Happy Birthday, Elvis Costello!

Since his first single was released in March 1977, Elvis Costello has remained a prolific artist ranging all over the musical spectrum. His new album “Wise Up Ghost” is due out in mid-September, and it’s a collaboration with hip hop legends The Roots. The collaboration was conceived when Costello performed on the Jimmy Fallon late-night TV show, where The Roots gig as the house band.

The first track from the new album, “Walk Us Uptown”, will certainly whet your appetite to hear the full release. Costello’s sinister vocals coupled with Questlove’s drums and jazzy Roots bass lines are an intoxicating mix.

The title of Costello’s first album “My Aim Is True” was drawn from the 5th track “Alison”. While “Alison” was not a hit single at the time, it’s become a favorite in Elvis’ catalog. Give a listen and then listen to “Less Than Zero”, his first hit from that same album.

And finally, Questlove published a memoir in June 2013 titled “Mo’ Meta Blues”. Here’s a link to the New York Times review The Big Man Under the Afro, and His Music.

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Backup Singers Take 20 Giant Steps Forward

Over the past few months the documentary “20 Steps From Stardom” has been showing up in limited release. Directed by Morgan Neville, an Emmy winning and Grammy nominated creator of music documentaries, the film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2013 and tells the stories of women whose vocals have been so much more than “backup” for decades of hits. This clip from SimplyShowbiz.com begins with an interview of Merry Clayton telling the improbable story of one of the most memorable pieces of backup work ever.

While these backup singers remain largely unknown, big stars cover their iconic vocal tracks. Here are a couple working to capture the magic that Merry Clayton created. The first clip features Alicia Keys at the New York Live Earth concert in 2007 (this is a great performance if you’ve never seen it), and the second features a Lady Gaga cameo at an early date on the Stones’ 50 & Counting tour.

And, of course, we can’t end without hearing the original in all its glory.

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Another Legend Lost – George Duke Did It All!

On August 6th, just a few weeks after the release of his latest album “Dreamweaver”, keyboard legend George Duke passed away. Duke’s career spanned four decades, and few artists contributed to a broader range of musical genres. He began his career working with jazz fusion pioneers including Jean-Luc Ponty and Franz Zappa, collaborated with a variety of other jazz greats including Miles Davis, played on Michael Jackson’s breakthrough album “Off the Wall”, and produced songs for Smokey Robinson, Gladys Night, and Natalie Cole.

The brief interview in the clip below includes a few snippets from tunes on “Dreamweaver”, and it gives you an idea of what a lovely man Duke was. Listen to full tracks from “Dreamweaver” at George’s Website

Sample Duke’s jazz fusion chops in this live performance from the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1976 with Billy Cobham on drums, John Schofield on Guitar and Alphonso Johnson on Bass (thanks for the link Rainer!). Duke gets his solo 3:45 into the track.

And finally here’s the highest charting single of Duke’s career, 1981’s “Sweet Baby”.

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Joe Robinson – Up and Comer from Down Under

A few weeks ago we wrote about one of the world’s guitar legends, Tommy Emmanuel, from Australia. Turns out Tommy has been mentoring a young countryman named Joe Robinson for over a decade, and the results of studying under the master clearly show.

Robinson has won a string of awards, both in his home country and internationally (check out his Wikipedia page Joe Robinson), and his relationship to Emmanuel really came through when he won “Australia’s Got Talent” at age 16. His performances included a Beatles medley and an arrangement of Mason William’s 1968 multi-Grammy winning “Classical Gas”. Compare Robinson’s Beatles medley to Emmanuel’s in our earlier post, and watch both the master and the student cover “Classical Gas”.

But lest we leave the impression that Robinson simply hews closely to the style of his teacher, here are two examples of Joe’s other dimensions – “Out Alive” and “Lethal Injection” (which also features fine bass work from Bernard Harris), both from his 2012 album “Let Me Introduce You”.

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RIP J.J. Cale – Songwriter, Musician and Clapton Collaborator

J.J. Cale passed away at age 74 on July 26th. The generally reclusive artist is best known for writing songs that became hits for Eric Clapton, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Waylon Jennings and others. His four decades of connections to Eric Clapton, though, were certainly his deepest and most successful.

Cale penned two of Clapton’s earliest solo hits, “After Midnight” from Clapton’s 1970 solo debut and the iconic “Cocaine” from Clapton’s second solo album “Slowhand”.

In 2006 Cale and Clapton recorded the Grammy winning album “The Road to Escondido”, which featured Cale’s songwriting and a Who’s Who of collaborators. This album is real gem, and “Danger” is the opening track.