Jon Tiven (born January 3, 1955 in New Haven, Connecticut) is a composer, guitarist and record producer. He has produced albums by Wilson Pickett, Frank Black and Don Covay as well as a series of tribute albums paying tribute to the songwriting of Don Covay, Arthur Alexander, Otis Blackwell, Curtis Mayfield, and Van Morrison.
He was a founder of the bands The Yankees and The Jon Tiven Group. Tiven began his career as a music journalist in the late 1960s, writing for Rolling Stone, Fusion, Melody Maker, and a host of other magazines. Initially an alto saxophonist, he taught himself to play a variety of instruments and became fairly adept at guitar, enough to write songs and accompany himself. In 1975 Tiven went to work for Chess Records in New York, but quickly saw that working inside a record company was not his calling. Alex Chilton's called him and asked if he'd produce a solo album, so Tiven went to Memphis and did a week of sessions with Chilton which would be initially released as an EP called The Singer Not The Song, later an album called Bach's Bottom.
Upon returning to New York, Tiven licensed the Chilton masters as well as other Memphis recordings he had made to Ork Records, the first New Wave/punk rock label. He soon split to produce for Big Sound Records, where he produced records by Van Duren and his own band The Yankees, but losing faith in those running the label he became totally independent. In addition to playing on sessions for artists such as Major Lance ("I've Got A Right To Cry") and The Rolling Stones ("Jivin Sister Fanny"), Tiven honed his craft as a member of The Jim Carroll Band, as a guitarist/organist and also cowriting with Carroll the title song of the second album ("Dry Dreams"). Befriended by John Belushi, he formed The Tom Davis Experience featuring Al Franken with the two comedians, and had a featured acting role as well as writing and performing five songs for their film One More Saturday Night (Columbia Pictures, 1986). The music was performed by said band under the name Badmouth and was produced by Jerry Garcia, while the film was produced by Dan Aykroyd.
Other artists such as Rick Derringer, Barrence Whitfield & the Savages, and The Symptoms started recording his songs, and Tiven dedicated himself to primarily writing songs for other artists. In 1985 he renewed a friendship with his hero Don Covay, and they wrote, performed, and recorded together through 2001. A label approached him to make his own record, and so was formed The Jon Tiven Group who recorded two albums, Blue Guru and Yes I Ram in 1996 and 1999 respectively. Tiven started having some Billboard top 100 chart success with covered songs recorded by Huey Lewis & the News and The Jeff Healey Band, and Tiven then submitted some songs to B.B. King to record. To his surprise King's manager asked him to produce B.B. The sessions Tiven produced and wrote by B.B. King were parcelled out on several releases, including Here And There, a European release Lucille & Friends, and the Grammy-award winning box set King Of The Blues. From that time on Tiven would distinguish himself in the Soul/Blues field, writing and producing new albums by Don Covay, Syl Johnson, Donnie Fritts, Freddie Scott, and Sir Mack Rice to name but a few. He coaxed Arthur Alexander out of retirement in 1990 and in 1998 produced and cowrote Wilson Pickett's first album in seventeen years, It's Harder Now, which won three prestigious W.C. Handy Awards and in addition was nominated for a Grammy. Tiven continued to have his songs recorded by other artists--- Robert Cray had a top seller with the cover "24-7 Man," Johnny Winter with "I Smell Smoke," Buddy Guy with "Midnight Train," Shemekia Copeland with "Married To The Blues," Irma Thomas with "Trying To Catch A Cab In The Rain," and Australian Ian Moss with "Mr. Rain."
After the Jon Tiven Group disbanded, he was not content to rest on his laurels, so Tiven busied himself in the new millenium by discovering, producing and cowriting a series of albums with soul/blues singer Ellis Hooks who was heralded as following in the tradition of Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, and James Brown. Moving from New York to Nashville in 2002, he produced a series of well-received albums by Frank Black, previously best known as lead singer and songwriter with the band Pixies. In 2004 he produced and cowrote what would become Little Milton's last recorded effort Think Of Me, which received glowing praise from critics and four W.C. Handy Awards, including song of the year for the title track which Tiven wrote with Milton and U.K. blues guitarist Peter Shoulder. In 2005 he convinced legendary singer/songwriter P.F. Sloan to make a new record Sailover, which Tiven produced, and it was the subject of great reviews and much international attention.
Tiven began 2007 in style by producing/writing Is Anybody Out There?, a new spiritual album by the incomparable Garnet Mimms. He also produced and wrote Intuition, the first recordings in thirty-seven years by legendary soul singer Betty Harris. He continued his body of work with Ellis Hooks by producing Another Saturday Morning, the sixth album by the Alabama soul/rock hybrid. Tiven also helmed the chart-topping American debut Sofa King Badass by blues/soul singer (and harmonica player) Mason Casey. Touring Europe with a new band Jon Tiven & the Nashville Aces, he introduced his nine-piece outfit backing Ellis, Betty, and Sir Mack Rice. Later in 2007 Tiven produced an album by former Grass Roots member Creed Bratton (who has distinguished himself more recently as a cast member of the television show The Office).
2008 saw Tiven producing and writing a new album by legendary soul/blues singer Howard Tate, and without missing a beat making a new record with Felix Cavaliere & Steve Cropper for the Stax label.
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