Walkabout! with Brett Leigh Dicks

By Brett Leigh Dicks

It was through his father, a Kapellmeister at a local Lutheran church, that jazz maestro Kurt Elling was first introduced to music. In growing up in Rockford, Illinois, Elling embraced a range of musical instruments including playing the violin, French horn, piano, and drums while also singing in various choirs. His world at the time mostly revolved around classical music and it wasn’t until he ventured on to graduate school in Chicago did jazz music really begin to seed itself within his psyche. And it seeded itself in such a way that Elling eventually left school, just one credit short of a master’s degree, to become a jazz vocalist. His first set of demos found their way to Blue Note Records and across the past twenty years Elling has carved a remarkable career that his seen him honored with nine Grammy Award nominations with the last, a 2009 live tribute to the classic album “John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman” titled “Dedicated to You,” yielding a win for Best Vocal Jazz Album. His latest recorded venture, “The Gate,” sees Elling embracing an intriguing collection of classic standards and contemporary pop songs under the production mastery of Don Was. Their union might have resulted from a little mutual admiration from a far, but what the two have crafted is an undertaking as intimate, personal, and inflicting as music can get. On Tuesday, April 19, Elling ventures to Santa Barbara for their Jazz at the Lobero series. But don’t think you are going to be swayed by the theatre’s ornate setting as so many scribes have lauded, as Elling and his ensemble plan to seduce you into their world for the night.

Your upcoming tour encompasses quite an eclectic array of venues – from an elegant old theatre in Santa Barbara to a nightclub in San Diego and even a bar and grille in Los Angeles. I am wondering if place might exert an influence upon the music you produce on any given night?

I guess after 17 years of being on the road, I’ve encounter just about as many variables as you can imagine. And, when we’re on the road every day, that tends to present its own challenges and its own opportunities. Yeah, it’s an eclectic gathering of venues, but for me it’s just another tour. I tend to customize and react in a different way more to an audience and really respond more to their energy than to the architectural surroundings.

How do you gauge or feel out an audience?

I can try to check out the audience and their vibe as they’re gathering and coming in and certainly once we’re on stage I listen to them and try to cater to that over the course of the evening. But also I think what we present is something that already has a very strong focal point for an audience regardless of the circumstances that they’re coming from. We really try to take people out of the element that they currently exist in and bring them into our world a little bit.

You of course have a new album and it is a very intriguing undertaking. Not only are you embracing a selection of standards, but also some more contemporary popular compositions. And they all sit together beautifully …

Thank you. I think of The Gate as a recording that follows in a very natural and organic progression from the great majority of the records that we’ve made. But especially across the last three studio records – Man in the Air, though Night Moves and now to The Gate – I think we’ve been kind of developing in this direction. Having Don Was on board was a great help to our confidence and morale in doing this work and I think that, certainly in this case, the musicians added a great deal to the quality of the project.

He was indeed an inspired choice for this undertaking. How did your connection with Don Was come about?

He contacted me several years ago now, just as a friendly gesture. He was on the road with his band and was listening to my records in the tour bus and wanted to meet me. So I came out and we really connected on a personal level right away and started enjoying really good conversations and having interesting times together. It was a very natural thing.

You mentioned he was a great help to your confidence and morale – in what way?

I think that when someone of his qualifications and his experience comes into your scene it makes it possible for a certain amount of energy to come into play that is creative and productive and helpful and supportive. Well, that doesn’t come around every day, especially for a jazz singer. So I was really happy to have that energy.

How did the foundations for this recording form?

I have the luxury of having a working band so, when I have an idea for something, if it’s written down in some way or I can communicate it some way to the band, then they can respond to it and start to get it going. When we’re on the road, it can be a while between records so I have plenty of time to start rolling stuff together.

I believe your musical induction came through singing in choirs as a child and that classical music defined your early life. When did the importance of words reveal itself to you?

