Posts written by deacon Lee

A parte che Elton non credo abbia più rapporti con Caleb, comunque nella scelta dei musicisti (grazie a Dio) non ha messo becco.

Una piccola nota tecnica.

Ho scoperto perchè mi è sempre sembrato che nei dischi prodotti da Burnett il ruolo del bassista fosse "diverso dal solito" e comunque il suono del basso risultasse più naturale. La ragione è che il bassista Dennis Crouch (è lo stesso che suona in questo disco) non suona il basso elettrico ma bensì il contrabbasso.

Ora, tecnicamente sono ignorante e forse qualcuno potrà specificare meglio le differenze, ma a livello di pura percezione sonora il risultato in pezzi più tradizionali (e quindi tendenti al jazz, blues, country, bluegrass) è di gran lunga più appagante per l'ascoltatore.

deacon Lee altro non è che Alvin Tostig "reloaded". Questo per chi si è perso alcuni passaggi della tormenta storia di questo forum.

Perchè sono tornato?

Innanzitutto ho capito che le critiche di "mancanza di libertà" da me rivolte a questa comunità erano state solo un pretesto per andarmene. Sia chiaro, non rinnego il senso di quelle frasi: la libertà materiale di esprimersi c'è ma non rinnego l'opinione che qua dentro una certa corrente culturale, chiamiamola eticamente liberista, abbia pian pian "silenziato" l'altra: per cui molte persone hanno paura a esplicitare quello che pensano (soprattutto dell'Elton persona) per timore di essere negativamente etichettati come retrogradi, razzisti, medievali ecc.

Ma in questi giorni ho poi pian piano capito che il vero e unico motivo della mia fuga era in realtà un risentimento profondissimo nei confronti di Elton per ciò che egli aveva detto. E' corretto dire che chi brucia i suoi dischi per certe sue opinioni è dalla parte sbagliata. E che arte e vita privata devono/possono rimanere scissi nel giudizio che un individuo ha dell'artista. Ma è anche giusto non consentire a una persona, per quanto di eccelso talento artistico, per quanto essa abbia scritto la colonna sonora della tua vita, di reiteratamente offendere il tuo credo religioso (che per chi crede è il fondamento primo e lo scopo ultimo della vita stessa) senza che nessuna traccia venga lasciata.

Gli insulti al papa a cui Elton ci ha abituati, le affermazioni secondo cui la religione andrebbe abolita, l'ultima uscita del super-intelligente Elton per cui, secondo la sua dotta e ispirata opinione, Gesù era gay, hanno fatto sì che entrare oggidì nel mondo di Elton mi facesse sentire fuori luogo, un po' come quando vai ad una festa dove il cibo non è quello che piace a te, gli invitati non li conosci e sembrano non appartenerti, la musica ti sembra insopportabile: insomma non hai voglia altro che di tornartene a casa per trovare un rifugio da quel luogo a te così poco simpatetico.

Quello che mi ha fatto tornare indietro è stato questo blog di Bernie Taupin ( www.berniejtaupin.com/index.php?page=blog&b_id=459567 ), una indiretta (o forse assai diretta) replica agli sproloqui del suo partner artistico. Una dolce, approfondita, appassionata difesa della religione, in particolare del cristianesimo, e dei suoi valori; una ferma contestazione di una serie di luoghi comuni storici e teologici (dalla responsabilità delle religione nelle guerre al parto "vergine" di Maria) e dei "cinici ateisti" che più li osserva più gli appaiono pian piano come dei pazzi; un attento elogio del valore morale, culturale, sociale del sentimento religioso. Fino a immaginare e descrivere quale tristezza sarebbe il mondo senza religione di John Lennon. Con il valore aggiunto che "all this I might add from a man that spends his evenings at the Playboy mansion".

Va be', insomma, grazie a Bernie ho ritrovato nel mondo eltoniano un briociolo di me stesso.

