Music Smarts

Here is another interview from my vaults, previously published in 1989 in Mix magazine and in Japan’s Sound & Recording. Clocking in at 4000 words, much of this interview has never been seen. This year Herbie celebrates his 70th Birthday, and is still going strong.

Herbie Hancock in his studio. Photo by Mr. Bonzai.

©1989, all rights reserved
no reproduction without written permission from mrbonzai (at) mrbonzai.com

Both Picasso and Hancock mastered traditional forms and styles at an early age, gained critical acclaim, and went on to shock their followers with innovation and abstraction. Picasso used found objects in his collage and sculpture; Hancock uses concrete sounds and found samples in his music. The rules were broken as the rebels drew from international sources and freely mixed. Both artists make us rethink our ideas of reality and open our doors of perception, yet they both make us feel comfortable in the twilight zone between art and life.

Barely out of his teens, Herbie Hancock became a leading force in the heyday of 60’s jazz. The jazz crowd is a tough audience and he won them over, in his work with Donald Byrd, Miles Davis, and the cream of the serious contenders. Compositions such as “Watermelon Man” became worldwide standards. His first film score was for Antonioni’s 1967 breakthrough Blow-Up. Herbie came on strong, then took jazz to new levels of cool fusion. In 1973, his Headhunters album defined jazz funk, and in following years he has swung easily with his old fans and new. The Eighties earned a best original score Oscar for his ‘Round Midnight music and a best concept video MTV award for “Rockit”. A master with many forms, he has consistently taken the newest technology and made it his own.

If you would like to learn more about the incredible ascent of Berklee scholarship honoree Herbie Hancock, click Hancock, Herbie_MrB_1989 for the PDF.

This New Year 2010, I am going to open up my vaults of pre-Internet material, heretofore only available in non-digital hard paper magazines packed away in attics and garages. This remarkable conversation with Mose Allison appeared in 1992, in both Mix magazine and Japan’s Sound & Recording. But here you get the complete and unedited version for the very first time. It is an education in the structures of music, and the structure of a lifetime career. At 83, Mose is still performing. Check out his website and ketchup: http://www.moseallison.net

Mose Allison at Yamashiro, 1992, © by Mr. Bonzai

As a tribute to this unique character in American music, a surprising range of major artists have recorded his songs, including The Who, Bonnie Raitt, The Clash, The Yardbirds, Van Morrison and Robert Palmer. Allison himself is recognized for such unforgettable originals as “Your Mind Is On Vacation” and “Parchman Farm,” as well as renditions he has made his own, such as Willie Dixon’s “Seventh Son” and “I Love The Life I Live.”

For the whole magilla: Click Allison_Mose_1992.

JACK WHITE, JIMMY PAGE, THE EDGE

“OK, it might get loud for a second,” says The Edge as he turns some knobs and cranks up his guitar and processing rig. That moment midway in the film provides the title of this film that profiles three giants of the guitar: Jimmy Page and his Gibson Les Paul, The Edge with his Explorer, and Jack White with some very funky modified guitars. From grainy archival footage to present day HD, the images are accompanied by a superb and powerful soundtrack, a tour de force in musical filmmaking.

In a meeting of three generations, we learn how each distinctive guitarist was influenced by the musicians who came before, but also by their competitive contemporaries. In conversation and brilliant performance clips, we begin to understand how they discovered and developed their signature sounds, and what drives them to this day with such relentless passion.

Would there be Jimmy Page without Link Wray? Would there be Jack White without Jimmy Page? Would there be The Edge without the angry punk sound of The Jam?

If you’d like to read the entire review, click LoudMrB.pdf.

We’re thrilled that Mr. Bonzai’s MUSIC SMARTS from Berklee Press made the cover of Music Connection for the feature “Why Books Still Matter.”

(From the Book) A GRACE NOTE BY GRAHAM NASH “This world is powered by images and energy. What the Mr. Bonzai did here was to present a small slice of our musical heritage — a slice that includes many of my personal heroes. Look into these faces, seek out their stories and enjoy this wonderful, insightful journey.”