Well, it’s tough to pinpoint a moment. But I will say that I knew for quite a long time that it would be lovely and wonderful to sing some of the inspired and profound melodies that I was hearing on recordings that different players had improvised. But I didn’t that “vocalese” existed or that that was possible. When the coin dropped I came to understand what Jon Hendricks was doing with Lambert, Hendricks and Ross and what Eddie Jefferson was doing. Then I said, oh well, now I can start writing lyrics to things and I can actual sing all these lovely melodies that I’ve cared for over all these years.

It must be quite an intricate process?

It’s definitely quite a lot of effort. You have to have an inspired moment that tells you what content direction you want to go in. And you have to vet whether or not the solo is a likely choice. Things that Coltrane plays you shouldn’t really try to sing because it’s going to sound ridiculous no matter what words you out to it because there are just too many notes. He’s playing with sheets of sound. It would just sound like caterwauling which I sound like plenty of times now anyway so I don’t want to go down that road if I can avoid it. And there are some things that are too long and some things that are too obscure.

So what then do you look for in a piece of music?

I go for things that speak to my heart and I go for things that seem plausible and that I have an inspired idea about. After that it becomes boatloads of work. You have to do the transcription and figure our how the language is going to flexibly adapt to the needs and rhythms of a contemporary melody.

Who are some the people that inspire you lyrically?

I mentioned Jon Hendricks. He’s almost like a second father to me on a personal level as much as on a writing level. Eddie Jefferson, obviously. I think of the contemporary writers, Norma Winstone writes a very lusty lyric. Her things are a little bit mysterious and emotionally transparent, but you also can’t really pin down what some of the meanings are and I think that’s really good writing. You know, there’s a young gal named Becca Stevens who I think is really wonderful. She’s writing both lyric and melody and I think she’s got a real gift. But you know, I also try to pay attention to poets and the work that they’re doing and a lot of the time that helps me figure out what I need to be talking about.

Contemporary or classical poets?

There are some contemporary cats. But Kenneth Rexroth is a big influence on me, as are Walt Whitman and other classic cats.

You have enjoyed nine Grammy Award nominations with your last yielding a win. What do use as a gauge for the success of any given undertaking?

I measure it by whether I like it or not. But I understand that what I’m trying to do is different from mere entertainment. I understand that what I’m trying to do is challenging and surprising. That’s what a jazz singer is supposed to do. So it will take a little while for my thing to get over. And I understand that when lightening strikes, in whatever form that’s going to take, I will be that much more prepared as an artist to enjoy it and be responsible with it.

by Brett Leigh Dicks
“Covered” from Mike + Ruthy’s album Million to One

While the international wanderings of their previous sonic entity (iconic east coast folk collective The Mammals) proved that good music is truly universal, Michael Merenda and Ruth Ungar’s subsequent musical persona, Mike + Ruthy, proves that it is also inherently personal. When the pair decided to couple a family with their musical career, they scaled back their rigorous touring schedule, stepped away from the renowned ensemble, and focused on the songs. Having always been prolific songwriters, the multi-faceted nature of The Mammals line-up and their embrace of traditional musical meant that Merenda and Ungar’s own compositions were often left lingering on the sidelines. While the duo maintains the musical enthusiasm that was the heart and soul of The Mammals, Mike + Ruthy now poignantly channel that into their own music. The result has been three sparkling albums that bridge their folk sensibilities with mainstream appeal. Brandishing a new album, Million to One, the duo is returning to California where they will undertake a string of performances in settings as diverse as art galleries to folk centers to churches. While their Santa Barbara appearance will have them performing in the sacred surrounds of SOhO, on November 14^th, rest assured that the experience they offer will be as personal and intimate as it will be infectiously captivating.

You headed back to the west coast this month. How different do you find the experience of touring out here compared to the East Coast?

The biggest difference is practicality. On the East Coast, especially in the northeast, it’s easier to get around from town to town whereas a lot of our friends that tour on the west coast, complain about just how far the drives are out there. I think the quality of audience is similar so it’s just a little more practical to make a living from it out here, I think.

