Robert Ozn
Robert Ozn - pseuodnym for Robert M. Rosen, New York City born recording artist, screenwriter, producer and actor, best known for being the vocal half of 80s synth pop celebrity duo EBN-OZN and for his later work as co-writer with Colin Greene of the human-rights themed feature film I Witness starring Jeff Daniels, James Spader and Portia DeRossi HBO International/Pro Mark (2003) DVD release USA Universal (200
As a child singing prodigy, he was a member of the New York City Metropolitian Opera Childrens Chorus, appearing in numerous productions with the greatest stars and conductors of the pre and post Lincoln Center era: Leontyne Price, Renata Tebaldi, Justino Diaz, Richard Tucker, and Robert Merrill, working with directors Franco Zefferrelli and Tyrone Guthrie.
At the age of 16, he was the youngest student ever to receive a Key Scholarship award from Herbert Berghoff acting school (HB Studios) in Greenwich Village. At 17, he was accepted as a voice and theater major at the Indiana University School of Music, where he studied with Norwegian Bass/Baritone Roy Samuelson of the New York City Opera. Two years later, to the dismay of the school's administration and his family, Rosen quit his education to become a pop singer touring the US with Doc Severinsen and The Tonight Show band, where he worked with Lou Tebacken, Ed Shaughnessy and Buddy Rich.
He was then tapped by Jay Harnick brother of Sheldon Harnick to play Hero opposite Zero Mostel in what was then the first time Mostel had played his signature role of Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum since the Broadway production. Shortly after, Rosen was selected to play one of John Cullum's sons in the originial Broadway cast of Shenandoah (album released on Atlantic Records]], where he created the role of Henry Anderson. More acting worked followed on television and theater, including the lead in Pirates of Penzance with Karla DeVito, and understudying Gary Sinise in the LA company of Curse of the Starving Class. But it was not until his supporting lead in a small National Endowment for the Arts film "No Regrets" and his subsequeent lead in the Broadway rock musical Marlowe that he came to the attention of rock impresario Don Kirschner who encouraged him to begin his own recording career.
After injuring his foot in a dance rehearsal, he was fired from the original cast of "Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?" (1981) (see Vicki Lewis) for being "too sexual for a family musical, angry and aggressive on stage, and just not right for the part" by director Mike Nussbaum, much to the dismay of choreographer Thommie Walsh, who had staged an entire production number around him. Rosen began writing his own music and was introduced by Austin, Texas based producer Jay Aaron Podolnick (see Eric Johnson) to Ned LIben, then the owner of Sundragon Recording Studios, and a music prodigy in his own right. Liben had built his first professional studio at the age of 14 and by the time he met Rosen had worked with Jimmy Hendrix and The Talking Heads.
Both Greenwich Village born and raised, the two shared a passion for the rock, R&B, rap, and latin music being played in the underground Manhattan club scene of the 80s, which was a racially mixed world of disparate tastes and styles frequented by painters, writers, classical, rock musicians, drag queens and drug dealers. Their intitial collaboration "AEIOU Sometimes Y" was recorded in 1981, (released 1983) the first American record to ever be completely executed on a computer a Fairlight CMI. A bizarre mix of rap, spoken word, digital sampling, rock and R&B dance music, their 12-inch dance single was instantly signed by Arista Records in London and Elektra Records in New York before the band even had name. As the story goes, the two could not agree and as a compromise struck the first letters from each of their last names and pulled out the vowels.
More than just a band was born, but two actual alter-egos and personas as well. Ned Liben became EBN, the mad scientist geek music wizard, and Robert Rosen gave birth to OZN, the social register Jewish boy gone street rebel/sex symbol. Nothing bore out the chemistry between them more than their self-produced MTV smash video for "AEIOU Sometimes Y." Awarded an LA Times Top 10 of the Year pick, and in that new era of music videos gave them international stardom on the club circuit.
Darlings of the music press, they were lauded with extraordinary platitudes: Playboy magazine, June 1984 "OZN. . . the best white rapper alive." Billboard magazine May 1984: "The Steeley Dan of the 80s" New York Post, May 1981 "EBN - New York's answer to Tomas Dolby."
Their first album "Feeling Cavalier" was released by Elektra in 1984 and the second single, "Bag Lady" (I Wonder) was alleged to have caused tremendous fights between then label president Bob Krasnow and EBN-OZN manager Steve Machat, because the band insisted that the video stay true to its theme about homeless people and the labels marketing and PR department thought they had the next David Lee Roth on their hands with OZN and wanted the "bag lady" to be a groupie in the video. The band won out, and while the single was a club hit in the States and a radio hit in Canada and other countries, it did not crack the Top 10 Pop charts the way they'd hoped because MTV found the video "too serious" and only gave it Medium rotation. Krasnow was furious and dropped the band over the objections of promo head Mike Bone and marketing head, Randy Phillips.
EBN went on to run his exclusive SOHO studio working with Scritte Politti and Arif Mardin, while OZN went to LA and started his own label, One Voice Records and his own solo act, "Dada Nada." Dada Nada got a distribution deal with Polydor/UK and he distributed it himself in North America, proving that he was a solid businessman as well, by landing two Top 5 Billboard Charting dance hits, "Haunted House" and "Deep Love." Continuing to be a ground breaker, his was the first white House record and Hip House (rap and house) record to ever crack the Top 10 in the United States (MTV, Music News, February 1990).
EBN died in 1998 of a heart attack in SOHO.
Changing his name to Robert Ozn, OZN went on to a screenwriting career in the film business, where his first job was for Oliver Stone and Janet Yang's Ixtlan Films. He then went to work for Richard Gladstein at Miramax as his personal script analyst where he 'read' Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction for the company and was first call reader for much of the company's European material as well. He also worked for talent agency CAA, and directors Sydney Pollack and James Cameron's Lightstorm Enterainment.