DANNY KORTCHMAR
unofficial by Alda
this site is run by www.marcogiunco.com
Danny Kortchmar – rumours
DECEMBER 2003
NOVEMBER 2003
OCTOBER 2003
-
On 31st August 2003, Danny played
at Reel Blues Fest at the Cape Cod Melody Tent with blues harpist James
Montgomery. Read the articles from Cape
Cod Times and from Boston
Herald.
-
On behalf of all Danny Kortchmar’s
fans worldwide, we’d like to express our deepest condolences to the Kortchmar
family on the loss of Danny’s mother, Lucy. The
Vineyard Gazette has dedicated to her a really beautiful article.
-
vanity Fair magazine in the June
2003 issue has published an article “Spotlight:
Roomful of Blues” on the “Salute To The Blues” concert – Radio City
Music Hall, New York, 7th February 2003. Danny is in the first group
photo.
SEPTEMBER 2003
-
Danny appears in the album
“Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues: The Best of the Blues” out on Aug
26 2003. The year of the blues (2003) was opened with a live concert “Salute
to the Blues” at the Radio City Music Hall in New York on 7th February
2003 where, according to some fans, Danny played guitar in the “house”
band. The event was produced by Martin Scorsese.
“A massive
media campaign comprising seven documentary films broadcast on public television
and released as a DVD box set, plus accompanying soundtrack albums, a 13-part
radio series, a companion book, 12 individual artist compilations, and
a five-CD box set, The Blues, executive produced by filmmaker Martin Scorsese
threatened to be even more all-pervasive than Ken Burns' Jazz project,
after which it clearly was patterned. “
-
On e-bay you can find a
very interesting item: an approx 26x30” original 70s concert poster
featuring James Taylor, Carole King, Jo Mama. It is autographed by James
Taylor, Danny Kortchmar (Kootch) and Joel O’Brien (Bishop). And, speaking
of autographs, this is a copy of Tapestry autographed by Danny, Abigail
Haness and Carole King. It belonged to the Rolls Royce driver who drove
the band (Carole King and Jo Mama) from the airport to the hotel and to
the concert hall in London in 1971.
-
The Rolling Stones were live on
September 20th in London at the Twickenham stadium and there’s a possible
sighting of Danny Kortchmar in the audience, among Rolling Stones’ fans.
Has anyone else seen him? Danny has always been collaborating with the
Stones: he played in early Seventies in some sessions with Mick Jagger
(never officially released), with Bill Wyman (in Monkey Grip” 1974 and
“Stone Alone” 1976) and more recently with Keith Richards. Thanks to Emma
Rogers.
-
The music family has lost one
of his geniuses: Warren Zevon sadly passed away on Sunday, September 7th
at his home in Los Angeles. Danny has played in his “Excitable Boy”
(1978) and in “Envoy” (1982).
-
In the April ’03 Issue of Ice
Magazine # 192, more news on the forthcoming (summer ‘03??) release
of the dvd-A of “Running On Empty” by Jackson Browne. According to Rhino
VP of Artist Relations Robin Hurley, it will contain three bonus tracks
and more than 300 photos:
“...The
first bonus track is an alternate version of "Cocaine," which actually
counteracts the romanticized rendition found on the CD: "The lyrics are
different, and it’s much less of a pro-drug stance," says Hurley. "It’s
almost an alter ego to the original version."
The
other two tracks are both instrumentals: "Edwardsville, Room 124" was recorded
on the road during his 1977 tour in support of Running on Empty; "Overture"
is an instrumental medley that recaps the entire album, and features a
correlating video montage to boot...”
Considering that in that
Edwardsville, Room 124, “Cocaine” and “Shaky Town” were recorded live,
too, I am sure that Danny’s fans won’t be disappointed...
-
A new detailed discography and
lyrics from “J Is For Jump” by Jo Mama and from “James Taylor and the Original
Flying Machine” (thanks to José A. Martínez) are on
line.
AUGUST 2003
-
Three songs
performed by the Unbusted and produced by Danny Kortchmar will be included
in the next Peter and Bobby Farrelly’s movie. The title of the movie is
“Stuck On You” (probably out on December 2003) and has a stellar cast:
Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, Eva Mendes, Cher, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino and
Meryl Streep.
