Ebn Ozn
Encyclopedia
Ēbn-Ōzn was a 1980s music duo composed of Ned "EBN" Liben (synthesizer
) and Robert "OZN" Rosen
(organ
, vocals). The duo is best known for the 1983 hit single
, "AEIOU, Sometimes Y."
when Rosen met Liben through record producer Jay Aaron Podolnick (who later founded Villamuse Film Studios in Austin, Texas), a friend of Ozn's then Australian fashion-model girlfriend. Soon after meeting they started spending time together in clubs listening to different types of dance music. Ozn was a Broadway actor/singer in the original casts of Shenandoah
and Marlowe
. Ebn was owner and founder of New York's Sundragon Recording Studios, which he created at the age of 14. In 1983 they were signed by the London arm of Arista-Ariola and Elektra Records
in New York, who released their only LP
, Feeling Cavalier, and singles "AEIOU, Sometimes Y" and "Bag Lady (I Wonder)". The album featured a wide and hard-to-categorize range of musical styles, and a sense of humor throughout; a notable musical guest was Latin jazz/mambo legend Tito Puente
.
"AEIOU" became an international MTV and dance club hit as well as receiving significant black radio play. "AEIOU" remains a modern rock radio and 1980s music staple. AllMusic writes that the song "combines intelligence, melody, and weirdness in just the right doses. Accompanied by a video that featured the ponytailed Rosen delivering a stream-of-consciousness rap about 'this incredible Swedish girl,' and with a more serious subtext about communication, it became a bizarre but deserved hit."
The second single was the uncharacteristically earnest dance-rock track "Bag Lady", the video for which starred Emmy- and Tony Award-winning actress Imogene Coca
. The single became a dance club hit and a minor radio hit in the US, while gaining hit status in Canada and Europe.
"AEIOU, Sometimes Y" was the focus of a Beavis and Butt-head
episode in the 1990s, and has been released on numerous "Best of the '80s" compilation album
s (including Warner Brothers' Richard Blade's 80s Hits). Feeling Cavalier was released on CD on October 17, 2006, by Wounded Bird Records
.
The duo went their separate ways in 1985. Ebn went on to work with Scritti Politti
and producers including Phil Ramone
and Arif Mardin
. Ozn formed dance music act Dada Nada
, and his own label, One Voice Records. Dada Nada was signed to Polydor/London and distributed independently in North America by Ozn, who proved himself an astute businessman, going head-to-head with the major labels and gaining two Top 5 Billboard club hits: "Haunted House" (co-written and produced with Bob Greenberg, and mixed by Mike "Hitman" Wilson and Badboy Bill) and "Deep Love," (co-written with Steve Wight, and mixed by Frankie Knuckles
& David Morales
and Bad Boy Bill
).
Ned "Ebn" Liben died in 1998 of a heart attack
in Manhattan, New York, and is survived by his widow Sallie Moore Liben and son Max.
Ozn changed his name to Robert Ozn
and went on to become a script analyst, screenwriter and producer. He worked first for free for Oliver Stone
and Janet Yang's Ixtlan Films, trading his time in exchange for learning the development and production end of the movie business. He went on to become a paid first-call reader for A-list material for Stone. He was then hired at Miramax, as reader for Pulp Fiction
under Oscar-winning producer Richard Gladstein and as contract development exec for much of their European fare and some of horror division Dimension Films' material. He also served as script analyst at Creative Arts Agency (CAA) on projects for Sydney Pollack
, Louis Malle
, and James Cameron
's Lightstorm Entertainment.
Ozn partnered with Ted Danson
(friends from their Broadway days) as executive producers to option Elegies for Angels Punks and Raging Queens, playwright Bill Russell's West End
London AIDS drama,http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsR/russell-bill.htm for Anasazi/Paramount Television. Danson and Ozn attached their friends who agreed to work for scale if Paramount could secure a commercial-free broadcast, including Michael Douglas
, Richard Gere
, Patrick Stewart
, Whoopi Goldberg
, Jason Priestley
and Elizabeth Taylor
as well as Danson. However, as of 2007 it remains unproduced; Ozn retains the option.
Ozn and writer/producer Colin Greene sold Storm Warning, a $100 million-plus film, to Paramount for producer Mario Kassar
, making the front page of the Hollywood Reporter. That article served as a blessing and a curse. Ozn had just been hired as an executive at Warner Brothers' now-defunct animation division, due to his unusual combination of experience in musical theatre, the record business and the film industry. Ozn was to supervise the development of the script and soundtrack along with Pete Townshend
for The Iron Man (later produced without music as The Iron Giant
). The Hollywood Reporter article caused a problem with Warner's personnel department: Ozn was informed he could not take his executive position because he'd sold material to the competition.
