new album progress?
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Blair N. Cummings
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new album progress?
Does anyone have any inside info on the progress of the new Dr. Dre-inspired album or when we might reasonably expect to be able to lay our hands on this thing?
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mark
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That's one of the few questions I had a chance to ask Burt after his performance in San Diego. He said he'd only recorded four songs and gave me the impression it was still a long way from completion.
Hip-O Select is releasing its five-disc Bacharach solo box set at the end of this month (or in early October). Since it will be available only through the Web site, I don't expect it to get as much publicity as "The Look of Love" did, but it might spur some interest in Bacharach solo material, which will hopefully set the stage for the release of the new record.
Hip-O Select is releasing its five-disc Bacharach solo box set at the end of this month (or in early October). Since it will be available only through the Web site, I don't expect it to get as much publicity as "The Look of Love" did, but it might spur some interest in Bacharach solo material, which will hopefully set the stage for the release of the new record.
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hicketyhackety927
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mark
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I may be wrong, but I wasn't under the impression that Burt was going to record his Dr. Dre collaborations. I expect them to slowly become public, like the track on Chris Botti's CD, as performers choose to record them.
I thought the original question assumed that Burt's work with Dr. Dre inspired the Sony UK solo project. As far as I know, however, there's no direct relationship between the two, although Burt could choose to record some of the Dre collaborations for Sony if he chooses.
The Botti track "The Last Three Minutes" is the only Bacharach-Dre song I know of to be recorded; there may be others. I tried to search the ASCAP database for collaborations between Bacharach and Andre Young, Dre's real name, but as far as I can tell you can't search for multiple composers. If you could, we could get a list of the songs they'd published together.
Finally, I'm waiting on a track list for the Hip-O Select box set before posting something on the main page. According to producer Jim Pierson, it's going to be five discs and the title is "The A&M Years Plus." It's going to be available only through the Hip-O Select Web site and the target release date is late this month or in early October. I haven't heard anything about the price, but I imagine it'll be around $65.
I thought the original question assumed that Burt's work with Dr. Dre inspired the Sony UK solo project. As far as I know, however, there's no direct relationship between the two, although Burt could choose to record some of the Dre collaborations for Sony if he chooses.
The Botti track "The Last Three Minutes" is the only Bacharach-Dre song I know of to be recorded; there may be others. I tried to search the ASCAP database for collaborations between Bacharach and Andre Young, Dre's real name, but as far as I can tell you can't search for multiple composers. If you could, we could get a list of the songs they'd published together.
Finally, I'm waiting on a track list for the Hip-O Select box set before posting something on the main page. According to producer Jim Pierson, it's going to be five discs and the title is "The A&M Years Plus." It's going to be available only through the Hip-O Select Web site and the target release date is late this month or in early October. I haven't heard anything about the price, but I imagine it'll be around $65.
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GehVorbei
Bacharach's career doesn't pop--it sizzles
there are some interesting answers from burt in a long interview with today´s denver post regarding the new album...i´ve posted some excerpts first and then the article in its entirety...
quote:
Rob Stringer, the chairman for Sony Music UK, has assigned Bacharach the task of making an edgy record regardless of its mainstream appeal, and Bacharach is happy to comply.
"It's a cutting-edge record, and that's what they wanted," said Bacharach, who is about halfway done with the record and expects it will be finished next fall. "They didn't want me to write another hit song, and I had got together with Dre about a year and a half ago and talked about doing something for the album that we never did. Then he gave me the loops, and when I decided to do this album for Sony England, it seemed a natural fit.
"I'm always going to be compared to everything I've done in the past ... but this new one taps into my jazz roots and my classical roots, and I think there's a carry-over from the time I studied with Darius Milhaud (the prolific French-born composer) - that left an imprint on me."
By Ricardo Baca
Denver Post Pop Music Critic
Pop stars are never completely timeless, but some have a knack for timeliness that borders on genius.
And we're not talking about Madonna's myriad incarnations.
More impressive is Burt Bacharach, America's true musical shape-shifter, who wrote the No. 1 hit "The Story of My Life" almost 50 years ago. Today, when the 76-year-old pop icon isn't playing with his children, 11-year-old Oliver and 8-year-old Raleigh, in his homes in Aspen and California, he's working on a new record, part of which he's co-writing with hip-hop impresario Dr. Dre.
"Three of the four things I've already cut have Dr. Dre drum loops that he gave me," Bacharach said last week from his house in Del Mar, Calif. "It's a challenging, freeing feeling, to take an existing format - like these rigid, four-bar loops - and to see what you can write on top of it. It's hard and challenging too because it does have some restrictions. It's kinda like Hal (David, his longtime collaborator) giving me the whole lyric on 'Alfie' and then having to set that up around it."
