s owner, ED WINGATE, for a job to work there. Wingate already knew Russ and his brother Ralph, and liked both of them. So, he hired Russ on the spot.

When Russ arrived at the Golden World studio for his first day at work, a black artist walked in and told Russ that he was there for a recording session< But the session had been scheduled with another Golden World engineer and producer named BOB d’ORLEANS. “He walked in the studio and asked where Bobby was,” recalls Russ. Bob, and Wingate, enjoyed hanging out at the race track on occasion. Apparently, this was one of those days.

Russ further remembers, “I told him Bobby wasn’t in. So he asks me if I could work the session. I mentioned that this would be my first session, but I’d give it my best shot. Fortunately, the session went well and he was very happy with the tracks we recorded.” Russ doesn’t remember the name of the songs that were recorded at the session, but the artist is certainly memorable. It was EDWIN STARR, who had already had a big hit on Golden World’s RIC-TIC RECORDS label called AGENT DOUBLE O SOUL about a year earlier. Reportedly without Starr’s knowledge, his contract was sold by Ed Wingate to Berry Gordy just a few months after recording with Russ, and the renowned artist would go on to major success on Motown Records with the hits TWENTY FIVE MILES and the powerful, memorable soul/rock anthem WAR (which Russ would end up mixing as well).

d’Orleans may have been at the race track instead of the studio that particular day, so it was Russ who was off and running out of the gate. d’Orleans had been the studio’s principal engineer and a staff producer for a few years, and would remain an important part of the Golden World family. Another engineer from England named JOHN RHYS EDDINS joined the staff for a time. He also had exceptional producing talents, and moved on after a stint at Golden World, during which he produced The Sunliners while Russ and Ralph were still in the band.

Another young, gifted engineer named ED WOLFRUM joined Golden World, and was the studio’s chief engineer by the time Russ signed on early in 1966. Russ and Ed quickly became good friends. Working alongside Wolfrum, Russ rapidly developed his own engineering “chops” as well.

RUSS TERRANA AND ED WOLFRUM (IN THE 70’s)
(Photo © Ed Wolfrum, Used by Permission)

Golden World was enjoying a prominent place in the Motor City music scene in 1966. The company had a great run of hits on a small collection of different label imprints, and dozens of notable groups and producers recorded there, not the least of which was Edwin Starr, THE REFLECTIONS, THE DRAMATICS, GEORGE CLINTON AND PARLIAMENT, among others.

GEORGE CLINTON AND THE PARLIAMENTS

In the summer of 1966, the clock was ticking for Golden World’s Studio. There was speculation about Berry Gordy wanting to acquire the company from Ed Wingate, and had been keeping his “eye on the prize.” Given all the talent now working at Golden World, it’s not surprising. Near the end of the summer, Gordy was spotted poking around the studio a couple of times, fueling the rumors.

Early in the fall of 1966, just a few months after Russ went to work for Golden World, the gossip turned to reality. Motown Records bought the company.

Staff changes were made and a few of the producers and engineers who had been working for Ed Wingate were let go. Russ, however, was not one of them. In an ironic twist, Russ ended with the coveted job at Motown Records that he had hoped for just a few months earlier!

CLICK HERE for a very interesting and detailed history of Golden World Records and the fabled studio,

 

INSIDE GOLDEN WORLD STUDIO
(Photo © Ed Wolfrum, Used by Permission)

 
GOLDEN WORLD STUDIO CONTROL ROOM
(Photo Courtesy of Ralph Terrana)

Motown renamed Golden World’s Studio as its own “Motown Studio B.” It was a larger studio and more suitable for recording rhythm tracks and “overdub” sessions with large groups of musicians, such as strings or horn sections. Russ, who had recorded Edwin Starr at his very first Golden World session, was about to make some history at his first session as a Motown engineer!

The first day Russ reported for work as an employee of Motown, he arrived for a rhythm track session, where the basic instrument tracks for a record are cut. There was a pair of songwriters already sitting in the studio when Russ got there. It was the songwriting team of NICK ASHFORD and VALERIE SIMPSON. They were there to sit in on the session for the tracks for three songs songs they had just written.

NICK ASHFORD AND VALERIE SIMPSON

The session musicians then started to show up, and soon Russ was sitting behind the control board recording the basic rhythm tracks for three songs. Even though the artists that would be performing on the songs weren’t present at this session, Russ had a premonition.

