Robert Wyatt

[A Lark Ascending]

Looks like a goody:

A song cycle featuring jazz standards along with Robert Wyatt originals and other songs associated with him, is to appear on the new Domino Records album, For The Ghosts Within, released next month on vinyl, CD and download on 11 October. The album is a collaboration between the revered singer and songwriter, plus saxophonist Gilad Atzmon with strings featuring violinist/composer Ros Stephen. Tracks are: ‘Laura’, ‘Lullaby For Irene’, ‘The Ghosts Within’, ‘Where Are They Now’, ‘Maryan’, ‘Round Midnight’, ‘Lush Life’, ‘What’s New; ‘In A Sentimental Mood’, ‘At Last I Am Free’ and ‘What A Wonderful World’.

http://www.jazzwisemagazine.com/component/content/article/67-2010/11578-jazz-breaking-news-robert-wyatt-collaborates-with-gilad-atzmon-on-new-album-to-be-launched-at-pro-palestine-jazza-festival-

Robert did 'Midnight' and 'At Last I Am Free' way back in the early 80s.

Could be accused of being another rock star does standards affair....but he has a long record of making these things his own.

I can just hear him doing the final track.

Edited November 1, 2014 by A Lark Ascending

[Matthew]

Looks like a goody:

A song cycle featuring jazz standards along with Robert Wyatt originals and other songs associated with him, is to appear on the new Domino Records album, For The Ghosts Within, released next month on vinyl, CD and download on 11 October. The album is a collaboration between the revered singer and songwriter, plus saxophonist Gilad Atzmon with strings featuring violinist/composer Ros Stephen. Tracks are: 'Laura', 'Lullaby For Irene', 'The Ghosts Within', 'Where Are They Now', 'Maryan', 'Round Midnight', 'Lush Life', 'What's New; 'In A Sentimental Mood', 'At Last I Am Free' and 'What A Wonderful World'.

http://www.jazzwisem...jazza-festival-

Robert did 'Midnight' and 'At Last I Am Free' way back in the early 80s.

Could be accused of being another rock star does standards affair....but he has a long record of making these things his own.

I can just hear him doing the final track.

With Wyatt's approach to vocals (and music, for that matter), I don't see this falling in the Rod Stewart camp...

[A Lark Ascending]

And here is the cover:

[Matthew]

I went ahead and pre-ordered it off Amazon, I'm looking forward to the cd, the line up is promising.

[sidewinder]

Gilad's playing locally tomorrow night. I'm thinking of going along - he's always worth checking out.

In a village hall, no less !

Edited September 24, 2010 by sidewinder

[A Lark Ascending]

He did both Nottingham and Sheffield recently but I was too tied up in the new term to go.

Does he still insist that he be allowed to host a political discussion 30 minutes before the gig? He and Wyatt seem very much on the same political wave length.

The gig I would most like to see this autumn is a one off by the amazing young Northumbrian folk band, The Unthanks. They did Robert's 'Sea Song' on their second album and are doing a concert in London in Dec devoted to his music and that of a current rock band (Anthony and the Johnsons). Sadly a Thursday counts it out for me.

Wyatt has been fulsome in his praise for The Unthanks. They are really special.

[sidewinder]

Never seen The Unthanks ! (although they did do the Bath Fest this year).

Saw Gilad earlier this year at Swanage. Absolutely no politics that I could detect - lots of cutting contests though with various front lines. He was on very good form indeed.

I think I've talked myself into going to this gig.

[mjazzg]

Bev, thanks for the tip-off about the Unthanks, just booked some tickets. Saw them earlier in the year at Union Chapel and they were marvellous. As a big fan of both wyatt and Anthony & J's it'll be an interesting evening at least.

[A Lark Ascending]

Mjazzg,

I'm envious you can get to that!

I saw The Unthanks a couple of times when they were just a quartet, between their first and second album. They played here in Worksop in an old dilapidated cinema to an audience of about 40 and they were superb; the other time was in Oxford Town Hall backing Bellowhead, a much higher status affair but just as enjoyable.

I just love them - they seem to take very strong roots in a very particular regional tradition and then spin out in the most unexpected directions. I think they have the integrity not to get forced into an industry decided direction and really look forward to how they develop.

Robert Wyatt is the perfect person for them to cover - they share that tendency to jump off the highway and into the ditch with him!

[jlhoots]

FWIW I have all of the Unthanks CDs.

Great music!!

[A Lark Ascending]

Good to see they are getting noticed in the States - I believe they recently did a successful tour there.

What's better, they are part of a much wider resurgence of English folk music that is looking every bit as interesting as they one that swept through in the 60s and 70s.

Here's a nice picture:

[Matthew]

And here is the cover:

I've played this one a couple of times now, an it really is a beautiful album. Wyatt is able to blend strings, other instruments, and his voice very effectively. The opening song, Laura, is especially lovely. This is not your typical jazz standards album, but a very creative piece of work from a great vocalist / musician. Highly recommended.

