Members Weekly Music Recommendations-April 30

[thebes]

A funny time of the year, glorious spring weather brings a renewed sense of energy yet at the same time a sense of enervation, lassitude. A relaxed happy season. A glorious pause between turning off the heat and flipping on the AC.

Friday night I'd waited too late and missed buying tickets to see Chuck Brown. Celebrated his first album in 20 or so years by playing his Live at 9:30 Club.

Today I'm calmer, still want a little bit of edge but a whole lot of feelin:

John Lee Hooker, "On The Waterfront", blues baby, lp.

A slide guitar master and one the the biggest names in Blues. He's probably put out 60 albums and many wags say he has only one song and one beat which he plays over and over again. If so, I hope he keeps doing it for another hundred years. If I could pass only one law to benefit this great nation of ours it would be to require that every household have at least one John Lee Hooker album in the house.

So what do you have to share this week?

[seti]

So this is will be one of my more mainstream recommendations as I usually like suggesting artist that are not as well known.

I am jamming on some Tom Waits right now and what an amazing collection of music this man has produced. The last tour sold out so fast my head spun off its shoulders which was sad because I wanted to go to Memphis to see him but an hour later and tickets be gone.

I haven't met a Tom Waits cd/record I didn't like. If you say Tom Waits who I challenge you to go out and buy Tom Waits "Franks Wild Years" listen to it a few times and tell me he is not a fekn genius. If you do like Franks Wild Years pick up his newer stuff Alice and Blood Money then work your way backwards. Tom gives me hope that mad genius can shine through all the crap that is out there in this "modern age".

Instead of my ramblings here is a real take on Tom Waits.

Its been just over 30 years since Tom Waits made his recording debut.
In that time his music has taken adventurous twists and turns, from
confessional country-blues and jazz-flavored lounge to primal rock and
avant-garde musical theatre. By turns tender and poignant, strange and
twisted, his songs have tended to explore the dark underbelly of
society as he has given his voice to a litany of characters and tales
on the fringe and in the fray.



Waits has drawn from a deep well of song idioms; folk, blues, country,
jazz ballads, polkas, waltzes, cabaret, swing, popular ballads and a
category which by now can only be described as Waitsian. The tools of
his trade have included such instruments and objects as the marimba;
trombone; brake drum; metal aunglongs; banjo; bell plate; bullhorn;
conga; accordion; optigon; mellotron; maracas; pump organ; basstarda;
chamberlain; harmonium; viola; sticks; chairs and musical saw as well
as the regular old guitar, bass, piano and drums. There is also, of
course, his trademark gravelly voice.



In the early-Seventies Tom Waits worked as a doorman at the Heritage in
San Diego, a nightclub where artists of every genre performed. An avid
fan of such authors, songwriters, musicians and performers as Hoagy
Carmichael, Lord Buckley, Bob Dylan, Stephen Foster, Raymond Chandler
and Marty Robbins, Waits began developing his own idiosyncratic musical
style, combining songs with monologues. He took his newly formed act to
Monday nights at the Troubadour in LA, where musicians from all over
stood in line all day to get the opportunity to perform on-stage that
night. Shortly thereafter, Waits was signed to Asylum Records. He was
21 years old.



Waits first formal recording, Closing Time, was released in 1973. Among
the tracks was Ol 55, a song later covered by his labelmates The
Eagles for their On the Border album.



Waits began touring and opening in America for such artists as Charlie
Rich, Martha & The Vandellas and Frank Zappa. As the decade
unfolded, Waits gained increasing critical respect and a loyal cult
audience with his subsequent albums The Heart of Saturday Night
(1974); Nighthawks at the Diner (1975); Small Change (1976); Foreign
Affairs (1977); Blue Valentine (1978) and Heartattack and Vine (1980).
It was an incredibly prolific period for Waits, establishing his
reputation as a visionary songwriter.



* * *



In 1982, the same year as his Oscar-nominated soundtrack for Francis
Ford Coppolas One From the Heart, Tom Waits produced
Swordfishtrombones with Kathleen Brennan. It was the first time Waits
had produced his own work. The response from his record company
Elektra-Asylum, however, was less than enthusiastic both Waits and
the album were dropped, with label president Joe Smith warning with
this record you will lose all your old fans and gain no new ones.
Smiths successor Bob Krasnow also elected not to release the album or
renew Waits recording contract.



A year later, in 1983, Waits signed to Island Records, then one of the
worlds leading independent labels. Island rescued the now legendary
Swordfishtrombones and released it with new artwork as his first album
for the label.



