Cinema has been described by the legend music executive John McClain, in a SPIN magazine article, "as the cutting edge, ahead of it's time."
The History of Cinema
Craig Holliman was born and raised in Flint, Michigan. He began playing bass guitar at the age of 12. He recalls, "This was when James Brown used to come out with a new jam every month during the summer, there was always a new groove to learn." As a kid, Craig used to walk downtown to a place called "Wilson Park." It was an outdoor park, that featured a stage, and a huge landscape of hills and grass. An estimated three thousand music fans would gather on the weekends, every summer, to sit and watch local bands perform for free. Craig watched too. He studied bands like, Hunts Determination and The JCCLB Movement, and in particular, every bass player. He dreamed of performing bass solos to standing ovations at the park one day.
It didn't take long for Craig to reach that dream while performing with a couple of groups he had put together, "Mind, Body and Soul" and later "Sapphire." He was soon regarded as one of the best bass players the city had ever produced. His early bass influences were Michael Henderson, Bobby Watson of Rufus and Chaka Chan, New Birth, Mandrill, Marshall Jones of The Ohio Players, James Jamerson, Stanley Clark, and Jaco Pastorious. No bassist influenced him more than Verdine White of Earth Wind, and Fire.
Sometimes those Sapphire performances came at the expense of a few other Flint musical greats. Craig recalls, "My brother's wife Hilda Gentry was a bassist too, she would always come down to the basement where I practiced, to encourage and watch me play." "She managed her brothers group, the twins Melvin and Calvin Gentry, and Bo Watson who were definitely viewed as the finest musicians in the city at the time." "Melvin on guitar and drums, Calvin on bass and Bo on piano were simply astonishing." "I used to show up at the garage, in the middle of their practice session, and take the shared P.A. system my brother had purchased for us both. "Hey guys, we have a gig tonight," I would explain. "Melvin would be so mad at me." Melvin and Bo eventually became members of Midnight Star.
The group Sapphire also featured powerhouse vocalist Kimberly Wright who was heavily influenced by Chaka Chan. Craig says, "I meet Kim when we were 13. She was singing in the hallway of school one day. I've never heard her sing an off pitch note. She has the gift of Chaka and the quirkiness of Gwen Stefani rolled into one, even back then she was amazing."
There was something about one of the groups that performed at Wilson Park that stood out from the rest. Sound. JCCLB Movement's sound was spectacular. It sounded "like a record playing." National recording acts didn't sound that good live. "Kim and I used to look at each other and say, one day we're gonna get that sound." Craig found the secret to the Movement's amazing live sound quality, in the group's guitarist, Bernard Terry.
"Bernard is a sound engineering genius," says Craig. This guy found the best components on the market and built the P.A. Speakers from scratch." "He had crossovers, the system was tri-amped, limiters, reverbs, delays and to top it all off, he ran the sound from the stage! Sitting next to his guitar rig was the mixing board! Simply incredible," says Craig
Sapphire did eventually get that sound. After being rival bands, JCCLB Movement recruited drummer great Sylvester "Buster" Fuller from Sapphire. About a year later Buster called Craig to join the Movement and the name was changed to "The Alpha Band. "I was just about to join this group Sheldon Reynolds, a guitarist who later joined Earth, Wind and Fire, was in. Buster called me the night before I was leaving." A few months later, Craig called Kim to join.
"We were the tightest group in the state," Craig recalls. "The syncopated arranging was unsurpassed." "We played everywhere, and for everyone." "When Magic Johnson went to the NBA, we played at the party, when Thomas Hearns fought Sugar Ray Leonard, we played at the party." We opened at all the arenas and were booked out an entire year in advance, playing every week." Charles Brown was hired, trained and took over as the band's house audio engineer, full time.
Bernard and Craig submerged themselves into the world of audio. They traveled often to sound engineering seminars, pro audio vendors that featured the highest quality products and other studios, learning from everyone. "We absorbed all we could about sound engineering and recording," says Craig "I started to get deep into the production of quality records and song-writing." "We studied the engineering and mixing greats, Roger Nichols, Lee Herschberg. George Massenburg, Bruce Swedien and Mic Guzauski.
"I was heavily influenced by Maurice White, Charles Stepney and Earth, Wind and Fire." To me, they had it all, great songs, great singing, great musicians, great engineering, great management, great shows, and a great record label." "Stevie Wonder was also an enormous influence with his brilliant writing, production, and singing." "Steely Dan, Angela Winbush, Michael McDonald, Quincy Jones, The Police, The Isleys, Gino Vannelli, Tears for Fears, etc... it goes on and on." "There was just so much good music at the time."
