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FOR LINDA RONSTADT, THE PAST CONTINUES TO INSPIRE
www.nytimes.com/1986/09/14/arts/for-linda-ronstadt-the-past-continues-to-inspire.html
By Stephen Holden
Sept. 14, 1986
Credit...The New York Times Archives
''The mythographer Joseph Campbell invented a wonderful phrase, 'following your bliss,' ''
Linda Ronstadt reflected recently. ''He wrote that doing what made you feel blissful was really the only guideline for how to live your life and stay out of trouble. That's what I was doing on my three albums of standards with Nelson Riddle. There was no more blissful musical experience than singing those songs with Nelson's arrangements.''
Next week, Elektra/Asylum Records will release ''For Sentimental Reasons'' (Asylum 60474; LP, cassette, compact disk), the third and final collaboration between Miss Ronstadt and the masterful arranger-conductor, who died last year at age 64 of a liver ailment before the album was completed. Concurrent with the release of ''For Sentimental Reasons,'' the label will put out '' 'Round Midnight'' (Asylum 60489; LP, cassette, compact disk), a boxed set of all three Ronstadt-Riddle albums - ''What's New'' (1983), ''Lush Life'' (1984), and the new record. After that, Miss Ronstadt has no plans to continue recording pop standards with another arranger-conductor.
''I don't think I could do it anymore without Nelson,'' Miss Ronstadt said sadly. ''He was irreplaceable. Nobody put jazz in the pop orchestra the way he did. Where other arrangers simply laminated various elements, he achieved a brilliant synthesis. While we were working on the album, I could tell by his coloring that Nelson was very ill, though I had no idea he only had a few weeks left. The record was originally going to be two volumes. We had talked about going to Cuba and Brazil to do a second disk of Afro-Cuban band music and some bossa nova songs with Antonio Carlos Jobim. But then Nelson became so ill that we had to scramble to do what we did.''
Although ''For Sentimental Reasons'' belongs to the same broad genre of genteel 1950's-style pop as its two predecessors do, in many of its details it is a different sounding record. On ''What's New,'' the singer's first plunge into the pre-rock repertory, Miss Ronstadt's stance was that of devoted student, taking scrupulous care to rein in her rock and country-pop mannerisms. Mr. Riddle helped the singer to fit comfortably into a 50's mode by cushioning her voice in lush, texturally homogeneous arrangements dominated by strings and woodwinds and featuring occasional creamy instrumental solos. With its all-ballad format, ''What's New'' achieved a towering consistency of mood.
''Lush Life'' added uptempo songs, and its ballad arrangements boasted bolder contrasts in orchestral color and jazzier instrumental solos. Miss Ronstadt also began to come out from behind the orchestrations, sounding friskier and even a bit rockish.
On their final collaboration, Miss Ronstadt takes even more liberties. Instead of scene-setting orchestral introductions for every song, Miss Ronstadt herself determines the mood and pacing of much of the music.
''Although Nelson was wonderful at covering the vocal cracks and crevices between vocal phrases, on this album a lot of the songs have long rubato sections,'' Miss Ronstadt said.
The album's nine songs include two uptempo swingers - the Nat (King) Cole standard ''Straighten Up and Fly Right,'' done as a duet with James Taylor, and ''Am I Blue?'' whose string-embellished swing arrangement looks back in spirit to Mr. Riddle's classic setting of ''It Happened in Monterey'' on Frank Sinatra's ''Song for Swinging Lovers.'' ''(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons,'' the album's oddest arrangement (and the only one, according to Miss Ronstadt, with which Mr. Riddle was dissatisfied) blends 50's-style rock-and-roll ''doowop'' vocals with strings, and a swing band arrangement. The cut features a gorgeous alto sax solo by Bud Shank.
But it is in the hushed intensity of Mr. Riddle's string arrangements for the album's ballads that one senses a musician reaching deeply into his soul to make eloquent final statements. On ''My Funny Valentine,'' Miss Ronstadt's accompaniment is a brooding, dissonant string quartet. And on the album's final cut, '' 'Round Midnight,'' Mr. Riddle's descending string line evokes a sepulchral resignation. The arrangements' emotional gravity reverberates in Miss Ronstadt's singing, through her more dramatic vocal dynamics and in the hard sustained notes at the ends of songs. In the album's most captivating vocal performance, ''When You Wish Upon a Star,'' the singer and orchestra gently carry the song up several steps so that it seems literally to float into the stratosphere.
