Butch Thompson | After the Monologue
April 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment
It was my pleasure to speak with Butch Thompson on the show today — about playing after Garrison Keillor’s monologue in the early days of Prairie Home Companion, and about his long career in the music industry!More about Butch Thompson from his website:
In a career spanning 40 years, pianist Butch Th ompson has earned a world-wide reputation as a master of ragtime, stride, and classic jazz piano. He spends much of his time on tour in the U.S. and internationally. Although he often travels as a soloist, he also appears with his well-known trio or his eight-piece New Orleans Jazz Originals band. He performs with symphony orchestras, among them recently the Hartford Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Cairo (Egypt) Symphony. Widely known for his 12-year stint (1974-1986) as house pianist and bandleader on public radio’s A Prairie Home Companion, he continues as a frequent guest on that show. Th ompson was born and raised in Marine on St. Croix, a small river town in Minnesota, where he was playing Christmas carols on his mother’s upright piano by age three, and began formal lessons at six. He studied clarinet in high school, and led his fi rst professional jazz group as a senior. At 18, he made his pilgrimage to New Orleans, where he befriended and studied with the late clarinetist George Lewis, and was one of the few non-New Orleanians to appear at Preservation Hall during the 1960s and ‘70s. After two years in an Army band during the ‘60s, Th ompson returned to Minnesota. While studying Latin American music at the University of Minnesota, he spent some time in Ecuador, and wrote music based on that country’s folk tunes. Th e Minnesota Orchestra with Th ompson at the piano, premiered his Ecuadorean Suite, based on those early pieces in June 1998. In 1974, Th ompson began his well-remembered 12-year run as the house pianist on A Prairie Home Companion, beginning with the show’s fi rst broadcasts in July of that year. Th e Butch Th ompson Trio, formed as the show went into national distribution in 1978, remained the offi cial house band until 1986. During the 70s and 80s, he toured widely in Europe. In 1985, to commemorate the 100th birthday of jazz cornetist Joe “King” Oliver, he formed his eight-piece King Oliver Centennial Band for tours in Switzerland, Germany, and England. In 1987, Th ompson commissioned composer Gordon Wright to orchestrate the fi ve-part Gordon Wright to orchestrate the fi ve-part Gordon Wright Scott Joplin Suite for Piano and Orchestra. Since then, he has toured widely as a pops concert soloist, specializing in such American composers as Joplin, Fats Waller, Eubie Blake and James P. Johnson. During the early 90s, Thompson began an association with the off -Broadway show Jelly Roll! Th e Music and the Man, Th e Music and the Man, Th e Music and the Man which won Obie, Lucille Lortell and Outer Critics Circle awards as best off -Broadway musical of 1995. Th ompson worked onstage with the show in New York and on several national tours through 1997. In addition to his career as a performer, Th ompson writes articles and reviews on jazz and produces his own weekly radio show, Jazz Originals, on KBEM radio in Minneapolis. His writing has appeared in Th e Mississippi Rag, Keyboard Classics, New Orleans Music and other Th e Mississippi Rag, Keyboard Classics, New Orleans Music and other Th e Mississippi Rag, Keyboard Classics, New Orleans Music magazines, as well as in various CD booklets. One of Th ompson’s latest CDs, an album of holiday duets with cellist Laura Sewell, is titled Bethlehem After Dark. Th is release is the 10th in Th ompson’s acclaimed series for the Daring/ Rounder label of Boston. He also played on the Grammy-winning 1997 Verve release Doc Cheatham and Nicholas Payton. His 1968 solo recording debut, Butch Th ompson Plays Jelly Roll Morton, is currently available as a Biograph CD.