"Bernard and I both had our little recording rigs on the road, but Bernard upped the ante when he bought the Tascam 8 track reel to reel recorder, man that changed everything." Bernard's basement was converted from Alpha's practice space to Silver Sun Studios. "We had one little room, but the sound was amazing." "In fact, the old vocal booth in the basement (Bernard has since built a separate facility in his garage) was the mix room!" "It was everything." "We cut our teeth there," says Craig. Soon after, the recording industry started listening. "Our 8 track demos were mistaken for 24 tracks or more."
After performing with and managing the extremely successful circuit group Alpha, Craig left the band to spend more time in the studio, "I wanted to work on a solo project after being frustrated with trying to get other people to record." Bernard followed, opening the studio to the public. Buster moved to Dallas, and joined The Mac Band along with Mind, Body and Soul's guitarist Mark Harper.
In addition to Craig's projects, there were artist such as Ready for The World, Davina, Dez Philips, and later MC Breed, Top Authority, and The Dayton Family all securing major recording contracts and working out of Silver Sun Studios (now called area52studios).
Craig played his demo for Glo Management's Pablo Davis and Elze White. They were part of Mididnight Star's management team. Melvin Gentry and the guys had recently discovered Kenneth Edmonds (later known as Babyface) and recorded his song "Slow Jams" on their album. Pablo had come to Flint to check on Kenneth who was playing with a circuit group at the airport Holiday Inn. Pablo asked Craig to join him out and introduced him to Kenneth. The Deele, Kenneth's and L.A. Reid's group, were signed to Midnight Star's production company and became Glo Management's second major act. Glo heavily recruited Craig to become their third act and had an offer from Russ Reagan's office (the Pop division) at Polygram Records, on the table. "Glo asked me if I would add a song called "I'll Send You Roses" by Kenneth to my project," Craig reflects. "I still have his demo in my cassette box." While reviewing the contracts sent by Glo, Craig got a call from Melvin advising him not to proceed with the deal. Melvin informed him of problems that the group was having with the management team and the Calloway brothers. Craig sent Polygram a letter informing them that he was no longer affiliated with Glo.
Soon after, Ready for The World had released a single called "Tonight" on their own label locally. The record created a buzz and attracted the attention of Detroit based twin sisters, and entertainment attorneys, Lloyd and Lloyd. They were new to the business. Bernard introduced the Lloyds to Craig. The Lloyds had arranged a live record company showcase for Ready for The World and Davina at a night club in Detroit. They asked Craig if he'd like to showcase as well, and if he and Bernard would take a photo with them at a studio in Detroit, for an article they were doing for Ebony magazine. They agreed. Craig also signed a short term agreement with the Lloyds, to shop his demo.
The showcase was on a Saturday night. The club was packed and each act performed 3 songs. At the end of the night, Craig was informed that he was the only one the label was interested in. The label turned out to be Polygram Records again, but this time, Jerome Gasper from the Urban division. (Later, Ready for The World signed with MCA Records and Davina signed first with Colombia, then Loud Records) "Everything was fine," says Craig "Until I got a direct call from Polygram's pop division, they were still interested." The Lloyds didn't like the ideal of me talking to Polygram on my own and thought that I was trying to consummate a deal without them." "That was ridiculous, I had every intention of having an attorney work out my deal, so I ended the relationship with the Lloyds."
"I decided I needed more experienced representation," Craig recalls. "I sent a package to Owen Husney in Minneapolis, (who had managed Prince, Andre Cymone, and Jessie Johnson) and arranged a meeting with attorney Gregory Reed in Detroit (who handled Kim Fields, Rosa Parks and some pro athletes). I then headed back to the studio to work on some new material. This time there would be a twist, I wanted the project to be a group.
Craig founded Cinema in 1985. He recruited Kimberly Wright, and guitarist Mark London also from Alpha. "Mark lived in Detroit and moved to Flint to join the group. He was heavily influenced by Prince, but a passionate and brilliantly creative guitarist." Mark introduced Craig to Christopher Buckingham (the group's live show drummer) who already knew some of the songs at his audition.
Owen called first. He said that he was going to be in Michigan, Jessie Johnson was performing at the civic center in Saginaw. Owen wanted to meet me, could I come up? My mom and I drove up to meet owen at the hotel. Owen was cool, laid back, he said "Did you really write all this stuff?" "I really like the material, let me see what I can do." "There's this guy at A&M named John McClain that I'd like to shoot it to." "I didn't stay for the show," Craig recalls. "My mom and I headed back to flint, and I went back to the studio."