Swordfishtrombones marked a startling new creative point in Waits
career with its visceral hybrid of styles and instrumentation. Waits
experimented with the sound of his voice, tried unusual recording
techniques and utilized found sounds and bizarre textures. His
trademark storytelling backed by a piano combo had mutated into
impressionistic and surreal aural landscapes.



Just at the time in the Eighties when hair and recording got slick and
big, Tom Waits offered up lo-fi primitivism, helping to set off a
whole new aesthetic that went on to inspire a generation of new artists.



This period of bold experimentation continued with Rain Dogs (1985) and
Franks Wild Years (1987) which, with Swordfishtrombones, formed a
landmark trilogy, one of the most accomplished musical achievements of
the decade.



The trilogy was followed by Big Time (1988), a film and soundtrack
record of Waits acclaimed 1987 U.S. tour; Bone Machine (1992), which
won an American Grammy Award for Best Alternative Album and The Black
Rider (1993), a recording of the songs and music Waits wrote for
director Robert Wilsons award-winning opera, adapted by Beat novelist
William Burroughs from an old German folk tale.



So successful was The Black Rider - Germanys longest-running and most
influential stage production of the Eighties - that Robert Wilson later
commissioned Waits and his wife and collaborator Kathleen Brennan to
compose the songs and music for two further street operas. The first,
Alice, based on Lewis Carrolls life and works, premiered in Hamburg
at the end of 1992 while the second, Woyzeck (based on the German
writer Georg Büchners nightmarish 19th century play of a cuckolded
soldier who murders his girlfriend), opened in Denmark eight years
later. The songs from both works later appeared on Alice and Blood
Money, the albums Waits released in 2002.



* * *



In retrospect, it was always inevitable that an artist so steeped in
imagery as Tom Waits should be naturally fascinated with the cinema.
His first steps in that direction came when he wrote songs for
Sylvester Stallones 1978 movie, Paradise Alley, in which Waits also
had a cameo appearance. He then wrote and performed two songs for Ralph
Waites acclaimed portrait of skid row, On the Nickel (1980), before
being entrusted with the soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppolas One from
the Heart, the directors follow-up to his epic and award-winning
Apocalypse Now.



Waits succeeded magnificently. His soundtrack featuring duets with
country singer Crystal Gayle - is an enduring classic of American
cinema. One from the Heart also won Waits an Academy Award nomination.
It was the start of a long association with Coppola, evidenced by
Waits appearances as an actor in the directors Rumble Fish, The
Outsiders, The Cotton Club and as the unforgettable Renfield in Bram
Stokers Dracula.



In 1986 Waits appeared in Jim Jarmuschs Down by Law, a film that
coincidentally marked the international debut of Italian actor Roberto
Benigni. That same year Waits made his theatrical stage debut with
Franks Wild Years - a musical play he co-wrote with Brennan - at
Chicagos Steppenwolf Theatre.



Later film appearances included Ironweed, Queens Logic, The Fisher
King, At Play in the Fields of the Lord and another Jarmusch movie,
Night on Earth, for which Waits and Brennan composed the score,
released as an album in 1991.Waits also had a memorable acting turn in
Robert Altmans Short Cuts.



Following the release of The Black Rider in 1993, there was to be a
six-year hiatus before the next Tom Waits album. In those intervening
years, however, he devoted himself to an array of different musical
projects. Waits and Brennan, for instance, wrote two songs for the
Dead Man Walking soundtrack album at the request of director Tim
Robbins.



Tom also contributed a song to the Wim Wenders film, The End of
Violence while, in 1998, Waits and Brennan composed the score and a
song for Bunny, which won the Oscar for Best Short Film (Animated).
That same year Tom and Kathleen wrote two songs for Barry Levinsons
Liberty Heights film.



Among other films to which Waits and Brennan have contributed songs are
Ed Harriss Pollack, director Arliss Howards Big Bad Love and the
Oscar-nominated Shrek 2 while Waits can be seen playing opposite Iggy
Pop in Jim Jarmuschs critically acclaimed 2004 film of vignettes,
Coffee & Cigarettes.



In between this film work, Waits also recorded a vocal for Jesus Blood
Never Failed Me Yet, the English composer Gavin Bryars remarkable
75-minute orchestral essay. The work centred on a 1971 field recording
of a London hobo singing a religious tune; on Bryars album, Waits
duets along with the voice of the tramp.



* * *



In 1999 Tom Waits returned to the limelight with Mule Variations, his
first album in six years and his debut for the independent American
label, Anti / Epitaph. The album, which synthesised Waits affinity for
the American song tradition with his love of naturalistic sound worlds,
was arguably the most direct and intimate recording of his career. It
was certainly the most successful, selling over a million copies around
the world and winning a Grammy into the bargain. In the UK it was
Waits first-ever Top 10 hit.