The
songs are “Another Wasted Weekend”, “Childish (I Don't Wanna
Grow Up)” and “Seed to Sew” (2002) and can be downloaded at
the Unbusted’s site (thanks
Ben). It is funny now to see the names of Al Pacino and Danny Kortchmar
connected in some way: in the Seventies Danny was defined as the “Al Pacino
of Rock ‘n’ Roll”, because they looked much like each other when they were
younger. We don’t know if Al Pacino himself was defined as “the Danny Kortchmar
of the Hollywood Studios” .. but see the hilarious scene from the Jackson
Browne’s promo “Downtown” in 1982, where Danny plays the role of Al Pacino
in the Godfather, commenting: “Yes, but I’m a much better guitar player
than Al Pacino would ever be!”
-
Perry
Films has produced a short film titled "Tim White Memorial
- '02 featuring the legendary editor of Billboard with friends Steve Jordan
and Danny Kortchmar". Dana Perry has told me that:
"It
is a very short piece (under 4 minutes) of Danny and Steve playing along
as Tim White makes up a song. Tim died shortly thereafter and the
film was shown at a benefit memorial concert for him at Madison Square
Garden. It's not available for sale or broadcast, but we will try
to put it on the website in the next couple of weeks".
Dana has kindly promised to let
us know when it is on the site. Another interesting Perry Films project
involved Danny along with Steve Jordan and Tim White: "Power
of Popular Music: A documentary
series on the impact of popular music on our social history which focuses
on the untold story of how music has been a pivotal influence in a wider
cultural context -- how it has changed the way people think, behave and
live their lives". Sadly, the project was abandoned due to Tim's death.
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Make sure to check the Unbusted’s
venues on the Vineyard. You might meet one man that we all
know and love very much at those concerts.
-
The Boston Globe, August 1st
2003 at page C12, features an article on Hanson "From 'MMMBop' to Mature
Pop" by Joan Anderman:
...
After using such cutting-edge collaborators as the Dust Brothers on previous
recordings, Hanson chose to work this time with Danny Kortchmar, whose
roots in classic rock and folk (James Taylor, Neil Young, Don Henley) give
him a decidedly old-school appeal.
''We
actually share influences with him,'' says Taylor. ''The music we love
from the '50s and '60s is the music he grew up with. He's from another
generation, but there's an odd connection.''
Kortchmar
calls Hanson ''real musicians with strong vision in a flavor-of-the-month
music environment.''...
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Marc Eliot has kindly given me
the permission to publish some excerpts from his "To
The Limit: The Untold Story Of The Eagles" 1998. The book
is unauthorized; according to eaglesfans.com, it is one "controversial
bio of the band. It focuses heavily on interviews with Henley and many
other key players in the Eagles story. Henley hates it." However some pages
are dedicated to the Henley-Kortchmar collaboration. Thanks to Jens Brokvist
for the info and the book scans.
JULY 2003
-
Pictures on the internet.
http://www.rarities4u.com/artists/html/crosby.htm
- For their 1976 tour, Crosby & Nash hired a stellar band that they
christened as "The Mighty Jitters" (The Section – Kortchmar, Drummond,
Doerge, Kunkel - plus David Lindley). Here are some black and white pictures
from Central Park, New York City, in 1976. Danny is in the background.
http://crosbynash.com/crosbyNash_site/html/live/live_notes.html
- Same period.
http://www.cameroncroweonline.com/writtenby/rollingstone/crosbynash2.htm
- An article from Rolling Stone #203 by Cameron Crowe - January
1, 1976 also features an interview with Kootch.
JUNE 2003
-
Danny has left WorldsEnd management
and now he is on his own. I would like to thank Carrie Portnoy from WorldsEnd
for her help and encouragement since this site has been on line.
-
On June, 18th Jackson Browne was
live on Rockline radio and he answered to his fans’ questions. About the
"Running on Empty" dvd he said it’s coming out in the fall. It isn't a
video DVD (sic!), but it contains a couple of hundred still black and white
photos. Cameron Crowe has written an introduction to the photographic album.
Greg Ladanyi in the past few years has often talked about this project
on the Surround
Professional Magazine and in this
interview.
-
Lyrics from "Kootch" (thanks to
Emma Rogers for her precious help) and "Innuendo" are now on
line.
-
There is a new biography on Danny
here at Hanson
Notes (H.notes).
-
Ben Smith has nicely accepted
to talk about his group, The
Unbusted, and his experience with Kootch on my first e-interview:
Alda:
Can you tell us something about your group The Unbusted?