Jeff Beal | Film & TV Music
April 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment
It was our great honor to speak with Jeff Beal, composer of Ugly Betty, Monk and other television themes, and Pollock as well as many other movie scores. His music is compelling, fun, intense, brooding — and always wonderful. More information from www.jeffbeal.com
Jeff Beal is a composer, performer, producer, improviser. He is a consummate musician. He writes music for film, the concert hall, CDs and television. This web page came about because Jeff wanted to have one place available to his listeners. A place to unite his many pursuits. One location where people could go to find out more about his jazz CDs, how to rent his orchestral music, learn about film scoring or just get in touch with him. I’ve known Jeff for over twenty years, now. Sharing a passion for music comes easily to this man, but getting him to talk about himself or promote himself doesn’t. I, however, have no problem talking about Jeff. Let me fill you in….Jeff was born in 1963 in Hayward, CA, the East Bay area of San Francisco. His parents both grew up with music making in the home; naturally music was always present in their house. His mother studied piano as a child, and from an early age, Jeff enjoyed picking out tunes on the family’s upright piano. In the third grade, his father took him to a school assembly where students could listen to and select band instruments to borrow and study…(In those halcyon days before Prop. 13) Jeff sat through the assembly quietly, until the trumpet was demonstrated. “That’s it!” he told his father. “That’s what I want to play!”Jeff began practicing and improving on the trumpet. He worked a paper route on his bicycle, mornings before school, to purchase his own trumpet. His father’s mother Irene had performed as a pianist on live radio broadcasts , and now lived in San Francisco. Not your average grandma, she was an artist, bohemian and an avid jazz fan; sitting in on Mile’s Live at the Black Hawk recording sessions. She gave Jeff a copy of Sketches of Spain as a gift when he was ten. He had never heard music like this before…Gil Evan’s emotive, expressive orchestrations, combined with Mile’s haunting trumpet. Jeff began to study jazz improvisation, theory, and harmony on his own, later taking classes at a local college. He immersed himself in jazz recordings and transcribed the solos of Woody Shaw, Clifford Brown, Freddie Hubbard, Chet Baker and Miles…eventually writing his own jazz charts and performing them with the Monterey Jazz All Stars. Jeff also played in the Oakland Youth Symphony, conducted by Kent Nagano, and at 16 wrote an orchestral jazz trumpet concerto for that group. At night after school, Jeff would ride BART across the bay to San Francisco; sitting in at jam sessions led by musicians twice his age… listening, playing, and learning.Going to the Eastman School of Music was an opportunity for Jeff to continue his trumpet studies and to formally study composition. As an undergraduate, he took all of his double major classes, along with the classes offered to the master’s students in the jazz department. His spare moments were spent gigging with jazz professors and writing, writing, writing more music in the piano lab. Jeff was known to hide under the synclavier in the computer music lab, until the night watchman had passed, so that he could spend his nights undisturbed, writing and producing his own music.These synclavier demos lead to Jeff’s first solo album, Liberation; released in 1987. Now a conservatory graduate, living in New York City and working as a gigging musician, Jeff was signed by the Antilles division of Island Records. He played more dates with his own group, and began working on the music for a second album, when a move to San Francisco (for his wife’s career) lead to scoring work. Jeff’s first film score, Cheap Shots, was produced in a home studio in the tiny office of a rented home. Jeff soon was working as a ghost writer and arranger for other composers, always longing to be the guy with the gig and the credit.Moving to Los Angeles in 1992 provided Jeff with more opportunities and relationships. He continued making solo CDs, performing with his own jazz ensemble, and also contributed compositions to friend’s CD projects, like his Bass Concerto, written for John Patitucci and recorded at the request of Chick Corea. The opportunity to create an orchestral jazz trumpet concerto, a lifelong dream from the Sketches of Spain days, was realized when childhood friend and conductor Kent Nagano approached Jeff to write a piece for the Berkeley Symphony. The end result, Alternate Route, is a signature piece for Jeff, representing a union of his love for orchestral and improvised music.More opportunities for scoring came about as Jeff became known around town as the eclectic, classically trained, improvising, computer savvy composer. His scores ran the gamut from the earthy world music of Guy, to the ethereal music of Nothing Sacred, to the jazz inspired score to The Passion of Ayn Rand. It was in 2000 that Jeff’s most monumental opportunity presented itself. Jeff has heard that Ed Harris was producing, directing and starring in a biographical film about artist Jackson Pollock, and his agent had submitted his music for this independent film. Learning that another composer had been selected, Jeff tried to forget about the project, but it was difficult to dismiss. When he heard that Ed Harris was once again looking for a composer, he tried not to get his hopes up. What Jeff didn’t know was that Ed Harris had already fired two composers, and kept returning to Jeff’s submitted CD of cues. When Ed finally called Jeff personally to ask him to meet on Pollock, Ed admitted he didn’t know who Jeff was…he had lost his sheet of credits, and only had that one CD. The one CD he kept playing over and over. Jeff and Ed met and spotted Pollock that same day. They had an instant rapport. Ed spoke later of Jeff’s immediate understanding of the film and his ability to translate that into musical ideas. The rest, as they say, is history.Jeff Beal now finds himself happily living the life he has always imagined for himself. Composing music, collaborating with creative individuals, traveling, playing trumpet, riding his bike, and living a rather peaceful, reclusive life with his family in the rural outskirts of Los Angeles. We hope that you enjoy browsing this site, listening to the music and learning more about this immensely talented individual. Please contact Jeff with any questions or comments on the Contact page.
