Kathy Mattea | Bonnie BramlettSavoy Brown: On tour in support of new CD
SOUND YOGA | Kathy Mattea | Bonnie Bramlett
Internationally acclaimed sound healing pioneer, Dean Evenson, draws from his experience of 30 years of practicing yoga to create the ultimate yoga session!
Almost 70 minutes of exquisite music chosen in cooperation with leading yoga instructors features new music and selections from best-selling CDs arranged in a flowing sequence to support one's practice. For hatha yoga, meditation, breathwork or simply cooling down and relaxing, this music offers a gentle focus to stretch the stress away.
Flautist and keyboardist Evenson collaborates with outstanding musicians of the Soundings Ensemble to create this stunning album that supports the many aspects of yoga.
Chinese zither master Li Xiangting has collaborated with Evenson on two albums that have been extremely popular with yoga teachers. Sonic Tribe member Scott Huckabay draws from his extensive daily yoga practice to create beautiful harmonic melodies on guitar.
Gina Sala who has been lead singer with Cirque du Soleil and is a member of Sonic Tribe, lifts the spirit with her sensuous chants. Angelic vocalist Singh Kaur who taught yoga and pioneered the chanting of Sanskrit mantras 20 years ago with her popular Crimson Series is also featured here.
Tibetan bowl master, Walter Makichen, sets the tone with his unique touch, sometimes using a cello bow directly on the edge of the brass bowls. Dean's wife, Dudley Evenson, performs soothing harp melodies and tamboura drones and Soundings' own studio engineer, Phil Heaven, adds his sensitive viola stylings.
Earth Resonance Frequency
In order to enhance a state of deep relaxation, the Earth Resonance Frequency of 7.8 hertz (cycles per second) is included within the mix. This natural resonant frequency of the earth's atmospheric cavity supports relaxation and meditation, and creates a receptivity to healing. It is the same frequency that the brain emits when in the Alpha state and thus helps to entrain the brainwaves to go into the Alpha state.
Street date February 4, 2003.
Soundings of the Planet soundings.com
KATHY MATTEA
Taking Her 'Roses' On Tour
After
more than 20 years in the music industry, as well as just as many
successes, Kathy Mattea's most recent Narada release, ROSES, hits
the road.
The perfect blend of harmony and sensitivity epitomizes Kathy's unparalleled voice on record and live. As a veteran to changes, Kathy molds herself into a newer style which remains all her own. This unique style comes across in Kathy's studio efforts as well as her live performances.
On her first tour supporting the ever-memorable ROSES, Kathy invokes sounds from around the world. From the American guitar she herself plays, to the Western harmonium or the European concertina; Kathy's music remains a whirlwind of specially crafted music stripped down to what it used to be, original.
With her Narada debut, ROSES, Kathy reaffirms her status as a cherished performer who is willing to follow her muse wherever it leads.
Catch Kathy Mattea's performance at:
Centennial Hall; Tucson, AZ; March 8, 2003
Narada Productions, Inc.
CROWNED QUEEN OF "ESSENTIAL" SOUTHERN ROCKERS BY CD NOW
(Nashville)
-- "Gather round children, cause if you feel the need for
a little Southern boogie in your soul...these bands will take
you in the right direction..."
So says the current lead in to this weeks CD NOW Buyers Guide- a well researched listing of the legendary and "essential" boogie kings of Southern Rock-a deck of famous musical face cards that includes only one queen of hearts: BONNIE BRAMLETT.
Citing the album "Motel Shot' by Delaney and Bonnie as an essential "must have" work of Southern rocker art, the online oracle notes: "BONNIE BRAMLETT has sung with the Allman Brothers, Joe Cocker, Ike & Tina Turner, Delbert McClinton, and everyone in between. "Motel Shot' features Duane Allman on acoustic guitar, Leon Russell, John Hartford, Gram Parsons, and others. . . it's probably the greatest acoustic album ever made."
Heavy stuff for the woman who's been hailed as the greatest white female R&B voice to emerge from rock music. When the history books of music are opened, Bonnie Bramlett will always be indelibly written there as the blonde, soul-pounding, R&B flavored, gospel inspired, stage pacing, sweating beyond all sense of onstage glamour rock diva engine that drove Delaney & Bonnie into the hottest duo break-out of the late '60's.
On the heels of the release of her new Audium Records CD project, "I'm Still The Same," Bonnie's on track and on radar for new "essential projects" yet to come. The new CD is a ringing reminder that the gripping singer is still a first rate songwriter, provides evidence that she is one of the all time great song interpreters and overall, is soul music-making at it's finest as pointed out by the man who invented the term "Rhythm and Blues", Jerry Wexler:
"...brilliant performance... Her vocals are stunning in every respect; ...above all, burning with the feeling that we have come to recognize as deep soul."
