Trevor Rabin

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Trevor Rabin

Trevor Charles Rabin (born January 13, 1954 in Johannesburg ) is a South African rock musician and composer , who also gained fame through his film scores . He mainly plays guitar and keyboard .

Life

Rabbitt (until 1978)

Singer, songwriter and guitarist Trevor Rabin began his career with the South African band Rabbitt , who released their three albums Boys Will Be Boys (1976), Croak & A Grunt In The Night (1977) and Rock Rabbitt in their home country in the 1970s (1978) became popular.

Start of solo career in England (1978–1981)

After leaving the band, Rabin went to London to start a solo career. He recorded there the three guitar rock albums Trevor Rabin (1978), Face To Face (1979) and Wolf (1981). Manfred Mann and Jack Bruce (ex- Cream ) can be heard on Wolf , which was produced by Ray Davies in his Konk Studios .

Since 1980, there have been several attempts to found a supergroup around Trevor Rabin, which, given its solo albums, was thought to be very suitable for the charts , mediated by managers and record companies, including above all the former Yes manager Brian Lane and the newly founded label Geffen Records . One possible lineup that did not materialize, however, included Rabin, former Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman , former King Crimson , Uriah Heep and UK member John Wetton, and Carl Palmer from Emerson, Lake and Palmer . Then Keith Emerson tried to bring a band together with Rabin and bassist Jack Bruce. After the formation of the band Asia , its members Wetton, Palmer, Steve Howe and Geoff Downes initially thought of hiring a second singer in addition to Wetton, and a number of musicians were invited, again including Trevor Rabin, but ultimately it was decided against , especially because Wetton didn't want to split up the vocals and Howe didn't want to split up the guitar work. Rabin had played the songs Here Comes the Feeling and Starry Eyes (later Only Time Will Tell ) with the band . Rabin ultimately decided on an offer from the former Yes rhythm section.

For Yes (1981-1994)

When Rabin met Yes bassist Chris Squire and drummer Alan White from the British progressive rock band Yes for the first time in 1981, after being mediated by his record company , the band actually no longer existed: singer Jon Anderson was no longer on the album Drama (1980) there, as well as keyboardist Rick Wakeman . Both had been replaced for the aforementioned album by Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes from The Buggles , who, however, soon left the band. Squire and White had only drawn attention to themselves since Drama with the single Run with the Fox . Sessions with Robert Plant and Jimmy Page did not lead to the hoped-for collaboration as XYZ ("Ex Yes Zeppelin").

Although the first sessions with Rabin, Squire and White (they played XYZ material at first) were, according to everyone involved, a musical disaster, everyone got along so well that it was decided to continue the collaboration. Rabin, Squire and White wanted to start a new band called Cinema with keyboardist Tony Kaye (also formerly active in Yes) . When Jon Anderson showed interest in the new song material, which now consisted exclusively of Rabin's ideas (at least 24 songs in demo form) and insisted on the name "Yes", the project was renamed - not to Rabin's delight, who was uncomfortable with the thought of being seen by the old Yes fans as a replacement for Steve Howe and being held responsible for the band's change of style. When exactly this happened, the first friction arose in the band, especially between Rabin and Anderson, who after 90125 wanted to take a more traditional path in the sense of progressive rock. However, Rabin also made his way on Big Generator with his pop-rock-oriented style. In fact, it was not Rabin that was the reason for the change in style, but rather the departure from the collective composing that had shaped the style of Yes in the 1970s.

Rabin, who worked alongside Jon Anderson as a singer, also took part in the production of some of the band's albums in whole ( Talk , 1994) or in part (then together with Trevor Horn and others). Yes owe their greatest commercial success to him, the album 90125 (1983) with the hit single Owner of a Lonely Heart , which, like the entire album, comes largely from Rabin's pen.

Parallel yes formation (2017)

In 2017 there was a second variant of Yes alongside the existing formation around Steve Howe. Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin, Rick Wakeman , Lee Pomeroy and Lou Molino III and others performed live concerts across the UK for the band's 50th birthday . a. at the O2 Apollo Manchester .

Solo and film music (1989 to today)

In 1989 Rabin released the solo LP Can't Look Away between two Yes albums , with which he also went on tour. One of the concerts can be heard on the 2003 album Live in LA .

Rabin also wrote together with the former Supertramp guitarist and singer Roger Hodgson (who was briefly under discussion as Anderson's successor at Yes in the early 1990s), among other things, the song Walls , which was then ultimately sung by Anderson, on Talk (1994) landed. On the other hand, Hodgson's album Open the Door features The More I Look, written and recorded with Rabin . During his time with Yes he also recorded an album as a solo artist - Can't Look Away from 1989. Since leaving in 1994, he has devoted himself almost exclusively to film music.

He composed most of his soundtracks for action films ( Armageddon , Con Air , Duell der Magier ). His close collaboration with Jerry Bruckheimer and his preference for synthesizers and melodic themes shaped his style significantly and made him known worldwide. At the end of 2006, Rabin announced that he was interested in the rock music business again, even the rumor about a return to Yes made the rounds. Rabin has so far neither confirmed nor denied the rumor.

style

Rabin's style, which determines his solo albums as well as all of the Yes albums he created with his collaboration ( 90125 , Big Generator , Union , Talk ), is shaped by mainstream stadium rock of the 1980s, West Coast AOR elements and melodic rock (comparable to that of the bands Journey or Foreigner ), which, influenced by his work with Yes, are sometimes combined with a few, slightly progressive elements. His guitar playing is much more aligned with American blues rock than Steve Howes , his predecessor (and successor) with Yes. During a joint tour for the album Union in 1991/92, the stylistic contrasts of the two guitarists became particularly clear.

Discography

Albums (with Rabbitt )

  • Boys Will Be Boys (1976)
  • A Croak & a Grunt in the Night (1977)

Albums (Solo)

  • Trevor Rabin (1978)
  • Face to Face (1979)
  • Wolf (1981)
  • Can't Look Away (1989)
  • Beginnings (old recordings, 2003)
  • Live in LA (live recordings from the 1980s, 2003)
  • 90124 (Demos and rarities from the Yes period, 2003)
  • Jacaranda (2012)

Albums (with yes )

Soundtracks

Trevor Rabin composed the soundtrack for the following films, among others, or was at least significantly involved in their creation:

literature

  • Trevor Rabin: "My greatest help was innocence" . Interview with Dominik Rolewicz, in: Cinema Musica . Issue 7 / January 2007, pp. 30–38

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Live at the Apollo
personal data
SURNAME Rabin, Trevor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rabin, Trevor Charles (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African rock musician and composer
DATE OF BIRTH January 13, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Johannesburg , South Africa