Marc Ribot's interpretative powers
by John Kruth

There's a pletora of guitarists in the world today, yet very few have forged a “voice” as uniquely original and immediately identifiable as that of Marc Ribot. Having stretched the vocabulary of the instrument in a myriad of ways, Ribot is one the most in-demand session players of his day; he's interpreted and illuminated songs by Tom Waits, Elvis Costello and Marianne Faithfull, improvised with jazz masters like McCoy Tyner, collaborated with cutting-edge composer and saxophonist John Zorn, and even worked with the late, great beat poet Allen Ginsberg.
Ribot's own projects include Spiritual Unity, an exploration into the repertoire of legendary free-jazz saxophonist Alber Ayler (featuring Ayler's bassist Henry Grimes), as well the genre-bending Ceramic Dog. In the past, Ribot's Cubanos Postizos and Rootless Cosmopolitans have both inspired and confounded listeners by combining jagged sonic fragments of free jazz, punk and tango to create a bold new musical mosaic. His post-punk deconstructions of '60s classics include singular interpretations of George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," Jimi Hendrix's "The Wind Cries Mary" and the Doors' anthem of spiritual revolution, "Break on Through."
I caught up with the guitarist at his Brooklyn apartment on a chilly December morning. He answered the door sleepy and disheveled. He brewed a pot of powefully strong coffee - to clear his head of the reverberations of last night's gig - and sat down in the kitchen to talk. As usual he'd been burning the candle, not at both ends, but with a blowtorch, in the middle.
Years ago, in the liner notes to 1990's Rootless Cosmopolitans, guitarist/producer Arto Lindsay wrote that "the remarkable thing about Marc Ribot is his inability to do one thing." Ribot's superhuman?

For Marc Ribot, playing the guitar is a very physical experience. He plucks notes with surprising force and power. Watching the man solo, he virtually squeezes the notes out of the instrument. At times, he'll bang the body with the heel of his hand, or wrench the neck and yank the twang bar in order to produce his unique lexicon of ferocious screechers, quirky squeeks and shimmering sighs - although his aggressive approach does make him a regular at the local guitar repair shop.
"I've been re-thinking how I play lately," he chuckles. "I go through frets pretty fast."
Ribot took classical-guitar lessons for years, even as he continued to play electric guitar in rock bands. "Since I was 25," he explains, "I've mostly played with a pick for everything," he explains. "I do a combination of things, like holding the pick in between my index and middle fingers to leave my ring finger free to play intervals, so I can jump strings quickly that would otherwise be difficult."
Listening to Ribot's music, it's apparent that adventurous saxophonists like John Coltrane, Albert Ayler and Eric Dolphy have influenced and informed his style - as much as, if not more than, any guitarists. Dolphy's zig-zagging bass clarinet would leap octaves in a single breath. The fractured metric replacement of Thelonious Monk's piano chords can also be heard in the guitarist's unique phrasing.
"A lot of sax players have been behind most of the major breakthroughs in jazz," Ribot points out, "with the exception of bebop, where Charlie Christian had a lot to do with formulating it. Certainly, with free jazz, and with Monk's style, people other than guitarists often made the important changes and the best expressions in the music.That's one part of it. The other thing is, I'm interested in the art of the translator, understanding that direct translation is, as in language, not possible, not really desirable."
Like Dolphy, Ribot is both a sideman and a bandleader. Many of Dolphy's most expressive solos were played with Coltrane or free-jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman, or the great bassist and composer Charles Mingus.
Up until recently, Ribot says, "I feel that I've done better work as a side musician than a leader. I like the idea of interpretation or actively reading someone else's idea, which usually leads to altering it."