As the follow-up Waits released two separate and distinct albums
Alice and Blood Money on the same day in May 2002. The albums were as
original as they were different from each other, with Alice chronicling
the songs Waits and Brennan had written for Robert Wilsons 1992
theatrical production and Blood Money containing the music
commissioned for 2000s Woyzeck. Alices songs are a school of fish
that lead the listener into the rapture of the deep. Blood Moneys
songs are musical dispatches from the dark, human carnival of life,
said Waits, explaining how the two albums differed.



His rich vein of creativity continued with Real Gone, Waits 2004 album
which featured primal blues, rock-steady grooves and Latin rhythms, all
mixed and stirred with what Waits called cubist funk and vocal mouth
percussion the latter unveiling his unique approach to hip-hop
human beatboxing. For the first time in Waits career, there was no
piano on the record.



In between album releases, Waits also returned to the road. A legendary
live performer, his appearances are rare, extraordinarily memorable and
highly anticipated events. Part distorted vaudeville, part big top,
part piano bar and part stand-up, live shows are meticulously
orchestrated to have all the grace and excitement of a derailing train,
as those lucky enough to have seen his post-Mule tours can testify. In
the US, for instance, Waits 2006 summer Orphans tour - the live
prelude to the album release - received some of the most extraordinary
critical applause of any concert series in the past decade.



* * *



Waits and Brennan were recently named number four in a list of the 100
Best Living Songwriters published by Americas Paste magazine. In
literature only a handful of writers have pulled off the near
impossible. In music, it happens on every Tom Waits recording, said
the magazine.



Named as one of VH-1s Most Influential Artists of All Time, it is no
surprise that Waits body of work has long been covered (and coveted)
by other musicians. Notable cover versions include Bruce Springsteen
(Jersey Girl); Rod Stewart and Everything But The Girl (Downtown
Train); Johnny Cash (Down There By the Train); Marianne Faithfull
(Strange Weather); The Ramones (I Dont Wanna Grow Up); 10,000
Maniacs (I Hope I Dont Fall In Love With You); Tim Buckley
(Martha); T-Bone Burnett (Time); Bob Seger (Blind Love); Lucinda
Williams (Hang Down Your Head); Los Lobos (Jockey Full of Bourbon);
Elvis Costello (More Than Rain) and The Blind Boys of Alabama (Jesus
Gonna Be Here) as well as Wicked Grin, the critically acclaimed
collection of Waits songs recorded by John Hammond and released in
2001.



There is also a diverse list of artists who have cited Waits as an
inspiration, including Bob Dylan who named Tom as one of his secret
heroes.

***

YouTubes

Innocent When You Dream

Tom Waits doing a Cole Porter song "It's All Right With Me"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwyHFyKQ8XE

Chocolate Jesus

[Duke Spinner]

James Taylor ........

Noooooo....... not That one .....[]

James Taylor Quartet

smmmmokin' B-3, and Jazz/Blues

"Message from the Godfather "

[seti]

James Taylor ........

Noooooo....... not That one .....[]

James Taylor Quartet

smmmmokin' B-3, and Jazz/Blues

"Message from the Godfather "

That James Taylor drives me insane perhaps it is because I was bartender. Just the thought of hearing another James Taylor song or cover band makes me want to barf. It is very odd that James Taylor was the first non Beatle recorded on the Apple label....

[kaiser SET say]

It's anything and everything on the original Atlantic vinyl for me this week[] (Most weeks really[])

[thebes]

I'm also a big fan of Tom Waits, own several and have my favorite, "Heart of A Saturday Night" in both cd and viynl.

Kaiser, I'm thinking along the same lines as far as Atlantic. Saw a PBS show on them the other night that was interesting as all getout. Can't believe the number of acts they had over the years.

[colterphoto1]

Today I wanted some uptempo fantastic music in the photo production office, so I clicked the iMac jukebox onto Derek Trucks Band- Live at the Georgia Theatre. I'd seen Derek last year opening up for the Allman Brothers and his band is as cool as his slide playing. Between rock organ, jazzy flute, and African drumming- this band has a 'world music' feel that goes well beyond his blues and southern-fried rock roots. Nearly psychedelic at time, this two CD set kept me jamming from 2 to 5 am, then again from 10-5 in the afternoon.

nighty night..

Michael

[Arky]

I ordered my first Derek Trucks last week...anxiously awaiting.

[Arky]

Forgot to add i've been enjoying Bruce Hornsby "3 nights on the Town". Nicely recorded mix of NY venues.