Bonnie Bramlett. The name says it all; it's synonymous with 'Icon.' It's a name belonging to one of the single most revered female jazz/blues/soul/rock vocalists in music history. Perhaps noted music critic Robert K. Oermann said it best for her:
"Bonnie Bramlett sings like she has walked through the fires of hell, and danced with the angels."
For more than the past 20 years, Bonnie Bramlett has written songs, recorded, toured and performed with the best of the best. With the release of her new album, aptly titled "I'm Still The Same," Bramlett is preparing to reclaim a spotlight for herself.
The voice that has been called "the greatest white female R&B voice to emerge from rock music," is still piping through chords that have transcended musical styles and genres to find a whole new generation of believers in Bramlett. Her age defying secret is simple - Bonnie Bramlett doesn't just sing her music, she is her music. Holding together the spunky framework of this vintage model classic rocker is the unmistakable glue of musical energy that courses through her every fiber like electricity through filament wire.
When the history books of music are opened, Bonnie Bramlett will always be indelibly written there as the blonde, soul-pounding, R&B flavored, gospel inspired, stage pacing, sweating beyond all sense of onstage glamour rock diva engine that drove Delaney & Bonnie & Friends into the hottest duo break-out of the late '60's.
Between 1969 and 1972 Delaney & Bonnie issued five outstanding albums-storming the charts with hit singles such as "Soul Shake," "Only You Know & I Know," and "Never Ending Song Of Love" to mention a few. They shared stages, recording studios, and all night music jam sessions with such legendary contemporaries as Eric Clayton, Leon Russell, George Harrison, Dave Mason, Gram Parsons, and John Lennon.
Bonnie Bramlett can look back on a gig book that looks like a "Who's Who" of the music business. Some are gone. Some survived. The "Never Ending Song Of Love" for Delaney & Bonnie ended. But for Bonnie, the music played on. The secret of her survival, she will tell you quite honestly, is in her roots.
Plucked from the musical garden of '60's flower children, Bonnie was, from the beginning, the wild blossom that grew up through the crack in the sidewalk-against all odds of nature and circumstance. Born Bonnie Lynn O'Farrell, she cut school days short at 14 to begin singing at night in the dark cellar R&B bars in the tough East St. Louis of her birth. The local artists she worked with were destined to become future blues legends with names like Albert King and Little Milton. At 15, Bonnie made her initial entry in musical history-becoming the first white girl to tour with Ike & Tina Turner as one of their famous Ikettes.
Bonnie picks up her trail: "I began singing for pay at 15 in the Gaslight Square of St. Louis-a vibe a lot like the French Quarter in New Orleans. I sang with everyone-everybody jamming with everybody else. St. Louis was a pretty cool jaz town in those days. Stan Getz introduced me to a lot of the great jaz players that I got to work with. Dexter Gordon let me sing with him whenever he was in town. I jammed with Maynard Ferguson, opened for Count Basie, got to work with Herbie Mann and King Curtis, Miles Davis and Wes Montgomery. . . man, it was better than any college education!"
Delaney & Bonnie and Friends...
In 1967, Bonnie packed up the substance of her world and with all the confidence of youth, struck out for fame in Los Angeles. Meeting musician Delaney Bramlett soon after her arrival, they were married seven days letter. "We got married in a bowling alley that had a topless bar. . . a pretty cool locale for that day and time," she laughs.
Soon signed as a duo with Stax Records, she found herself heading to Memphis where the duo became the first white artists to join a roster that included all black R&B greats such as Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas, Sam & Dave, John Lee Hooker, and Booker T. & The MGs. "They didn't know we were white. We walked in the door, and Isaac Hayes took one look at me and said, 'sing "Do Right Woman,'M did." Their first album "Delaney & Bonnie/Home," recorded for Stax, is today considered a classic, groundbreaking project.
Landing a spot as warm-up act on a series of European tour dates for English super group of the day, Blind Faith, Delaney & Bonnie came as a radar blip on the Continental musical scene populated by the elite superstars of the UK-those born in the wake of the England invasion. It was the legendary great Eric Clapton who saw such potential in their music that he invited them back to Europe to tour with him. Reports filtered back to the U.S. that Delaney & Bonnie were breaking in Europe. The wave soon swept across the Atlantic back to America.
