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| Menu David Fremery.com | DON
DORSEY Consultant pour les parcs Disney et Directeur Musical de la Main Street Electrical Parade |
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-Hi Don, Can you please introduce yourself, tell us who you are, what is your job, etc. I am Don Dorsey, living in Anaheim, California (a very short distance from Disneyland). I have my own entertainment consulting company and have done audio production, show design and software design work for Disney parks since 1975. In 1977 I became the Music Director for the Main Street Electrical Parade and wrote and performed the special arrangements of Jean Jacqueís Baroque Hoedown for the parade.
-When have you discovered Jean Jacques Perreyís Music ?
I was 15 years old when I heard both Walter Carlos and the early Perry-Kingsley recordings at about the same time. I became intrigued by the versatility of the synthesizer as both a musical and sonic device. Also, there was a quality to the sound that had a different kind of energy that I found very addictive. It continued to be a curiosity of mine until the summer of 1971, when I was able to borrow some money to purchase a MiniMoog of my own. I made it my goal to learn how to make all those sounds myself!
-Did his music influenced your life ?
I had played guitar, piano and drums for several years and had done quite a bit of multi-layered recording at home by feeding one channel back into another. I was a fan of the Beatles and was very familiar with the stories of the Beatles and George Martin playing tapes backwards and cutting them up in pieces and putting them back together, but I had never any reason to do that myself. When I heard what Jean Jacques did in making the edits into musical ideas of rhythm and texture, I began exploring that too. I became very good with the razor blade and did lots of my own looping and recording. I did not yet recognize that these skills would prepare me so well for my lifeís adventure.
-You have worked on the creation of the Main Street Electrical Parade, can you explain how and why you have chosen Baroque Hoedown ?
I was not involved with the first Electrical Parade except as a spectator. Baroque Hoedown was chosen by Jack Wagner (the Producer of the parade) and arranged by Jim Christensen (the original Music Director). Paul Beaver (of Beaver & Krause) was the synth programmer for the first parade tracks recorded in 1972. It was 1973 when I first saw the parade at Disneyland ñ and I was struck with awe at the lights and the sound. At that moment I knew that I wanted to combine my skills in music and production with the presentation of light and sound events to make some kind of career. I did not know the parade was built on a Jean Jacques piece until two years later when I started working for Disney in 1975. The Electrical Parade was not presented in 1975-1976, but when I learned it was going to come back in 1977, I invented a new opening sequence and made new arrangements which were approved. I had achieved my dream job!
-You have created an opening and a closing of the parade, some additions of Baroque Hoedown, how did you work to keep the same style ?
We were able to obtain a stereo master of Baroque Hoedown from Vanguard Records ñ it was really more of a 2-channel mix and most of the rhythm was on one channel and most of the melody and overdubs were on the other. By using only the rhythm channel as the foundation for the parade, it was easy to add new melodies and sounds on top. It is the amazing texture of this rhythm channel ñ the harpsichord, drums, and synthesizer (and, I suppose, some amount of analog sonic artifacts!) that give the parade its unique sound quality. It glues all the different arrangements together in spite of their thematic differences. By adding a strong baseline and melody, the harmonic form is defined, even if the rhythm chordsare doing something else! To create the opening and closing, I spliced up different chords from the rhythm track and edited them into the new bars of foundation that I needed. I thought, ìthis is how Jean Jacques would do it!î And then, all I needed to do was add melodies on top and it matched perfectly with the original track.
-There is a remixed version of Baroque Hoedown, used for Tokyo Disney Electrical Parade Dreamlights. Who have had the idea of recreate this parade after Fantillusion, and why was Baroque Hoedown kept for this parade ?
Even after Fantillusion replaced the Electrical Parade in Tokyo, Baroque Hoedown remained very popular in Japan. As we have seen at all the Disney parks, the Electrical Parade has become somewhat of a tradition ñ a Disney Character in its own way. Baroque Hoedown is the real personality; no other tune can do what it has done. No matter what the parade evolves to look like, the tune is the charm and wit that defines it forever. The magic is in the melody. Fantillusion tried to incorporate some musical similarities, but it did not reach the heart in the same way. When a new Electrical Parade came back to Tokyo, it had to be the same character ñ it had to be Baroque Hoedown, even though it had become a more ìgrown upî character. My good friend Greg Smith took the best parts of the original parade and created wonderful new musical adventures to go along with them.
-When have you meet Jean Jacques for the first time ? Can you describe when it was ?
In 2003, I was contacted by MediaDreams about their DVD project for Disneyland Paris ìFrom One Lightbulb to Anotherî. Mathias Ervyn showed me a clip of an interview with Jean Jacques and I was so happy to see him in the program! The last work I did with the Electrical Parade was in 1985 so I had not given it much thought in a long time, but I knew I wanted to meet and talk with Jean Jacques. We exchanged emails and when he was coming to Los Angeles to promote his new CD in 2006, we made arrangements to meet. I saw him perform with Dana Countryman in Los Angeles and then we spent the next evening at Disneyland watching the Electrical Parade together. After all those years of ìworking apartî we were finally able to share a celebration of our work together!
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