The tracks we recorded at that session really sounded great. I have to say I had the feeling that we had recorded something special that day. I think Nick and Valerie knew it too.”

Everyone’s feelings about what had been recorded that day were prophetic. The tracks recorded at that magical session were the original versions of three truly legendary Motown songs, AIN’T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH, AIN’T NOTHING LIKE THE REAL THING and YOUR PRECIOUS LOVE. Later, vocals by MARVIN GAYE and TAMMI TERRELL were added to the tracks at Studio A, and the rest is Motown music history. This simple, but brilliant little video pretty much says it all. It’s Marvin and Tammi superimposed over a shot of Motown’s original Hitsville Studio A, where the vocal for the track were recorded shortly after the Studio B sessions. If you look close, you can see Berry Gordy sitting in the control room behind the artists!

Of course, Motown’s original studio on West Grand Boulevard had already achieved fame, and Berry Gordy had dubbed the building HITSVILLE USA a few years earlier. In fact, the entire block, which housed the Motown offices, rehearsal halls and a mixing studio, had become a veritable Detroit neighborhood “walk of fame.”

At about the same the time Motown acquired Golden World, they had recently begun using a hot new recording technology at their original studio on West Grand Boulevard. They were employing a “eight track” audio recorders (not to be confused with eight track home and car tapes from the seventies). These wondrous, new machines could record eight separate discrete tracks, instead of the four tracks that most other studios, including Golden World, were capable of recording at the time. Motown and Atlantic Record’s studios were amongst the first to have been developing, and then using, the new technology, which would become commonplace in professional sound studios over the next couple of years. Here’s a YouTube video shot inside the now empty, and preserved, original Studio A, next door to the Motown Museum on West Grand in Detroit. It’s a place where so much music history was made that it’s almost impossible to fathom!

Golden World Studio was a bigger recording facility, and its acoustics were quite good, but it lacked the electronic technology to handle “eight-track recording” that Motown was now using, so the recording console and other electronics in the studio’s control room needed to be upgraded to bring Motown’s “Studio B” up to snuff to handle 8-track recording. Shortly after Motown took over Golden World, technical improvements to the facility began, and Russ soon found himself as the chief recording and mixing engineer at Studio B.

Russ was now shuttling back and forth between sessions at the new Studio B (which also continued to be referred to as “Golden World” for the next few years) and Studio A (Motown’s original HITSVILLE STUDIO) on West Grand Boulevard. One day, Russ arrived at Studio A to find the studio packed with the studio musicians, THE TEMPTATIONS, a few producers—and a television camera crew! They were there to film a “staged” recording for The Temptations for a television news feature. It was just a few months after Russ began working for Motown. Check out the rarely seen video of this session, and see if you can spot a very young Russ Terrana in the studio’s control room, portrayed as an engineer assistant.

If you didn’t spot Russ in this historic clip, his big appearance occurs at about 1:15 in the video. As demeaning as it may have been to appear as a tape operator instead of being seated behind the control board as he usually was, the always modest Russ took in all in stride. “I remember that crazy shoot. It was for some television show or some news report about Motown,” Russ recalls. “This wasn’t too long after Motown bought Golden World and I had started working for them, so I just did what they told me during the filming, which was to be clicking some buttons on the tape machine in this shot.”

Russ was on cloud nine working at Motown (where he mixed a song by THE TEMPTATIONS of the same name). He was laboring at the studios day and night, doing tracking  dates, vocal overdub sessions and, of course mixing down songs. Most of the company’s music had started being recorded on eight tracks instead of four and the process of mixing the tracks into a finished product in mono or stereo had become more complex. Russ, of course, was up to the task and, in a small basement room a few doors down from Studio A on West Grand (which was simply known as the Motown “mixing room”), Russ was mixing elaborately recorded eight track masters into mono and stereo masterpieces. Here is a small collection of great photos of the original studios on West Grand, including shots of Berry Gordy and Russ in the basement mixing room.