Each artist and session offers Ribot a different approach. He's got to listen with open ears and fresh instincts; he doesn't just reach into his sonic paint box, scrawl his name to an artist's work with one of his signature riffs and collects his check. Do the lyrics of first-class songwriters like Waits, Costello, and Jolie Holland ultimately determine Ribot's approach, or is it the chord progression, rythmic feel, vocal tone or phrasing that inspires him as a soloist?
"It's important to listen to the lyrics and get the overall meaning of the tune, as well as the production," he says. "Is the production creating a tie to, say, the 1940s or the 1970s? If it sounds like it's coming out of the 1930s, that doesn't necessarily mean I've gotta go get my 1930s guitar and play that way. I could either go with it, or I could juxtapose it with something that could never have occured then. It depends on a lot of factors.
"Waits gives me a lot o freedom to come up with whatever I want. He's a great editor. He'll record the first thing I come up, get it down, and then say if he's cool with the idea or whether he wants me to keep looking. He often encourages me to explore further, which, in my opinion, is what a producer should do."
Ribot's fractured, jagged guitar solos have been an integral component to Tom Waits' increasingly experimental sounds since 1985's Rain Dogs. As Ribot points out, "The seeds for that sound were already present on Swordfishtrombones, the record before I played with him. I just went further in the direction that he'd already established.
"Waits thinks /dramatically/, in the sense that he is creating music for theater. He uses every element - lyrics, sonics, and production values - to create a drama. He talks about the guitar as a character in a play. Does this character belong in this scene? As for sonics, in this context, if there's a discordant sound, maybe it relates to whether or not the character who is singing it is disturbed."
In an interview, Waits once said he was happiest with his voice when he heard it back in the headphones and it scared the hell out of him. For Ribot, playing and interacting with an instrument like Waits' voice, which ranges from hoarse apologies to thunderous, feral howls, can be a challenge. Does he try to match him grunge for grunge?
"I never thought about that directly before," he muses. "But when you're playing with someone who has a really strong voice, you enter into a dialog with them where the guitar is the voice by other means, or the voice reflected. You can hear that with Hubert Sumlin, who is one of my favourite guitarists. I guess it's a good comparison, how Hubert's guitar worked with Howlin' Wolf... Hubert needs a counter voice that's as strong as Wolf's, and that's hard to come by!"
Ribot has a way of finding powerful singers to accompany (or they have had a way of finding him) - from Marianne Faithfull and her nicotine wisp and razor-sharp phrasing to Jolie Holland and her behind-the-beat, hole-in-her-soul blues. He was already famous for his cubist guitar licks on songs like Costello's "Let Him Dangle" (from 1989's Spike) or the strangulated solo on Waits' "Clap Hands" (from Rain Dogs). ("Back in that time," he notes, "I was doing most of my work on a cheap ESP fake Telecaster.") Yet, he continues to expand his sonic vocabulary on his recent work with Holland and Faithfull, employing and ever increasing array of tonalities.
"I approach it the same way no matter who I'm playing with," Ribot responds. "I try and make the song make sense, a sense that makes sense to me that I like. If that means playing soft major chords, then that's what it means. If it means playing total noise, then that's what it means. If I have a style that's consistent, I find that regrettable. It's only because of the result of my limitations. I don't believe in trotting out the few tropes you have anytime the microphone is on, and that becomes your brand in the capitalist marketplace. A musician should focus on the meaning of the song."