Preface “My musical odyssey began on September 29, 1967, when I walked into Abbey Road recording studios as a guest of John Lennon, who introduced me to George, Paul, Ringo, George Martin, Neil Aspinall, Peter Brown, and Mal Evans. It was the night the finishing touches were being recorded for “I Am the Walrus.” As the lone outsider, I heard snippets of other songs, too, all of which I knew were predestined to become part of our eventual consciousness. I witnessed a musical powerhouse, yet one which was as low-key as your grandma’s kitchen.

You might say I spied a signpost. The road led to over 500 formal interviews, clandestine meetings, outrageous lunchings, startling conversations on the hoof and happenstance encounters to collect what lies before you. Herein are spur of the moment ejaculations, witty nuggets, and solemn judgments, cherry-picked from over a million words, not to mention some provocative photo sessions.

Step into this gallery of the musical life, lined with intriguing reflections on heroes, influences, artistic integrity, improvisation, collaboration, performance, recording, power, money, fame, and rejection—all in one bountiful obento box stocked with hard-won wisdom, surprising pratfalls, stark realizations, and not what you might expect.

I hope you enjoy and are enriched by these crystal quotations. I am continuously inspired when fellow humans show me their faces and tell me their stories.”

– Mr. Bonzai

The Godfather of Modern Music  (from my 1985 interview)

Les Paul — what a guy! What a musician, what an inventor, and what a card.  Imagine what a kick it must have been listening to a new Les Paul record on the radio and hearing recording tricks like multitracking and slap echo for the very first time.  It was the equivalent of Sgt. Pepper for an earlier generation.

PAUL: When I got into multitracking and overdubbing, I took the guitar and deliberately began to change its sound — to get the sound of playing underwater, in a phone booth, upside down and crosswise.  Bob Moog once said to me if I hadn’t been clowning around with all those sounds, he never would have come up with the synthesizer, which is one of the great compliments.

BONZAI: Let’s pick one of those sounds — how did you get the underwater sound?

PAUL: Tape loop — well, it was a disk loop at the time.  I had been working on the idea for two years and was sitting one day with Laird Rich, a friend of mine, arm wrestling in a beer joint at Santa Monica and Western in Hollywood.  He pulled me right down and says, “How come you’re not concentrating?” I told him I was still thinking about that echo and how I didn’t want a long time delay, like from an echo chamber.  I wasn’t after that “hey, hey, hey” like you’re in the Alps.  He says, “Do you mean by any chance like you take a playback head and place it behind the record head?” 

My goodness, we jumped out of our chairs, left the women to pay the bill and find their own way home.  We jumped into my Model A Ford and went home and within 20 minutes we ripped off that tone arm and held it behind the record head and as soon as we got that slap-back on the disk we got the answer.

For more of this interview, visit MrBonzai.com

 THIS JUST IN: new “Internet Leak” from Al, a White Stripes spoof called CNR: http://tinyurl.com/kno97q

Coinciding with my interview with “Weird Al” Yankovic appearing in RELIX magazine, now on the newstands, I have just posted my new BonzFire Film of the conversation (scroll down for the links).   Here is an excerpt from the text interview:

There is a great tradition of musical parody in the history of American culture.  Such stars as Spike Jones and Stan Freberg achieved huge success through their talent for mocking the classic pop songs of the day.  “Weird Al” Yankovic is today’s reigning king of pop parody, gifted as a comedian, recording artist, concert performer and video director.

“Weird Al” Yankovic began his career in 1979.  He recorded his version of The Knack’s “My Sharona,” titled “My Bologna,” with just vocal and accordion.  The song was popular enough in limited radio play to be released as a single.  His next hit was “Another One Rides The Bus,” which was based on “Another One Bites The Dust” by Queen.  Other early Yankovic comedy classics include “Like A Surgeon” (based on Madonna’s “Like A Virgin”), “Eat It” and “Fat” (based on Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” and “Bad”), “Smells Like Nirvana” (based on Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”) and “Amish Paradise” (based on Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise”).