MOTOWN HITSVILLE DETROIT STUDIO A

HITSVILLE STUDIO A CONTROL BOARD

BERRY GORDY AND RUSS IN THE MOTOWN GRAND BOULEVARD MIXING ROOM
(Black And White Photos © Ed Wolfrum, Used by Permission)

Meanwhile, Ralph’s studio, Tera Shirma, was already building up steam as a hot Detroit recording facility, as improvements and expansions were being made to that facility and several regional artists and producers began recording there as well. All in all, 1966 was a very exciting year for the music scene in Motor City!

By 1967, only a year after launching Tera Shirma, Ralph’s studio was on a roll  At the same time, brother Russ had quickly become the new “golden boy” at Motown. Ralph saw that Russ had already become a great engineer in his first year as well, and approached Russ about working for him. Russ thought it would be cool to go work with his brother, especially now that Ralph was in a position to pay him a decent salary!

Russ left Motown in the spring of 1967 to work at Tera Shirma. it quickly became clear to Ralph, and all those working at the studio, just how talented an engineer Russ had already become in his first year working as a recording engineer, and his gifts and talents really came to fruition during the couple of years he worked at the studio.

An impressive string of hits were recorded at Tera Shirma, as many of Detroit’s hottest artists, producers, some of whom worked with Motown, recorded there regularly. Producer John Rhys (Eddins), who had worked previously at Golden World Studios prior to Russ, came in regularly, as did producer OLLIE MCLAUGHLIN, who even leased office space from Ralph. Venerable Motown writers HOLLAND, DOZIER AND HOLLAND worked in the studio, as did guitar impresario DENNIS COFFEY, part of the legendary FUNK BROTHERS group of musicians who graced countless classic Motown hits. Coffey and his production partner MIKE THEODORE used the studio so often that Ralph gave that duo free office space in the building so they could conduct business in between recording sessions!Even the former owner of Golden World, Ed Wingate, himself, booked Tera Shirma studio from time to time for his own company’s recording sessions.

One of the more notable personalities who booked Tera Shirma was a very well-respected Detroit producer and impressario named HARRY BALK. Known as “the record man’s record man,” Harry owned his own label called IMPACT RECORDS and, by the time he first booked Tera Shirma, had already worked for many years with many well known artists and producers in New York (where he did much of his recording at BELL SOUND STUDIOS) and Detroit, including Ollie McLaughlin, who brought DEL SHANNON to Harry. Of course, Harry had worked often at Golden World Studios, and was a member of the large Golden World alumni who passed through the doors of Tera Shirma.

In 1966, Golden World producer JOHN RHYS and EDWIN STARR cut a demo of a song written by Starr called OH HOW HAPPY with a group called the SHADES OF BLUE. One day he met Balk at Tera Shirma and played him the track. Harry liked the demo of the song. Rhys then brought in the best Motown arranger and musicians to record the song. After spending thousands of dollars recording the new master, Rhys and Balk agreed that it simply lacked the “magic” of the demo.So hey added a snare drum and some hand claps to the demo, released it as a record and it became a smash hit!

JOHN RHYS now operates a great blog called BLUEPOWWER.COM. Earlier this year, he posted a really great audio chat with HARRY BALK, where the two reminisce about the production of Del Shannon’s Runaway and the pre-Motown days of the early sixties when they worked together.

By 1968, Harry Balk would become a very vital part of the mighty Motown empire.

Inside the studio things were cranking in 1967, but, outside the walls, serious unrest was brewing in the city. Early in the morning of July 23, 1967, the most devastating riots in the history of Detroit began were ignited. The unbridled violence lasted nearly five days, requiring the mobilization of troops to quell the rioting, which resulted in 43 deaths, over 7.000 people injured and major damage to parts of the city. When it was over, Detroit, and the nation, were reeling.

The part of town where Tera Shirma was located sustained heavy damage in the riots. But, miraculously, the studio survived, totally unscathed!

In my own recent interview with Ralph Terrana, he offered up his own vivid memories of the destruction. “When I arrived to the studio the next day, it was like a city that had been bombed out in a war. Buildings were totally destroyed. It was almost total devastation. It was eerie and quiet, with the smell of burnt out structures and debris everywhere.” Ralph continues the unforgettable story. “But there stood my studio, virtually untouched in the midst of all the rubble, towering above the rubble that surrounded the building! There wasn’t a scratch on the place—not a single broken or even cracked window! I’ll never know for sure, but the rioters and looters must have known that the place was worthy of sparing. This is one of those days you never forget.”