Ribot next unzips a soft-shell case to reveal an old, funky, solid-body with a gold-brown finish. "On the Spiritual Unity [album], I believe I used the same guitar for the whole thing: an early '50s Harmony Stratotone. You can find them, they're around. It's very light, which is one of it's many charms for the travelling musician. It's slightly short-scale, which helps it fit in the overhead. It's gone one very interesting, strong pickup - very strong in the bass response - and the neck is one piece [through the body], which gives it more sustain."
Re-interpreting the squalling gospel jazz of Alber Ayler with a post-punk sensibility, as he did with Spiritual Unity, may be daring, but sharing the stage with master pianist McCoy Tyner - the man who drove the classic Coltrane quartet to the peak of its spiritual expression - has got to be another ballgame altogether.
"Playing with McCoy is a real stretch," Ribot says. "I'm trying my best to keep up with his thing. It's important to know the difference between the gesture and the act. On a record, I can create, by playing a couple of octaves with a certain tone, the gestures and ambiance of Wes Montgomery, but that's not the same thing as taking a Wes Montgomery solo. In some situations, it can take more intelligence to know when the actual thing is not called for and the gesture is better.
"In Tom's records, what's needed is the reference and the gesture, but to go and take a really involved bebop solo over his material would be beside the point and a waste of notes. With McCoy Tyner, it's not about gestures. When a musician of McCoy Tyner's stature calls, you go, whether your think you are ready or not.
"There were no rehearsals," Ribot laughs. "None!"
Tyner, a main component of Coltrane's early-60s quartet, played piano during the brief interim when multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy joined the band, further stretching the music's boundaries with the addition of his alto sax, bass clarinet and flute. Did Tyner make any connection between Ribot's approach to the guitar and Dolphy's dizzying virtuosity? Ribot takes the comparison as a compliment; he, at one point, even transcribed Dolphy's entire solo from "Out to Lunch".
"Doing that gig has put me face to face with my technical limitations," Ribot admits, although ?? that Tyner has been "very open and supportive" of his ideas. "He's doing a lot of uptempo things. He plays hard, with such energy. They need that piano retuned after each set. He's an amazing virtuoso."
Ribot chose to bring his 1960 Gibson ES-135 on Tyner's recent West Coast tour, the same guitar he used on the Cubanos Postizos album. At this point, he goes to open another case and busts out a jagged bebop ?? with harmonics.
"I don't delude myself. I don't think McCoy Tyner was sitting around listening to his old Lounge Lizards records saying, 'Oh man, I gotta have Marc Ribot play on my album.' I think the idea probably originated with his record company. That said, McCoy was very open to the collaborations with me and [Bill] Frisell, and the other guitarists [on Tyner's 2008 Guitars CD]. When I suggested something in the studio, like doing some free pieces, he rode with it right away. In addition to being a brilliant pianist, he's a generous-spirited human being."
Pianists are commonly faced with the difficulty of creating an immediately identifiable voice in the instrument, and it is no different for guitarists.
"With pianists, it's often thought that what distinguishes them from their peers is that the sound comes from their hands," Ribot explains. "When you listen to guitarists, most of them are playing licks and riffs, but what I listen for is the thought involved. Is the guitarist just stitching a bunch of predetermined licks together? Because if that's the case, that's just an avoidance of thought. Sometimes I'm on automatic pilot too, but that's not what I go for."
Being in the moment and being intuitive is equally as important as a guitarist's chops. It's really difficult to maintain the same level of spontaneity in the studio as one brings to a live performance, but, as Ribot points out, that's not always the goal.
"It depends on what's being recorded," he says. "In general, the studio makes you self-conscious because you immediately hear back what you just played. Such playing is really about one thing: unbelievable attention to rythmic detail. That's why the great studio players are so relaxed and meticulous. The same kind of ??ment that can serve well in a live setting is sometimes not so great in the studio. People get all into it, and then they listen back, and it doesn't groove, it doesn't rock.
"Records are not just little aesthetic objects, but they can also be like artifacts. For instance, when you listen to a live Albert Ayler record, what are you getting? Often times, the recording quality is crap, but what you get is a piece of the true cross. You get an artifact of an event that took place. It's religious music, in a sense, because you believe in the value of it. Like the Pentecostal preacher shouting and speaking in tongues; it's not that it sounds so beautiful when he's doing it, it's that you believe he's having an experience. It's the evidence of a state of mind. It's about process; it's creating the evidence of an experience."
Sometimes an unusual approach in the studio may yield unexpected results.
"I was doing some tracks for T Bone Burnett," Ribot chuckles, "for a project that had heavy-metal guitar, rabid rock playing, and I was in there with the speakers cranked - going 'yeah, rock!' and having my Zeppelin fantasy - when he said, 'Try doing it this way...' and turned the overall studio levels down and turned my guitar down to the point where all I could hear was my electric guitar acoustically. I was in the control room, and the amp was out there blazing away, but I couldn't hear it. What was cool about it was that you don't get all excited, so you sit in the groove better.
"It shows what a good producer T Bone is. If you want to create excitement in the listener, then it's got to rock, which often involves not having control in the player, having abandon.
"Control in the player," Ribot laughs at the thought. "What a paradox! What bitter irony!"

