Drums & Demons by Joel Selvin
Selvin’s wonderful book about Altamont, published in 2016, quite impressed me. It was easy for me to choose his latest biography, Drums & Demons: The Tragic Journey of Jim Gordon (Diversion Books). Selvin’s style falls somewhere in between cited scholarship and traditional news reporting. There are no footnotes or citations at the end of the book, a serious omission for academics, but for music fans like me, a helluva read. The author makes up for that in the Acknowledgements.
Selvin writes with a frantic pace. Each chapter is about 12 pages long and I finished it in 8 hours and 25 minutes, according to Libby, my trusted library app. (I borrowed the ebook from the Toronto Public Library)
Jim Gordon is not on the lips of the average music fan. In fact, most people, even people in the know, may say, “I’ve never heard of him.” To which I would reply, “Yes, you have.” Gordon was the consummate session drummer in L.A. during the Sixties. A member of the Wrecking Crew. Selvin includes a list of his work backing other artists. The list is long and significant for their remarkable chart success. Here’s a sample:
“You’re So Vain” by Carly Simon
“God Only Knows” by The Beach Boys
“Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” by Steely Dan
“River Deep, Mountain High” by Ike & Tina Turner
“Everybody’s Talkin” by Harry Nilsson
“Classical Gas” by Mason Williams
“What Is Life” by George Harrison
“Sundown” by Gordon Lightfoot
“Layla” by Derek and the Dominos
That last track proved to be his most successful band and song during his lifetime. He co-wrote the piano tag that pushed “Layla” into FM Classic Radio memory forever.
Yet, despite the success, Jim Gordon suffered from the mental health illness best known as schizophrenia. But he never received a proper diagnosis, let alone treatment. He self medicated with alcohol and cocaine. His last crash, after decades of anguish, ended in 1984 when he acted on the voices in his head that told him to kill his mother. Gordon plead guilty, was sentenced and served out the rest of his life in Atascadero, a “maximum security hospital on a seven-hundred-acre site” in California. Gordon died there a year ago at 77.
Selvin tells Jim Gordon’s story with great care and empathy, although it was hard to read many passages where Gordon was suffering from his illness. He was an exceptional talent in music and his recordings will live on, but as Selvin concludes near the end of his book, “Jim Gordon lived to play drums. As mental illness slowly stripped him to the core, the drums loomed large as a sanctuary … he was freed from earthly bounds. Where he went, the voices were left behind.” Until they weren’t.
A full Gordon discography, beautifully presented, is found here:
http://jimgordondiscography.blogspot.com
Rituals by Kelly Jefferson (Cellar Music)
Jefferson’s recent release grew on me. It’s an album that gets better after continuous plays, (but not all at once.) Jefferson, who’s from Hamilton, Ontario, is one of the most in-demand sax players in Canada today, and rightfully so. His tone, especially on soprano sax, is lean and clean. On tenor, his distinguished his sound is right out of the Michael Brecker - Manhattan School of Music vibe. My favorite tracks on his new album feature Jefferson on soprano: “Garden,” “Rituals,” and “If There Even Is Such A Thing.” I especially like the groove on “No Time Like The Present” highlighted by Amanda Tosoff’s solid touch on piano. I would’ve liked more music like that one. Jon Maharaj, bass and Morgan Childs, drums, round out the quartet. Nice record! Jefferson is currently jamming with the Shuffle Demons, and hits the road next month with vocalist, Emilie-Claire Barlow.
Double Solitaire: The Films of Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder by Donald Brackett
The other night I tracked down Sunset Boulevard, the 1950 classic, with William Holden and Gloria Swanson. I was sparked to see it again for the first time in decades, after reading my good friend’s latest book, Double Solitaire (Applause Books). It’s an excellent study of two creative individuals who basically hated each other. Yet they could write, produce and direct some of the most important and successful movies Hollywood has ever released. The aforementioned Sunset Boulevard, The Lost Weekend, A Foreign Affair, and Double Indemnity, to name four. Donald Brackett, whose great, great, grandfather was Charles Brackett’s cousin, takes a deep dive into how the team of Wilder and Brackett created their outstanding films. If you’re into movies produced before 1950, then I highly recommend this new book. It’s an engaging study and a fine portrait of two artists who, despite their oil and vinegar relationship, came up with such lasting motion pictures.
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: Württemberg Sonatas by Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett has recorded dozens of jazz albums in his illustrious career, but I’ve always been shy toward his classical work. I could never believe he wouldn’t leave the page and work on some themes of his own. Yet, even if classical music was all he gave the world, perhaps his records are up there with the piano greats, such as Murray Perahia or Andre Watts, his contemporaries. Such is the case with this 1994 recording, kept in the ECM vaults until its release last year. CPE Bach has, or at least during his day had, a reputation for being a radical composer. Bach’s six sonatas for the keyboard were composed during 1783/84, bridging the eras of Baroque and Classical. Bach took musical chances that in his lifetime shocked audiences. Two-hundred-and-forty years later, his music no longer has that radicalness about it. In the subtle hands of Keith Jarrett, to hear it today presents a different challenge. Jarrett’s sensitive touch brings out an informed and introspective feeling that audiences at the time may not have fully appreciated. I continue to enjoy this record for Jarrett’s singular restraint and gentle technique. Recommended.