In 2003, Ozn's and Greene's God's Witness, long on many of the industry's "favorite un-sold spec scripts" lists, was finally made as I Witness
, starring Jeff Daniels
, James Spader
and Portia de Rossi
. Universal released the film in the U.S. and Canada in 2007 and HBO released it internationally.
Ozn left the industry in 2003 to raise his family and returned in 2008, co-producing a UK
documentary about the British aristocrat and war hero Micky Burn
. He wrote the science fiction disaster film, Earth's Final Hour for Cinetel/Sy Fy Channel. Now divorced, he lives in Los Angeles
and Rio de Janeiro
.
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
) and Robert "OZN" Rosen
Robert Ozn
Robert Ozn , New York City born producer, screenwriter recording artist and actor, best known for being the vocal half of 80s synth pop duo EBN-OZN solo act, Dada Nada, and for his later work as co-producer and co-writer with Colin Greene of the human-rights themed feature film I Witness starring...
(organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
, vocals). The duo is best known for the 1983 hit single
Hit single
A hit single is a recorded song or instrumental released as a single that has become very popular. Although it is sometimes used to describe any widely-played or big-selling song, the term "hit" is usually reserved for a single that has appeared in an official music chart through repeated radio...
, "AEIOU, Sometimes Y."
Career
EBN-OZN, pronounced EEBEN-OHZEN formed in 1981 in New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
when Rosen met Liben through record producer Jay Aaron Podolnick (who later founded Villamuse Film Studios in Austin, Texas), a friend of Ozn's then Australian fashion-model girlfriend. Soon after meeting they started spending time together in clubs listening to different types of dance music. Ozn was a Broadway actor/singer in the original casts of Shenandoah
Shenandoah (musical)
Shenandoah is a musical that was written in 1975 with music by Gary Geld, lyrics by Peter Udell, and a book by Udell, Philip Rose and James Lee Barrett, based on Barrett's original screenplay for the 1965 film Shenandoah.-Productions:...
and Marlowe
Marlowe (musical)
Marlowe is a musical with a book by Leo Rost, lyrics by Rost and Jimmy Horowitz, and music by Horowitz. Despite a claim in the Playbill that "the story of this drama is essentially true and accurate," much of it is a fictionalized account of the life of Elizabethan playwright Christopher...
. Ebn was owner and founder of New York's Sundragon Recording Studios, which he created at the age of 14. In 1983 they were signed by the London arm of Arista-Ariola and Elektra Records
Elektra Records
Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group. After five years of dormancy, the label was revived by Atlantic in 2009....
in New York, who released their only LP
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
, Feeling Cavalier, and singles "AEIOU, Sometimes Y" and "Bag Lady (I Wonder)". The album featured a wide and hard-to-categorize range of musical styles, and a sense of humor throughout; a notable musical guest was Latin jazz/mambo legend Tito Puente
Tito Puente
Tito Puente, , born Ernesto Antonio Puente, was a Latin jazz and Salsa musician. The son of native Puerto Ricans Ernest and Ercilia Puente, of Spanish Harlem in New York City, Puente is often credited as "El Rey de los Timbales" and "The King of Latin Music"...
.
"AEIOU" became an international MTV and dance club hit as well as receiving significant black radio play. "AEIOU" remains a modern rock radio and 1980s music staple. AllMusic writes that the song "combines intelligence, melody, and weirdness in just the right doses. Accompanied by a video that featured the ponytailed Rosen delivering a stream-of-consciousness rap about 'this incredible Swedish girl,' and with a more serious subtext about communication, it became a bizarre but deserved hit."
The second single was the uncharacteristically earnest dance-rock track "Bag Lady", the video for which starred Emmy- and Tony Award-winning actress Imogene Coca
Imogene Coca
Imogene Fernandez de Coca was an American comic actress best known for her role opposite Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows....
. The single became a dance club hit and a minor radio hit in the US, while gaining hit status in Canada and Europe.
"AEIOU, Sometimes Y" was the focus of a Beavis and Butt-head
Beavis and Butt-Head
Beavis and Butt-head is an American animated television series created by Mike Judge. The series originated from Frog Baseball, a 1992 short film by Judge. After seeing the short, MTV signed Judge to develop the concept. Beavis and Butt-head originally aired from March 8, 1993 to November 28, 1997...
episode in the 1990s, and has been released on numerous "Best of the '80s" compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
s (including Warner Brothers' Richard Blade's 80s Hits). Feeling Cavalier was released on CD on October 17, 2006, by Wounded Bird Records
Wounded Bird Records
Wounded Bird Records is a CD only, re-issue record label, that was founded in 1998 in Guilderland, New York. They re-release lesser known albums from both popular and lesser known artists, including Deborah Harry, Chic, David Blue, Marilyn Martin, Gordon Haskell, Jon Anderson, Adrian Belew, Ellen...