Jimmy Scott Transcript
March 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Kent: Welcome back to “Sound Authors.” On the fourth part of each show we like to feature an author of sound and it’s my pleasure today to welcome one of the great authors of sound, Jimmy Scott. He got his start in the Lionel Hampton band quite a long time ago, the 1940s.He’s signed the Ray Charles Tangerine Record Label. In the ’60s he faded out of the music scene and worked in a hospital as an elevator operator. And came back in the ’90s and has put out several albums since.Welcome so much to the show “Little” Jimmy Scott.
Jimmy Scott: My pleasure.
Kent: Now, I saw you sing out here in Stony Brook, New York. You sang at the University and that was a real pleasure. You have so much soul. I shouldn’t say that you’re getting up in years, but it seems like you have still got the same soul that you’ve always had.
Jimmy: Well, thank you. Thank you.
Kent: And do you sing every day?
Jimmy: Ah, yeah, just about. I do a little silent singing to myself that’s my way of reviewing certain tones and I do that within myself.
Kent: In your head?
Jimmy: Yes.
Kent: Where are you talking to us from? Do you live in Las Vegas now?
Jimmy: Yes.
Kent: How’s that?
Jimmy: Oh, wonderful. Well, for me, healthwise, it’s good. I couldn’t take winters anymore in Cleveland.
Kent: I hear you.
Jimmy: So getting terrible, you know, for me physically. So, I decided that I’d find somewhere where it was warm and that I could still survive.
Kent: You’ve recorded with Charlie Parker, Lionel Hampton, Charles Mingus…
Jimmy: Yeah, Lionel, Charlie Parker…
Kent: What was Charlie Parker like?
Jimmy: Oh, Charlie was fabulous man. He was a really strong educator, I believe. Now that’s my belief about him. I felt that I was being educated by whatever he would play or do. And he put it in life to you, you know. The way he expressed it all, it was lifelike.
Kent: Yep. And now, your voice is… we’re going to listen to a song called “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” from an album that was never released until 2001, I believe, “The Source.”But you recorded it back in the ’60s.
Jimmy: Huh, yes.
Kent: And it’s a beautiful song. Your sound is so much like the jazz greats we love. You know, Billie Holliday an….
Jimmy: Oh, yes. Well, I’ve had many tell me that.
Kent: Did you interact with all of them back in the ’50s and ’60s?
Jimmy: Huh?
Kent: Did you go on tour with these people and interact with them after the shows and…
Jimmy: Did I interact with them? Yes.
Kent: And did you know Billie? Did you know…
Jimmy: Oh, definitely. Billie was a kin to my second wife. That came about because her mother was a cousin to Louis McKay, you know?
Kent: Right.
Jimmy: And, when they would come to Cleveland, sometimes they would stay with Mrs. Gates. Her name was Mrs. Gates, my mother-in-law, Mrs. Bessie Gates. Yeah. And that was Louis’ cousin. They were cousins.So, that was how I sort of became related to her. That was of course late in her career, not too long before she died. But I had the honor of knowing that in some way I had contact with her. That even raised and encouraged my idea of singing more and more.She was another one that, when she told the story in a song, it was truth. Miss that song that she you’d hear thing. She lived that. She went through that.