Presentazione band da studio (magari Beppe può inserirli in una sotto pagina sul sito dedicato al disco nuovo, perchè questi sono musicisti veramente eccezionali).

Della sezione fiati ho già scritto, passiamo alla sezione ritmica.

Jim Keltner

In drumming circles, his name is spoken with the same reverence as Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa or Ringo Starr. Yet it's somehow possible you're not familiar with the name Jim Keltner. Rest assured, you have certainly heard him. In case you don't think so, here are a few names to jar your memory.
John Lennon, Manhattan Transfer, Delbert McClinton, the Traveling Wilburys, Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, Mick Jagger, Joe Cocker, George Harrison, John Lee Hooker, Randy Newman, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, Pink Floyd, James Taylor, Boz Scaggs, Linda Ronstadt, Ringo Starr, Indigo Girls, B.B. King, Rickie Lee Jones, Freddie Hubbard, Eric Clapton, Ry Cooder, Brian Wilson, Fiona Apple, Neil Diamond, the Bee Gees, Jackson Browne, Elvis Costello, Rita Coolidge and Harry Chapin.

Keltner's latest recording is a collaboration with Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts. The "Charlie Watts Jim Keltner Project" features Watts on drums, Keltner as sonic alchemist with a multitude of electronic and acoustic instruments, and appearances by the likes of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Blondie Chaplin -creating nine description-defying musical auras which take their titles from the names of seminal jazz drummers like Art Blakey, Elvin Jones and the late Tony Williams.
With his resume, Keltner's schedule is appropriately filled to the hilt. Still, the down-to-earth drummer was kind enough to spare some time before leaving for a Neil Young tour to talk about the new album and a few names in his Rolodex.

Question: We have to touch upon some of the musicians you've played with, like John Lennon. I knew [Yes drummer] Alan White played on the "Imagine" album, but wasn't aware you were on it as well.
Answer: Alan White played on the "Imagine" song, which was a couple of days before I did "Jealous Guy." And I also did "Don't Want to Be a Soldier, Mama." That had been [already recorded] with Jimmy Gordon, and they wanted to try it again, so I ended up playing on that track for the record. [The experience] was brief, but it seemed like a long time to me because it was so intense.
Q: What was Lennon like to work with?
A: He was amazing, of course. His songs were all complete. He was the ultimate songwriter in the same way that Bob Dylan is. Neil Young. Guys who write songs where the song plays itself, basically. That's been one of the great blessings of my life, is to have played with some of the greatest songwriters of our time.And Yoko, I remember her there...Yoko played a big part in his life. People only think of her as a detractor, the person that sort of broke up the band, was distracting him, and stuff like that. Nothing could be further from the truth. Well, as far as breaking up the band, I can't speak to that because I wasn't there. But as far as being a big force in John's life, she was. I know that.
Q: Then there's two of America's greatest bluesmen, John Lee Hooker and B.B. King.
A: I played with John Lee on a song called "Mr. Lucky" pretty recently. And I played with him live, a couple of songs with him and Ry Cooder. Playing with John Lee is amazing-- I haven't done it enough!
I've been on a lot of records with B.B. The best one probably was "B.B. In London," which was nominated for a Grammy in the '70s. "Ain't Nobody Home" was the single. B.B. King is just one of the great gentlemen of our time. A national treasure.
Q: And what happened with Barbara Streisand?
A: I did an album with her, with Richard Perry producing. That's one of the most favorite things I ever did. "Since I Fell for You." I love her version of that. You usually don't think of her singing that song, you think of other soul singers. And she did John's "Mother." I was doing a lot of stuff with Richard Perry at the time, so thatwas how I got to work with Barbara. Back then, she was this major, major force, you know? Unbelievable voice. And that was in the days when the artist would record live with you. It was a tremendous thing, to hear a voice like that in your headphones.
Q: Of course, thinking again about songwriters--Bob Dylan.A: The first time I played with Bob was in the early '70s with Leon Russel, Carl Readle and Jessie Ed Davis. We did "Watching the River Flow" and "When I Paint My Masterpiece" on that same day. And then I didn't see him again until we did "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" in Los Angeles. That was a monumental session for me because it was such a touching song, it was the first time I actually cried when I was playing. When I hear that on the radio now, it's very special to me. I almost well up again when I hear it, because it's a frozen moment in my life that will always be there.
fonte: www.drummerworld.com/drummers/Jim_Keltner.html