.
Breakup and subsequent activities
The duo went their separate ways in 1985. Ebn went on to work with Scritti Politti
Scritti Politti
Scritti Politti are a British band, originally formed in 1977 in Leeds, Yorkshire, England. Although there have been various changes to the line-up, Cardiff-born singer-songwriter Green Gartside was the founding member of the band and the only member to have remained throughout the group's...
and producers including Phil Ramone
Phil Ramone
Phil Ramone is a South-African violinist, composer, recording engineer, and record producer.-Biography:As a young child in South Africa, Ramone was a musical prodigy, beginning to play the violin at age three and performing for Queen Elizabeth II at age ten...
and Arif Mardin
Arif Mardin
Arif Mardin was a Turkish-American music producer, who worked with hundreds of artists across many different styles of music, including jazz, rock, soul, disco, and country...
. Ozn formed dance music act Dada Nada
Dada Nada
Dada Nada - House Music and Hip House act which served as the moniker for Robert Ozn after the breakup of New York art rock act EBN-OZN, an MTV darling in the mid 80s. Dada Nada had two American Billboard Top 5 Club records in 1989 and 1990: Haunted House and Deep Love, plus additional charted...
, and his own label, One Voice Records. Dada Nada was signed to Polydor/London and distributed independently in North America by Ozn, who proved himself an astute businessman, going head-to-head with the major labels and gaining two Top 5 Billboard club hits: "Haunted House" (co-written and produced with Bob Greenberg, and mixed by Mike "Hitman" Wilson and Badboy Bill) and "Deep Love," (co-written with Steve Wight, and mixed by Frankie Knuckles
Frankie Knuckles
Frankie Knuckles is an American DJ, record producer and remix artist. He played an important role in developing house music as a Chicago DJ in the 1980s and he helped to popularize house music in the 1990s, with his work as a producer and remixer...
& David Morales
David Morales
David Morales is an internationally acclaimed Grammy-winning house music DJ and producer. In addition to his production and DJ work, Morales is one of the most prolific remixers of all time, transforming many pop music songs into club-friendly dance tracks...
and Bad Boy Bill
Bad Boy Bill
Bad Boy Bill is a DJ from Chicago, Illinois, U.S.. He plays an assortment of house music.Bad Boy Bill began his DJ career in 1985 during the Chicago House music movement of the mid and late 80's working with Mike "Hitman" Wilson and Julian "Jumpin" Perez of the then WBMX dj mixing team known as...
).
Ned "Ebn" Liben died in 1998 of a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
in Manhattan, New York, and is survived by his widow Sallie Moore Liben and son Max.
Ozn changed his name to Robert Ozn
Robert Ozn
Robert Ozn , New York City born producer, screenwriter recording artist and actor, best known for being the vocal half of 80s synth pop duo EBN-OZN solo act, Dada Nada, and for his later work as co-producer and co-writer with Colin Greene of the human-rights themed feature film I Witness starring...
and went on to become a script analyst, screenwriter and producer. He worked first for free for Oliver Stone
Oliver Stone
William Oliver Stone is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Stone became well known in the late 1980s and the early 1990s for directing a series of films about the Vietnam War, for which he had previously participated as an infantry soldier. His work frequently focuses on...
and Janet Yang's Ixtlan Films, trading his time in exchange for learning the development and production end of the movie business. He went on to become a paid first-call reader for A-list material for Stone. He was then hired at Miramax, as reader for Pulp Fiction
Pulp Fiction (film)
Pulp Fiction is a 1994 American crime film directed by Quentin Tarantino, who co-wrote its screenplay with Roger Avary. The film is known for its rich, eclectic dialogue, ironic mix of humor and violence, nonlinear storyline, and host of cinematic allusions and pop culture references...
under Oscar-winning producer Richard Gladstein and as contract development exec for much of their European fare and some of horror division Dimension Films' material. He also served as script analyst at Creative Arts Agency (CAA) on projects for Sydney Pollack
Sydney Pollack
Sydney Irwin Pollack was an American film director, producer and actor. Pollack studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City, where he later taught acting...
, Louis Malle
Louis Malle
Louis Malle was a French film director, screenwriter, and producer. He worked in both French cinema and Hollywood. His films include Ascenseur pour l'échafaud , Atlantic City , and Au revoir, les enfants .- Early years in France :Malle was born into a wealthy industrialist family in Thumeries,...