Kent: And that’s something that…
Jimmy: … and knowing this I say hey this is fabulous because it was just strange for her to be so close, you know. And it was amazing to me.
Kent: And your music, too, is so emotional. We’re going to listen to just a little bit of “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” from the source.[music]
Jimmy: all right.”I feel like a motherless child.Sometimes I feel like a motherless child.Sometimes I feel like a motherless child,A long way from home. A long way from home.This world out here is lonely and cold.This world out here is….”
Kent: That’s a beautiful tune. There is so much soul in your voice. Jimmy Scott is our guest.
Jimmy: That’s one of my favorite songs.
Kent: Ah, it is so stunning.
Jimmy: Yes, because I think people maybe they don’t realize it but I think everyone goes through that period in their life. Feel like they are lost. And no one cares. You know?Not that it always has to be true, but it’s just a slight moment of feeling alone.
Kent: It’s a beautiful song. It’s been such an honor speaking with Jimmy Scott. I could speak to you for weeks. This has been a great honor. We’re going to listen to just a little bit of “Embraceable You” from Rhino Records High Five, Jimmy Scott.Thank you so much for being on the show and for everything you have done for jazz.
Jimmy: My pleasure.
Kent: Let’s listen to a little bit of “Embraceable You.”[jazz music]”Embrace me, my sweet embraceable you.Embrace me, you irreplaceable you.Just one look at you, my heart grows tipsy in me…”
Kent: Thank you so much to my guest today, Jimmy Scott, with the most beautiful voice in jazz. Jessica Keqorak with video production book and talk to you with this fascinating story in full circle came from Baghdad and the return.Thank you to Anthony sir and everybody at World Talk radio. Be safe. Let’s listen to a little more of Jimmy Scott singing on the way out.[music]”Those many charms about you.And above all I want my arms about you.Don’t be a naughty baby, some to daddy, do.My sweet embraceable…”
Jimmy Scott | Jazz Legend
March 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Today, we spoke with Jimmy Scott, jazz legend, with his sweet, soulful, honey-throated songs of love, blues and much more…More information about Jimmy Scott from Wikipedia:
Jimmy Scott (July 17, 1925 in Cleveland) is an American jazz vocalist.
Scott has Kallmann’s syndrome, a genetic condition which stunted his growth at five feet and prevented him reaching puberty, leaving him with a high, undeveloped soprano voice, hence his nickname “Little” Jimmy Scott.However, it was his extraordinary phrasing and romantic feeling that made him a favorite singer of fellow artists like Billie Holiday, Ray Charles, Dinah Washington, and Nancy Wilson.Scott was born in Cleveland, Ohio to Authur and Justine Stanard Scott, third in a family of ten. As a child he got his first singing experience by his mother’s side at the family piano, and later, in church choir. His father was absent most of the time as he was taken with drink, gambling, and other women. Jimmy worshipped his mother, and whatever money he could make doing odd-jobs, went to her to help the family. At thirteen, he was orphaned when his mother was killed by a drunk driver. Witnesses say that she pushed one of Jimmy’s siblings out of the way of the car, but in the process of saving her child’s life, she lost her own.Scott first rose to national prominence as “Little Jimmy Scott” in the Lionel Hampton Band when he sang lead on the late 1940s hit “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool“. Credit on the label, however, went to ‘male vocalist’, a slight to his talent and a blow to his career. A blow which would reoccur several years later, when his vocal on “Embraceable You” with Charlie Parker on the album, “One Night in Birdland” was credited to female vocalist, Chubby Newsome.In 1963, it looked as though Scott’s luck had changed for the good. Signed to Ray Charles’s Tangerine label, he