Surviving the infamous Detroit riots of 1967 was an omen, and a call, for Ralph to carry on! Not only did the studio emerge from the tragedy, but business continued at a rapid pace. Things were going well enough, in fact, for Ralph to build a second, larger studio a few doors down the street in a building that had originally been a bank and then, later a large retail store.

Construction began just a couple of months after the riots. Ralph had previously found an incredible contractor/carpenter named LES CHASEY and put Les on the job to build the new studio. With Russ now on board. handling recording sessions in the original studio and even pitching in with construction duties as needed, the new facility was completed in less than six months!

Not only was Tera Shirma’s new “Studio B” larger, but it was equipped with some of the latest recording equipment available at the time. Another very skilled engineer that Ralph had hired named MILAN BOGDAN designed most of the electronics and an advanced new recording console. The first session in the new studio was in February of 1968, about six months after construction had begun! There were a few technical glitches after the new facility first fired up, but the problems were corrected within a few weeks and, by the early spring of 1968, Tera Shirma was chugging along, full speed ahead. Here are some photos…..

TERA SHIRMA STUDIO B INTERIOR AND RECORDING CONSOLE
(Photos © Ed Wolfrum, Used by Permission)
 
 
STUDIO B INTERIOR AND CONTROL ROOM
(Photos Courtesy of Ralph Terrana) 

MILAN BOGDAN AND THE TERA SHIRMA STUDIO B RECORDING CONSOLE
(Photos Courtesy of Ralph Terrana)

Once Tera Shirma’s new studio was up and running, things went very well for the studio. 1968 and early 1969 was a period where a parade of hot artists and producers flocked to record and mix projects in the new facility, and Russ was behind the board day and night working on a major share of them.

Harry Balk, who, by this time, was very well acquainted with the Terrana brothers, had been hired by Berry Gordy to work in creative services for the company, as a combination A&R man and overall creative director. As Harry was now on top of the Detroit scene, he was keenly aware of Tera Shirma’s hot new studio and hot sound.

1968 marked the year when stereo records started to become popular as more and more people were buying higher quality stereo systems for their homes. Balk’s keen senses told him that Motown’s new product should be available in stereo sound, in addition to the traditional mono mixes. But Balk wanted the sound in “true stereo,” instead of just an electronically processed simulated stereo sound that other record labels had began using. Motown’s facilities were not quite up to snuff to accomplish the discrete stereo mixing that Balk wanted, but Tera Shirma’s shiny new recording console and new tape machines were set up to handle the task of mixing discrete stereo, and this technology gave the studio an edge over the competition as soon as the new room opened.

All these years later, the concept of “true stereo” as seen through the eyes at Motown is a bit hazy. Ralph has his own take on it all. “It involved more than just having a stereo tape machine to mix to,” he told me. Being well over four decades ago, he couldn’t remember all the details, but did say that it had to do with the recording console being set up to properly route stereo signals for all stages of the mixing process, including effects, recording and monitoring. Whatever exactly the true stereo sound was all about, suffice it to say that Tera Shirma and Russ had the right stuff to get the job done and being “true stereo” capable brought additional bookings to the facility.

Motown began releasing records branded with the “True Stereo” logo at some point in 1968 and started having Russ perform stereo mixes of some of the label’s previously mixed mono tracks at Tera Shirma shortly after the new studio and control room opened. The “True Stereo”  logo appeared on the label’s stereo albums for the next year or two.

Meanwhile, Russ’ and Ralph’s former band mates, The Sunliners, had recently evolved and renamed their group RARE EARTH. They were soon to become very well known for an inventive sound which was a unique combination of rock and R&B blended with some psychedelic influences. The band got signed to MGM’s VERVE RECORDS label, and recorded an album titled DREAMS/ANSWERS. Of course they came to Tera Shirma to have Russ record and mix the album  in the newly built studio. “Those first Rare Earth mixes were truly brilliant!” comments Ralph. For Russ, it was great to be working with his former band mates again. This time, he was working with his old friends in a place where he had craved to be years earlier—on the other side of the glass! “I had stayed in touch with the guys since leaving the band, and to be working with them again after a few years as their recording engineer was really a great time,” says Russ.