Bonnie became the team's chief songwriter. With Eric Clapton often as a collaborator, she created such memorable hits as "Let It Rain, " "Bottle Of Red Wine" and "Coming Home. "
With musical great, Leon Russell, Bonnie created an anthem for the era "Please Give Peace A Chance" and "Superstar". Still considered one of the all time greatest songs ever written and recorded, the latter song was a huge hit in 1971 for The Carpenters and got hundreds of subsequent cuts by artists as diverse as Bette Midler, Cher, and Luther Vandross. Fittingly it's just had life breathed anew by its own original co-creator-"Superstar" appears as a stand out track on Bonnie's new "/'m Still The Same" project.
Her catalog of works have also been recorded by renowned artists such as Lynn Anderson, Crystal Gayle, Joan Baez, The Staple Singers, The Everly Brothers, Lester Flatt, David Allan Coe, The Allman Brothers, Hank Williams, Jr. and The Osmonds to name.only a handful.
The music stopped for Delaney and Bonnie in 1973 with their divorce, although Bonnie personally hardly missed a beat. She embarked on a solo career and plans for her first album project, which featured The Average White Band as her backup musicians.
Bonnie recalls: "The band played me a tape over the phone, so I sent them airfare and brought them over to the States. The Average White Band was my first band as a solo artist."
Southern Rocker...
Moving to Georgia, Bonnie signed with Capricorn Records, and issued solo albums in 1974, 1976, and 1978. She joined friends on the road for fun-and provided background vocals sitting in on top albums with such musical cohorts as Joe Cocker, Carly Simon, Gregg Allman, Little Feat, Jimmy Hall, Steve Cropper, and Jimmy Buffett. Bonnie's stylized signature vocals could be heard adding immeasurably to Delbert McClinton award winning hit, "Givin It Up For Your Love."
As the 80's were near their dawn, Bonnie creatively plugged back into the Los Angeles scene. Hardly unpacked on the West Coast, Stephen Stills asked her to go on tour, as did the Allman Brothers Band. She was to become lovingly known as the only existing "Allman Sister," as she picked up a schedule touring steadily with the Southern rock institution.
Hollywood . . .
Creatively nurtured in L.A., Bonnie moved into acting. She was seen in a guest role on the TV series Fame. She landed a part in the Oliver Stone movie, The Doors, playing opposite Val Kilmer, Meg Ryan, and Billy Idol. "Oliver said, 'All you have to do to get the part is to tell Jim Morison to get f-d.' I said, 'I did that in real life,"' She recalls laughingly. Soon after, working along side Tom Arnold in a theater production, she was approached by Roseanne Barr about a recurring role in her weekly television series.
Bonnie recalls: "Roseanne came up and introduced herself and told me she used to pretend she was me... she knew every song I ever sang! I was so flattered. She was saying to me what I would say to Aretha Franklin!"
So for the 91-92 season, Bonnie found herself in a recurring role in the #1 rated television show in the nation, Roseanne. It proved to be a fun ride creatively, although miles removed from her first love of making music.
At the wrap of her gig on television, Bonnie needed time to re-charge, re-connect musically, and write. Her personal life in shambles now in the after effects of a second divorce, she withdrew to the Cascade Mountains of Idaho. She began to write her memoirs, which she tentatively titled, I Can Laugh About lt Now.
Nashville. . .
But the quiet life was not for Bonnie. Friends soon began urging her to make a move to Nashville-where the vibe, they said, was kinetic with creative and where old friends abounded now. Answering the call, Bonnie officially declared her liberty from the demons of her past, arriving to connect with Music Row in Nashville on July 4, 1999. It was a move destined to re-energize and revitalize the creative seeds within her that were s~ill ripe to be birthed into new music.
"This place is like Tibet for songwriters," Bonnie has said of Nashville. "You can reach out and feel the energy:"
It's in these new surroundings that Bonnie has truly found an artistic haven. Her newest project for Nashville based Audium Records-with songs of her creation and co-creation-- is Bonnie Bramlett at full throttle-the vocal engine that propelled her into musical history books-is as fine-tuned as ever. Those strolls through hell endured by every artistic soul on the road of life, thankfully never consumed her. They have left only a deeper trace of smoke on her voice. ' The album is a ringing reminder that the gripping singer is still a first rate songwriter, provides evidence that she is one of the all time great song interpreters and overall, is soul music-making at it's finest as pointed out by the man who invented the term "Rhythm and Blues", Jerry Wexler:
"...brilliant performance... Her vocals are stunning in every respect; ...above all, burning with the feeling that we have come to recognize as deep soul. "
"This is a grown up record," says rock 'n' roll veteran Bramlett. "All I know is that it's important to keep it honest. I don't know how to do it any other way."
As the 215' century begins, Bonnie is in deep touch with herself, her music, and her Creator. It's a place she's found at long last, both comfortable and creative.
