WAYNE K. GARFIELD

WAYNE K. GARFIELD

Artist- Composer- Producer

He began his incredible career in the 1970’s, auditioning as a singer for the Rock & Soul group, Voices of East Harlem. This global act recorded for the Voices of East Harlem.

A prolific collaborating songwriter/producer for over four decades, Wayne K. Garfield etched a permanent place for himself as a key contributor in musical pop culture often shared the marquee with legends like BB King, Sly and the Family Stone, Joan Baez, Elektra, Just Sunshine and Motown Labels. Using what Billboard called “a bundle of soul” the group moved on to play the world stage.

Ike & Tina Turner, Harry Belafonte, Jimi Hendrix, Dave Brubeck, The Who and more. Performing with this group is where Wayne received his first taste of stardom.

Among Garfield’s numerous talent discoveries (including R&B’s Angela Winbush, Broadway’s ‘Dreamgirl’ Debye Burrell) are the vaunted collective he co-founded known as Change, a group which spawned a series of dance/pop crossover hits and relaunched the solo career of Luther Vandross. Moments before entering the recording booth Vandross said to Wayne "I just gotta tell you, man, this is the most beautiful song I've ever sung in my life."

This song turned out to be Garfield’s classic track “The Glow Of Love,” which was omnipresent on the club scene and dominated the #1 position on the Billboard Dance/Disco chart for the entire summer of 1980 and won the Billboard Disco Forum’s award for #1 chart longevity. The track was then covered, by Jazz/R&B chanteuse, Randy Crawford and sampled by several prominent hip-hop artists, Including LFO and BLACK ROB whose albums generated multi-platinum sales. Several years later, “The Glow of Love” reached a new peak when superstar Janet Jackson remade it into her global smash, “All For You,” the title track from her album and tour, which became the Grammy winning, multi chart, multi-platinum seller and one of the top radio songs of the year. In fact, Garfield united rap star Kurtis Blow with rock icon Bob Dylan on the recording “Street Rock” which helped establish hip-hop’s crossover appeal in 1986. In 1988 Garfield negotiated super group Salt-N-Pepa’s participation in the 70th Birthday Tribute to Nelson Mandela, held at Wembley Stadium in London England. As a result, the group was viewed by a global television audience of over one billion people in 159 countries, establishing them as an international concert act and helped raise millions of dollars for the Anti-Apartheid Movement. Garfield's most memorable achievement wasn't a hit song, it was the advocacy group that he formed to help songwriters gain the recognition that they rightfully deserve. In 2002 he started the “Writers Rule Coalition”, which in 2003 received ratification from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Board of Trustees who awarded the Winners Certificate to songwriters and producers of Grammy nominated and winning recordings containing samples. Wayne said " I felt that songwriters were more or less an afterthought, because the Recording Academy only recognized a writer's contribution if he or she won as a writer on “Song of The Year” from the various genres, but I'm a firm believer that everything starts with the song and thank God Diane Theriot was receptive to the idea and helped us prepare a proposal.” The proposal was pitched to the academy's Awards and Nominations Committee and then ratified by the Board of Trustees. Wayne believed that trophies should be awarded to songwriters just as they were awarded to the Grammy

winning performers of the song. As Latin music star and Coalition member Willie Colon stated, “Proper credit must be given to the original producers (and writers) whose work is sampled for their hit status and instant recognition, therefore the originator must be honored along with the new producer.” Wayne was very thankful that the Board of Trustees found it in their hearts to accept his plea and this was an impactful moment in music history, which gave writers and producers recognition for their inestimable contributions. (Billboard August 30th 2003, Grammys Acknowledge Writers Group) Garfield’s substantial catalog contains memorable pop-R&B/hip-hop releases, including Intro by J. Cole, Aretha Franklin’s “Here We Go Again,” dance diva Candi Staton’s “When You Wake Up Tomorrow”, “Chance,” and the provocative “2000 Black” which was recorded by Garfield’s industry mentor, Roy Ayers and Nigerian music giant, Fela.

A social entrepreneur and community activist, Garfield originated the nation’s first compressive, federally funded Recoding Industry Training Program for economically disadvantaged youth and young adults as developed by the Institute of New Cinema Artists Inc., (INCA) which was founded by the late actor - director – producer - playwright Ossie Davis. Garfield led a presentation of the successful program’s business model at the White House which resulted in a recommendation for its national replication form President Jimmy Carter’s Advisory Council On Domestic Policy. Wayne shares an Emmy award for Outstanding Children’s Programing with producers Ossie Davis, Guy Davis, Cliff Frazier and noted director Neema Barnette for the WABC- TV affiliates family special, “To Be A Man”.

In the world of sports Wayne is a respected international pro-basketball consultant. His client Jimmy Baxter, won The France Pro A Division’s Newcomer of the Year and Sixth Man of the Year. Also, client multi- national scoring leader, Chudney Gray was the only player to win both Rookie and Player of the year with the United States Basketball League (USBL). During the 1990’s Garfield consulted the NBA’S New York Knicks, organizing and coordinating off-season informal work outs with then assistant coach and current ABC/ESPN-TV basketball analyst Jeff Van Gundy.