Born April 27 1942 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Keltner made his name primarily as a session drummer in the 1970s. His initial interest as a drummer lay in jazz. But because of the declining popularity of jazz at the time, and the pop/rock explosion in the late '50s and early '60s, Keltner jumped on the rock 'n' roll bandwagon and broke into the Los Angeles music scene.
Keltner’s early experience as a session drummer was a struggle as he just tried to make ends meet. But toward the end of the ’60s, regular gigs came his way and he became one of the busiest drummers in L.A.
His earliest recorded work was with Gabor Szabo on the album Bacchanal. Later, his association with Leon Russel brought him to the attention of British crooner Joe Cocker, and Keltner’s career took off. It opened the floodgates to gigs with musicians such as Carly Simon, Barbara Streisand, George Harrison, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and Derek And The Dominos.
Playing on Lennon’s legendary record Imagine was a monumental boon to Ketlner’s career as it came right off the heels of The Beatle’s break-up, and media hype abounded. He was called to play George Harrison's Concert For Bangladesh and was then recruited by Ringo Starr to perform on his first post-Beatles project.
From that platform Keltner went on to work with some of the biggest names in music, ranging from Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Arlo Guthrie, to B.B. King and Bob Dylan. He played on a countless number of records, which affirmed his reputation as one of the most experienced and studio-hardened session drummers of his time.
His drumming approach is idiosyncratic, loose, and soulful, and helped elevate the studio musician’s role from that of a generic hired hand to an individual who colors the music with personality and style. He is known not only for his great feel and sensitivity, but also for bringing a fresh approach to the potentially tedious world of pop music.
fonte: www.drummagazine.com/drumpedia/post/jim-keltner


Jay Bellerose

If you caught Robert Plant and Alison Krauss on 2008’s Raising Sand tour, you couldn’t help but focus on the guy providing the heartbeat to the harmony-laden, roots-and-roll revue, Jay Bellerose. Not only was Bellerose’s drumming an inventive jumble of slinky grooves, tumbling fills, and graceful accents, his rig was a thing of ragtag beauty, from the vintage tubs on down to the shakers strapped to his ankles.
“The set was a Slingerland Rolling Bomber kit, probably made in 1943 or 1944,” Bellerose says of his eye-catching vintage kit, which he also played on the Raising Sand record. “Because of the metal rationing during WWII, every drum company was forced to make a version of this kit. The lugs, lug casings, and rims are all made of rosewood, so it’s a very warm sound.
Bellerose describes 2008 as “rewarding on so many levels,” and it’s easy to understand why. He played on one of 2007’s most critically acclaimed albums in Raising Sand and spent much of ’08 touring the album. He also appeared on Sam Phillips’ Don’t Do Anything (and subsequent tour), Loudon Wainwright III’s Recovery, and B.B. King’s Burnett-produced One Kind Favor, which found him drumming alongside Jim Keltner.
“Jim was the captain of the ship,” Jay insists, “as far as I’m concerned. Sometimes we were both playing the same thing; other times Jim would play a roll and I’d orchestrate more percussion-type stuff, which is kind of the way I play anyway. I basically just tried to contribute but not get in the way.”
fonte: www.moderndrummer.com/updatefull/200001744/Jay%20Bellerose

The real reason this album [Krauss&Plant] is on the "Albums Every Drummer Should Know" list is the cool drumming. Holy cow. Jay Bellerose, a guy with very deep and impressive credits in the studio, is delivering on this record in a way that I’ve never heard anyone play. His grooves, his feel, his sounds, his ideas… they are all amazing and so inspiring. You know that “loose and jangly” feel that americana/folk fans talk about? Bellerose DEFINES that sound on this record. You know that mysterious “between-swing-and-straight” pocket that everybody wants to get into? That’s where Bellerose LIVES for this entire album. You know that vintage “deep-but-dead” tone that’s so popular in the studio right now? Bellerose is a passionate expert on vintage gear, and he nails the sound on every track… but in a way that keeps it simultaneously classic and fresh, not just trendy.
For example…
The groove on “Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson” is the funkiest sounding train/backbeat I’ve ever heard, and then just try and wrap your brain around his pocket during the guitar solo on that tune, not to mention the fill into that section (2:56). Then check out the kick/ride tone on the opening track, “Rich Woman,” and don’t miss the triplet fill after the final choruses (3:10). Listen to the nuances of the one-handed brush feel on “Killing the Blues,” and the tasteful addition of the ride at the slide solo. “Polly Come Home” has so much space… the room he leaves for everyone else is so effective but so difficult to pull off. “Gone Gone Gone” is the coolest treatment of a tumbau pattern. The deep cowbell sound on “Sister Rosetta” is so left field but so perfect. I mean, what is going on with the cymbal/floor tom groove on “Fortune Teller”? How about the awesome but completely unorthodox pattern on the out choruses of “Please Read the Letter”? I could go on and on.
fonte: http://stevegoold.wordpress.com/category/jay-bellerose/


