DAVID REDFERN/REDFERNS
I moved to Los Angeles in 1974 because I wanted to do movie scores, but it’s really hard to break into that field. I met the Mizell brothers doing the Donald Byrd record, Stepping Into Tomorrow. He was having problems with his lip, with his embouchure, so I would go in and lay down solos over the whole tracks and they would dip me in and out. I asked them to produce [1975’s] The Shadow Do album, and when I got the deal with Capitol Records it was partly because they knew the Mizells were gonna produce me, because they were hot producers.