recorded under the supervision of the great man himself, what is by many considered as one of the great jazz vocal albums of all time, Falling in Love is Wonderful. The record was yanked from the shelves in a matter of days while Jimmy was honeymooning due to a contract he had signed earlier with Herman Lubinsky. (Only 40 years later this cult album became available to the big public again!). Another masterpiece, the album The Source (1969), where he sings intense as ever, was not permitted to be released, (until 2001).Scott’s career faded by the late 1960s and he returned to his native Cleveland to work in a hospital and as an elevator operator in a hotel.He resurfaced in 1991 when he sang at the funeral of his long-time friend Doc Pomus. Afterwards Lou Reed recruited him to sing back-up on the track “Power and Glory” on his 1992 album Magic and Loss, partially inspired by Pomus’ death. Afterwards, Scott was seen on the series finale of David Lynch’s show Twin Peaks, singing “Sycamore Trees.” He was featured on the soundtrack of the follow-up film Fire Walk With Me. This brought him to the attention of the music industry and he has enjoyed significant success since then, singing and recording.His comeback took off in earnest with the 1992 release of the album “All The Way” on Sire Records, produced by Tommy Lipuma and featuring artists such as Kenny Barron, Ron Carter, and David “Fathead” Newman. Jimmy Scott was nominated for a Grammy Award for this album.He followed this up with the album “Dream” in 1994, and the jazz-gospel album “Heaven” in 1996. He also recorded an album of mostly pop and rock covers, “Holding Back the Years” in 1998. In 1999, his early recordings on the Decca label were re-released on CD, as were all of his recordings with the Savoy Label between 1952 and 1975 in a 3 disc Box Set. In 2000, Jimmy Scott was signed to the Milestone jazz label, and recorded four critically acclaimed albums, each produced by Todd Barkan, and featuring a variety of jazz artists, including as Wynton Marsalis, Renee Rosnes, Bob Kindred, Eric Alexander, Lew Soloff, George Mraz, Lewis Nash, and many more, as well as Jimmy’s own touring and recording band “The Jazz Expressions”. He also released two live albums, both recorded in Japan, and featuring the Jazz Expressions.Jimmy Scott’s career has spanned nearly sixty years, and in that time he has performed with a list of artists that read like a history of jazz music in that time, including Charlie Parker, Sarah Vaughan, Lester Young, Lionel Hampton, Charles Mingus, Fats Navarro, Bud Powell, Ray Charles, Wynton Marsalis, and Peter Cincotti. He has also performed with a host of musicians from other genres of music, such as David Byrne, Lou Reed, Flea, Michael Stipe, and Antony & The Johnsons.Most recently he has appeared in live performances with Pink Martini, and continues to perform to audiences internationally at music festivals and at his own concerts.In 2007 Jimmy Scott received the 2007 National Endowment Jazz Master Award.Mr Scott lives in New Jersey, with his wife Jeannie. He appears to have moved to Las Vegas in 2007.
Mike Marshall | Mandolin Melody
March 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment
It was a great pleasure to speak with musician Mike Marshall on the show today, about his newest projects and his upcoming work. His playing is always full of life, rich, touched with the heart of classical, world, jazz, folk and bluegrass music… More information about Mike from his website www.mikemarshall.net:
Mike Marshall is one of the world’s most accomplished and versatile acoustic musicians, a master of mandolin, guitar and violin whose playing is as imaginative and adventurous as it is technically thrilling. Able to swing gracefully from jazz to classical to bluegrass to Latin styles, he puts his stamp on everything he plays with an unusually potent blend intellect and emotion a combination of musical skill and instinct rare in the world of American vernacular instrumentalists.