Both you and Ruthy were firmly entrenched in The Mammals for a number of years. What inspired scaling back your musical foray and refocusing yourselves as a duo?

It was partly because we were having a kid, and we knew that we would have to slow down from the road a bit and figure out what it meant to be parents while continuing to make a living playing music. We knew that would be a lot easier outside the context of the band which had sort of taken on a life of its own and had become just a little complicated to make a living for everybody as we were just scrapping by. But we didn’t want to sacrifice our lifestyle, which was being full-time musicians, so it just became easier to work as a duo and to do some work with Ruthy’s dad – Jay Unger – and to focus on the family a little more.

You both built quite a legacy with The Mammals. You toured extensively through North America as well as Europe and Australia. How do you find your music resonates in different cultural settings?

It goes down really great. Even though The Mammals always flirted with a lot of different types of music, at the core, we were really an old time string band and that music seems to be universally exhilarating to people whether you’re busking on a street corner in any part of the world or presenting it in a club or festival. It’s very infectious music and it’s fun and very exuberant, and that’s popular everywhere you go.

When you decided to move forward as a duo, were you conscious of maintaining some of the ethic of The Mammals while also instigating something sonically new?

I think you touched on both things we were trying to do. We weren’t trying to abandon what we had started with The Mammals. But, as songwriters, we wanted to put more focus on the songs we were writing because a lot of them were getting put on the sidelines; in The Mammals, there were three lead singers and we were doing a lot of traditional material. There just wasn’t enough room in the set list or on the CDs for all the all the songs we were writing and that we would have liked to have been singing and presenting to the world. So, it was partly an opportunity to get back to our original roots, which for me in particular, was as a songwriter, but not to abandoned what we had become known for which was being roots musicians.

I read a few years back about how prolific you are as a songwriter. Has that been curtailed somewhat by having a child?

I am glad you asked that! Our son is two and half now and sleeping in the car seat behind me. But just yesterday, I had the house to myself and spent a good deal of time harvesting the many snippets of songs that I’ve tried to sneak out in the very precious few moments that you get to yourself when you have a young child. But one of my skills, I think, is that I can at least start a new song every time I pick up the guitar. That’s really why I pick up the guitar – to write songs – that’s the way it has always been since day one of playing guitar. It’s always been a fascination of mine, and I have always been obsessed with creating songs. So my process for the last couple of years has been to pick up the guitar, be it for five or ten minutes, and whatever that idea is that comes to me I record it on my phone or my computer and then essentially forget about it! Yesterday was the first time I had a chance to sift through these forty or so fifteen second to one minute chunks of audio. Before I knew it, I was looking at a good deal of material that I am excited to flesh out and finish that I didn’t really know I had because it was written on auto pilot.

How did you and Ruthy first meet?

We met in New York City in 1999 through mutual friends in the theater world actually. We were both there trying our hand in the New York City theater scene, me as a director and playwright and Ruthy as an actor. I also had half a mind to try my hand at music. I was doing open mics and going to see shows and keeping my ear to the ground in the East Village and sort of ended up becoming part of the anti-folk scene that was happening at the Sidewalk Café.  Ruthy, who had been raised by musicians, really had very little interest in pursuing that and it wasn’t until she met me and a couple of my friends and she really liked the songs we were writing and the music we were making that she realized that music wasn’t only something that her parents did – it was something that her generation did as well and was something she could relate to. That pulled her back into something she had been away from for years and years and got her excited about it. And the next thing we were doing shows together and then we were a couple and then we left the city to find a more affordable place to live and started doing duo shows.

How did The Mammals enter the fray?

We were living in Massachusetts and we met Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, and The Mammals started and with the combined power of having a Seeger in the band and an Unger in the band and being a folk band we really excelled on the folk circuit. It really took off and we did that for eight years. That project came out of nowhere really, but we had already been a duo. So now we are returning to that. And Mike+ Ruthy is a way for me to return to my roots also.