, and James Cameron
James Cameron
James Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...
's Lightstorm Entertainment.
Ozn partnered with Ted Danson
Ted Danson
Edward Bridge “Ted” Danson III is an American actor best known for his role as central character Sam Malone in the sitcom Cheers, and his role as Dr. John Becker on the series Becker. He also plays a recurring role on Larry David's HBO sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm and starred alongside Glenn Close...
(friends from their Broadway days) as executive producers to option Elegies for Angels Punks and Raging Queens, playwright Bill Russell's West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
London AIDS drama,http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsR/russell-bill.htm for Anasazi/Paramount Television. Danson and Ozn attached their friends who agreed to work for scale if Paramount could secure a commercial-free broadcast, including Michael Douglas
Michael Douglas
Michael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the...
, Richard Gere
Richard Gere
Richard Tiffany Gere is an American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and a starring role in Days of Heaven. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol...
, Patrick Stewart
Patrick Stewart
Sir Patrick Hewes Stewart, OBE is an English film, television and stage actor, who has had a distinguished career in theatre and television for around half a century...
, Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg is an American comedian, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host.Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won...
, Jason Priestley
Jason Priestley
Jason Bradford Priestley is a Canadian-American actor and director. He is best known as the virtuous Brandon Walsh on the television series Beverly Hills, 90210, a role which catapulted him to recognition in the early 1990s....
and Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...
as well as Danson. However, as of 2007 it remains unproduced; Ozn retains the option.
Ozn and writer/producer Colin Greene sold Storm Warning, a $100 million-plus film, to Paramount for producer Mario Kassar
Mario Kassar
Mario F. Kassar is a film producer and industry executive whose projects are frequently in association with Andrew G. Vajna.Kassar was born in Beirut, Lebanon. Working for Columbia Pictures and TriStar Pictures, he was executive producer of several movies starting with Victory in 1981...
, making the front page of the Hollywood Reporter. That article served as a blessing and a curse. Ozn had just been hired as an executive at Warner Brothers' now-defunct animation division, due to his unusual combination of experience in musical theatre, the record business and the film industry. Ozn was to supervise the development of the script and soundtrack along with Pete Townshend
Pete Townshend
Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for the rock group The Who, as well as for his own solo career...
for The Iron Man (later produced without music as The Iron Giant
The Iron Giant
The Iron Giant is a 1999 animated film produced by Warner Bros. Animation, based on the 1968 novel The Iron Man by Ted Hughes. Brad Bird directed the film, which stars a voice cast of Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick, Jr., Vin Diesel, Eli Marienthal, Christopher McDonald and John Mahoney...
). The Hollywood Reporter article caused a problem with Warner's personnel department: Ozn was informed he could not take his executive position because he'd sold material to the competition.
In 2003, Ozn's and Greene's God's Witness, long on many of the industry's "favorite un-sold spec scripts" lists, was finally made as I Witness
I Witness
I Witness is an action film starring Jeff Daniels and James Spader. It was released in the United States on February 1, 2003.-Plot:Human rights activist James Rhodes arrives in Tijuana to help oversee local union elections. While there, he becomes embroiled in a mass murder at what appears to be a...
, starring Jeff Daniels
Jeff Daniels
Jeffrey Warren "Jeff" Daniels is an American actor, musician and playwright. He founded a non-profit theatre company, the Purple Rose Theatre Company, in his home state of Michigan...
, James Spader
James Spader
James Todd Spader is an American actor best known for his eccentric roles in movies such as Pretty in Pink, Less Than Zero, Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Crash, Stargate, and Secretary...
and Portia de Rossi
Portia de Rossi
Portia Lee James DeGeneres , known professionally as Portia de Rossi , is an Australian-American actress, best known for her roles as lawyer Nelle Porter on the television series Ally McBeal and Lindsay Bluth Fünke on the sitcom Arrested Development...
. Universal released the film in the U.S. and Canada in 2007 and HBO released it internationally.
Ozn left the industry in 2003 to raise his family and returned in 2008, co-producing a UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
documentary about the British aristocrat and war hero Micky Burn
Micky Burn
Michael Clive "Micky" Burn, MC was an English journalist, commando, writer and poet.-Early life:By his own admission, in earlier life he "had been drawn to three autocracies: German National Socialism, Communism, and the Roman Catholic Church." Burn's father was secretary and solicitor to the...
. He wrote the science fiction disaster film, Earth's Final Hour for Cinetel/Sy Fy Channel. Now divorced, he lives in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
.