Ry Cooder - PBS Soundstage, Chicago, IL, USA 1978 | ALBUMS THAT SHOULD EXIST

Ry Cooder - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 11-16-1978

Paul says: Here's another episode of the "PBS Soundstage" TV show, from 1978. This one stars guitarist Ry Cooder.

Around the time of this concert, in June 1978, Cooder released the studio album "Jazz." (I don't know if the date in the title is the date of the concert or of the TV broadcast.) The sound of the album harkened back to early jazz, from about 1900 to 1930. A few of the songs are from that album: "Big Bad Bill Is Sweet William Now," "The Dream," In a Mist," " Davenport Blues," "Shine," and "Nobody," and basically the whole album has that early jazz sound.

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is very good. There were a few problems though. One problem was that the cheering at the ends of some songs came to abrupt ends. So I did a little copying and pasting to allow for a few more seconds until the audience went silent. Also, there's some hiss. I got rid of most of that for the banter tracks, using noise reduction. But I have a rule against using noise reduction on actual songs, so I let the hiss be in those cases. It's not much hiss though. 

This album is 41 minutes long. 

01 Big Bad Bill Is Sweet William Now 
02 The Dream [Instrumental] 
03 talk 
04 Jezebel 
05 talk 
06 Shine 
07 Maria Elena [Instrumental] 
08 In a Mist [Instrumental] 
09 Flashes [Instrumental] 
10 Davenport Blues [Instrumental]
11 Nobody 
12 Comin' In on a Wing and a Prayer [Edit] 

From an album that Ry has gone on record as wishing he could disown and clearly his least favourite of his own output (personally I love it and it introduced to many new sources from Joseph Spence, to several by family favourite in Bix Beiderbecke to classics like Big Bad Bill ( a personal favourite I collect versions of!) so a live recording is a real bonus as I am sure Ry wishes he had never released it. ‘Shine’ [Dabney & Mack] I grant you is a difficult listen and MAY be the sole reason he wishes it would disappear but culturally it is fairly innocuous and a history piece that can add to the debate rather than detract from it (but ole whitey prolly would say that!? ED) also, as performances go, anything that includes Maria Elena (another perennial favourite I cannot wait to give this a proper listen!) 

Watch and then download . . . . . check out the version of Maria Elena if nothing else . . it has a different arrangement and added instruments than on Boomer’s Story. I hadn’t ever seen this of the Maestro and it is a treat and no mistake

the notes tell us:

In 1978 he released Jazz, a collection of songs that paid tribute to some of the genre’s earliest pioneers, including trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke (In A Mist, Flashes), while placing jazz in the wider context of popular music in the early 1900s (a take on actor and singer Bert Williams’ Nobody; Milton Ager and Jack Yellen’s Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)). Recorded for broadcast on the long-running Chicago-based TV show Soundstage. ‘The Legendary Soundstage Broadcast 1978’ captures the guitarist backed with an 11-piece band (mandolin, horn section, vibraphone, piano bass and drums) and a gospel quartet, presenting his audience with a show that’s as much a history lesson as it was a chance to marvel at Cooder’s virtuosity.

Orchestra Arranged & conducted by Joseph Byrd

Quartet arranged by Bill Johnson

Musicians included

Art Barron, Phillip Bodner, Tom Collier, George Duvivier, Walter Kane David Lindley (mandolin on  Comin’ In On Wing And A Prayer) , Phillip Namenworth, Harvey Pittel, Mark Stevens, Joe Wilder

Quartet : Jimmy Adams, Clifford Givens, Bill Johnson, Simon Pico Payne

 

as my favourite song Big Bad Bill fades in on the ROIO, (NB not on the video) so here’s the album version . . .any excuse!