Now living in Oakland, California, Mike grew up in Central Florida, where throughout his teens he played and taught bluegrass mandolin, fiddle and guitar. In 1979, at the age of 19, he was invited to join the original David Grisman Quintet. Mike has since been at the forefront of the acoustic music scene, playing on hundreds of acoustic-music recordings both as lead artist and ensemble performer. His 1982 Cd, Gator Strut, is a classic example of a new generation of bluegrass virtuoso instrumentalists forging new directions in this vital musical style. Throughout his career, Mike has performed and recorded with some of the top acoustic string instrumentalists in the world, including jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli, fiddle virtuoso Mark O’Connor, five-string banjo phenom Bela Fleck, bassist and MacArthur Fellowship winner Edgar Meyer, and classical violinist Joshua Bell.Mike and violinist Darol Anger formed a partnership in 1983, together they formed the band Montreux with pianist Barbara Higbie, bassist Michael Manring, and steel-drum virtuoso Andy Narell. The group released five recordings on the Windham Hill label and toured extensively throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe and Japan from 1984 to 1990. While continuing to be an active member of Montreux, in 1986 Mike founded a classical string quartet of mandolin family instruments — two mandolins, mandola and mandocello. The Modern Mandolin Quartet released four recordings for Windham Hill Records that redefined the mandolin in a classical-music setting. In 1995, the Quartet made its Carnegie Hall debut and, in 1996, received a “Meet The Composer” grant from the Lila Wallace Foundation.Meanwhile, Mike had traveled to Brazil and begun his love affair with choro, an indigenous music that is to Brazil what bluegrass is to the U.S. He embarked on an in-depth study of the style that resulted in the CD “Brasil (Duets).” This recording showcases Mike at the top of his form as a mandolinist in duet settings, and features top instrumentalists such as Andy Narell, Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer, bassist Michael Manring, and keyboardist and flutist Jovino Santos Neto. Mike has continued to push the boundaries of acoustic instrumental music. After tapping Fleck and Meyer for the “Brasil (Duets)” roject, he collaborated with the two masters on a 1997 Sony Classical release titled “Uncommon Ritual.” The album charted on the Billboard Top Ten Classical Chart, where it remained for more than three months. The follwing year, the ensemble opened the Chamber Music Series 1998 season at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. Mike worked with Meyer yet again on the 1999 “Short Trip Home,” another Sony Classical recording with Joshua Bell and fiddle-and-mandolin player Sam Bush.Mike has two holiday recordings to his credit: In 1998, he released “Midnight Clear,” a solo guitar recording, and in 2000 he recorded “A Christmas Heritage” with banjo player Alison Brown, Darol Anger, mandolinist Tim O’Brien, Todd Phillips and pianist-composer Phil Aaberg. That band, called New Grange, also released an eponymous CD on Compass Records.Today Mike can be heard on the Car Talk soundtrack recording every week on NPR along with Earl Scruggs, David Grisman and Tony Rice. In addition Mike composed and recorded the theme music for the San Francisco based radio program Forum heard daily on KQED radio.Darol Anger remains an important collaborator for Mike. To date, they have released 6 albums as a duo on Compass and Windham Hill Records. Together they have also recorded under the moniker Psychograss with guitarist David Grier, banjo player Tony Trischka and bassist Todd Phillips.Over the past several years, Mike has also been collaborating Chris Thile, of Nickel Creek. The two mandolinists began playing together at festivals, and their performing together eventually evolved into a duo, recording their first album in 2003. The cd, entitled Into the Cauldron, is a mandolin duet project performed entirely on mandolin and mandocello. Into the Cauldron was released on Sugar Hill records, and was listed in the top ten of Amazon.com’s favorite recordings for 2003.As he does so engagingly in music, Mike also applies his adventurous aesthetic to his two principal hobbies: wine making and food. Already known as one of the best cooks in the music business, he has been trading guitar lessons for cooking lessons from Michael Peternell a chef at Berkeley’s Chez Panisse. “Cooking is quite a passion for me,” he told Bluegrass Now in a 2003 interview. “When I moved from Florida to join David Grisman’s band here in California, it became very evident that I was too broke to afford the food I’d grown up on! So I’d call Mom: Hey, how do you make those roasted peppers? What’s the deal with the sauce?’ Now I make all my own pastas by hand-ravioli, gnocchi, all that stuff.”Back in the realm of music, Mike is currently working on further collaborations with Darol Anger, performs intermittently with Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile and has just released a CD project with pianist Jovino Santos Neto entitled Serenata featuring the music of Hermeto Pascoal Brazil’s most important musician/composers living today. The Cd has been released on Mike¹s own label called, appropriately, Adventure Music.
Pat Dohohue Transcript
March 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Dr. Kent Gustavson: Welcome back to “Sound Authors.” On the fourth segment of each show we feature an author of sound and one of the premier guitarists of the world is Pat Donohue.Chet Atkins says about Pat Donohue, “He’s one of the greatest finger pickers in the world today.”And Leo Cottke says, “I first heard him on the radio and got upset. Then I heard him in concert and got more upset. He thinks harmonically, improvises beautifully and writes. If you’re a guitar player, it’s going to haunt you.”And I am a guitar player and it does indeed haunt me. Welcome to the show, Pat Donohue.