Ben:
The Unbusted all grew up together on Martha's Vineyard. The group originally
started with Joe, Jack, Tim, and Dan Gaskill (our old drummer). I joined
the group in, I think, 97. Since then it has gone through a bunch of different
changes but Joe and I have stayed in the group the whole time.
A:
What kind of music has influenced you and your group?
B:
We started out playing Led Zeppelin, Sublime and Black Sabbath covers.
Throughout the years we have been heavily influenced by Supergrass, The
Strokes and Radiohead, to name a few. Since meeting Danny we realized that
he had been influencing us long before we met him. I remember listening
to "Tapestry" with Joe and being blown away. Not to mention the fact that
since I was nine I was a huge closet Don Henley fan (not the coolest guy
to like in fourth grade!). "End of The Innocence" definitely impacted
me as a musician. I think it was really the first album I ever loved.
A:
Has living in Martha's Vineyard pushed you to become a musician?
B:
Living on the Vineyard has greatly influenced us musically. There have
been some long cold winter nights where there has simply been nothing else
to do other than play music. Not to mention the fact that the huge summer
influx in population has lead to some great romance-gone-bad song writing
sessions (just kidding). We left "The Boys of Summer" sentiment for Kootch
and Henley. But still, being from an island definitely impacts the way
you look at the world and, somehow, I think that has come out in our music
A:
When did you decide to contact Danny Kortchmar to be your producer?
B:
Strange as it may sound, Kootch contacted us. I think he was looking to
give something back to the place that inspired him when he was our age.
He found a group of four guys (minus Tim, plus Dan Gaskil) who were very
like-minded in his way of looking at the world and music.
A:
Was it difficult to "catch his ear"?
B:
When Kootch met us we sort of stunk, not that we stunk we just didn't really
have any direction. We were making good music; it was just all types of
good music. Meeting Kootch really helped us focus on our overall sound.
It's funny because in a way it sort of aloud us to discover ourselves and
what we wanted to convey to the world; what was most important to us.
A:
Can you remember the first time that you met him?
B:
The first time I met Danny was back stage at a concert at the Vineyards
own Catherine Cornell Theatre. We had just played a show and we knew Danny
was going to be in the audience. The week before the show had been incredibly
stressful. We had just been evicted from our rehearsal spot and hadn't
really had any real rehearsal. I remember that night just going on shear
energy and when I got off stage Joe gave me a big hug and we were both
like, "Holy Shit, what just happened" The fact that Kootch was in the audience
ended up being one being cherry on the ice cream of an amazing night.
A:
By the way, how did you call him? Mr. Kortchmar, Kootch, Danny or...?
B:
Oh, hell I don't know. I think we started out calling him Mr. Kortchmar
in some letters we mailed him along with demos. Now we just call him Kootch.
A:What
was working with him like?
B:
Give me a blank version of war and peace and maybe I could explain to you
what working with Kootch is like. I'll say that it was probably the high
point of my musical life. I have never met anyone who inspires me more.
I think I speak for the rest of the band as well. The sessions in the studio
went very smoothly. Well almost. We were insanely nervous at first so we
wasted the first few hours getting our feat under us. From that point on
it was all gravy.
A:
What has he brought to your music?
B:
Too much to really say. I think more than anything he has given our songs
a feeling of identity. We know where they stand in our hearts now and although
it seems strange it means a lot. He, in a way, has aloud us to step back
from ourselves and take a look at our own music.
A:
Did he also play in your songs?
B:
Yes. It’s strange, in this world of digital media, it is hard to separate
playing from programming. But there was no guitar work from Kootch. Some
keyboards and drum loops I think.
A:
What are your plans now for the future?
B:
The Unbusted are planning a tour for this fall. We have been living in
Boston getting better at playing live. We feel comfortable on stage now
which is saying a lot considering where we started out. The Vineyard isn't
exactly night club central.
A:
Would you like to tell us something else before quitting this interview?
B:
A Quahog is a shell fish. And people need to listen to The Unbusted
Thank
you so much Ben and best of luck for The Unbusted.
-
Do you remember Rick Vito ("Jackson
Browne wants this guitar more than anything else in the world"), the amazing
guitar player who replaced David Lindley in Jackson Browne’s band? He toured
Italy and Europe with J.B. and Danny Kortchmar in the summer of 1982 and
stayed with Jackson Browne until 1985. He has just kindly sent me this:
Dear
Alda,
The
time I spent with Jackson will always stay very special in my heart. We
had a fantastic trip through Europe in the summer of 1982 and I especially
loved Italy! My grandfather came from Napoli (one place I have not seen
yet) and I look forward to revisiting Italy with my own band at the first
opportunity. Danny Kootch is a great guitarist/producer and we had great
fun working together with Jackson. Thank you for the very kind words and
I look forward also to meeting you on one of my tours. Best wishes, Rick.