Dennis Crouch

Where to begin? Some musicians make a living playing music. Dennis Crouch lives to play his music. And his music is almost every kind of music that fills the air breezing over back porches of Bluegrass Country to New York’s town hall.
When John Carter Cash assembled the band for Johnny Cash’s last recordings, he asked for Dennis Crouch. So, too, did June Carter Cash for her album Wildwood Flower, Randy Travis, Jerry Reed, and Loretta Lynn, not to speak of a dozen or so other icons of country music. Not bad company for a kid from Strawberry, Arkansas, who just wanted to play bass.
Bluegrass? Well , Alison Krauss is in the Crouch corner (Raising Sand & Hundred Miles or more: a Collection) Ralph Stanley, Tim O’Brien, Jim Lauderdale, Nashville Bluegrass Band, Bryan Sutton, Russ Barenberg, Aubrey Haynie, and others.
Then there’s the wider world. A talent like Dennis Crouch’s cannot be contained in a jar on the shelf marked “One Dimensional.”
Rock? Well, only if you count Elvis Costello, Steve Earle, Sting, T-Bone Burnett, John Mellencamp, and Robert Plant ( Raising Sand), to name a few among the nearly dozen stellar rockers with whom he has recorded.
Jazz/Swing? Sure, and that brings us back full circle. In 1998 Crouch co-founded the Time Jumpers, a group as at home in jazz as in knee-high traditional country and Western swing. He’s also recorded with the likes of Duke Heitger, Evan Christopher, David Hungate and April Barrows, Jerry Krahn and others.
By the way, if you’re a movie-goer, you’ve probably heard Crouch unawares on a number of soundtracks, as in Walk the Line, Cold mountain, Don’t Come Knockin’, Mad Money, Songcatcher, and Across the Universe.
Dennis, his wife, children, dogs and cats abide near Nashville, Tennessee, where he is, no doubt, preparing for yet another tour or recording date with some giant of jazz or country or bluegrass or rock.
fonte: www.thetimejumpers.com/bio/dennis_crouch

Q:What’s the basis of your sound?
A: I’ve always used gut strings, so that’s the beginning. My bass’s bridge is between a jazz and an orchestral cut—not flat but not too round—and I have pretty high action. I go for a big, fat bottom—just find the sweet spots on the instrument and dwell there.

Q: What players inspired you?
A: Ray Brown, of course, and Bob Moore and Junior Huskey. When I moved to Nashville Bob gave me a lot of pointers—the way he pulls his strings, the left-hand positions, and advice like learning every song in every key. One of the most valuable things he taught me was learning how to play every upright bass you come in contact with—an Eb neck or a D neck, different string spacings—being able to make your sound from bass to bass.
Does his advice about pulling the strings contribute to your sound?
It really does. On Raising Sand there are a couple of tunes where I pull down toward the fingerboard to get more of a clicking sound, and on some of the slower tunes I play more on top of the strings for a sweeter sound. There’s one tune that’s all slap bass [“Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson”]. Most of that stuff I tried to steal from Junior Huskey, and I love the way Milt Hinton slapped bass. Mine is a combination of the two, but I want to have my own sound if I can.

Q:How does your fingerboard hand contribute to your sound?
A: I do a Dixieland gig, and a lot of that music was done with tuba. So if I’m going for that sound, I try to pinch off the note with the right hand—deaden the string without slapping—and I immediately release the left hand off the fingerboard. Both hands have to work together.
fonte: www.bassplayer.com/article/robert-p...ss/mar-08/34327

Per chi è interessato: Marc Ribot, chitarrista nel prossimo album di Elton, sarà ad aprile in Italia per due concerti, uno a Roma, l'altro a Torino.