Returning to your roots in what respect?

Before I really knew anything about proper folk music, the closest I came was through more mainstream people like Bob Dylan and Simon and Garfunkel which is what most American’s experience of what folk music is. It’s not very well represented in the mainstream at all. For me to return to my roots is to return to rock and pop and the songs that you hear of the radio and the music I was writing at the start. I have always been fascinated by great songwriters like Bob Dylan and Tom Petty and Tom Waits. So that’s what I mean when I say that I am returning to my roots.

You have put out an new album and released it on your own label and enlisted the services of Kickstarter to help raise funds through the help of your fans. What are the financial realities for independent musicians like yourself who want to record and release music?

It is a challenge for sure. We were able to produce the record with our own money, but what we needed help with was getting it into the world – to promote it. The current state of independent music is that, yes, everybody can make a CD on their laptop and burn it and sell it at a show that night. It’s never been easier to make an album than it is in 2010. But not everybody can afford the publicity and promotion and very few people put the money into that because it is a bit of a crap shoot. There’s no guarantee of success, and you’re competing for the same radio spots and magazine feature as major label artists with these huge machines behind them. It’s just simple math as there are only so many spots available. But, we wanted to rev up our new identity and invest some money in our career and future, and we thought this new record was good and would maybe appeal to a wider swath of people than just the folk scene. So that’s what we invested in. The Kickstarter money allowed us to do that.

What was it like watching the Kickstarter undertaking come together? It must have been quite humbling seeing people put in money and make this happen.

We definitely feel incredibly grateful, and it was a thrill. But it’s not just the money, to have that kind of dialogue with our fan-base allowed us to get to know who these people are that had signed up upon our mailing list. This was something that we all shared in which was kind of unique.

The tour that you’re undertaking includes a diverse array of venues. You’re playing a rock club here in Santa Barbara, a folk center in Encino, a church in San Diego, and an art gallery in San Luis Obispo. Given the matrix of your sound, do you find that your music resonates differently in different settings?

That’s a good question. One of the great things about playing an art gallery or a small church or a house concert for that matter is that you can get people really close to you. You can get thirty to fifty people right there with you experiencing acoustic music, and I think acoustic music is best served by an intimate show. I like to be close to the people, and I think the music translates better and people feel it a whole lot more when that happens.

By Brett Leigh Dicks

(This interview took place in December 2009. Kenny Edwards passed away August 18th, 2010. We will miss him greatly.)

While he is far from being a stranger around these here parts, Santa Barbara will soon be afforded the opportunity of getting to know Kenny Edwards all over again. After five years the local singer-songwriter is releasing a follow-up to his 2004 solo self-titled debut solo album. Titled Resurrection Road the album was recorded with long-time friend and producer Freddy Koella. With career that has spanned five decades and seen him not only as one of the fore-fathers of folk-rock but work with the likes of Linda Ronstadt, Don Henley, Warren Zevon, and Stevie Nicks, Edwards has never done things by half measures. Resurrection Road is no exception. It is an emotive sojourn across a collection of deeply personal songs and one not only befitting the creative vision of its composer, but beautifully reflects his heart and soul. Albums like this don’t come along very often, as Resurrection Road’s extrapolated origins lays in ironic testament to. But then again, nor do people like Kenny Edwards. On the eve of Edwards joining Carla Bonoff for a night of music at Ventura’s Zoey’s at the Loft, he enlightens us into the evolution of his new album and everything that has been poured into its genesis.

I believe you’re currently driving back from Folk Alliance where you were on a songwriting panel. You have also presented songwriting workshops at similar events. Are these experiences you enjoy?

I do actually. It’s nice to impart the experience I’ve had and maybe help to cut a few years of trial and error off other people’s experience.

And does it work both ways? Do you find yourself walking away enriched?

Sure. It’s very interesting to learn what people do and don’t know and what comes instinctively. And it’s interesting to learn what’s of interest to them. But, most of all, I enjoy the feeling of sharing. It’s kind of like performing in a way – when the environment is right, everyone walks away with something.