See Rick’s official site at www.rickvito.com
MAY 2003
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In an old Jackson Browne’s interview
(by Guido Harari, 1982), Jackson said that during the 1977 Summer Tour,
there were mics everywhere in order to record every whisper of a real life
on tour, "so that Danny Kortchmar refused to speak at all except for the
few words he says at the end of Cocaine". As a non English native speaker
I always wondered what Danny says in that dialogue.
DK:
"Blood on the highway."
JB: "Gotta
take either more of it or less of it. I can't quite figure out which one."
David
Lindley: "Well, I'll tell you what it does take. It takes a clear
mind. That's what it takes."
JB: "You
mean it takes a clear mind to take it, or a clear mind not to take it?"
DL: "It
takes a clear mind to make it."
About Danny’s line "Blood on
the Highway", it could be a possible Bob Dylan reference (a combination
of "Blood on the Tracks" and "Highway 61 Revisited"), but much more likely
the line "Blood on the highway" does appear in a poem called "The
Highway Man" by Alfred Noyes and since the whole "Running
on Empty" album is supposed to be about being on the road, it could very
well be a reference to that poem. Many thanks to Russ Paris from the huge
Jackson
Browne Unofficial Site and Holly Bowen for help and translations.
-
In a recent interview, Stan Lynch
recalls how Danny first taught him the art of songwriting:
...In
the early ‘80s Lynch met writer/producer Danny Kortchmar. "He was a really
great writer and musician, almost like a prodigy guitar player," Lynch
said of Kortchmar, who started writing in the ‘70s with Jackson Browne
and performed on albums such as Carole King’s Tapestry. "He was a part
of this thing called "The Section" in Los Angeles and they played on all
the great singer-songwriter records. I met (Kortchmar) when Don Henley
was making his first solo album. He produced and co-wrote most of the stuff
with Don and he brought me in. That’s how I started writing with Don."...
...To
help refine his songwriting skills, Lynch said Henley and Kortchmar gave
him a title, a legal pad and a track on a cassette and told him to write
some words to a song that became "Driving With Your Eyes Closed". "I came
in with the pad full of ideas and the first thing Don did was correct all
my punctuation and spelling with a red pen. He said, ‘I can’t look at this
crap, I can’t read a thing on here.’ These guys were so straight up with
me, like only brothers could be. They got me reading better books and helped
me step up to the plate professionally. They told me that I could really
be something."
As soon
as Lynch was officially out of the Heartbreakers, he was invited to work
with Henley and Kortchmar, who welcomed him to the next chapter of his
life. "Those kind of people are invaluable," said Lynch. "Every writer
has somebody who opens a door for them and there’s no question in my mind
that these guys did that for me."...
..."(Henley
and Kortchmar) were true friends and they still are," said Lynch. "I talk
to them most every week."...
from "Renowned
Heartbreakers Drummer Stan Lynch Becomes Top Songwriter & Producer"
by Jayne Moore 2003
-
Hanson, the Tulsa-based pop trio,
is currently in studio with Danny working at their new and long-delayed
album "Underneath". In the press release, Danny said:
"In
a flavor-of-the-minute environment for music, I'm very happy to be able
to work with a band like Hanson, who are real musicians with a strong vision
of what they want to achieve artistically,".
Hanson with Danny, April 2003
See Tulsa
World article and the announcement from Hanson at: http://www.hanson.net/News/#
and Hanson’s unofficial site at www.hansonhotel.com
-
Danny appears
on the Steve Jordan’s dvd "The Groove is Here" (2003), the first instructional
program on drums playing. This DVD includes live performances by Bob Cranshaw,
Danny Kootch Kortchmar, Bernie Dr. Woo Worrell. It also features commentary
from Jackson Browne, Leroy Clouden, Levon Helm, Keith Richards and the
late Timothy White, Billboard editor-in-chief.
April
2003
"THE
NIGHT THAT I KNOCKED ON DANNY’S DOOR"
submitted
by Steve Helgeson
www.moonstoneguitars.com
"...