Since Mr. Riddle's death, Miss Ronstadt has moved on to other projects. One is the completion of a vocal trio album of old-timey music with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris. The record is scheduled for release this January. Her other major project is a Spanish-language record of Mexican cowboy standards, called ''rancheras,'' many of which were taught to her as a child by her father, who is Mexican. Recently, Miss Ronstadt also contributed to Paul Simon's album ''Graceland,'' singing the duet ''Under African Skies.'' And Mr. Simon adapted some of her verbal impressions of growing up in Tucson, Ariz., into one of the verses. She also contributed two vocals to Philip Glass's album ''Songs From Liquid Days,'' and will perform them in concert at Avery Fisher Hall this November with the Philip Glass Ensemble.
She has no plans to return to the theater. Intensely self-critical, Miss Ronstadt looks back on her performances in the Public Theater productions of ''The Pirates of Penzance'' and ''La Boheme'' with mixed feelings.
''They were amazing experiences, but I'm a seat-of-the-pants singer, without a trained operatic and legitimate voice,'' Miss Ronstadt explained. ''I've been told I could have sung in that style if I had started training when I was much younger. Technically, the bottom of my voice is overdeveloped, while my high voice is patterned after my brother's boy soprano. While working in those shows, I also found the experience of city life very stressful.''
For their trio album, Miss Ronstadt, Miss Parton and Miss Harris have recorded 14 songs, all of them involving two- or three-part harmonies with accompaniment by such musicians as David Lindley, Albert Lee, Ry Cooder and Mark O'Connor on old-time instruments like the dulcimer, autoharp, fiddle and mandolin.
''The album took longer to make than I expected,'' Miss Ronstadt said. ''We planned and rehearsed it in Nashville and ended up recording it in Los Angeles. Emmylou dug up a lot of the material, and there are some Dolly Parton originals, as well as songs Dolly learned from her mother. Most of the songs predate bluegrass. Unlike bluegrass, the music is quiet, intimate parlor music intended to be appreciated by the people playing it.''
Miss Ronstadt's Mexican project is related to her trio music album in that the music dates from roughly the same era.
''The rancheras were developed by mestizos on farms and ranches in the 20's and 30's and were the solidification of an indigenous Mexican style,'' Miss Ronstadt said. ''The American music they most closely resemble is the cowboy strain of country. Many of the lyrics are pastoral and talk about the elements, animal husbandry and the growing of crops. This music is in my blood. My grandfather and father and all my uncles played it, and I've been singing the music since I was a little girl.
''Lola Beltran, who is still the queen of female singers in Mexico, had a big influence over my rock-and-roll style. Today she does a lot of rancheras but also sings contempoary material. I realized not long ago that if I didn't make a record of these songs soon, I would never get around to it.''
Even if the '' 'Round Midnight'' trilogy closes an important chapter in Miss Ronstadt's recording career, its longterm impact on American pop is incalculable. The first major rock star to bridge a generation gap that sundered the continuity of American pop after the mid-1960's, Miss Ronstadt helped to reestablish that continuity by directing a younger audience to the pop treasures of the pre-rock era. Topped by Ella Fitzgerald's ''Songbook'' albums, Frank Sinatra's extraordinary collaborations with Mr. Riddle, and Barbra Streisand's pre-rock LP's, the enormous catalogue of distinguished pop albums from the 50's and early 60's constitutes a golden age of the pop album that is only now beginning to be recognized.
''Musicians never live right in the moment - we are all derivative,'' Miss Ronstadt reflected. ''Before George Jones there was Hank Williams, before the Beach Boys there were the Hi-Los, and Ray Charles imitated Nat (King) Cole when he was starting out. The very first time I thought of recording standards was after Mick Jagger played me a jazz album of standards that featured Charlie Parker and Ben Webster.