Bonnie Bramlett is today a true survivor, a musical legend, and a classic beauty of a rocker in every sense of the word.
At a
time when widespread claims of "groundbreaking" and
"daring" have rendered the terms all but meaningless,
leave it to Lou Reed to breathe new life into the accolades that
have followed him throughout his career. With The Raven, Reed
delivers an extraordinary album that ranks alongside his most
powerful and emotional works.
"The Raven record is the culmination of absolutely everything I've been working on, except for photography," says Reed. "All the ideas about sound, mixing, writing, emphasis and rhyme it's all in there. It's the culmination of all that came before it, everything."
The Raven is a two-hour excursion into the obsessive world of Edgar Allan Poe as filtered through Reed's eclectic sensibility. In addition to bandmates Fernando Saunders, Mike Rathke and Tony Smith, a phenomenal array of guest artists - including Laurie Anderson, Elizabeth Ashley, David Bowie, Steve Buscemi, Ornette Coleman, the Blind Boys Of Alabama, Willem Dafoe and Kate & Anna McGarrigle -- take part in what may be Reed's most ambitious album yet.
The Raven is being released in both one and two-CD versions: "It's coming out in its original format, the grand presentation, which contains everything," says Reed, "and then the smaller, pared down version, either for those who don't want to listen to two hours of it, or who want to try it out before committing to the two hours. So there's the grand mal version or the exquisite, but smaller version."
While it may be unprecedented for contemporary music and poetry to be brought together in a project of this scope, for Reed it's all a natural outgrowth of interests that have been with him all along.
"I've been playing in bar bands since I was 14, but along with that there's always been the writing. In college, having a mentor like Delmore Schwartz had a profound effect on me.
And then moving on to Andy Warhol, another profound effect. And I'm still a part of the St. Mark's Poetry Project, which gave young people -- which I was at the time -- an opportunity to get up there and read whatever they wrote, which in my case was Iyrics, and present it like it's literature or it mattered."
Still, it was only in recent years that Reed re-read and truly connected with the works of Edgar Allan Poe. "I really got into Poe when I did the Halloween at St. Anne's Church with Hal Willner, my co-producer," recalls Reed.
"When I read 'The Tell-Tale Heart' out loud, I came to understand it in a way I never had before, and I realized that my understanding of it had been very superficial." A collaboration followed with Robert Wilson called POEtry, which was performed around the world.
But Reed found the material taking on a completely new life of its own once he began rewriting, reworking and recruiting the stellar talent that supports him on the full-blown audio experience that's become The Raven.
Musically, The Raven is a tour de force of new Reed songs that range from the'bombast of UOverture" and "Blind Rage" to the poignance of "Vanishing Act" and "Call On Me," the latter featuring exquisite performances by Laurie Anderson and cellist Jane Scarpantoni.
The songs also run the emotional gamut, from the wry lounge takeoff, "Broadway Song" (on which Reed hands over the mic to Steve Buscemi) to the dramatic show-stopper, "Who Am I," which Reed refers to as the album's "Iynchpin."
"It's one of the first songs I wrote for the project, oddly enough, and to me it s just sums up getting older in a Poe universe."
The Raven also finds Reed working with old friend David Bowie and saxophone legend Ornette Coleman, of whom Reed has been a fan since the '60sMI used to trail him around from club to club --- I couldn't afford to go in - so for me it was the thrill of a lifetime to work with him."
Reed also reworks two classic numbers: "The Bed" (originally from Berlin) and "Perfect Day," which features a haunting vocal by a new young singer named Antony. "You know, if Jimmy Scott had a son, it would be Antony," says Reed. "Willner and I were looking for singers and Hal brought me a tape of Antony and I heard five seconds of it and I said, 'It's him.'"
While Poe's spirit, characters and obsessions permeate the recording, the words and music are very much in Reed's hands. Take the recitation by Willem Dafoe ("He has a voice like a chocolate bar, says Reed. "On headphones you listen to his voice and you go, 'Oh man, I could listen to that forever'") of the title track: "'The Raven' starts out the way Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Raven' starts out, the first couplet, and then after that it's Lou," says Reed. "You know, Edgar Allan Poe did not say, 'sweaty, dickless liar." Nor, for that matter, did Poe have Tripitena (from "Hop-Frog") intone: "Businessman, you're not worth shitting on."
"I thought it was so appropriate to our particular times," says Reed, "with all those companies raping and pillaging everybody."
