If audio sampling is one of the hallmarks of hip-hop or rap music, then one of the godfathers of the genre was an elderly white man from California.
His name was Harry Chamberlin.
In 1946, Chamberlin invented the Chamberlin keyboard, an electronic, piano-like instrument that generated sound by playing individual eight-second tape recordings of a live orchestra. These recordings, later called samples, can be played in any note or scale by merely pressing its keys.
Originally intended to re-create a big-band sound, the Chamberlin -- and its UK counterpart, the Mellotron -- was ultimately adopted by rock musicians who couldn't afford to hire orchestras to play on their albums.
The lineup of bands that performed with a Chamberlin or Mellotron keyboard was a veritable who's who of rock musicians from the 1960s, including the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys and David Bowie, among many others.
And although the music of these groups has many fans, few people know about the instrument that was, well, fairly instrumental in the way they sound.
For this reason, filmmaker and musician Dianna Dilworth created "Mellodrama," a documentary that explores the origins of the Chamberlin and Mellotron keyboards, as well as the cult-like group of musicians and keyboard aficionados who continue to use and preserve the memory of this rare and obscure musical instrument.
"Mellodrama" will premier in North Carolina as part of the Revolve Film and Music Festival in Winston-Salem on Friday.
Aside from the fact that she used to play keyboard for bands in San Francisco, one of the reasons Dilworth chose to create "Mellodrama" is because she had many musician friends who knew a lot about keyboards and synthesizers but very little about Chamberlins or Mellotrons.
"They were musicians who knew a lot about instruments, but I thought, 'If these guys don't have the whole picture, I'm sure that other people might not know about this,'" Dilworth says. "I started making phone calls and talking to people about it and found many people were eager to talk because the people who were making music with Mellotrons are still excited about Mellotrons and love talking about Mellotrons."
One of those people was legendary singer-songwriter and former Beach Boy Brian Wilson.
"He was just really amazing, really sweet and very receptive to having us come over and bring this old instrument into his house, which was really nice and really clean, and we're just walking around his house carrying this dirty, old Mellotron around," Dilworth says. "Then he got it fired up and started playing it, and he played 'California Girls,' which is really funny because that is not a melodeon song, but it is one of his big songs that he likes to play, so it was cool to hear on a Mellotron."
Both the Chamberlin and the Mellotron bottomed out in the 1980s after the proliferation of digital synthesizers. It was during this time that musicians could purchase Chamberlins and Mellotrons for $100 at garage sales.
However, now that the instrument has been adopted by a new generation of musicians, producers and film composers, these vintage keyboards have found a second wind and can now sell on eBay for $5,000 to $10,000.
One of the key players in the Chamberlin revival is Jon Brion, a composer and producer who has collaborated with artists such as Kanye West, Fiona Apple and Spoon.
"Jon Brion told me something (about the Chamberlin) that was really amazing," Dilworth says. "He said, 'It's like having a musician from the 1950s in the recording studio with you, but it's almost like a ghost because it's just a recording.'"
Contact Joe Scott at movieshowjoe@gmail.com