BONZAI: Is there a single out now that will be on the album?
YANKOVIC: The way I am doing it now, every song I put out is a single by definition.  I put out my parody of TI, “Whatever You Like,” back in October of 2008 and it did quite well.  I am doing these four originals now which are coming out individually over the course of the summer.  Traditionally, they wouldn’t be considered singles, per se, but they are being released individually, so I guess you would have to call them singles.
At some point down the line, when I have enough tracks, probably next year, a full album will come out.  I am going three and four years between albums these days, and the fans get anxious, and I like to feed the pipeline and show them what I have been doing.

Click to view the filmed interview in HD on YouTube and at MIX magazine.

To see more of the text interview visit MrBonzai.com

In 1996,  I interviewed Walter Cronkite, who for many years was the host of the New Year’s concert in Vienna, a program that introduced billions of people to classical music.  He had just completed a new CD-ROM entitled “American Presidents — The Most Powerful Man on Earth.” His views on education and the interactive possibilities of learning were both profound and prophetic.  Here is an excerpt from that interview, and a photograph he graciously autographed for me.

Born on November 4, 1916, Walter Cronkite started out as a correspondent at the Houston Post, later became a radio sports announcer and in 1937, joined United Press where he remained for 11 years.  During World War II he witnessed the devastation, was among the first newsmen to participate in the B-17 raids over Germany, and joined the 101st Airborne in Holland.

Cronkite joined CBS in 1950 and began his long tenure with the Evening News in 1962, which in 1963 became network television’s first half-hour weeknight news broadcast.  The debut featured Cronkite’s historic interview with President John F. Kennedy.

The career of Walter Cronkite parallels the evolution of modern media — from newspapers and radio to TV and the emergence of digital news gathering and distribution.  Perhaps the most respected and identifiable newsman of the 20th Century, Cronkite embodied credibility when many of today’s newscasters are personalities rather than reporters.

BONZAI: Do you think that the interactive format, this new form of education, perhaps deepens or accelerates the study of history?
CRONKITE:  Oh, it should both deepen and accelerate.  It is certainly one of the subjects that lends itself most profitably to the interactive presentation.  We can do all these wonderful things, motion pictures of dramatizations, and still keep them perfectly honest — not docudramas but true documentary representations through entertaining performances.  Of course, here in modern times we can hear the actual voices, see old newsreels, and bits of history that will bring the current events of the time and the people involved alive in a way that no other medium can.
BONZAI:  When you went to Holland with the 101st Airborne during WWII, did you actually parachute in?
CRONKITE: No, I glided in –  a far worse way to go.  I almost refused the assignment when I got up to the 101st Headquarters that evening before the drop the next day and they told me I was going by glider instead of parachute.  I just about turned around and went home.  I’d seen what happened to the gliders in Normandy and it was pretty terrible.  The same thing happened in Holland.  Parachutes are a much better way to drop.

You can view more of this interview at  http://www.mrbonzai.com.

You could hum a few notes from Peter Gunn to a hermit in the Himalayas and chances are he’d pull down his shades and start tapping his foot in time to the classic jazz soundtrack of the 50s.  The Pink Panther theme is probably more widely recognized, and liked, than “The Star Spangled Banner.”  Croon a little “Moon River” and generations of movie romantics will get all blubbery and nostalgic.

Just a few of his movie scores: Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Days of Wine and Roses, Charade, Arabesque, The White Dawn, Silver Streak, 10, Victor/Victoria.  Television: Newhart, Remington Steele, What’s Happening, The Blue Knight, The Thornbirds. The stats are substantial:  17 Academy Award Nominations; 4 Oscars, 20 Grammys, 7 gold albums, a Golden Globe.

BONZAI: Do you have any gripes with the scoring industry — anything you would like eliminated?
MANCINI: Well (laughs), first you shoot most of the directors and producers.  That’s a sweeping statement, and there are some that are sweethearts, that are a big asset, and then there are those that are afraid.  You are messing with their baby and you better not put the wrongs clothes on it.

BONZAI: Is that a crushing experience when you come up with something that you feel is lovely, and perfect, and you get shot down?
MANCINI: Yeah, but then there’s the next case, judge.  I don’t take it personally and I consider where its coming from.  Many times when you get shot down, it’s the right decision.  Sometimes you get shot down by your friends, too, you know.  A composer isn’t the end all and the final judge of what is right for the picture.  Sometimes the people who make the picture have an instinct.  I always leave the door open.