Reed finds considerable resonance between Poe's mid-1 9th century world-view and today's 21st century realities: "Poe wrote an essay called 'The Imp Of The Perverse' asking why are we driven to be attracted to things which we know are bad for us, and that theme runs through all of Poe," says Reed, who sees William Burroughs and Hubert Selby, Jr. as heirs to Poe's legacy. "lt's certainly an idea that's universal, and certainly something I can understand."
Bridging the album's songs and spoken word pieces is Reed's electronic experimentation, which reaches a stunning peak on the album's penultimate track, an instrumental called "Fire Music" that literally leaps out of the speakers.
"It's a very intense piece; it was recorded three days after September 11," says Reed, recalling how his collaborators had to get through the police line at 14th Street to get to his place.
"When people say to me, 'What do you think about what happened September 11th, I point to that. That's what I think. There's no way it didn't have an affect. I've been playing with electronic instruments for a long time and I wanted something to pick up where I left off with Mehl Machine Music, and I finally got that with 'Fire Music.' "
With The Raven, Lou Reed gives us a world we can get lost in, while continually making new discoveries along the way. "The more you listen to it, the more you'll find," says Reed of his latest creative peak. "It's my fastball. It's my 95 mile an hour pitch."
H. Lynn Kitchens
Mother Goose nursery rhymes that are 300-to-500-years old. That'ss Rockin' With The Goose. Classic-rock stylings from the Sixties and Seventies. That's Rockin' With The Goose. Top qualiy music the whole family can sing along to and listen to over and over again. Yes, it's all part of the new musical album Rockin' With The Goose.
Those European nursee rhymes from centuries ago -- "Humpy Dumpy," "Three Little Kittens," "Jack & Jill," "Siimple Simon," "Little Boy Blue," "Mary Had A Little Lamb" and a baker's dozen more - never sounded like this before. Instead of being sung in the typical children's nursery chanting style the way most people first heard them, these age old lyrics have been given a completely new treatment on Rockin' With The Goose (available in record stores and online at www.rockinwiththegoose.com).
The brain-child of veteran Nashville musician H. Lynn Kitchens (who wrote all original music, produced the project and sang the lead vocals), Rockin' With The Goose marries Mother Goose a classic rock'n'roll sound. Hear echoes of some of the best rck music ever made. There are hints of and tips of the hat to The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Chicago, James Brown, Otis Redding, Allman Brothers, Bob Seger and others.
"The idea for this album came years ago when I was driving along with my nine-year-old niece and she knew the words to all the songs on the radio, but some of the lyrics were not age appropriate," explains Kitchens. "I realized that most entertainment is too mature for children these days, and media is shoved right in their faces all the time. News, films, music Iyrics, comic books, TV shows and video games all have mature and violent content. So much is negative -- sex, drugs, gangs, drive-by shootngs, racism, gambling, explosions, grand theft auto, science-fiction monsters, you name it. Kids don't get to be kids nowadays. So I wantd give them music that is adult, quality and classic, but let them enjoy some of the best children's Iyrics ever written in humankind's history.
"I also decided if I was going to do it, I was going to do it right, using the best musicians available. If you have heard any of those albums with 100 children singing out of yune with a drum synthesizer in the background, or a folk singer on acoustic guitar going on about brushing your teeth and eatng your vegetables, you know you can only take just so much of it I wanted music that anyone can listen to repeatedly. Since most children have an adult care-giver with them, the music needed to be something adults also would enjoy and not feel like they were being subjected to fingernails on a chalkboard," Lynn states.
"I chose the muscial sounds from the Sixtes and Seventes because I believe that is some of the best music ever made and that it has already stood the test of time for 3O-to-40-years. Surveys have shown that all ages Iisten to Classical Rock Radio and that sach new generation young people enjoy The Beatles and the other top acts from that era. I believe grandparents and parents will enjoy turning their childrsn onto Rockin' With The Goose music because it is fun, feel good music with real homs and real drums instead of synthesized sounds and drum machines. In addition, many parents are not reading Mother Goose nursey rhymes to their kids anymorr, so this album also serves as a modern educational too keeping some of the best children's poetry ever written in the ears of children where it belongs."
Lynn Kitchens brings a strong musical background to the project. A professional musician for the past three-and-a-half-decades, Kitchens has played with Dickie Betts (Allman Brothers), Gary Puckett (The Union Gap), Johnny Paycheck, Dave Frizell, Les Thompson (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band), and Ronnie Hammond (Atlanta Rhythm Section), among others.
Under his own name Kitchens had a single, "Brothers," that received airplay on more than 15,000 radio stations. His debut album, Runnin' 'Round This Country, came out in 1995. Kitchens has written more than 300 pop, rock, soul and country songs, and has won four Billboard magazine songwriting awards.