Shortly after the first Rare Earth album was released in 1968, they caught the eye of Harry Balk, and Berry Gordy wanted to try his hand at bringing in some hard rock music to the label. He appointed Balk to spearhead the effort, and Harry’s first act was to sign Rare Earth to Motown. There was a consensus at the company to create a whole new imprint for the new white hard rock acts. The decision was made to name the label after the most promising new act, and give the new label a psychedelic design. Harry Balk’s own keen instincts about what made hit records, his music business savvy and his larger-than-life presence resulted in him yielding considerable influence at the label from the moment he joined the staff. Ralph remembers Harry Balk’s incredible instincts, innovation and energy.

Harry was THE MAN. He had the most acute instincts and abilities when it came to the creative side of the music business! When Berry Gordy brought him into the Motown fold, he immediately took the company up to the next level.”

An impressive  list of  notable artists and producers recorded at Tera Shirma from late 1966 through most of 1969, not the least of which was MITCH RYDER, FRIJID PINK and George Clinton’s new FUNKADELIC group. Holland, Dozier and Holland recorded the smash hit BAND OF GOLD by FREDA PAYNE at the studio. If some of the producer’s and artist’s names are sounding familiar, it’s no coincidence. With the former Golden World Studios no longer open to the public, Tera Shirma ended up with many of the studios former clients. This contributed greatly to the studio’s quick rise to prominence in the city beginning late in1966 following Motown’s acquisition of Golden World.

Here are videos of Freda Payne lip-synching Band Of Gold on Soul Train in 1970 and a television appearance of Frijid Pink playing House Of The Rising Sun!

In an elaborate retrospective piece published online at the SOULFUL DETROIT website several years ago, Ralph stated his feelings about his gifted brother.

When Russ was working with me at Tera Shirma, he was developing into one hell of an engineer. One day Stax records booked time to work on a project that they were hot on. His name was ISAAC HAYES. My brother mixed the project for them and blew everyone away! The album was HOT BUTTERED SOUL which went on to achieve legendary status.”

The original rhythm tracks and lead vocals for HOT BUTTERED SOUL, produced by Hayes along with legendary Memphis record man AL BELL, were recorded at ARDENT STUDIO in Memphis by an engineer named TERRY MANNING. The original musicians were Memphis’ renowned BAR-KAYS. The tracks were shipped to Detroit, where engineer Ed Wolfrum recorded the orchestral overdubs, background vocals  and a few lead vocal “touch-ups” at another legendary Detroit Studio called UNITED SOUND SYSTEMS (that, like Golden World, had played host to scores of the city’s most fabled music figures). Russ then mixed the album at Tera Shirma, after Bell brought the tapes to the studio to have some reference mixes of the album performed there. Al liked the sound of the “rough” mixes so much that he asked Russ to perform the final mixes. The album, along with many others at the time, were on such tight production deadlines that Russ would be mixing one of the tracks while another was still being finished at United Sound. He fondly recalls, “It was all so crazy. There would be a knock on the door of the studio at some crazy hour and it would be a taxi driver with a master tape in his hand that he had been hired to drive over from United!”

Released in the summer of 1969, The Isaac Hayes Hot Buttered Soul album only had four cuts, one of which was a twelve minute cover version of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David song “Walk On By,” which is now considered to be a R&B classic. The album is, to this day, still considered to be one of the definitive R&B albums of the late sixties, firmly establishing a place in music history for Hayes, who would go on to achieve further fame with his memorable theme from the black exploitation film SHAFT. Hot Buttered Soul has been remastered and re-released on CD over the last twenty years, the most recent being a Super Audio CD (SACD) release this past summer.

Here is a video clip of Isaac Hayes performing a shortened version of the song on the short-lived ABC prime time television show MUSIC SCENE in October of 1969.

In the latter part of the sixties, most of the major recording going on in Motor City had become very much a “family affair,” with the same group of producers bouncing around the same small group of recording studios. Tera Shirma was one of them, and enjoyed a very wild ride in late in 1966 until the spring of 1969. Despite the riots, they had been very good years for the studio. But the winds of change were blowing in Motor City, and the heady times for Russ and Ralph at the recently expanded studio were to be very short lived.

Years before the 1967 riots in Detroit, social unrest had been on the rise, “white flight” had been occurring and parts of Motor City had started a slow slide into decay. After the riots, the heyday of Detroit’s thriving music business music business was fading fast. But, as the smaller Detroit labels dropped off the map and competition lessened, the “king of the hill,” Motown Records, bucked the trend, continuing to prosper and grow even stronger.