[AllenLowe]

some bad song choices. Wonderful World? Just to show he's heard of Louis Armstrong?

[Matthew]

some bad song choices. Wonderful World? Just to show he's heard of Louis Armstrong?

Yeah, I know what you mean, the "rap" didn't do anything for me, but I liked "Wonderful World," I'm just a sucker for that one, even like Jerry Garcia's one million versions of the song.

[A Lark Ascending]

some bad song choices. Wonderful World? Just to show he's heard of Louis Armstrong?

You need to know Wyatt!

He's steeped in jazz...grew up with it all around him (comes from a well-off, arty, bohemian type London background). Has no need to show off he's heard Louis Armstrong any more than the rest of us.

Here's a version of what he's often said:

But I've always liked pop music. There was a bit of a misunderstanding with the avant-garde rock scene, because I think I was sort of swimming the wrong way, really. A lot of the rock thing came out of people who'd started out doing covers of versions of the English scene and the American scene, the Beatles and Dylan and so on, and then got more and more involved in instrumental virtuosity and esoteric ideas. I was really going the other way. I was brought up with esoteric ideas and modern European music and Stockhausen, Webern, avant-garde poets, and all the kind of avant-garde thing in the '50s, before pop music--the beat poets, the avant-garde painters at the time, and so on. To me, the amazing thing was to discover the absolute beauty of Ray Charles singing a country and western song or something like that. So my actual journey of discovery was I discovered the beauty of simple, popular music. And it was much more elusive, really, than people who put it down realize. Anybody who thinks pop music's easy should try to make a pop single and find out that it isn't.

So that always interested me very much. I have a fantastic admiration for really good pop musicians, just straight commercial pop musicians with no hip associations of rock at all. I'm quite happy with that.

So it won't be a 'bad song choice' - whatever that is. It'll have been a very deliberate song choice. Though his very gentle way with irony won't be apparent to all.

Album arrived today so I'll go and give it a listen.

Edited October 25, 2010 by A Lark Ascending

[mjazzg]

some bad song choices. Wonderful World? Just to show he's heard of Louis Armstrong?

does this mean that to cover 'Wonderful World' is always a bad song choice, whoever the artist or is it just a bad song choice for Wyatt? I find the prospect of Wyatt, with one of the most bittersweet vocal styles, covering this tune fascinating - and that's without factoring in any irony...

Certainly agree with Bev that Wyatt's got no need to prove any Jazz credentials to me or even less to prove he's heard of Armstrong.

Edited October 25, 2010 by mjazzg

[AllenLowe]

"does this mean that to cover 'Wonderful World' is always a bad song choice, whoever the artist or is it just a bad song choice for Wyatt? "

always bad - sorta weirdly un-hip; though it's supposed to be a hip un-hip choice, it's acutally an un-hip hip un-hip choice.

if you know what I mean.

Edited October 25, 2010 by AllenLowe

[A Lark Ascending]

When he did his version of 'I'm a Believer' back in '74, that song (along with everything The Monkees had done) was a 'bad song'.

Since then The Monkees and (somne of) their songs have been rehabilitated by all and sundry.

Wyatt didn't start that. But his very individual take on 'I'm a Believer' allowed you to hear past the unhippness of The Monkees in '74 to the very nice song beneath.

He's been doing that on and off ever since - most notably with 'Keep the Red Flag Flying', a song that has been somewhat overexposed! Turned it to a lament for the evaporation of socialist ideals.

always bad - sorta weirdly un-hip; though it's supposed to be a hip un-hip choice, it's acutally an un-hip hip un-hip choice.

Assertion, not argument.

[AllenLowe]

arguably.

actually, I think I'm a Believer is a good song - much better than Wonderful World - or Round Midnight.

Edited October 25, 2010 by AllenLowe

[A Lark Ascending]

arguably.

actually, I think I'm a Believer is a good song - much better than Wonderful World - or Round Midnight.

Not being contrary, but what is the difference between a bad song and a good song? (beyond 'a bad song is one I don't like and a good song is one I do').

And can an interpretation of a bad song turn it into a good performance that transcends the songs inherent badness (a claim endlessly made - and I've bought into it - about Billie Holiday and Fats Waller's interpretations of Tin Pan Alley tunes).

Edited October 25, 2010 by A Lark Ascending

[AllenLowe]

well, there are good songs (You Are Too Beautiful) and bad songs (Wonderful World) and decent bad songs (What A Little Moonlight Can Do) and a lot in-between, like some of that Tin Pan Alley stuff, a lot of which was underrated.

but a bad song has bad lyrics and a bad (or banal( melody - sometimes weak harmonies (think the Bergmans) or a melody and lyric that do not transcend weak harmonies (and by weak I don't mean not complex - as Bob Dylan wrote many great songs with simple harmonies, as did Charlie Patton and Woody Guthrie, the Beatles, of course, and Lou Reed in his Velvet days, Sam Cooke, Leiber and Stoller, the Motown guys, Jerry Ragavoy, et al).

just the other day I was listening to a later Solomon Burke recording, with "gospel" tunes obviously recently written, and I heard this, which may actually be the worst lyric ever written:

"I just keep getting more and more tired;

sometimes I think I'm gonna work 'til I expire."

yikes.......