He also appeared in the video for Vince Gill's "Pocketful of Gold" and in the Jim Varney feature film "Ernest Scared Stupid."
Lynn grew up in Macon, Georgia, listening to Johnny Norton, Chet Atkins and The Beatles. When Lynn was 12, he taught himself to play drums, guitar and piano, and soon began writing songs. The next year he put together a group, The Fabulous Geer Band (eventually shortened by fans to simply The Geers), which played the Georgia circuit for the next eight years while Lynn was in high school and college.
The band's guitarist, Hal Register, is still a Georgia legend in the world of blues guitarists. Two bandmembers also played trumpet and saxophone, so the group often switched around on instruments and became a horn band for tunes by Sam & Dave, Otis Redding or The Rascals.
The Geers landed a major label deal with Shelby Singleton's 3S International Records which released the single "I Need You" and it sold 12,000 copies regionally.
"Our biggest competition in the region came in 1969 when The Allman Brothers moved to Macon," remembers Lynn. "They were men and we were still teenage boys, but occasionally Dickie Betts would come and sit in with our band."
After getting a degree in education at Young Harris College in northern Georgia, Lynn moved to Washington, DC and was the band-leader for singer Vicki Forde.
"I got indoctrinated into the world of Carlos Jobim, Rodgers & Hammerstein and George Gershwin."
Gary Puckett, who had six Top 10 hits in a row in the late Sixties, heard Kitchens on a demo tape and hired him as a bass player. With Puckett, Lynn did three North American tours playing concerts with acts such as Three Dog Night, The Grass Roots and Rick Nelson.
Kitchens moved to Nashville in 1980 and put together a band called Shameless that opened for Molly Hatchet at the Electric Cowboy Festival in front of 15,000 people. On another major show, Kitchens played in Rich Grissom's band on the bill with Barbara Mandrell, the Kentucky Headhunters and Kathy Mattea.
In the '90s Kitchens had a group, Cryin' Out Loud, that included Jimmy Compton, who wrote the Top 10 Davis Daniels tune UFor Cryin' Out Loud." Lynn also organized and performed a benefit concert for the Nashville Coalition for the Homeless.
Kitchens' has always loved horn bands like Chicago, The Ides of March and Tower of Power; southern rock acts including The Allman Brothers and Stevie Ray Vaughn; power rock such as Grand Funk Railroad; and country acts like Travis Tritt. Styiistic bits-and-pieces of all of these artists, and many others, can be heard in the sounds on Rockin' With The Goose. Part of the fun can be picking out the influences and deliberate moments of tribute.
"'Humpty Dumpty' is Journey meets Toto with Chicago sitting in," Lynn says with a laugh. "'Three Little Kittens' marries a ZZ Top drum track to T. Rex and Dave Edmunds. On the medley of 'Baa Baa Black Sheep,' 'Cat & The Fiddle,' 'Old Woman In A Shoe,' 'Georgy Porgy,' 'Little Miss Muffett' and 'Mary Mary Quite Contrary,' we went with a Ringo drum sound all the way plus lots of extra percussion. With 'Bunch of Blue Ribbons' the model obviously was The Beatles' 'Baby's In Black.' For 'Simple Simon' I put on my Phil Collins cockney accent and we made it sound like you're at a carnival or fair. We channeled Led Zeppelin on 'Little Boy Blue' and James Brown and Otis Redding on 'Sixpence.' 'Wee Willie Winkie' is a Southern rock ballad along the lines of 'Fooled Around and Fell in Love.' Before the album is over I've thrown in a bit of Tower of Power, Allman Brothers, Bob Seger, The Beatles' sound on 'Yesterday' and even a nod to Celtic music. The bottomline is that it's fun, funky and rockin' in a classic way. This is Mother Goose for the modern age."
MIKE LONGO: MIKE LONGO TRIO LIVE
After
42 years as a New York-based jazz pianist with 17 albums under
his own name and 22 years of performing with Dizzy Gillespie,
Mike Longo has finally recorded his first concert album, Mike
Longo Trio Live, and it was worth the wait. Working in one of
jazz's most traditional settings, the intimate acoustic piano
trio, Longo demonstrates all the dynamic subtleties, melodic refinements
and rhythm patterns that can only come from a master of the jazz
genre.
One of only a small handful of current musicians who bridge the gap from be-bop into the contemporary era -- bringing the best traditions forward, while adding all the lessons they have learned to create something new -- Mike Longo practically teaches a university Masters Class with the music on this new album. It was recorded in the Fall of 2002 at The Detroit International Jazz Festival with bassist Santi Debriano and drummer Ray Mosca.