Sharing is something that seemingly holds great prominence in your life. Aside from workshops and panels, you play with a number of different artists, you work as a producer, and now you are touting a new album. Does at this require some unique juggling skills?

It actually happens quite organically. With the people I work with in production, we aren’t working all the time and that allows me to out on the road for a weekend as a sideman to Karla Bonoff and that will morph into doing some studio work for someone like Natalie. It just seems to unfold naturally. What I really like about working this way is that it keeps me fresh for all these different endeavors. I don’t get sick of any one of them and they all tend to inform one another.

You have a new album – Resurrection Road – and it’s been five years since your last. Are you from the Leonard Cohen school of songwriting where quality tends to trump quantity?

I don’t start a lot of songs and I definitely don’t finish them overnight. I play a lot of them live and they change over the time before I end up recording them. I’m not a fast or prolific writer. Although if I spent more time simply as a solo artist I would spend more time writing so as it wouldn’t be five years between albums!

Was the impetus for this album the fact that you had an album worth of songs that you felt were ready to be recorded?

No – had only half the songs when I started the project. My producer then went to Europe to work with another artist for a while and that slowed the process down a little. But that also allowed me to do some more writing and ended up with more songs than I needed and that gave me the luxury of picking the ones that I felt were right for the mood of this particular record. The first album was a collection of songs I had gathered over something like eight years, but this one has a cohesive feel about it.

Do you look back at that point when the production slowed down and now see that as somewhat of a blessing? Presumably, that gave you the chance to step back a little and get sense a real sense of where the recording was headed and to then further that cause …

That’s a good point because to a certain extent that’s exactly what I did. I reflected on what I had started and that gave me a very good sense of the direction we were going and what sort of songs would fit in there. Even though some of the songs were written as far apart as four years, there is a definite theme running through the record.

You have again enlisted the production skills of Freddy Koella. Enlighten me a little into what Freddy adds to the musical palette …

He’s a very interesting producer in that he puts quite a stamp on what he does. Not maybe as blatently as someone like Daniel Lanios, but he has a very distinctive style and very specific taste. So it’s always a process of us finding the songs that speak to both of us. Being a producer myself, I try and give him as freer hand as possible, but it’s always a collaboration so there’s a lot of cross-pollinization there.

Across the years you have worked with an immeasurably long list of producers and you of course have extensive production experience yourself. Is it the collaborative aspect that you are seeking for yourself from a producer?

Exactly. When I am producing I cast the project and give the musicians as free a hand as possible because you want them to be the best they are. And it’s the same thing with the producer when I’m recording my material. I don’t tell them exactly how I want the project to sound. That defeats the purpose of having them there. That being said though I do have a point that I want to get across whether that’s defending certain songs or styles that I want to play in.

And the list of artists you have worked with is equally extensive. Do you find those experiences in turn influence or inform your own work?

These days I probably take in a little less, just because I have been taking in so much for so many years! There has been this period across the last five years where I have been listening to a lot of contemporary music. Not so much to steal from it but more because I wanted to hear how things were changing – many times for the better. A lot of my contemporaries don’t appreciate what is happening now so much and feel like the era where they were working at their peak was the most valid. I’m not like that. But, in the last year, I have stopped paying as much attention to the outside world as it were.

You have worked with some of the greats from across all eras of contemporary music. Who have been some of the personalities that have made a real impression upon you as a musician?

Of course working with Linda Ronstadt for so many years was quite something. She was such an important artist. Even though she wasn’t a songwriter for the most part, she had such an inventive stylistic input especially in the Seventies when she co-invented folk-rock. She had a big influence upon me, but also visa-versa. I was a collaborator and member of her band and I also brought in a lot of stuff to her that was influencing me at the time. And Warren Zevon was another big influence upon me. He had such a unique way with lyrics. And we ended writing a song together.