Ans
Mar-03-2005, 20:27 GMT
IP:
Netherlands
 | According to the site of Hearts & Bones also Pino Palladino worked with Paul on his new album, as far as I can tell it was in 2002.
Here is the link for the very long article, for those who are only interested in the information about Paul and the S&G tour, here it is.
http://www.bassplayer.com/story.asp?sectioncode=21
&storycode=3892
How did you connect with Paul Simon?
Steve Gadd gave me a call in the summer of 2002 about doing some tracks for Paul´s wife, Edie Brickell, which ended up on her new CD, Volcano. Edie came into the studio one day and said Paul had been listening to Voodoo and he liked the rhythm section. When she told him I was the bass player on it, he asked her to have me call him. I ended up overdubbing my ´63 P-Bass on two tracks for his next CD. He was great to work with; he likes trying a lot of different vibes to get the best possible result. Soon after, we spoke by phone and he asked if I would come out and do the Simon & Garfunkel tour.
What did you do to prepare?
Paul gave me some titles to learn. It was fun researching tracks featuring players like Joe Osborn, Tony Levin, and Anthony Jackson. On a lot of it the bass isn´t very loud, so I took whatever I could hear and filled in from there. But we didn´t really know what we were going to play until we started four weeks of rehearsal at a theater in Port Chester, New York. Paul wanted to stay somewhat true to the classic versions of songs while giving them a fresh sound. He even changed some of the chords, saying he never liked the original chords anyway. Ultimately, he decided not all seven band members needed to be playing all the time, and everything was sort of based around Paul´s guitar, like in the original duo. He would also be specific at times, because he hears everything that was going on. He´d say to me, Okay, that was the lick of the record, but use it only once.
You seemed to get a lot of freedom in concert.
I did; I was able to put myself into the parts and I got some melodic features on several tunes, like The Only Living Boy In New York. It was also fun to back the Everly Brothers when they would come out mid-show. I had never played authentic early rock like that. There was no extra luggage on that music; it was mostly root-5th in a two feel, and sometimes just root-root is all that was needed. My favorite tune to play was Mrs. Robinson. [Drummer] Jim Keltner put a beat on it that slayed me every night. |
