Interview in Miami with Argentinian newspaper
Clarin, 1999-11-08
- Silvia Maestrutti
translated by MLisa [mlisa91@yahoo.com]
"Some believe that before the Beatles there was nothing."
The British musician received Clarin in Miami, where he performed after 15 years of absence. There he revealed his musical knowledge without boundaries and his outlook of the music market and the public.
By Silvia Maestrutti. Miami. Special. [Clarin digital]
New Wave. Costello returned to torch (flame? candle?) with his version of a Charles Aznavour theme and his artistic society with Burt Bacharach.
MORE INFORMATION
Un contador de historias
(not translated)
Palitos para dos latinos
(not translated)From pop, jazz or classical music as a brilliant composer or excellent live musician, the British Elvis Costello has won in 20 years a reputation to be envied. Some chronicles insist on fixing him to his beginnings, 1977, and they call him "that young angry voice," the same pseudonym by which were known not long ago the group of women headed by Alanis Morissette; others place him alongside punk, surfing the new wave, or in the testimonial territory of Bob Dylan. This year in one of his concerts in New York, Dylan invited him onstage without announcing his name. "Elvis Costello does not need an introduction," justified Bob afterward.
In Miami, on witches' night [Halloween?], and only by chance (because this is the last stretch of his last tour for the time being, with a red shirt with green palm trees as a ___ diversion[?], in a sticky, hot afternoon, quite different from that of the Dublin where he lives with his Irish wife, Costello first is surprised that in Argentina they know him so well and is also surprised after [a presentation on Argentine music?]. From his mouth comes flowing out a waterfall of thoughts impossible to stop. A modern hat covers his receded hairline[?]. His glasses are wide frame style, as always, like Buddy Holly's.
"I know Fito Paez," he says putting names and last names to the Argentine musicians who are fans of his work. "Fito and I met in New York a couple of years ago; we were thinking of doing something together but our agendas did not permit it. I heard some of his records; I especially like one that had the same type of ambition as the one I made with the Brodsky Quartet (his is The Juliet Letters, of 1993, but he does not remember the name of the one by Fito, although perhaps he is meaning Euforia[?]), experimenting with sounds that are not typical pop.
Q. Do you know something more of Argentine music?
A. "There is a vast musical richness in your country. Obviously through history there have been people who have won international reputations, starting with Carlos Gardel and continuing on in the modern era with Astor Piazzolla. But there are hundreds of musicians we don't know. Probably our ideas about Argentine music, being that it is a country that is so far away from us, they are very naive[?]. The same thing happens when one thinks that Irish music is all Riverdance. That would be to give one thing a very superficial look. This is something that, very clearly, can't be be allowed. Lucid, intelligent, having a passion for the study of music and the great interpreters, be it Burt Bacharach, Johann Sebastian Bach or Benedictine monks, it is truly a sad thing when people only keep in mind the last thing they heard[?].
"They cling to the records of the 60s, 70s or 80s that impacted them and believe that before there was nothing else. Rock for them started with the Beatles and they judge all music by the measure of rock history; for that reason they say that now it's in decline. Of course they don't want to listen for one good record; in this same year many hundreds were done that were awful[?]," he reflects with sadness.
This is not his case, say specialized critics. Besides tens[?] of compilations of his in the market, Elvis Costello -- who adopted his artistic alias borrowing the name from Presley and the last name from his mother -- he has recorded 26 records in 22 years of his career. The rest of the time, he used his ingenuity to collaborate with an ample spectrum of musicians from Roy Orbison to Paul McCartney. Together with his wife, Cait O'Riordan, he wrote the music to films like Rugrats or The Great Lebowski. He interpreted one together with Burt Bacharach for the sequel of Austin Powers and just finished a revival of She, of Charles Aznavour, in Notting Hill, the successful romantic comedy with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant.
Q. Why did you choose to recreate an old Aznavour theme?
A. "In reality it wasn't my decision, but that of producer Richard Curtis, who had this theme in mind to put behind the face of Julia Roberts at the beginning of the movie. But the theme was more than familiar, in his time Aznavour put it at the top of the charts in England. But I never dreamed of recording it. Well, I never dreamed of writing a duo [?] with McCartney or to make an album with another legend, Burt Bacharach."
Q. Did your way of composing change after making that album with Burt Bacharach (Painted from Memory, of 1998)?
A. "Sure. He is tremendously talented. He writes on paper the music; it is very detailed. It did happen to me that it increased my consciousness of the music to the degree in which I could compare to what I saw written on the paper and the way that it flowed.[?] We worked as if we were classical musicians. Now we have two disciplines in which we can be spontaneous: taking one instrument and playing or sitting and composing in a more formal manner.[?] I also learned the use of having a more gentle voice.[?] I finished discovering that mine for example has much in common with jazz voices."
Blood, for example. His grandfather used to play the trumpet in jazz orchestras that were used in galas in ships like the Titanic. His father, Ross MacManus, a famous jazz trumpeter and pop singer since the 1950s, says that his son's first words were "skin, mommy," wrapped up in the music of Sinatra, especially the theme "I have you under my skin." And now was added to the family tree his own son, Matt, 23 years old and closer to jazz than to the Backstreet Boys. "I tried to teach them when they were young that what you hear on the radio is not all the music that exists," appreciates[?] Costello.
"I wish pretty soon I could go to Buenas Aires to play. I would love to do some theater; perhaps with the success of themes like She, some organizers would encourage the adventure[?]," he jokes. And surprises again remembering step by step the ecological course that protagonized two years ago on a tourist trip from Puerto Madryn to Ushuaia. "Patagonia is very beautiful. How incredible that being such a large country, there would be for sure people of north Argentina who would not know the marvels of the south," he thinks out loud. "Perhaps it is a question of economics," he adds a couple of seconds later.
© Copyright 1996-99 Clarín digital
All rights reserved
