{"id":38229,"date":"2022-01-28T01:36:39","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T09:36:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=38229"},"modified":"2022-01-27T18:48:58","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T02:48:58","slug":"ben-minks-impressive-cv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2022\/01\/28\/ben-minks-impressive-cv\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Mink\u2019s impressive CV"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ben Mink is one of the musicians featured in Under the Radar, by David Eisenstadt.\u00a0<\/em>(photo from sonicperspectives.com<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0***<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
David Eisenstadt (photo from tcgpr)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Under the Radar: 30 Notable Canadian Jewish Musicians, which I wrote with Alan L. Simons (editor), takes an historical approach, covering musicians of most genres and genders, some alive and others having passed on, all skilled, but excelling somewhat out of sight. This is the second in a three-part series of excerpts from the book, which was released last November, and is available in paperback and as an ebook from amazon.ca. The excerpts feature performers with B.C. roots:\u00a0Robert Silverman<\/a>, Ben Mink and Mike Kobluk.<\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ben Mink is best recognized as k.d. lang\u2019s longtime collaborator \u2013 together they penned the hit tune\u00a0\u201cConstant Craving,\u201d and more. Mink is also the \u201cMovie Music King,\u201d wrote Glen Schaefer in Victoria\u2019s Times Colonist<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Mink has worked with many talented musicians \u2013 including Susan Aglukark, the Barenaked Ladies, Elton John, Feist, Geddy Lee and Rush, Heart, Anne Murray, Roy Orbison and Wynonna Judd. How did this Canadian songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and music producer assemble such an impressive CV?<\/p>\n

The son of Polish Jewish Holocaust survivors, who was raised in Toronto, said, \u201cMy formative years were steeped in Jewish music and popular folk-country, blues and rock. My father, raised in a strict Ger Chassidic household, had a wonderful voice and took every opportunity to use it. My mother was less religious, but from a very cultured Warsaw family.\u201d<\/p>\n

In January 1969, Mink joined Mary-Lou Horner, the rock\/country house band at Toronto\u2019s landmark club, the Rock Pile. \u201cWe opened for great bands including Led Zeppelin,\u201d said Mink. He then performed with the Blazing Zulus, Stringband, FM, and Murray McLauchlan\u2019s Silver Tractors.<\/p>\n

\"image<\/a>On Rush\u2019s 1982 album Signals<\/em>, Mink played electric violin.\u00a0In 2000, he co-wrote, produced and played violin and guitar on Lee\u2019s\u00a0My Favourite Headache<\/em>. He recorded with Rush again on their 2007 album\u00a0Snakes & Arrows<\/em> and appeared\u00a0live with them on their 2015 final R40 tour.<\/p>\n

Mink connected with k.d. lang while with the French Canadian band CANO during the World Science Fair in 1985 in Tsukuba, Japan. This led to recording her first major album for Sire Records,\u00a0Angel with a Lariat<\/em>. Thus began a nearly 20-year collaboration where he performed, co-wrote and produced several of her albums. He also played violin, guitar and mandolin with her band, the Reclines.<\/p>\n

All of Mink\u2019s collaborations with k.d. lang are too numerous to mention here, but he co-wrote eight songs on Ing\u00e9nue<\/em>, including \u201cConstant Craving,\u201d and co-produced the record. \u201cConstant Craving\u201d garnered k.d. lang the 1992 Grammy for best female pop vocal performance.<\/p>\n

Mink has also played with Willie P. Bennett, Bruce Cockburn, Dan Hill, Mendelson Joe, Sarah McLachlan, Methodman, Prairie Oyster, Raffi, Jane Siberry, Ian and Sylvia Tyson and Valdy.<\/p>\n

The \u201cMovie Music King\u201d provided the soundtrack to\u00a0Fifty Dead Men Walking<\/em>, winning a Leo for best musical score for a feature-length drama and a 2010 Genie Award nomination for best achievement in music – original score.<\/p>\n

Mink has garnered awards for TV soundtracks as well, including a 2007 Gemini for best biography documentary program, Confessions of an Innocent Man<\/em>, a story about British-Canadian engineer William Sampson.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on his Jewish upbringing, Mink said, \u201cThat old-world sensibility has informed every project I\u2019ve worked on, including\u00a0Ing\u00e9nue<\/em>, which owes a debt to klezmer and Yiddish cabaret. It\u2019s the paradigm by which I process most everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mink is one of a few artists who has ever shared songwriting credit with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. He and k.d. lang received co-credit for the Rolling Stones single\u00a0\u201cAnybody Seen My Baby\u201d in 1997, after Richard\u2019s daughter noted the chorus was similar to\u00a0\u201cConstant Craving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rounding up the overview of his many collaborations, Mink produced\/ performed on the Black Sea Station\u2019s debut record,\u00a0Transylvania Avenue<\/em>, and more than one recording with Chava Alberstein, as well as with the Klezmatics, Finjan and others.<\/p>\n

While a prolific collaborator, Mink has only released one recording under his name,\u00a0Foreign Exchange <\/em>(1980\/Passport Records).<\/p>\n

Mink taught at the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser and Western Washington universities and lectured at New York University.<\/p>\n

Since 2018, he has \u201cmentored up-and-coming performers and [done] community service. He serves on the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra board and the VSO School of Music.\u201d<\/p>\n

From his Vancouver home, Mink said he is busy \u201cexperimenting with ambient electronic soundscapes, writing nautical fiddle tunes and curating my parent\u2019s personal musical archives.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ben Mink is one of the musicians featured in Under the Radar, by David Eisenstadt.\u00a0(photo from sonicperspectives.com) \u00a0*** Under the Radar: 30 Notable Canadian Jewish Musicians, which I wrote with Alan L. Simons (editor), takes an historical approach, covering musicians of most genres and genders, some alive and others having passed on, all skilled, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38232,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[784],"tags":[21217,21218,21161],"class_list":["post-38229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-ben-mink","tag-k-d-lang","tag-under-the-radar"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}