Cinema had finished two new songs, when I got a call from Gregory. "Craig, I think I found a home for you," he said. "How does thursday look for a meeting in Flint at the studio?" Gregory drove up from Detroit and met his party at the Flint airport, then they headed to Bernard's (Silver Sun). "Craig," Gregory said "This is Clive Calder the owner of Jive Records and Barry Weiss his right hand man." "Clive flew over from London to meet you." "I was quite impressed," Craig remembers. "Here was the owner and the president of the label at our studio." "We talked alone, and Clive listened over and over to the new songs we had just finished." "He was so excited, he wanted a record out that summer." "Everything felt right about Clive, he was passionate, he had a clear vision of how to market the material." "I told Gregory, lets do it." Barry said, "We can start the paper work in a couple days." "Let's give Craig X amount of dollars and see what he does," Clive said, "Would you like to come over to London to record?" It was an amazing day.
A couple days later I called Owen. I told him it was great meeting with him , but I was going with Jive Records. "What?" Owen said, "Wait a minute, stay by the phone I'm gonna call you right back." Fifth-teen minutes later, the phone rings. "Craig?" Owen says, "I have John McClain on the line with us." "Hey man," John begins, "You see what's happening with Janet right now?" Janet Jackson's Control album was on fire at that moment. "I did that," he continued. "I worked with Jimmy and Terry, sent them back to the studio, they didn't even have Nasty we they first delivered the album, I put the promotion team together, she's moving x amount of units per week." I can do the same for you." "How much are they offering you?" "We can match that, and I know you need some new studio equipment, we can work that out too." " You don't want to record in London," Owen adds. "What if those accents start to get on your nerves after working all day." The two of them went on and on," Craig recalls.
I called Gregory and told him about the A&M offer and he was not happy. He contacted Jive and told them what was going on and to my surprise, they said they were not going to increase their offer. "We don't want to get into a bidding war," is exactly what they said. "If Craig wants to go with those guys, that's fine, if it doesn't work out, we can talk later." I didn't know what to think. I was still leaning towards Jive, because of Clive's initial enthusiasm, I just wasn't expecting them to give up so easily. I didn't care about a bidding war. I just wanted the right team. Jive was still pretty new at the time, they had Billy Ocean, Whodini, Johnatan Butler and Kool Moe Dee but there was something that I saw in Clive eyes. I found out years later that Clive Calder did not negotiate artist deals. Ask Will Smith, who left for that reason (that practice has certainly since changed at Jive Records).
Owen wanted me to come to Minneapolis to visit. I stayed at his house for the weekend, he showed me all his old Prince photos, we watched James Brown footage, drove around the lakes and visited his partner and later my friend Ron Soskin in the hospital.
"I spoke with Polygram again, and they were sad that they hadn't moved faster, but thought that I would be happy at A&M. Ted Daryll in the A&R department said that they had lost another potential artist to A&M and everything turned out fine for him, his name was Gino Vanelli. That's funny, I like Gino I thought to myself." Jerome Gasper left Polygram Records and surprised Craig in California with a phone call, from A&M records, were he now worked. Amazing.
"It was a tough decision but I went with John McClain. Its funny because after I decided, I started getting calls from other labels I hadn't even contacted. Eric Nuri at Columbia, some guy at Solar Records, I don't even know how they got my number."
"I wonder what would have happened had we went the otter way, and signed with Jive because the promotion at A&M was not there, and things changed at the label by the time the record finally came out in 1988. John McClain left a year later, I was told from a mutual friend that he was very disappointed in the way the label handled our project. I really like John. He did try to look out for me. It just feels like unfinished business."
Cinema's Wrong House album received BET's highest rating ever at the time of release. Belma Johnson who reviewed the album, on BET's Video Soul, gave it a 9+++++ rating. He was quoted later as saying "the album was really a 10, but we never gave anyone a 10 and I didn't want to blow up there heads on a debut album."
In 1993 Craig Holliman, an early fan of hip-hop (as evidenced on cuts like Wrong House and Ribbon Street from Cinema's "Wrong House" album) founded Black Room Studios Inc. (the first rap and hip-hop studio in Minneapolis), after attending the U of M for three years. The studio provides world class recording and mastering services. Craig also writes and directs television commercials and music videos for clients such as Street Knowledge, Mr. Cota, Sandman, Taz Loc and others.
Clive Calder sold Jive Records for a reported 2.7 billion dollars and pocketed 2.3 billion in 2002.
John McClain later helped build Interscope Records, followed by Dreamworks Records. He also managed Michael Jackson.
Copyright 2007 Craig Holliman all rights reserved.
NEW CRAIG HOLLIMAN DIRECTED T.V. COMMERCIAL FOR MR COTA!!!