Pat Donohue: Hey, how are you doing?
Dr. Kent: Great.
Pat: Very nice of you to have me.
Dr. Kent: Yeah, and your music is so diverse. It goes all the way up from jazz, to folk, to just about anything. How did you get into to doing such an amazing hodgepodge?
Pat: Well, I guess I’ve always just played what I like and so as my taste evolved in music I kind of try to capture different styles that I like to hear because my natural inclination is to try and play it if I like it. So, that’s how it got diverse.
Dr. Kent: And did your jobs get better on the “Prairie Home Companion Show” over the years here?
Pat: Oh, I think so; a little more concise and focused I would say.
Dr. Kent: There’s definitely a great element of comedy in your music. Do you get a hand in those comic songs that Garrison Keillor always dreams up?
Pat: Sometimes we write together. A lot of times he’ll have written the lyrics, or I will. Usually if I’m singing it I’ve written it and if he’s singing it he’s written it and vice versa but sometimes they cross, yeah.
Dr. Kent: Now, your latest album is all solo guitar. We’re not going to play a clip of that on the show today but tell me a little bit about that album.
Pat: It’s just an album that I wanted to have of what it sounds like when I just sit down on a chair in a room and play my guitar. That’s pretty much what it sounds like and if that’s the sort of thing that appeals to you, it’s really great.
Dr. Kent: Do you still get the same kind of joy you did when you were 12 years old first picking up the guitar?
Pat: Yeah. It’s funny you should ask. I was just thinking that the other day and wondering that to myself. But then yes, I do.
Dr. Kent: That’s a wonderful thing. Let’s listen to a little bit, one of the songs you wrote from your “Profile” album. I chose two love songs here. One of them is called “My True Love.” Let’s hear a little bit of that.
Pat: OK.[music]
Dr. Kent: Well, that’s a beautiful tune. Not only are you a gifted guitar player, you’re a singer as well. Did you ease into that or was it always a marriage?
Pat: No, I always sang even when I was a little kid.
Dr. Kent: What did you start with? Were your folks rockers or were your folks…?
Pat: No, not at all, not at all. But I had an older sister who played guitar and sang and so I used to harmonize with her before my voice changed. [laughs] I was the one with the high voice for a while.
Dr. Kent: Oh yes, I know that very well. I had a soprano until the age 15. Now, we’re interrupting you in a middle of a rehearsal right now. What are you rehearsing for?
Pat: We’re rehearsing for a radio broadcast of Prairie Home Companion”, which will be live tomorrow night on your public radio station.
Dr. Kent: Do you still enjoy it?
Pat: Oh yes, very much, very much. I was just listening in the other room. They’re rehearsing without me and it makes me feel like I should get back there. [laughs]
Dr. Kent: We’re getting you in big trouble here.
Pat: No, I just don’t want to be left out.
Dr. Kent: It’s been a true pleasure. I don’t want to hold you too long. Let me ask you a couple more questions…
Pat: Sure.
Dr. Kent: …about your childhood. Very curious, did you listen to Doc Watson? Did you listen to blues players? What was your…what did you love?
Pat: Yeah, both of those things are true. I started off playing drums when I was about 10 and I was in a rock band in high school playing drums and then learning how to play guitar at the same time as a sideline. Then our guitar player was listening to a lot of, well, blues players and also people like Doc Watson and country, the roots music I guess you could say now.
Dr. Kent: And are you a roots musician?
Pat: I guess I’d say so, yeah.
Dr. Kent: But just about anything. What I love about the show is that anytime you tune in it might be a Blind Blake tune, it might be some finger picking, it might be a soft folk tune. It’s awesome.
Pat: Well, we’re just working on a version of “Police Dog Blues” by Blind Blake just as we were talking here.
Dr. Kent: Do you listen to those records? How do you figure it out?
Pat: Yeah, I’ve listened to all the Blind Blake stuff a lot by now so I kind of know it all but at least how it goes basically. And if I don’t I refer back to it. There are some great CD reissues of old blues players now and it’s much more easy to access that music.