Longo brings impeccable credentials to the project -- he started his career with Cannonball Adderly, studied under Oscar Peterson, became the pianist and musical director in Dizzy Gillespie's band, wrote for and performed with countless top jazzsters, and authored nine books teaching music.
"A musical performance is like a baseball game or any athletic event," Mike explains. "There are rules and things that are set, but no one really knows what is going to happen. You're just reacting to the circumstances around you and you wait to see how it turns out. A good concert derives from 'spontaneous counterpoint' that has a depth to it that enables you to improvise music that stands up to analysis as if it was composed. That's what we endeavor to do."
On Mike Longo Trio Live (on the CAP label), Mike tips his hat to some of his musical influences -- Dizzy, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, George Gershwin and John Coltrane -- and in the process shows what he learned from horn players translated into piano performance. This concert was the first time this trio had ever performed together, although Mosca has toured and recorded with Longo for years, and Mike has played on two occasions in other bands with Debriano. In addition, the album is exactly representative of their set.
The late Dizzy Gillespie's presence is felt on three of his tunes -- "Fiesta Mojo" ("It's like instant Prozac because it immediately gives you a warm, happy fee!ingn), "Tin Tin Deo" ("Dizzy stayed in the Latin groove, but Ray Mosca took me to 4/4 in there for awhile although we return to the Latin rhythm for the vamp so what we are improvising resembles a rondo form by returning back to the main section") and "A Night in Tunisia" ("One change from Dizzy's version is our atonal contrapuntal texture near the end, but we always finish with Diz's final notes").
The trio tackles two Monk tunes -- "Rhythm-A-Ning" ("We didn't know we were going to play it until that moment") and "'Round Midnight" ("I don't use the standard changes because of all the times I played it with Dizzy, and his version took me to this deep, awe-inspiring musical place where I always felt a godly manifestation of love").
"On one tour of Mexico, Monk was on the same bill and every night during his set I crawled under the wooden stage and layed directly beneath his piano to just absorb the sounds. Monk would say, 'The trick is to play wrong and make it sound right. Go to the unexpected place where no one expects you to go.' That's what l learned from him."
"Footprints" is a tune by Wayne Shorter ("one of our most important composersn). Longo remembers a trio of three-week stints in New York City when Dizzy's band shared the bill with Miles Davis and every night Miles came onstage during Gillespie's set to play a few tunes.
"That was an invaluable experience playing piano behind the two of them because I never knew exactly where they might go. One of my fondest memories is when Miles said to Dizzy and me one night, 'When you're playing, sounds like you two are married.' Wayne was in Miles' band then with Herbie Hancock, and Wayne had just written 'Footprints' which they played every night. The eventual sheet music never did it justice so I use some of what I remember from their performance. Ours is a polyrhythmic approach with different guys playing different time signatures simultaneously."
The album begins with Gershwin's "My Funny Valentine" and also includes a crowd-pleasing eleven-and-a-half-minute medley of Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess" melodies.
"l love George Gershwin. His music has stood the test of time. With 'Valentine,' everyone has played it as a ballad, so I came up with a deceptive cadence and a different tempo with a modern harmonic intro. 'Porgy and Bess,' of course, is a folk opera classic. When I play that music, I remember the emotions of the characters and their Iyrics, and that influences how I play the material. I learned how to convert Broadway material to jazz in 1962 with A Jazz Portrait of 'Funny Girl', my first album, which I did before the Streisand show had even opened."
Also included is Coltrane's "Trane's Blues." "There's no point trying to play it like Trane did. Like all of these tunes, I have to convert it into the language of the piano trio. I played the theme in such a way that the trio was already set up and in a pocket. I view music as having five essential elements to it -- melody, harmony, rhythm, counterpoint and form. In a live performance, I want all of those elements to flow together naturally without me even having to think about it. All of your skill, studying, training, practice and learning experiences take over and you are flying on instincts. When the downbeat hits, I'm in a stream of horizontal consciousness until the last note. You can't leave the stream for even a moment, because if you do the great players like Dizzy will leave you in the dust and be far down the road and you won't be able to catch up." . --
Longo explains, "This album focuses on performing and the art of the trio which is a different aesthetic than any other setting. It's totally unique because the rhythm section comes out front and joins the leader in the spotlight. Each guy is such an integral part, and trio playing demands that they get involved with the melodies and not just the rhythm. You can hear the sensitivity and subtlety more clearly than with bigger ensembles."
Among their many credits, Santi Debriano has played with Kenny Barron, Larry Coryell, Sonny Fortune, Chico Freeman, Milt Hinton, Archie Shepp and Bob Thiele; while Ray Mosca has performed with the Oscar Peterson Trio, Zoot Sims, Lena Horne, Billy Taylor Trio, Dorothy Donegan Trio, Chet Baker and Benny Goodman.
