Then

After their first album their repertoire and reputation grew by leaps and bounds. Chris’ original flair for vocal arranging and orchestration and the God-given voices of all of them gave the world a sound that should always be remembered.

Chris Dedrick did most of the writing and all the arranging. Once Chris had established a pattern for their songs, Sandy and Bruce joined in with songwriting of their own. Their source was, of course, the beat and feel of rock´n´roll. “I like it,” said Chris at the time, “because it’s got a young thing to it. It’s a different thing today, a thing that’s being done by young people who are saying what they want to say.” But I want to take a more studied musical approach to rock´n´roll than just shouting. There are other ways of building excitement than to have the drummer get louder and louder. I’ve tried to incorporate more real expression in our songs from a musical standpoint.

Chris wrote the lyrics of his songs first. “It’s important for the whole song to have an idea, like a novel or a poem, although it doesn’t have to be very profound. To start with, you need a catchy phrase. But after that phrase, a lot of songs don’t go very far. I spend a lot of time on the lyrics trying to make them say something and, at the same time, to make sure that they’re not so deep that nobody understands them.”

The golden sound of the Free Design was shown in a non-stop run of potential hits like “Friendly Man”, “I Found Love”, “You Could Be Born Again”, “One By One”, and a collection of gems such as “Love You” and “Daniel Dolphin” dedicated to “very important people” (ie: children).

 

Within a few months they signed with Project 3, Enoch Light’s label, and soon had a collection of songs ready to record for their first album, titled Kites are Fun (1967). The album cover was simple and beautiful and it carried some sharp introductory lines about “the new group”, and the “new, exciting and different! the fresh sound of The Free Design.” Certainly they achieved near perfection with exceptional songs as “My Brother Woody” (a song dedicated to their brother Jason), “Never Tell the World” (a rhythmic number with precise vocals and magical counterpoints), not to mention dazzling versions of “Michelle”, “A Man and a Woman”, and “59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy).”

 

The Free Design – Chris, Bruce, Sandy and Ellen Dedrick, were brothers and sisters from Delevan, N.Y., a small town near Buffalo. They grew up surrounded by music. Their father, Art Dedrick, played trombone and was chief musical arranger for big band musician Vaughn Monroe and later had a band of his own until an attack of polio put him in a wheelchair. After that, unable to travel extensively, he served as staff arranger for radio stations WGR and WBEN in Buffalo, New York.  He also taught music in public schools and privately, and was instrumental in starting Kendor Music Publishing Co., an international leader in band music for schools, which still operates in Delevan today. Undaunted by his disabilities, he started his own jazz band again, and taught every one of his 6 children an instrument. Their uncle was Rusty Dedrick, who played trumpet with the likes of Red Norvo, Claude Thornhill and Ray McKinley and put out nine albums of his own. Rusty was on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music, (where Chris  studied trumpet and composition years later) and eventually became its director of jazz studies. His jazz band charts for the education field have received high acclaim by musicians of all ages. In 1996 he became the musical director for the prestigious Smithsonian Institute American Songbook Series with their tribute to Fats Waller and Andy Razaf. Quite a musical environment to grow up in!

Each of the Dedricks had impressive musical skills.  They all sang; Sandy played the keyboard instruments; Bruce was a master with guitar and trombone, and Chris showed supreme skills with guitar, trumpet and recorder. Ellen, who joined the group straight out of high school in its second year, was also an extremely talented singer and lent her skills to quite a few of the band’s songs. All of them studied music formally, and it is safe to say they had a frightening amount of musical talent between them.