Dr. Kent: Those old 78s?
Pat: Yeah.
Dr. Kent: So one more questions for you. Do you have really expensive finger insurance?
Pat: [laughs] No, I probably should.
Dr. Kent: [laughs]
Pat: Get into the digital age…
Dr. Kent: There you go. Well, it’s been a real pleasure. Let’s listen to a little bit of another love song here from the album “Portrait”, it’s a gorgeous album, sorry not portrait, “Profile.”
Pat: ”Profile.”
Dr. Kent: And this song is called “Do you Love Me?” It’s another love song. Thank you so much for being on the show and we’ll listen to you tomorrow night on “Prairie Home Companion.”
Pat: All right, thanks a lot.
Pat Dohohue | Guitar Wizardry
February 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Pat Donohue took time out of his busy rehearsal schedule for NPR’s Prairie Home Companion to do an interview with us, about his music and his life in the business. He spoke to us about his new instrumental album, and about his earlier work… More about Pat Donohue from his website www.patdonohue.com:
From swing to jazz to bottleneck blues to folk, Grammy-winning acoustic guitarist Pat Donohue plays it all with a flourish of artistry and melodic inspiration. Chet Atkins called Pat one of the greatest finger pickers in the world today; Leo Kottke called his playing “haunting.”
Pat is certainly one of the most listened to finger pickers in the world. As the guitarist for the Guys All-Star Shoe Band of Minnesota Public Radio’s A Prairie Home Companion, Pat gets to show off his savvy licks and distinctive original songs to millions of listeners each week. His decade-long association with Garrison Keillor’s popular program has led to some unusual gigs: There was the after-show club date in Berlin, when Wynton Marsalis showed up to sit in with Pat and the Prairie Home band. Or playing music on camera for the Prairie Home Companion movie with director Robert Altman and stars Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, Kevin Kline, John C. Reilly, Woody Harrelson and Tommy Lee Jones. Besides the weekly radio broadcasts, Pat plays about 30 concerts a year nationwide and teaches at such popular music camps as Augusta Heritage Center and Rocky Mountain Fiddle Camp. Pat’s musical tastes are eclectic. Though he considers himself foremost a folk guitarist, Pat’s influences are rooted in bluesmen Blind Blake, Robert Johnson, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Muddy Waters and Miles Davis. He manages to blend jazz and blues with folk, and the mix is seamless. Over the years he has captivated audiences with his unique original compositions, dazzling instrumentals and humorous song parodies, including Sushi-Yucki andWould You Like to Play the Guitar? Honors include a 2005 Grammy for his participation on Pink Guitar, a compilation of Henry Mancini tunes on acoustic guitar, several Minnesota Music Awards, and the title of 1983 National Finger Picking Guitar Champion. His original tunes have been recorded by Chet Atkins, Suzy Bogguss and Kenny Rogers. Pat has also been a featured performer at major music festivals including the Newport, Telluride and Philadelphia Folk Festivals. Pat has been obsessed with the guitar since he first picked one up at age 12 and began learning simple chords and melodies from a Pete Seeger instructional book. His background as a drummer in a garage rock band helped with the transition and he never looked back. As a youth, the St. Paul, Minnesota native pestered guitarists playing at Twin Cities coffee houses and blues venues, seeking tips on playing. Borrowing bits and pieces of the styles of finger picking pioneers he admired, he taught himself to play, building a repertoire flavored by Blind Blake, Django Reinhart and Chet Atkins. “I was very lucky to see some of the old-timers that aren’t around anymore,” says Pat. “The University of Minnesota had summer concerts in the early 70s and I got to see Lightnin’ Hopkins, Big Joe Williams and Jesse Fuller. I wasn’t shy about going up to them and trying to befriend them and find out what I could about playing the blues. By and large, they were very accommodating. Big Joe Williams invited me to his hotel and we wound up playing guitar together.” Aside from his music CDs, Pat also has two instructional videos and a concert video on Stefan Grossman’s Vestapol Videos, which not only display his guitar wizardry, but also feature the warmth and humor he brings to his live performances. Pat recently recorded an instructional DV