Multi Blues
Music Award Nominee Al Basile Brings His Songs and Stories to Life on New CD, Me
& the Originator, Out June 15 on Sweetspot Records
RUMFORD, RI – Multi Blues Music Award nominee Al Basile
brings his original songs and stories to life on the new CD, Me & the
Originator, releasing June 15 on Sweetspot Records. Produced by Duke
Robillard, who also adds his guitar talents on the new disc, Me & the
Originator showcases Al’s
abilities as a storyteller in poems and songs, and as a vocalist and cornet
player, backed by an additional group of New England-based all-star
musicians, including Mark Texeira (drums), Brad Hallen (bass), Bruce Bears
(keyboards), Doug James (tenor and baritone sax) and Jeff “Doc” Chanonhouse
(trumpet).
Al Basile, who is also a prize-winning poet, will celebrate the release of the new CD by
performing Me & the Originator as a one-man show at the West Chester
Poetry Conference, West Chester, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, June 9, from
3:30-4:45 pm.
“For the 20th anniversary of my
Sweetspot label, I wanted to do something different,” Basile says about the new
project. “Inspired by the running narrative between the songs on Louis
Armstrong: My Musical Biography, I decided to tell a story about
an imaginary musician who found lyrics, set music to them, but never admitted
he didn't write the words after he got famous. It's a story about blues songs –
how they came to be, and who can claim them as theirs, that speaks to the
history of the music as we've inherited it. The story is told by the
narration and the songs working together.
“Many people know me as a musician, and many others
as a poet. I wanted to create a project that required both of my creative hats
at once. I don't know how often people have told a story using poems and songs
which work together this way, but it's something that I'm especially equipped
to do. It fits in the category of a blues album, but it's something different,
something more.”
Basile’s last album, Quiet Money
(2017), continued to build on his legacy as the “bard of the blues,” combining
superb blues and roots music within the framework of intelligent and insightful
lyrics, garnering him yet another Blues Music Award nomination for his horn
playing. He also received a 2016
Best Contemporary Blues Album nomination for Mid-Century Modern.
“I had told the story of this character in poetic
form in my first book A Lit House,” Basile offers. “Those
interested in what happened eventually to him can find out by reading ‘Leaving
Trunk’ in that book. I decided to write a dozen new songs, and have the
character comment in poems about how the songs came to be written, and how they
related to his own life. I planned to read the poems in the voice of the
character, and have Duke Robillard play solo guitar lead-ins for each one (he
came up with spectacular introductions, as you'll hear).
“The circumstances under which the disc was
recorded were unusual. I had written the songs and the poems which tell the
story very early on for me – it was all written by May of 2017. I spent the
summer recording demos and making arrangements, and was finished by September.
We were scheduled to record in January. I fell ill in October, and was very
limited in what I could do physically going into the winter – but I'd finished
the work early so I was lucky. I made being able to run the session, sing and
play the goal of my recovery, and was able to hold up my end when the time
came. Of course Duke and the guys helped me out tremendously.”
Arranged in a lavish multi-panel CD booklet that
includes all the lyrics to the songs, as well as the stories behind them, Me
& the Originator is an exciting and nourishing reading/listening
experience.
“Because I'd finished the writing so early, I
decided to try a different approach to recording,” Basile adds about the studio
work. “Usually we track the songs in an order that makes sense for the way the
day is unfolding rather than in any particular order. The sequence is
determined later in the project, when we're done with the mixes. This time, I
gave the guys advance notice of the narration (even though they wouldn't be
playing on those tracks) so they would understand the story and how the songs
fit in. I'd already decided the sequence while writing the narrative and the
songs – planning grooves and keys to lead the listener through the story of the
narrator's life. Then we actually recorded the songs in sequence – that way the
guys could attend to details knowing exactly what the listener would have heard
in the preceding song, and what the next one would be like. This involved the
players on a new level, and I think it shows in the flow of the album – there's
a natural inevitability that leads you through the story.”
