Rick Dade

Rick Dade (born July, 1955 in Washington DC) is an American musician and composer most known for his work as a backup and session player for many notable funk and R & B acts of the 1970s and 1980s like Parliament Funkadelic and Stephanie Mills. He has also done very noteworthy work as a composer for television shows and commercials.

Early life

Dade first fell in love with playing instruments and performing after becoming captivated at a Beatles concert his father took him to in 1965. His father bought him an acoustic guitar for his birthday that same year. But it was after Dade received his first electric guitar on Christmas in 1967, that he really began honing his skills as a player. Later, he also learned to play piano and bass. His father was a blues guitar player and his mother played piano. Dade is the only of their five children to follow in their footsteps and master an instrument.

Career

In November 1979, when Parliament Funkadelic was touring the east coast, Dade met vocalist Ray Davis at a party and landed a gig that night as a back up guitar player for the tour. He continued as a gig player with Parliament until October 1982. Later that year, he switched gears and started doing session work, playing bass and keyboards for pop and R & B artists like Stephanie Mills, Michael McDonald and Al McKay of Earth, Wind and Fire. By 1985, Dade was landing studio gigs to do music for commercials such as "Pork, the Other White Meat" and "Certs". In 1989 he got to show off his composing chops when Fox Broadcasting Company hired him as a contractor to compose background music for their popular show America's Most Wanted, a gig he took on until 1994. This is the highlight of Dade's career so far. For years, he was the mastermind behind those eerie, bone-chilling and often beautifully melancholy sounds that set the tone for the recounting by John Walsh of the some of the country's most notorious crimes of that time.

Later life

By the mid 1990s Dade stopped composing and took a break. In late 1996, he and his wife moved to Hollywood California he continued to work in the music business in consulting and retail. He moved back to the east coast shortly after and did a stint in the studio in mid 2001 with the New York-based alternative rock group Betty. Today, he continues to write and record in his home studio.