''In the 60's, people drew artificial lines between what was hip and what was not. That confusion of ideology and music, I think, was wrong. I refuse to be an ideologue who memorizes rules about good taste and good art. I have to go by feeling, by exploring my own roots, by following my bliss.''
www.nytimes.com/1986/09/14/arts/for-linda-ronstadt-the-past-continues-to-inspire.html
By Stephen Holden
Sept. 14, 1986
Credit...The New York Times Archives
''The mythographer Joseph Campbell invented a wonderful phrase, 'following your bliss,' ''
Linda Ronstadt reflected recently. ''He wrote that doing what made you feel blissful was really the only guideline for how to live your life and stay out of trouble. That's what I was doing on my three albums of standards with Nelson Riddle. There was no more blissful musical experience than singing those songs with Nelson's arrangements.''
Next week, Elektra/Asylum Records will release ''For Sentimental Reasons'' (Asylum 60474; LP, cassette, compact disk), the third and final collaboration between Miss Ronstadt and the masterful arranger-conductor, who died last year at age 64 of a liver ailment before the album was completed. Concurrent with the release of ''For Sentimental Reasons,'' the label will put out '' 'Round Midnight'' (Asylum 60489; LP, cassette, compact disk), a boxed set of all three Ronstadt-Riddle albums - ''What's New'' (1983), ''Lush Life'' (1984), and the new record. After that, Miss Ronstadt has no plans to continue recording pop standards with another arranger-conductor.
''I don't think I could do it anymore without Nelson,'' Miss Ronstadt said sadly. ''He was irreplaceable. Nobody put jazz in the pop orchestra the way he did. Where other arrangers simply laminated various elements, he achieved a brilliant synthesis. While we were working on the album, I could tell by his coloring that Nelson was very ill, though I had no idea he only had a few weeks left. The record was originally going to be two volumes. We had talked about going to Cuba and Brazil to do a second disk of Afro-Cuban band music and some bossa nova songs with Antonio Carlos Jobim. But then Nelson became so ill that we had to scramble to do what we did.''
Although ''For Sentimental Reasons'' belongs to the same broad genre of genteel 1950's-style pop as its two predecessors do, in many of its details it is a different sounding record. On ''What's New,'' the singer's first plunge into the pre-rock repertory, Miss Ronstadt's stance was that of devoted student, taking scrupulous care to rein in her rock and country-pop mannerisms. Mr. Riddle helped the singer to fit comfortably into a 50's mode by cushioning her voice in lush, texturally homogeneous arrangements dominated by strings and woodwinds and featuring occasional creamy instrumental solos. With its all-ballad format, ''What's New'' achieved a towering consistency of mood.
''Lush Life'' added uptempo songs, and its ballad arrangements boasted bolder contrasts in orchestral color and jazzier instrumental solos. Miss Ronstadt also began to come out from behind the orchestrations, sounding friskier and even a bit rockish.
On their final collaboration, Miss Ronstadt takes even more liberties. Instead of scene-setting orchestral introductions for every song, Miss Ronstadt herself determines the mood and pacing of much of the music.
''Although Nelson was wonderful at covering the vocal cracks and crevices between vocal phrases, on this album a lot of the songs have long rubato sections,'' Miss Ronstadt said.
The album's nine songs include two uptempo swingers - the Nat (King) Cole standard ''Straighten Up and Fly Right,'' done as a duet with James Taylor, and ''Am I Blue?'' whose string-embellished swing arrangement looks back in spirit to Mr. Riddle's classic setting of ''It Happened in Monterey'' on Frank Sinatra's ''Song for Swinging Lovers.'' ''(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons,'' the album's oddest arrangement (and the only one, according to Miss Ronstadt, with which Mr. Riddle was dissatisfied) blends 50's-style rock-and-roll ''doowop'' vocals with strings, and a swing band arrangement. The cut features a gorgeous alto sax solo by Bud Shank.
But it is in the hushed intensity of Mr. Riddle's string arrangements for the album's ballads that one senses a musician reaching deeply into his soul to make eloquent final statements. On ''My Funny Valentine,'' Miss Ronstadt's accompaniment is a brooding, dissonant string quartet. And on the album's final cut, '' 'Round Midnight,'' Mr. Riddle's descending string line evokes a sepulchral resignation. The arrangements' emotional gravity reverberates in Miss Ronstadt's singing, through her more dramatic vocal dynamics and in the hard sustained notes at the ends of songs. In the album's most captivating vocal performance, ''When You Wish Upon a Star,'' the singer and orchestra gently carry the song up several steps so that it seems literally to float into the stratosphere.