Marc Ribot è uno dei chitarristi più acclamati degli ultimi 20 anni e la serie di dischi ed artisti con cui ha collaborato è impressionante: Robert Plant, Tom Waits, Alison Krauss, Soloman Burke, John Lurie, Elvis Costello, Marianne Faithful, Arto Lindsay, Caetano Veloso, Laurie Anderson, David Sylvian, Susana Baca, McCoy Tyner, T-Bone Burnett, The Jazz Passengers, The Lounge Lizards, Evan Lurie, Chocolate Genius, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Cibo Mato, Medeski Martin & Wood, James Carter, Vinicio Caposella, Auktyon, Vinicius Cantuaria, Sierra Maestra, Alain Bashung, Joe Henry, Alan Toussaint, Marisa Monte, Allen Ginsburg, Trey Anastasio, Madeline Peyroux, Patti Scialfa, Sam Phillips, Akiko Yano, The Black Keys.

Il suo stile personale ed innovativo di suonare la chitarra, definito un mix tra punk, jazz e blues ha ispirato migliaia di chitarristi in tutto il mondo, diventando così un vero e proprio marchio di fabbrica riconoscibilissimo.

http://musicclub.it/musicclub/jsp/gruppi/d...?id_gruppo=2316

Darrell Leonard came to Los Angeles from Ft. Worth, Texas in 1969 and was soon recording and touring with Delaney & Bonnie and Friends and Dr. John. He has played on and arranged Grammy winning records by Stevie Ray Vaughan, Buddy Guy, Keb Mo, and Taj Mahal. As a composer, Darrell's work includes collaborations with T-Bone Burnett on the music for the production of Bertolt Brechts "Mother Courage and Her Children"at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago and original music and arrangements for the film "The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" and "Cold Mountain". His score for Academy Award winner Eric Simonson's play "Carter's Way" captured the sound of Kansas City during the 1930's.

Joe Sublett began his musical career in Corpus Christi, Texas, where he developed his Texas Tenor style playing in local blues bands. In 1976, Joe moved to Austin, quickly hooking up with Paul Ray and The Cobras, a legendary R&B band that featured a twenty one year old Stevie Ray Vaughan. As part of the burgeoning Austin Blues scene, Joe worked with The Cobras, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, Delbert McClinton, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Lou Ann Barton, Joe Ely and the Antone's House band. In 1986, Joe moved to Los Angeles where he has continued to work as a session and touring sax player as well as writing horn arrangements and music for films.

A smooth groovin’ cat is a great way to describe veteran sax player, Jim "Gaspipe" Thompson, originally from Tacoma, WA. After graduating from the University of Washington as a clarinet major, Jim moved to Los Angeles to further his music career both on the road and in the studio. Jim has played with some of the greats in the industry including Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Wynonna Judd, and Taj Mahal, just to mention a few. He currently plays with Bobby Womack, Los Lonely Boys, and the Temptations. When you hear his funky licks and sensitive, jazzy solos, you'll clearly understand why he is such a great addition to every band he plays with.

World-class tenor saxophonist Tom Peterson has worked for many of the great composers/arrangers and bands including: John Williams, Pat Williams, Lennie Niehaus, Peter Matz, Tommy Newsom, Bill Holman, Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabakin Big Band, Doc Severinsen, Bob Florence Limited Edition, Chris Walden, John La Barbera.

In pratica, riassumendo:

pianoforte: Elton John & Leon Russell
basso: Dennis Crouch
chitarra: Marc Ribot
Batteria: Jim Keltner
Percussioni: Jay Bellerose
Tastiere: Keefus Ciancia

Con partecipazione anche di:
Neil Young: armonica?, chitarra?
Booker T Jones: organo

Sezione fiati:
Joe Sublett - Sax (tenore)
Tom Peterson - Sax (baritono)
Jim "GasPipe" Thompson - Sax (tenore)
Darrell Leonard - Tromba

Produttore: T-Bone Burnett