JazzTimes, May 2002: Difference between revisions
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Elvis on ''Weird Nightmare: Meditations on Mingus'' | Elvis on ''Weird Nightmare: Meditations on Mingus'': | ||
We were in Astoria, in a recording studio housed in the same place as they made the Marx Brothers movies. And the studio was decorated with the contraptions and instruments made by Harry Partch. It was the first time they had been used to play anything other than Partch’s compositions. Cloud Chamber Bowls, the Harmonic Canon and all these | We were in Astoria, in a recording studio housed in the same place as they made the Marx Brothers movies. And the studio was decorated with the contraptions and instruments made by Harry Partch. It was the first time they had been used to play anything other than Partch’s compositions. Cloud Chamber Bowls, the Harmonic Canon and all these imaginary — I don’t know what they were all called; they were incredible. And they were all set up to play the 42-tone scales that he heard, so whatever you did with them it was like discovering new colors or something. They were great for coloring the music, and it was my first time I had met Bill Frisell. Henry Threadgill was on that session. It was a terrific lineup. Marc Ribot was on that session. And in the midst of this we’re doing this interpretation of "Weird Nightmare," which is based on a percussion foundation, using the Partch instruments and totally confusing tonality — it was in the vague sense of D minor. And Sue [Mingus] is visiting the studio at this point to hear this, and I’m starting to think, "Is she going to think this is kind of a travesty of this composition?" Because you can’t hardly hear any of the original harmony until we hit the kind of B section and then Frisell came and rescued everybody. It was very free. We did one take, which I thought was pretty good; despite the strangeness of it all, I really enjoyed it. And there was a, "Well, maybe we should do another one." And I just heard this voice say, "Just fucking leave it alone," and it was [Sue]. And she just loved it. And I thought, "Well, if she is the person who is here representing the aesthetic of Charles Mingus, then I like this woman very much." | ||
Elvis on Chet Baker, "Shipbuilding" | Elvis on Chet Baker, "Shipbuilding": | ||
I had got it in my head that we wanted trumpet, and I didn’t know any trumpet player in England that I thought would necessarily be right to do | I had got it in my head that we wanted trumpet, and I didn’t know any trumpet player in England that I thought would necessarily be right to do it — except maybe my father. There was definitely a sense that the sound I wanted was a particular plaintiveness that — I was completely obsessed with the ''’Round About Midnight'' record by Miles; more than ''Kind of Blue'' or some more famous record. I actually had a conversation with Wynton [Marsalis] about doing it — this was kind of like when he had just made one record. We had one conversation on the phone, and I think he was totally bewildered some guy from England calls him to come play on a record, and he couldn’t do it. It wasn’t until later that I realized that, "Hey, that’s that guy I spoke to on the phone, that Wynton; that famous Wynton guy’s this guy I talked to about doing the record." So, Wynton’s not going to do it; guess Miles isn’t going to do it — who knew how to ask him? And there wasn’t anybody in England I trust, and I open the Melody Maker and Chet Baker is playing the next day. And he’s only my favorite trumpet player — as far as I can tell, alive — that I can actually get to speak to, or so I thought. Maybe if I go down there and ask if he’ll play, all he can say is, "No." I go down to the club; everybody’s talking right through everything. He’s playing so beautifully. He isn’t playing standards. He actually has a band that knows his material, which is very rare for him. He was mostly playing "I’ll Remember You" over and over again, but [that night] he was playing these really beautiful modern compositions. And at the interval he just walked off the stand, and he went up to the bar and bought a drink and nobody bothered him — [the audience] just kept on eating and talking and yakking. I went up to him and introduced myself — he had no idea; he had never heard of me. I said, "I’m a musician. Is there any way in the world you would consider coming and playing on a session." He said, "Well, yeah, I’ll do it for scale." I said, "How about we give you double scale?" | ||
So, he came to the studio the next day and played it. And he played over the sequence [of chords] and it wasn't like any kind of standard sequence; it wasn't like anything else that he'd ever heard. The structure of the song is really unusual; it has things that look like they're going to repeat, then they don't. So, we went through it a couple of times, and he did the takes, and like I said, the one thing I regret is in the mix that we [added echo], and I almost wanted to remix it, but then we'd have to remix all the other elements, and the record is very beautiful. And there is much embellished playing on the record that's glorious. | So, he came to the studio the next day and played it. And he played over the sequence [of chords] and it wasn't like any kind of standard sequence; it wasn't like anything else that he'd ever heard. The structure of the song is really unusual; it has things that look like they're going to repeat, then they don't. So, we went through it a couple of times, and he did the takes, and like I said, the one thing I regret is in the mix that we [added echo], and I almost wanted to remix it, but then we'd have to remix all the other elements, and the record is very beautiful. And there is much embellished playing on the record that's glorious. | ||
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[[image:2002-05-00 JazzTimes photo 01 ccm.jpg|360px|border]] | [[image:2002-05-00 JazzTimes photo 01 ccm.jpg|360px|border]] | ||
<br><small>Sue Mingus and Elvis Costello.</small> | |||
<small>Photos by [[Cheung Ching Ming]].</small><br> | <small>Photos by [[Cheung Ching Ming]].</small><br> | ||
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[[image:2002-05-00 JazzTimes cover.jpg|x120px|border]] | [[image:2002-05-00 JazzTimes cover.jpg|x120px|border]] | ||
<br><small>Cover.</small> | [[image:2002-05-00 JazzTimes page 34.jpg|x120px|border]] | ||
<br><small>Cover and page scan.</small> | |||
{{Bibliography notes footer}} | {{Bibliography notes footer}} | ||
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{{DEFAULTSORT:JazzTimes 2002-05-00}} | {{DEFAULTSORT:JazzTimes 2002-05-00}} | ||
[[Category:Bibliography]] | [[Category:Bibliography]] | ||
[[Category:Bibliography | [[Category:Bibliography 2002]] | ||
[[Category:JazzTimes| JazzTimes 2002-05-00]] | [[Category:JazzTimes| JazzTimes 2002-05-00]] | ||
[[Category:Magazine articles]] | [[Category:Magazine articles]] | ||
[[Category:Online articles]] | [[Category:Online articles]] | ||
[[Category:Interviews]] | |||
[[Category:2002 interviews]] |
Latest revision as of 15:34, 29 September 2016
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