In the past 50 years, Bacharach is estimated to have penned 500 compositions. There have been 70 hits, three Oscars and five Grammys, and he's reinvented himself time and time again with the help of a diverse roster that includes Dionne Warwick, Roberta Flack, Neil Diamond, Oasis' Noel Gallagher, Tevin Campbell, Elvis Costello, Ron Isley and the International Man of Mystery himself, Austin Powers (aka, Mike Myers).
"You can't control that," Bacharach said. "All the press agents in the world can't accomplish something like 'Austin Powers.' You can't stay hot all the time, and anybody who thinks they can are in for a rude shock."
Bacharach learned the hard way in the mid-to-late '70s, when he and his smooth, easy listening pop tunes found themselves out of favor. The '80s found his "Arthur's Theme" and "That's What Friends Are For" doing well, but the decade was still somewhat spotty for the composer. The early '90s were the same, but a sea of change was afoot as mainstreamers were starting to name-drop Bacharach as an influence and an idol.
Members of Ben Folds Five professed their admiration. Noel Gallagher joined him onstage at London's Royal Albert Hall and also included his picture on the cover of the 1994 Oasis record "Definitely Maybe."
Compilations and documentaries abounded, leading to the ultimate pop cultural milestone in 1997 when Myers asked Bacharach to appear in the first "Austin Powers" film. Two sequels followed, and
Bacharach was always either in the films or had a song on the soundtrack.
"Mike Myers is a big fan, and he's loved my music from the get-go," Bacharach said. "He used me in all three films, and it was very fun."
As Myers told CBS's "Sunday Morning" in 2002, "He just has it, whatever that is. When he came to the set, he just came in with a sweater tied around his neck and, 'Hi, everybody. How's it going? How's it going? Great.' All the girls went crazy for him. I'd love to be looked at like that for 10 minutes."
Bacharach's character, solidified after decades in the spotlight, truly fits the more earnest side of Myers' British spy character. And it introduced Bacharach to a new audience who had heard his songs on commercials and easy-listening radio but never seen his face. That "easy-listening" moniker hasn't always sat well with Bacharach and his fans.
"I never really associated him, as some people seem to, with 'easy listening' or anything like that," Elvis Costello told "Sunday Morning" in 2002. "I think that's a complete mistake. I mean, I think that people who think that there is anything soft ... about his compositions, really haven't got their ears on right - the right way around.
"(He's) one of the great composers, I think. And that's because of the passion that he feels for the music."
Rob Stringer, the chairman for Sony Music UK, has assigned Bacharach the task of making an edgy record regardless of its mainstream appeal, and Bacharach is happy to comply.
"It's a cutting-edge record, and that's what they wanted," said Bacharach, who is about halfway done with the record and expects it will be finished next fall. "They didn't want me to write another hit song, and I had got together with Dre about a year and a half ago and talked about doing something for the album that we never did. Then he gave me the loops, and when I decided to do this album for Sony England, it seemed a natural fit.
"I'm always going to be compared to everything I've done in the past ... but this new one taps into my jazz roots and my classical roots, and I think there's a carry-over from the time I studied with Darius Milhaud (the prolific French-born composer) - that left an imprint on me."
Writing hit songs always has come second nature to Bacharach, but it's an art form that has only gotten tougher over the years.
"Writing hits is much harder now because radio is so difficult, so closed off, so boxed in," Bacharach said. "We only have four or five record companies left as they've all merged, and now the playlists on radio are small.
" It used to be that you write a good song and cut it with an R&B artist and you could count on it establishing an R&B hit and being top five and crossing over to the pop market," he said.
"But I was on Aretha's last album, and it did OK."
quote:
Rob Stringer, the chairman for Sony Music UK, has assigned Bacharach the task of making an edgy record regardless of its mainstream appeal, and Bacharach is happy to comply.
"It's a cutting-edge record, and that's what they wanted," said Bacharach, who is about halfway done with the record and expects it will be finished next fall. "They didn't want me to write another hit song, and I had got together with Dre about a year and a half ago and talked about doing something for the album that we never did. Then he gave me the loops, and when I decided to do this album for Sony England, it seemed a natural fit.
"I'm always going to be compared to everything I've done in the past ... but this new one taps into my jazz roots and my classical roots, and I think there's a carry-over from the time I studied with Darius Milhaud (the prolific French-born composer) - that left an imprint on me."
By Ricardo Baca
Denver Post Pop Music Critic
Pop stars are never completely timeless, but some have a knack for timeliness that borders on genius.
And we're not talking about Madonna's myriad incarnations.
