Paul McCartney To Release Pop Standards Album

[gundy516]

Loved the video interview......can't wait for the album!

[Bud]

Paul McCartney to stream live set through iTunes on Thursday from Capitol Studios

http://somethingelsereviews.com/2012/02 ... l-studios/

[narrowdaylight]

Paul McCartney to stream live set through iTunes on Thursday from Capitol Studios

http://somethingelsereviews.com/2012/02 ... l-studios/

It seems that Diana and her band will back Paul McCartney on this gig.

http://www.showbiz411.com/2012/02/06/pa ... bs-special

I know–it’s a lot of Paul McCartney news this week. He gets a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Thursday afternoon. Then at 7pm Pacific Time he’s doing a concert live from Capitol Studios in Hollywood. The show is a live stream on ITunes featuring the whole new “Kisses on the Bottom” CD that Tommy LiPuma has made into a kind of instant classic. It’s unclear how big the audience can be since the Diana Krall band and all the recording equipment are filling the place up. I’m told the show will be turned into a PBS fundraising special at some point soon. Then of course Paul is honored at the MusiCares dinner on Friday night, and plays the Grammys on Sunday. If he makes a surprise appearance at Clive Davis’s pre-Grammy show and dinner on Saturday that will be the trifecta, so to speak. A long and winding weekend!

[scielle]

Plus, presumably, will back him in a string of TV & other PR appearances in the coming week or so (particularly given Diana's show cancellations at this time precisely to allow for Macca-related promo gigs). I'm glad she's getting the exposure (although it would be nice if said exposure were to lead to a new album release of her own - it's been far too long!)

BTW, amusing review from The Wrap :-)

"There's a new Diana Krall album out, though it has Paul McCartney on vocals and his name on the cover. This is all a good thing.

All right, so that's a severely reductive way to describe McCartney's fine new album of old standards, "Kisses on the Bottom."

But it's clear Macca ceded a great deal of creative control to Krall, who plays piano on every track but one and is credited with the rhythm arrangements, and her longtime producer Tommy LiPuma, not to mention frequent Krall collaborators like orchestrator Johnny Mandel.

Funny that, 20 years after McCartney had his last major collaboration with a major pop artist, Elvis Costello -- a fruitful but short-lived situation where you sensed maybe the mutual willfulness finally got to them -- he would be taking up with Mrs. Costello and seemingly surrendering himself to her artistic sensibilities."

Full thing here: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/07/idUS303415693720120207

[narrowdaylight]

Billboard has an great article about Paul's new album with a few mentions of Diana: http://www.billboard.com/features/paul- ... ory?page=2

(...)
A year before recording began, LiPuma, armed with a cache of songs and a "very talented" keyboardist, spent five days at McCartney's home studio at his East Sussex estate in southeast England just trying some things out. "We probably put about 15-20 songs down on tape, just piano and vocal, to get a sense of what might work," LiPuma says. "I left with a sense as to what he was comfortable with and what he wasn't comfortable with."

The songs recorded were selected democratically, with some dating back to McCartney's childhood days around the family piano helmed by his father, an amateur musician.

"I pulled up some [songs] from my memories, when I was a kid and we had family sing-songs, which was the original inspiration for the whole idea," McCartney says. "I said to Tom, 'Let's look at these ones. This is the kind of era I want to look at.' Tommy himself suggested some; a girl in my office, Nancy Jeffries, suggested some-she's very knowledgeable; Diana [Krall] suggested some. Then I played Tommy a couple that I'd written, and he said, 'Whoa, that's a great idea,' so we selected a couple of those. We all pitched in, we all made suggestions, and we took all those suggestions to the studio."

Along with the new compositions "My Valentine" and "Only Our Hearts" (which fit seamlessly into the rotation), the 14 songs include such lesser-known chestnuts as "More I Cannot Wish You," a Frank Loesser gem from "Guys and Dolls"; Irving Berlin's "Always"; and an endearingly strange take on Loesser's "The Inch Worm." Even the more familiar songs like "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive" and "Bye Bye Blackbird" receive fresh, inspired interpretations, with the latter, as a ballad, becoming a mood piece that brings new attention to the poignant Mort Dixon lyric.