Since Mr. Riddle's death, Miss Ronstadt has moved on to other projects. One is the completion of a vocal trio album of old-timey music with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris. The record is scheduled for release this January. Her other major project is a Spanish-language record of Mexican cowboy standards, called ''rancheras,'' many of which were taught to her as a child by her father, who is Mexican. Recently, Miss Ronstadt also contributed to Paul Simon's album ''Graceland,'' singing the duet ''Under African Skies.'' And Mr. Simon adapted some of her verbal impressions of growing up in Tucson, Ariz., into one of the verses. She also contributed two vocals to Philip Glass's album ''Songs From Liquid Days,'' and will perform them in concert at Avery Fisher Hall this November with the Philip Glass Ensemble.
She has no plans to return to the theater. Intensely self-critical, Miss Ronstadt looks back on her performances in the Public Theater productions of ''The Pirates of Penzance'' and ''La Boheme'' with mixed feelings.
''They were amazing experiences, but I'm a seat-of-the-pants singer, without a trained operatic and legitimate voice,'' Miss Ronstadt explained. ''I've been told I could have sung in that style if I had started training when I was much younger. Technically, the bottom of my voice is overdeveloped, while my high voice is patterned after my brother's boy soprano. While working in those shows, I also found the experience of city life very stressful.''
For their trio album, Miss Ronstadt, Miss Parton and Miss Harris have recorded 14 songs, all of them involving two- or three-part harmonies with accompaniment by such musicians as David Lindley, Albert Lee, Ry Cooder and Mark O'Connor on old-time instruments like the dulcimer, autoharp, fiddle and mandolin.
''The album took longer to make than I expected,'' Miss Ronstadt said. ''We planned and rehearsed it in Nashville and ended up recording it in Los Angeles. Emmylou dug up a lot of the material, and there are some Dolly Parton originals, as well as songs Dolly learned from her mother. Most of the songs predate bluegrass. Unlike bluegrass, the music is quiet, intimate parlor music intended to be appreciated by the people playing it.''
Miss Ronstadt's Mexican project is related to her trio music album in that the music dates from roughly the same era.
''The rancheras were developed by mestizos on farms and ranches in the 20's and 30's and were the solidification of an indigenous Mexican style,'' Miss Ronstadt said. ''The American music they most closely resemble is the cowboy strain of country. Many of the lyrics are pastoral and talk about the elements, animal husbandry and the growing of crops. This music is in my blood. My grandfather and father and all my uncles played it, and I've been singing the music since I was a little girl.
''Lola Beltran, who is still the queen of female singers in Mexico, had a big influence over my rock-and-roll style. Today she does a lot of rancheras but also sings contempoary material. I realized not long ago that if I didn't make a record of these songs soon, I would never get around to it.''
Even if the '' 'Round Midnight'' trilogy closes an important chapter in Miss Ronstadt's recording career, its longterm impact on American pop is incalculable. The first major rock star to bridge a generation gap that sundered the continuity of American pop after the mid-1960's, Miss Ronstadt helped to reestablish that continuity by directing a younger audience to the pop treasures of the pre-rock era. Topped by Ella Fitzgerald's ''Songbook'' albums, Frank Sinatra's extraordinary collaborations with Mr. Riddle, and Barbra Streisand's pre-rock LP's, the enormous catalogue of distinguished pop albums from the 50's and early 60's constitutes a golden age of the pop album that is only now beginning to be recognized.
''Musicians never live right in the moment - we are all derivative,'' Miss Ronstadt reflected. ''Before George Jones there was Hank Williams, before the Beach Boys there were the Hi-Los, and Ray Charles imitated Nat (King) Cole when he was starting out. The very first time I thought of recording standards was after Mick Jagger played me a jazz album of standards that featured Charlie Parker and Ben Webster.
''In the 60's, people drew artificial lines between what was hip and what was not. That confusion of ideology and music, I think, was wrong. I refuse to be an ideologue who memorizes rules about good taste and good art. I have to go by feeling, by exploring my own roots, by following my bliss.''