More impressive is Burt Bacharach, America's true musical shape-shifter, who wrote the No. 1 hit "The Story of My Life" almost 50 years ago. Today, when the 76-year-old pop icon isn't playing with his children, 11-year-old Oliver and 8-year-old Raleigh, in his homes in Aspen and California, he's working on a new record, part of which he's co-writing with hip-hop impresario Dr. Dre.
"Three of the four things I've already cut have Dr. Dre drum loops that he gave me," Bacharach said last week from his house in Del Mar, Calif. "It's a challenging, freeing feeling, to take an existing format - like these rigid, four-bar loops - and to see what you can write on top of it. It's hard and challenging too because it does have some restrictions. It's kinda like Hal (David, his longtime collaborator) giving me the whole lyric on 'Alfie' and then having to set that up around it."
In the past 50 years, Bacharach is estimated to have penned 500 compositions. There have been 70 hits, three Oscars and five Grammys, and he's reinvented himself time and time again with the help of a diverse roster that includes Dionne Warwick, Roberta Flack, Neil Diamond, Oasis' Noel Gallagher, Tevin Campbell, Elvis Costello, Ron Isley and the International Man of Mystery himself, Austin Powers (aka, Mike Myers).
"You can't control that," Bacharach said. "All the press agents in the world can't accomplish something like 'Austin Powers.' You can't stay hot all the time, and anybody who thinks they can are in for a rude shock."
Bacharach learned the hard way in the mid-to-late '70s, when he and his smooth, easy listening pop tunes found themselves out of favor. The '80s found his "Arthur's Theme" and "That's What Friends Are For" doing well, but the decade was still somewhat spotty for the composer. The early '90s were the same, but a sea of change was afoot as mainstreamers were starting to name-drop Bacharach as an influence and an idol.
Members of Ben Folds Five professed their admiration. Noel Gallagher joined him onstage at London's Royal Albert Hall and also included his picture on the cover of the 1994 Oasis record "Definitely Maybe."
Compilations and documentaries abounded, leading to the ultimate pop cultural milestone in 1997 when Myers asked Bacharach to appear in the first "Austin Powers" film. Two sequels followed, and
Bacharach was always either in the films or had a song on the soundtrack.
"Mike Myers is a big fan, and he's loved my music from the get-go," Bacharach said. "He used me in all three films, and it was very fun."
As Myers told CBS's "Sunday Morning" in 2002, "He just has it, whatever that is. When he came to the set, he just came in with a sweater tied around his neck and, 'Hi, everybody. How's it going? How's it going? Great.' All the girls went crazy for him. I'd love to be looked at like that for 10 minutes."
Bacharach's character, solidified after decades in the spotlight, truly fits the more earnest side of Myers' British spy character. And it introduced Bacharach to a new audience who had heard his songs on commercials and easy-listening radio but never seen his face. That "easy-listening" moniker hasn't always sat well with Bacharach and his fans.
"I never really associated him, as some people seem to, with 'easy listening' or anything like that," Elvis Costello told "Sunday Morning" in 2002. "I think that's a complete mistake. I mean, I think that people who think that there is anything soft ... about his compositions, really haven't got their ears on right - the right way around.
"(He's) one of the great composers, I think. And that's because of the passion that he feels for the music."
Rob Stringer, the chairman for Sony Music UK, has assigned Bacharach the task of making an edgy record regardless of its mainstream appeal, and Bacharach is happy to comply.
"It's a cutting-edge record, and that's what they wanted," said Bacharach, who is about halfway done with the record and expects it will be finished next fall. "They didn't want me to write another hit song, and I had got together with Dre about a year and a half ago and talked about doing something for the album that we never did. Then he gave me the loops, and when I decided to do this album for Sony England, it seemed a natural fit.
"I'm always going to be compared to everything I've done in the past ... but this new one taps into my jazz roots and my classical roots, and I think there's a carry-over from the time I studied with Darius Milhaud (the prolific French-born composer) - that left an imprint on me."
Writing hit songs always has come second nature to Bacharach, but it's an art form that has only gotten tougher over the years.
"Writing hits is much harder now because radio is so difficult, so closed off, so boxed in," Bacharach said. "We only have four or five record companies left as they've all merged, and now the playlists on radio are small.
" It used to be that you write a good song and cut it with an R&B artist and you could count on it establishing an R&B hit and being top five and crossing over to the pop market," he said.
"But I was on Aretha's last album, and it did OK."
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GehVorbei
At least it looks like Dionne´s massive duets project "My Friends And Me" will now definitely be released in February. And based on the wonderful Grammy-nominated "Church: Songs of Soul and Inspiration", which was the first release from this newly established label, DMI Records should be a great new musical home for Ms. Warwick. Also while she was in Germany I heard her mention for the first time that Aretha was now on board as a duet-partner and that she had recorded "The Ballance Of Nature" with Pink...so actually this might be some really interesting stuff.
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Guest