Henry Mancini is in MUSIC SMARTS.  Read a new review from Music Connection here.

Spinal Tap’s 25th reunion album, Back From the Dead, arrives on June 16.  You’ve probably been wondering how they get that massive Derek Smalls  bass sound and that breathtaking Nigel Tufnel guitar sound.  Here is the secret, from my Mix magazine interview with the band’s producer/mixer CJ Vanston:

BONZAI: How do you get that massive bass sound?
VANSTON: Derek has an amp that has tubes from a Russian fighter jet in it. Some guy in Latvia built the electronics. The speaker cones are actually woven by hand, although we recently discovered that those hands were children’s hands in China.  After a long deliberation, we decided that only enhanced the childish innocence that Derek brings to the band. Ed also uses some Tube-tech multi-band compressor on it to reign in the terror that is Derek’s bass part.

BONZAI: How do you get that breathtaking guitar sound?
VANSTON: What is interesting is how well David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel compliment each other’s guitar sounds. Nigel as you know has his amps built special, at least the knobs are special, but David is happy with whatever happens to be in the studio.  We used amp boxes to keep the leakage to a minimum.  The Village has a really great studio (D) that has lots of nooks and crannies to put all the extra cabinets that Nigel and David use. But when it comes down to it, it’s the shear rage that they both play with. I put down a ban on all therapy during the making of this record, the last thing we want is a bunch of happy guys playing all la-la rainbows and daisies.

And if you’d like to hear the boys talking about the album and their career, click here for my two-part video interview.

I’ve seen Ross Hogarth at work many times and he is not only smart, he’s got a lot of heart.  He creates a roomful of comfort, with special considerations for each of the musicians.  It’s a pleasure you can feel in the music he’s recorded with artists such as REM, Ziggy Marley, Keb Mo, Jewel, Melissa Etheridge, John Mellencamp, John Fogerty, and Motley Crüe.

Hogarth continues to work at the finest studios around, but as a result of the massive changes in our recording industry, he has created a personal workspace in his LA rancho which he calls BoogieMotel.  He has a wealth of vintage outboard gear, mic-pre’s and microphones, plus a powerful computer supplied with an impressive arsenal of plug-ins.  He selects the gear depending on the project.
Hogarth is a master of old school analog recording and he has utilized that knowledge in creating digital product that has an uncanny analog touch.  Let’s talk recording with him and delve into the technology and philosophy

BONZAI: How do you integrate your analog outboard gear with your in the box approach?  You have to come out of the digital and go through them, and then convert and go back into digital.  Is there any degradation?
HOGARTH: In a clinical way, you could say there is.  One of the reasons I don’t use an analog summing box, is I don’t want my entire mix degraded.  The elements that I choose to go out to analog gear requires a very careful decision about the sonic that I am going to get out of that “degradation” compared with the plus that I get from that outboard piece of gear.  Aside from the effects there are only ten or twelve pieces of gear that are going to be used in my mix.  That process, compared with the plusses those boxes give me, far outweigh any degradation issues.  I am using this analog gear as an insert in ProTools.  It’s basically plugged in, going digital to analog out, then analog to digital back in.

BONZAI: Looking back and thinking about today, what is your philosophy of recording?
HOGARTH: I think the technology keeps changing and my philosophy about what I do is in a place of certainty that allows for constant change.
I have always believed in the song and the muse. I believe there is no fooling what comes out of the speakers. It either sounds like music or it doesn’t. I try to capture sounds and performances so they hold up over the test of time. In recording I try and use the right mic and the right placement for the application without needing to add gobs of EQ or manipulation.
I try and move swiftly so as to not complicate the process with my own self-importance in the recording process. If I move faster and I am one step ahead, then the artist gets to follow his muse and it helps let the music flow. In the end I want to record quality mixable sounds that have attitude or at least the initial integrity of the sound. I have had to re-learn some of the technology in terms of analog versus digital, but I am still the same recording engineer I always was as far as making sure that the speakers don’t lie.

If you would like to read the whole enchilada, with minute technical details, proceed to MrBonzai.com and follow the trail.