58 | SEPTEMBER 29 • 2022
I
n the Milford home of Dan Yessian,
there is a Steinway baby grand piano
that once was an important element in
the home of composer and performer Burt
Bacharach.
Yessian has long been a fan of the vast
array of Bacharach music and is glad to
work at the same instrument he bought in
2005. When sitting at that piano and trying
out melody ideas, Yessian feels inspired to
compose music for an international array of
clients using the firm he started in 1971.
The Yessian Music staff, now moving on
to more management by his sons, devel-
ops sound designs and advertisements for
Fortune 500 companies around the world.
The team has reached from working for the
Ford Motor Company to creating songs for
Disney theme parks.
As Yessian is adding his talents to enter-
tainment initiatives, a recent major project
has been the composing of a symphony,
“
An Armenian Trilogy,
” to mark the 100th
anniversary of the start of the Armenian
genocide in 1915. That became the subject
of a film.
His latest project is with the help of
two people he has worked with for many
years — Jewish musician Ohad Wilner and
singer Maurissa Rose, who has participated
in fundraising programs for Jewish-based
organizations.
While Yessian plays saxophone, Wilner
plays guitar and has arranged
background music available
through computer websites.
The newest production, acces-
sible on YouTube and following
a month’s work, presents a new
version of the Bacharach song
“Walk on By” with jazz and rock
rhythms giving a new approach
to the way the song ultimately
sounds as performed by Rose.
This project provides an example of the
stories behind the various presenters avail-
able — for free — through YouTube.
“We exercised some liberty about the
arrangement because it’s not what Burt had
done initially with singer Dionne Warwick,
”
Yessian said. “We went to a different place
with it somewhere in the midsection of the
song.
“We wanted only to bring about more of
a dramatization of a feeling of lost love with
somebody who was pining for somebody
wanting to reject that feeling.
”
The lyrics are by Hal David, and the
Bachrach-David team represents
Jewish heritage.
“Dan has put me in a position
that allows me to collaborate
with talent that I never could
have fathomed,
” said Wilner,
whose family is from Israel,
whose mother teaches at Hillel
Day School in Farmington
Hills and who speaks Hebrew
at home. “I enjoy collaboration
and find that the combination of multiple
perspectives makes for interesting music.
“Regarding motivation behind doing the
song ‘Walk on By,
’ my inspiration comes
from the process of interacting with tal-
ented people, finding the right keys and
ARTS&LIFE
MUSIC
Three
musicians
featured on
new version of
“Walk on By.”
Reimagining
a Burt
Bacharach
Classic
SUZANNE CHESSLER
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Dan Yessian at the
Steinway previously
owned by Burt
Bacharach.
Maurissa
Rose