During the same period, Tera Shirma had achieved its own success very quickly, due in a large part to Motown’s takeover of it’s competitors, not the least of which was Golden World. Tera Shirma’s rapid rise to notoriety in the closely-knit Detroit music community had given Ralph the confidence he needed to build the second studio less than two years after first launching Tera Shirma from the remains of Rainbow Studio.

The ambitious expansion of Tera Shirma turned out to be ill-timed, however. In the spring of 1969, barely a year after Studio B opened to much fanfare, business at the studio slowed considerably, and Ralph’s debts were mounting fast. Ralph compares the rapid decline to the deep recession that nearly devastated the economy in 2008. “The turnaround in Detroit’s music business scene happened very quickly,” recalls Ralph. “We were riding so high back in 1967 and 1968 that I just didn’t see it coming. I was blinded by an almost overnight success, and even the riots of ‘67 didn’t deter me from charging forward.”

It took just a few months. By the summer of 1969, business had all but dried up. But, while Tera Shirma was struggling by 1969, Motown Records was thriving, and had lots of mixing that needed to be done for all its shining stars, including Rare Earth.

The signing of Rare Earth was, in its own right, a pivotal point for Motown. Rare Earth was the first white group to have a #1 hit with Motown! The band’s first Motown album, and it’s monster hit single GET READY, was a great blend of rock and roll with classic “Motown Sound,” leading many to believe that the label’s first hot white act was a contemporary black group when the album and single were first released!

While the city may have been crumbling around it, Motown records  seemed unstoppable.

Ralph recalls what happened in the summer of 1969 in the Soulful Detroit article. “Russ was hanging on with me, but business was not good. I received a call from Harry Balk one day, who was now running the creative division at Motown after successfully launching the Rare Earth label.” Ralph continues, “Harry asked if Motown could use Russ part time for some sessions there. I agreed, and Russ began dividing his time between Motown and what little work there was at Tera Shirma.”

A short time later, Ralph saw the writing on the wall. Russ had already become one of the city’s best—and best known—recording engineers, and was now back working at the mammoth label that was the sole remaining powerful force of the music business in Detroit. Ralph sums up his brother’s bright future.

The producers at Motown were already swarming around Russ like hungry buzzards. He was well on his way to becoming one of the world’s premier recording engineers.”

Russ reflects about working at his brother’s studio “The days I spent at Tera Shirma were lots of fun and there was so much great music coming out of those studios. We had our disagreements and argued every once in a while, as brothers do. But it was nice working with Ralph, and there were lots of good times I’ll never forget.”

Ralph let Russ go, no doubt to the delight of Harry Balk and Berry Gordy. “Motown was so successful at that time. I think that Berry and Harry were happy to have me back as part of the team,” Russ says.

It wasn’t long before Tera Shirma bit the dust. It was a pretty quick, albeit painful death, that followed a very short, but vibrant life. Ralph sums it up. “Mighty Tera Shirma was basically a flash in the pan. We rose out of nothing, exploded on the scene and died in about a three year period.”

THE OLD TERRA SHIRMA STUDIO B BUILDING IN DETROIT (1990)

The studio was sold at a loss a short time later, in early 1970. The new owners didn’t exactly turn things around. “I think they made two payments and then defaulted. Then they proceeded to steal just about everything they could get out of the place,” Ralph recalls. While the demise of Tera Shirma was pretty devastating for Ralph, it had marked a turning point for his brother Russ.

TO BE CONTINUED……

Story Text Copyright ©2009 Joe Klein/New Media Creative. All rights reserved.

A heartfelt thanks to Russ and Ralph Terrana for their stories and input, and to the SOULFUL DETROIT website for a wealth of information and the additional memorable photos in this story. You can read the whole story about Tera Shirma Studio, as told by Ralph himself, on the website. CLICK HERE to check it out.

Coming up in PART TWO of BEHIND THE MOTOWN MIXING BOARD WITH RUSS TERRANA, the fate of Tera Shirma may have been sealed, but Russ and Ralph carry on in Motor City. Russ relocates to Hollywood in the early seventies, where he continues to mix music history for nearly two more decades. The story continues, exclusively, on the NEW MEDIA CREATIVE blog!

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