"We said, 'Let's try it as a ballad.' And then suddenly you listen to the story in a completely different way than when it's an uptempo," LiPuma says.

Beyond McCartney, the album features added-value star appeal, with Eric Clapton making a stellar turn on the record's two bluesiest arrangements in "My Valentine" and "Get Yourself Another Fool," and Stevie Wonder chiming in with a highly effective harmonica part on album closer "Only Our Hearts."

The other stars are Krall and the rest of the musicians on the record, including John and Bucky Pizzarelli on tasteful guitar. Involving Krall was a key element in the project's considerable chemistry. "She's a great stride piano player, and stylistically she understands this period better than anyone I know," LiPuma says.

Recording began in March 2010, first at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles and then Avatar Studios in New York. The approach was loose, and decisions as to arrangements and angles to take were made on the fly, albeit with input from impeccable sources in McCartney, LiPuma, Krall, the musicians, arrangers Johnny Mandel and Alan Broadbent, and engineer Al Schmitt. The mood was relaxed and fun, and it's apparent, as the album feels very much like an hour spent in a darkened jazz club.

"Each day I would come in [to the studio] and we'd say, 'OK, what do we want to try now? What are you in the mood for?' I'd say, 'How about this one?' And we'd just figure it out from the sheet music," McCartney recalls. "Nobody had parts written. We just went through it. By the time I figured out how I wanted to sing it, Diana and the guys had sorted out an arrangement, and we kicked it around among ourselves. We'd say, 'This sounds like a good idea, let's try it,' then we'd do a take or two, Al [Schmitt] would record it, then we'd go in and listen. It was a very enjoyable process."

LiPuma has a similar recollection of the sessions, adding that for the most part nothing was arranged in advance. "We'd have somebody write out a chord sheet for us, and then we went in and figured it out on the date," he says. "The next thing you know, things started taking shape, and the minute it started sounding like something, I would tell Al Schmitt, 'Let's start rolling the tape,' and then boom, that magic would pop up."

The producer believes the process wasn't an unfamiliar one for McCartney. "He mentioned to me on many occasions, 'I love this. It reminds me of the way we used to do the Beatles. John [Lennon] and I would write a song, we'd have a date booked at Abbey Road, and neither George Martin, George Harrison or Ringo [Starr] knew what the songs were about. They'd work it out right there in the room,'" LiPuma recalls. "When we first went in, the most crucial point was finding a manner for [McCartney] to approach telling the story. I think Paul felt completely comfortable. He had a great time doing it."

One of the great things about McCartney, according to LiPuma, is that "he lets you do your job. There wasn't any second-guessing going on. The two most important things to him were, does it feel good and was he having a good time."

Apparently both were the case. "It was a labor of love kind of thing," McCartney says. "We just had fun. We went in there and enjoyed the songs and enjoyed each other's company. It was a great team, and I think it came out OK."
(...)

[Bud]

A review from JazzTimes: http://jazztimes.com/articles/29932-kis ... -mccartney

Though the album is crowded with stellar players from both the jazz and pop worlds—including Christian McBride, Jeff Hamilton, John Clayton, John and Bucky Pizzarelli, Eric Clapton and Stevie Wonder—its muse is Diana Krall. She is pianist and polestar throughout. Some might judge the accompaniment too low-key, but subtle shouldn’t be mistaken for shallow. Krall, who wrote all the rhythm arrangements, does favor a minimalist approach, sagely assessing that McCartney is best served by gentle nudges, particularly on “More I Cannot Wish You,” “Always,” “Bye Bye Blackbird” and the new composition “My Valentine” (on which Krall hands the reins to Clapton, who brilliantly responds by casting the piece in soft, bittersweet shadows).

[narrowdaylight]

Itunes webcast of "Kisses On The Bottom": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRdjAjH_nVY