Longo's history begins in Cincinnati where he was born and where he began playing piano at age three thanks to his church organist mother and part-time professional jazz bass-playing father Mike began formal lessons at age four at the Cincinnati Conservatory.
The family moved to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida,
where Mike started learning boogie-woogie piano and began working
with his father's band on weekends at age 15. Soon Cannonball
Adderly heard Mike at a jam session and got him into the band
he was in which was playing the Southern "chittlin' circuit."
Longo attended Western Kentucky State University and earned a
Bachelor of Music degree in classical piano.
During those years, he went on the road with the Hal Mclntyre Orchestra one summer and also played with legendary guitarist Hank Garland in Nashville. As a senior, Longo won the Downbeat Magazine Hall of Fame Scholarship to the Berklee School of Music, but declined the offer to become a fulltime professional jazz musician.
He toured for two years \yith the Salt City Six. After the group played at New York's Metropole Cafe, the band left, but Mike stayed on as the house pianist which gave him the opportunity to work with such jazz notables as Coleman Hawkins, Henry Red Allen, George Wettling, Gene Krupa and many others.
In Chicago, Longo met longtime-idol Oscar
Peterson, who invited Mike to study with him at the Advanced School
of Contemporary Music run by Peterson and Ray Brown for jazz musicians.
Longo spent the next six months in what he calls "the most
intense period of study in my life," often with private lessons
from Peterson.
Longo moved permanently to New York City which led to opportunities
to work with many great singers -- Nancy Wilson, Gloria Lynn,
Jimmy Witherspoon, Joe Williams, Jimmy Rushing and others.
This was followed by a period of working as a duo or trio in top New York clubs and hotels including a year at the New York Playboy Club and an extended stint at The Embers playing with acts such as Frank Foster, Lee Konitz, Frank Wess, Clark Terry, Zoot Sims and Roy Eldridge. Roy convinced famed trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie to come by to hear Longo. It was 1966 and Dizzy immediately hired Mike as the pianist in the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet, a post Mike would remain in for the next nine years.
During his first year with Dizzy, Mike began writing material for the group and Dizzy eventually appointed him as his musical director. A close bond of friendship as well as musical collaboration developed between the two which lasted until Gillespie's death in 1993. Mike left Gillespie's group officially in 1975 to venture out on his own, but still worked with Dizzy on a part-bme basis for the next 16 years. Dizzy commissioned Longo to compose a piece for a full orchestra and Mike also gave a eulogy at Gillespie's funeral.
Longo began recording with Dizzy in 1967 (Swing Low Sweet Cadillac) and soon Gillespie was recording Longo tunes such as "Frisco," "Let Me Out," "Soul Kiss," "The Truth" and many others. Beginning in 1972, Longo recorded more of his own albums such as Matrix, The Awakening, Funkia, Talk With The Spirits (produced by Dizzy), The Earth Is But One Country, Dawn of a New Day, I Miss You John (a tribute to Gillespie), Still Swingin' and numerous others.
Longo also formed a big band, The New York State of the Art Jazz Ensemble, for performances and recordings such as Explosion and the poll-winning Aftermath. In addition, Mike has performed on albums by other top jazz players including James Moody, Buddy Rich, Lee Konitiz, Nabil Totah and Adam Rafferty.
Among his many accomplishments and contributions to music, Mike Longo also is a teacher and has helped many jazz players with private instruction. In order to spread his knowledge even further, he has written nine books including Theory and Musicianship for the Creative Jazz Improviser, Voicing and Voice Leadinas for the Contemporary Jazz Pianist.
The Technique of Creating Harmonic Melody for the Jazz Improviser and How to Siaht Read Jazz and Other Syncopated Type Rhythms (the latter now a required text at SUNY). Having studied classical counterpoint and composition with Frank Fields and Hall Overton, Longo was commissioned in 2002 by the San Diego Symphony Orchestra to write for their performance with James Moody.
"I have tried to pass along some of the knowledge I learned from Cannonball, Oscar and Dizzy, and from studying some of my other early influences like Errol Garner, Earl "Fatha" Hines, Red Garland, Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, Bud Powell, Hank Jones and Tommy Flanagan, and later inspirations like McCoy Tyner and Herbie Hancock," Longo says. "The best thing about performing a concert is when the group and the audience get together and travel to a place that leaves everyday human stuff behind, a place where all human souls can meet. It's such a joy to be in that place that I never want to leave."
Return to Music Home Page