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2009 saw Ira Schickman step out of the studio, and onto the stage, with his all-star Funk Revue, The Funktional Allstars, who have been funkin’ up stages around New York, and are poised for an international tour in summer, 2010. Featuring bass legend Ron Long and other music greats, The Funktional Allstars are here and ready to throw down!
About Ira Schickman:
Over the past two decades, producer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist, Ira Schickman, (a.k.a. Ira Schick) has worked with some of the most legendary recording artists in the music industry. The range and depth of his talent has resulted in successful collaborations with an eclectic array of artists from Chaka Khan to Kylie Minogue.
From the start, Ira found himself surrounded and mentored by some of the most famous musicians in the world, including George Clinton, Stevie Wonder, Stanley Sheldon, Charlie Wilson, Lenny White and George Benson. As a teenager Ira also co-wrote songs with legendary artists such as Chaka Khan and Ace Frehley of KISS.
Ira played a principal role in building Calliope Studios, and was instrumental in placing it at the center of the hip-hop movement. Under Ira's leadership, the studio helped ignite the careers of icons such as De La Soul, Queen Latifah and A Tribe Called Quest.
In 1994, building on his success at Calliope, Ira founded Funktional Productions, where he focused on writing and producing R&B and Soul, while working with singers such as Marc Dorsey, Calvin Richardson and Rahsaan Patterson. That same year, Ira signed a major publishing deal with Warner Chapel Publishing, solidifying his standing as a prominent songwriter.
In 2000, Ira wrote "Spinning Around" with Kara Dioguardi and Paula Abdul, for Kylie Minogue – which went platinum several times over as an international number one hit and won Kylie Best Pop Release at the prestigious ARIA Awards in Australia. "Spinning Around" was responsible for re-establishing Kylie as a worldwide superstar. Continuing his successful rise in the genre of pop, Ira composed "Falling" for N'SYNC's album, Celebrity, which was also included on the soundtrack for the Miramax Film, On the Line.
Aside from his numerous album credits Ira has also composed original songs for film and television. He wrote, produced and performed the title track of Universal Film Loving Jezebel, entitled "They Don't Know." He produced the title track, "Have A Little Faith in Me" for the film Disappearing Acts starring Wesley Snipes. Ira co-wrote and produced "Caught Up" for Queen Latifah's box office hit, Beauty Shop and wrote and produced "Let's Roll", by Chaka Khan, for the Fox–Searchlight film Roll Bounce, starring Bow Wow and Nick Cannon.
Ira was honored to be included as a producer on Power of Soul: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix, which he again teamed with Chaka Khan on the Jimi classic, Little Wing. The two, then set out to work again on “Back Again” for Soulive’s album, Breakout.
Building on their successful partnership, Ira and Chaka, hit the studio to record "Shining Star" for Maurice White’s album, Interpretations: Celebrating the Music of Earth, Wind & Fire. Ira was also a producer, writer and musician on Chaka Khan's two-time Grammy award winning album Funk This (2008).
In a cross promotion with Google, Ira and veteran singer, writer and producer, Dinky Bingham, reunited their R&B group The Construction Brothers to record their single “Karma” which was featured for the launch of T-Mobile’s G1 phone. Later that year, their song “Hit Hard” was featured in the Fox film Notorious (2009), the story of Notorious B.I.G.
Ira makes music that crosses musical boundaries and genres. It is very rare that a producer is respected and sought after by the top Rock, Funk, R&B, Pop, Hip-Hop, and Soul artists and has the success he has had in each of these genres.
In addition to being a writer of hit songs and a Grammy award-winning producer, Ira is first and foremost, an artist and musician. He sings plays guitar, bass, keyboards, drums and his trademark Talk Box.
2009 saw Ira step out of the studio, and onto the stage, with his all-star Funk Revue, The Funktional All-stars, who have been funkin’ up stages around New York, and are poised for an international tour in summer, 2010. |
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