We’ve heard rumours for a while about the imminent return of Paul Simon’s albums to Sony (he’s been with Warner since One-Trick Pony). Rumours heated up when Simon’s music disappeared from iTunes.
Well, the solo albums are back online, and the copyright info refers to a license to Sony Entertainment. While this will unlikely affect much – it will make it possible for Simon to issue compilations that include Simon & Garfunkel recordings – let’s hope a new album, released on the Sony label, is on the way soon.
As Rolling Stone reported (and as the Children’s Health Fund live-tweeted), Joan Baez joined Paul Simon after his short set in support of the CHF Wednesday night in New York. Simon & Baez dueted on “The Boxer,” as they did at the Bread & Roses concert nearly thirty years ago. Baez was being recognized by the CHF, which Simon co-founded in the eighties, for her humanitarian work. Simon was accompanied by Mark Stewart during his set; Baez also sang “Diamonds and Rust.”
Paul Simon’s Set:
The Sound of Silence
Mrs. Robinson
Slip Slidin’ Away
Here Comes the Sun
Me and Julio down by the Schoolyard
The Boxer (with Joan Baez)
New York’s Public Theater will stage three performances of Paul Simon’s 1998 musical The Capeman at the Delacorte Theater in New York’s Central Park this August. Details here.
His next album, which he’s been working on with Phil Ramone, is almost done and is, according to Paul, his “best work… in 20 years.”
He’s thinking of asking Bob Dylan to sing on the record.
He’s moving his back catalogue to Sony/Columbia Records (Paul has been with Warner Brothers since the late 1970s).
Though Friedman gets a detail wrong (Paul received the Gershwin Prize two years ago; he served on the nominating committee that selected this year’s recipient, Paul McCartney), he claims to have gotten the scoop at a Yankee Stadium chat with Simon last Friday night.
Newssurfaced in March that Paul had conducted a few recording sessions with Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver:
Josh Trivett, Doyle’s new manager, told us that the band had a blast recording with Simon. They were contacted after Paul decided that he wanted to use some bluegrass sounds on this new project. He had asked Jerry Douglas, who has toured and recorded with him in the past, who he should get, and Jerry suggested that he listen to Nashville Bluegrass Band, The Del McCoury Band and Quicksilver. After checking them all out on YouTube, Simon decided that Doyle and company had the sort of blend he liked to hear, and contacted them about coming up to record.
But these were not bluegrass songs they were cutting. Trivett said that one song had a sort of Afro-Cuban beat, but with bluegrass instruments in the mix.
“It was cool to watch him work. After seeing the way bluegrass is produced, it was interesting to see someone who works in a wider spectrum.
The guys were a little uncertain about how they would blend in when they first heard the song, but Paul made it all work perfectly.”
All of the band members were involved in the recording, though Jason Leek just sang and didn’t play bass.
Josh is hoping that an initial conversation about Doyle and Quicksilver doing some shows with Simon after the album comes out in the Fall will come to fruition. Now that would be cool!
Doyle told Carole Beaugard a little more about the recording process:
“Quicksilver played on 3 tracks, and sang on 2. He said that the recording process was so different – very challenging.
Rather than start a song from the beginning, Simon would start at the end and have them sing with the scratch vocal on a loop. This was their rehearsal and Paul suddenly said, ‘lets try one.’
When Paul said ‘we got it,’ Doyle was surprised, but then after thinking about it, realized that it was a very efficient way to get the vocals done quickly.”
Simon & Garfunkel are touring across Canada this summer, with a handful of stops in the U.S.
Update: The post has been updated thanks to Joanna, who pointed out that Paul Simon cannot appear at the June 2nd Gershwin prize concert because he’ll be performing at the annual Children’s Health Fund event, presumably singing with Joan Baez.
Paul Simon fans have waited a long, long day time for this. Warner Brothers has finally released Paul Simon’s 1980 film, One-Trick Pony, on DVD and in streaming video format (innovation! </sarcasm>). The quality of the trailer is very good, certainly better than the VHS and homemade DVD versions floating around. (Unfortunately, they’ll only “ship” to the U.S., even if you’re only buying digital bits over the Internet. Once again us Canadians are shut out!)
PBS will broadcast a White House concert in tribute to Gershwin Prize winner Stevie Wonder tonight (check local listings). The concert, recorded Wednesday in the East Room, features the inaugural Gershwin Prize recipient, Paul Simon.
“I am so glad my children are growing up under an Obama presidency,” Simon said, before performing what the Washington Postdescribed as a “quiet, quavering acoustic folk” treatment of Wonder’s “If It’s Magic.”
From the New York Times, a look at the restored Beacon Theater in Manhattan, where Paul Simon will be performing Friday and Saturday nights.
During a rehearsal on Wednesday, Paul Simon, the headliner for the reopening celebration on Friday night, said: “I’ve performed here many times and it was always fun, but I was overwhelmed to see how beautiful it is now.
“It’s a great house with a great vibe and its funkiness matched the music in a way,” he added. “But it’s nicer to have clean seats.”
There are a handful of musicians performing in New York this weekend who have a connection to Simon. Marc Anthony, star of the Capeman, is at Madison Square Garden on Saturday; C.J. Chenier, son of Clifton Chenier (name-checked in “That Was Your Mother”), is at Connolly’s on Sunday; and Vusi Mahlasela, who performed in the “Under African Skies” shows as part of “Love in Hard Times” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music last April, is at the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday.
The Internet is flooded – flooded! - with rumours that Art Garfunkel will be joining Paul Simon for a few numbers at this Friday’s Beacon Theater concert. Garfunkel is in the middle of a tour of Florida, with stops in Key Largo on Thursday and Fort Pierce on Saturday, so a quick jaunt to New York for a performance Friday night is feasible, if a little silly. According to someone using the handle “adambomb,” Garfunkel announced at a show in St. Augustine that he would be appearing with Paul on Friday in New York, so stay tuned.
Are other surprises in store for the two-night stand? Surely, Simon must have something up his sleeve for those of us who will only be in town for the Saturday night kicker, right?
That’s Japanese for “Proof,” captured in all its goofy glory in this YouTube video dating back to May 14, 1991, at the Tokyo Dome. Note Paul’s spotting of a Hanshin Tigers fan during the non-musical interlude.
