HERE IT IS!
Posted on Fri, Jul. 02, 2004
Composer plays hits live, takes chances in studio
By Brad Kava
Mercury News
He has recorded with British rocker Elvis Costello and, most recently, soul singer Ronald Isley. He has even hung with Austin Powers.
But at age 76, Burt Bacharach can't resist coming up with another surprise. That's why he's working on tracks with rap's greatest composer, Dr. Dre, who has done his best work with the likes of Snoop Dogg and Eminem.
``As a musician, you have to take risks,'' says Bacharach, who is traveling in New York with his 11-year-old son, Oliver, a hip-hop fan whose favorite dad moment was seeing the songwriter in ``Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.''
``This new album is going to be different than anything I've done,'' says the elder Bacharach. ``It's one of those things that can get slammed or will be a win. I finished five tracks in L.A. last week. I put a big string section over Dre's drum tracks. It's kind of daring. I never could have written those things had it not been for the inspiration and confinement of Dre's loops.''
Unfortunately, Bacharach, who is also a fan of OutKast, won't be pulling out that new material when he plays Saratoga's Mountain Winery on Saturday. He will, however, squeeze in a career compendium of as many as 41 songs (some in quick medleys), accompanied by a crack nine-person band.
``You can't stand still as a musician,'' Bacharach continues. ``If you ask me to write another song that sounds like something I did for Dionne (Warwick), I can't do it.''
Bacharach, who has won three Academy Awards and five Grammys, says he has never had a song pop into his head at an awkward place, never written something on a napkin.
He approaches songwriting as a discipline, working at it every day at an appointed time. The thing that helps keep him focused, he adds, is playing almost daily games of tennis, which keep the competitive juices flowing.
Of all his songs, there are two he thought should have been hits but weren't. One is ``Love Always,'' which he wrote for DeBarge. The other was the music for ``Arthur 2: On the Rocks,'' the 1988 follow-up movie that bombed after the original had become a big hit.
He says that, in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks, he lost some of his edge, not really wanting to travel or perform, feeling that his music seemed insignificant in the wake of the national tragedy. But after a while, he says, on the eve of playing New York and heading to a Yankee game with friend Joe Morgan, he came around.
``If anything, it might be a little bit therapeutic to hear `What the World Needs Now Is Love,' '' he adds. ``If I can make a couple of people feel better than what they are seeing on the 10 o'clock nightly news, then that's an accomplishment.''
Burt Bacharach
Where: Mountain Winery, 14831 Pierce Road, Saratoga
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Tickets: $45-$65
Call: (408) 998-8497, (415) 421-8497
Burt Bacharach on his NEW CD!
Moderator: mark
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