Attached are some scanned pix of Danny and me the night before his concert
at the Concord Pavilion. He is trying out the eagle guitar for the first
time. He said he would try it out at the concert the next day, and if he
liked it, he would buy it. I had built Lee Sklar the doubleneck Eagle bass
a tear earlier, and Lee told me to go surprise Danny at the Mikado hotel
in SF. I knocked on Danny's door, and held out the eagle guitar when he
answered, and he was totally blown away, not knowing that I had built it
for him. After playing it throughout the whole concert with out putting
it down, (there were eight other guitars in the rack onstage) He bought
it back stage after the concert for $2500.00 cash. That was one shining
day for me..".
 |
 |
| Mikado
Hotel, San Francisco, 08/26/1977 |
The
night before the Concord Pavilion show - "The
Road and The Sky" tour with Jackson Browne |
Thanks
Steve! And thanks to Robert Szymanski.
-
Danny has
just completed the production of Unbusted, a young group from Martha’s
Vineyard.
"...
they managed to catch the ear of acclamed producer Danny Kortchmar, known
for his work with Bob Dylan and Neil Young (to name a very few). He liked
the group so much that he invited them into the studio over the past summer
to record an EP...".
From Unbusted
web site at http://unbusted.com/band.htm
-
The release
of a "Running on Empty" dvd is scheduled for Fall 2003, when Jackson Browne’s
tour is over. It is very likely to contain the recording of "Shaky Town"
with Jackson singing in the bathroom and Danny playing in front of him!
-
In January
2003, Danny with James Taylor and the author worked on the arrangement
of "Bittersweet", a song written by John Sheldon and enclosed in James
Taylor "The best of", out on 8th April 2003. See John Sheldon news section:
www.johnsheldon.com
-
On October
2002, Danny joined the Timothy White Tribute playing in Boston and at the
Madison Square Garden in New York. A cd and a dvd is due to be released.
Timothy White was the JT’s biographer and wrote many articles concerning
JT’s band. Danny (in a dark suit) played with Pink Floyd’s member Roger
Waters and Don Henley. James Taylor played "I’ve got to stop thinking about
that", introducing the song "This is a song Kootch and I wrote long time
ago..."
October
7th-8th 2002
Music
To My Ears Tribute to Timothy White
October
7th, 2002: Boston's Fleet Center
October
8th, 2002: Madison Square Garden
-
On the last
David Lasley’s compilation "Back to Blue-Eyed Soul" (2000), David sings
a song by Danny "Promise Me the Moon", (originally recorded with Attitudes),
with the line "Where are you Danny Kootch?". See David Lasley’s comment
on the song on his great site at www.davidlasley.com
-
On a recent
Penguin interview, Waddy Wachtel remembers his first encounter with Danny:
".....That's
where I met Danny Kortchmar. And that completed my cycle of meeting everyone
in The Section. You know, Leland Sklar, Russell Kunkle, Craig Doerge and
finally Kooch . . . who I hated (Laughing) because Kootch was the
one working on the records in town, and I couldn't get any work! I hated
his guitar playing! I hated his solo sound, and everything. And I said,
"I'm going to hate this guy when I meet him," and we loved each other .
. . and we love each other to death....".
".....At
one point she (Carole King) had this boyfriend who was a fuckin' screwball.
She was this Jewish girl from New York, and she was going with this Gentile
cowboy, redneck, asshole. You could tell this guy was a druggie, a fucked
up guy. And like I said, I was "new boy." And we were on this tour. And
we did a show, we came off and all the sudden this guy starts yelling at
Danny-Kootch. He was screaming in Kootch's face. This asshole is a BIG
guy. And I don't know what is happening, or what the fuck is going on,
but all the sudden he hits Danny. He punches him! And I was sitting there
on a road case. And I just did the Clark Kent thing. I just stood up on
top of the road case, and dove on this guy from across the hall and took
him down on the fuckin' floor, and Kunkle grabbed him, too, and we started
pounding the shit of this fuckin' guy. Thank God Russell [Kunkle] was there
because he's big, too. I'm this little twerp. We pulled this guy into a
bathroom and were pounding him. Hey, then as soon as Russell let go I jumped
off. (Laughing) At that point Danny Kortchmar and I were just getting to
know each other. Then we went back out and did our encore. (Laughing) Danny
comes up to me and he goes, "Man I just want you to know something. You
and I are brothers from now on, man . . . forEVER. I don't know who you
are, but you and I are brothers. You will never lose my friendship for
what you just did." It was great, you know?...."
read the
interview at: www.fleetwoodmac.net/penguin/waddy.htm