Mose Allison and "Tell Me Something"
Kathy Burns notes: "This is a translation (from German) of a couple of articles found at http://www.motor.de/_shortHTML/morrison.html. They are mainly about Mose Allison and the new VM album Tell Me Something. I apologize in advance for any wacky Teutonicisms or mistranslations; it's been a while since I've studied German!!" "Someone said to me once, 'You were a social critic long before Dylan; you were satirical long before Newman; you were rude long before Jagger; why aren't you a bigger star?' My answer to that was: 'I guess it was just pure luck'." [Mose Allison]. "If you live your day will come" - the words of the Mose Allison song "If You Live" mirror the fate of this maverick singer and songwriter, who, always the musician's musician, has been one of America's best-kept secrets for the last four decades. Pete Townshend, Ray Davies, and Bonnie Raitt count themselves among his biggest fans; his headstrong, bittersweet lyrics have inspired countless singers. One piece, "Look Here", even found its way into the repertoire of the punk band The Clash (the most unconventional meeting of musical talent since Sex Pistol Sid Vicious put Sinatra's "My Way" through the grinder). Just over a year before his 70th birthday (on Nov. 11, 1997), it seems that the Tippo, Mississippi-born pianist and singer has finally garnered the worldwide recognition that he has so long deserved. It comes with the help of another nonconformist, namely Van Morrison, and his album Tell Me Something: the Songs of Mose Allison. The album, coproduced by Georgie Fame and Ben Sidran, builds on the earthy, unpolished R&B mood of VM's last work, How Long Has This Been Going On. There, one could find two early Allison numbers: the ironic "Don't Worry About a Thing", and the casually cynical "Your Mind's on Vacation" (with the cute lyric "If silence is gold / You couldn't raise a dime"). Like VM, Georgie Fame has been an admirer of Allison's artistry for decades. Sidran, another disciple, knows the music inside and out - he produced Allison's last three albums for the acclaimed Blue Note label, including the Grammy-nominated CD Ever Since the World Ended. Tell Me Something contains examples of "cotton-sack songs" (e.g. "If You Live"). Allison gave them this odd name because he owes the inspiration for these songs to his memories of growing up in the bucolic setting of Mississippi. These numbers have, for the most part, disappeared from Allison's repertoire today. "He called them cotton-sack songs because he would keep singing them until there were no more cotton sacks", explained Georgie Fame. "When I spoke with him about this record and asked, 'Will it bother you if we sing them?' he answered 'No, no, just do it.'" Besides Sidran and Fame, who take turns at the controls on Tell Me Something, VM also has his old friend, the James Brown veteran saxophonist Pee Wee Ellis, along, as well as two promising newcomers to the British jazz scene: bassist Alec Dankworth and drummer Ralph Salmins. For Mose Allison, Tell Me Something is an opportunity to see how his work will be accepted by a new, broader public. Although in the span of his career he has had contracts with record lables like Columbia and Atlantic, he didn't find positive, whole-hearted support there. The nervous promoters at the big labels (always with one eye squinting at the sales numbers) simply didn't understand enough to put such an unconventional talent in the right light. Only a musician who had learned his lessons on the bleak club scene could write such a caustic song as "The Gettin' Paid Waltz". Remarkably, Allison looks back at his struggle with the record industry with no bitterness. "Making records was never a real necessity in my career. I never had a hit album or a chart-breaker; it wasn't that important to me. I'm just interested in working. I always remember what a friend once said to me: for a jazz musician, a record is just an expensive business card." A bit of blues and jazz, some folk and vaudeville - Allison's compositions are always unique. Nuances of Bartok and Ives are there, as well as a touch of Louis Armstring or Nat King Cole.
When Allison plays for the public, he first treats them to a couple of
extraordinarily wild piano improvisations, which bristle with dense
chromatic runs and bewildering asymmetric bass lines - Boogie Woogie
sonatas, he calls these creations. Then, after a concluding thunder of
chords, he
In VM, Mose Allison has found a soulmate. "I first became attentive to
his music in the Moondance era," says Allison. "Then we played together
a couple of times. He's been my buddy for a long time. I think we have a
similar artistic outlook. He doesn't talk too frequently with reporters,
but I remember one night in Bristol where we talked for hours about
blues and the history of R&B. He really knew every name. I was
astonished at how much he knew.
"I always liked his singing style, and I always liked his bands. I
recall how he said 20 years ago: 'Man, one day I'd like to play a couple
of your pieces'." When I found out about the idea for this album, I
didn't take it totally seriously - I had, in my career, seen so many
ideas come and go. But now, I must say, I am quite enthusiastic about
it."
Mose Allison is not alone in his enthusiasm. When such a sober and
world-wise artist is excited, you can be sure that something quite
special is happening. "I've wanted to make this record for a long time," explains VM, in an
interview along with Georgie Fame and Ben Sidran. "There are so many
Mose songs that I admire - this album contains maybe a tenth of them.
Really! I'm surprised that nobody before me got the idea to put together
such a collection, because his songs are so powerful."
"The question that always went through my head was how I should do it.
I'd already tried a few of his songs, but when the musicians don't know
what's what, then it's not worth doing. They could be very gifted
know-it-alls, but when they don't know these things down to the smallest
detail, they can't play the songs. Finally I realized that the solution
was to try it with Georgie and Ben - as a trio. That was the right way."
Considering their full calendar, a lavish preparation time was out of
the question. As Georgie Fame said, most of the songs were recorded in
one day. "Van had told me about the idea last year, and since I was
working in Europe with Ben during the winter, I mentioned this to him. I
knew that Mose would be coming over here to play in Soho, so it quickly
fell together. Ben only had a day; I thought we'll do 11 songs in about
6 hours. No problem."
"We've practiced 30 years for this opportunity," interrupts Sidran.
"This thing has haunted our heads for so long; it's almost a part of our
musical vocabulary. So, we made it like Mose did his recordings - live
singing and almost exclusively first takes."
"You see, the thing with Mose's music is that there's really a right and
a wrong way to play it," says Sidran. "When you just listen to the
surface, it sounds simple. But it isn't at all; every piece has some
deceiving twists, so you have to plan your approach carefully. It
reminds me of Thelonius Monk. You think you know the melody, but when
you play it, you discover all these crotchety, personal elements which
really are what make the song."
"For example, when Mose works with a rhythym group in an appearance,"
Sidran explains further, "he tells the drummer 'You can't play any
backbeat, and don't play the 2 and the 4 on the hi-hat'. So, he's
circumvented two things that a drummer would automatically have done.
In this way, he's conferred a lesson on many musicians. When you play
with him, you grow. I have experienced that often enough." Part of the van-the-man.info unofficial website |