Edited October 25, 2010 by AllenLowe

[A Lark Ascending]

Ooh, ooh, ooh

What a little moonlight can do

Ooh, ooh, ooh

What a little

moonlight can do to

you

You're in love

Your heart's

fluttering all day

long

You only stutter cause

[ Find more Lyrics on http://mp3lyrics.org/uVQ ]

your poor tongue

Just will not utter the words

'I love you'

Ooh, ooh, ooh

What a little moonlight can do

Wait a while

Till a little moonbeam

comes peepin' through

You'll get bold

You can't resist him

All you'll say

When you have kissed him is

Ooh, ooh, ooh

What a little moonlight can do

Ooh, ooh, ooh

To my mind, awful lyrics - but I never wish Billie Holiday had rejected them and sung something else.

I actually really like 'What a Wonderful World' and the Louis version. Yes it's a highly sentimental gloss on a complex and troubled world (a cousin of 'I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing' or 'Imagine', two songs I have no time for but which seems to speak to others).

I think an objective argument can be made for a song being badly constructed or having bad lyrics; but not that they are beyond redemption when tackled by an imaginative musician.

*****************

Just played the Wyatt and enjoyed it thoroughly. His most direct album...ever, probably. He's normally quite evasive, holding back on the heart warming except for key moments, but here he seems unafraid to just let the melody flow. But it's not just easy listening - the original pieces, and more particularly, Atzmon's sax, reference the Middle East and his political interests there. Some of the songs are done straight, others reformatted. The string are lean, never cloying.

And 'What a Wonderful World' is just played straight; even Atzmon plays it straight rather than taking the opportunity to run a Middle Eastern scale in order to place an ironic spin on the song's sentiment.

Anyone who likes this should give these two a go:

The first is Atzmon's album that pulled together Israeli and Palestinian musicians (for the benefit of anyone not aware, Atzmon is Israeli but a bitter critic of the government of his homeland, a very controversial figure). The second is by an emigre Brazillian singer in the UK - on this album Wyatt sings on a few tracks and co-composed some too - it would probably be my choice for the most overlooked vocal album of the noughties. The songs are gorgeous and all new!

Edited October 25, 2010 by A Lark Ascending

[mjazzg]

*****************

Just played the Wyatt and enjoyed it thoroughly. His most direct album...ever, probably. He's normally quite evasive, holding back on the heart warming except for key moments, but here he seems unafraid to just let the melody flow. But it's not just easy listening - the original pieces, and more particularly, Atzmon's sax, reference the Middle East and his political interests there. Some of the songs are done straight, others reformatted. The string are lean, never cloying.

And 'What a Wonderful World' is just played straight; even Atzmon plays it straight rather than taking the opportunity to run a Middle Eastern scale in order to place an ironic spin on the song's sentiment.

Anyone who likes this should give these two a go:

The first is Atzmon's album that pulled together Israeli and Palestinian musicians (for the benefit of anyone not aware, Atzmon is Israeli but a bitter critic of the government of his homeland, a very controversial figure). The second is by an emigre Brazillian singer in the UK - on this album Wyatt sings on a few tracks and co-composed some too - it would probably be my choice for the most overlooked vocal album of the noughties. The songs are gorgeous and all new!

Think i might need to investigate Hih with that recommendation. Vasconcelos is a name that's orbited my listening but never yet landed. I must also dig out Exile for a listen as it's been a while...

I'm glad the Wyatt's hitting the target - saving my purchase for a rainy day. sounds like ideal autumnal listening

Edited October 25, 2010 by mjazzg

[AllenLowe]

ah yes, Lark, but What a Little Moonlight Can Do is what is known as a rhythm song - meant to be swung.

so the lyrics, with or without Billie, are just right.

and Moonlight is Shakespeare compared to:

"I see trees of green, red roses too

I see them bloom for me and you

The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky

Are also on the faces of people going by

I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do

They're really saying I love you.

I hear babies crying, I watch them grow

They'll learn much more than I'll never know"

I mean, it's enough to make me stop shaking hands altogether -

and why does he think those babies will grow up to be so smart?

and how are the colors of the rainbow "on the faces of people going by" ?

Edited October 25, 2010 by AllenLowe

[AllenLowe]

of course there's always (by Wyatt himself):

"At last I am free

I can hardly see in front of me

I can hardly see in front of me"

I don't really understand how loss of immediate cognizance can set one free.