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Let’s Pay Tribute To Tribute Albums

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I’ve just acquired and been blown away by The Passion Of Charlie Parker. Larry Klein pulled it together. David Baerwald provided lyrics to Charlie Parker’s compositions to be sung by several vocalists, including Kurt Elling, Gregory Porter, Madeleine Peyroux, Melody Gardot, Luciana Souza, Kandace Springs, emerging French chanteuse Camille Bertault, Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan and actor Jeffrey Wright. The lyrics tell the tale of Parker’s life. More than that, the core of seven musicians are given plenty of space to reveal his drive, energy and, indeed, passion in their playing. Guitarist Ben Monder, keyboardist Craig Taborn, drummer Eric Harland (with Mark Guiliana subbing on one track), alternating bassists Scott Colley and Larry Grenadier and, in the bird seat, tenor saxophonist Donny McCaslin capture his transformation into a legend perfectly. It’s a stunning, beautifully realised tribute.

I see Herbie Hancock’s River: The Joni Letters as being in the same vein and Joni, herself, did something similar with Mingus but tribute albums that are more than simply a collection of cover versions is rare.

Any other suggestions from The Afterword?

3

Comments

  2. “Lost in the Stars”, a tribute to Kurt Weill is a bit of a gem, and not at all vile:

    Hal Willner’s compiled “Stay Awake” (Disney songs) is also a good one.

  3. One you may like is the one Meshell Ndegeocello, (and yes, it is official, she has ditched all this apostrophes), offered as a tribute to Nina Simone: Pour Une Ame Souveraine. Songs that Ms Simone did, but not necessarily in her style, but still deigned to act as such

    I think it is terrific. As is her forthcoming covers album, Ventriliquism, which is a disco tribute of the 80’s and 90s, which includes a slew of jam/Lewis covers.

  4. Don’t know whether it was exactly the same thing but Costello and T-Bone Burnett got involved in that New Basement Tapes – Lost on the river project. When announced it sounded promising. The reality was something completely different. Not great.

  5. Hal Willner is really the master of the well- thought-out tribute album.

    He got in some great artists and he did not just go for the obvious tribute targets.

    His first was dedicated to Nino Rota and Fellini.

  6. The Late Great Daniel Johnston was an album of covers of Johnston’s songs by various musicians who were his fans to boost his profile.

    It worked very well and put him firmly on the indie map.

  7. Probably one of the first LPs I bought here in Sweden was Den Flyggande Holländaren, a tribute album by some of the best artists of that time, to Cornelis Vriiswijk, who had recently died. It is on Spotify and still sounds great, even if the sound is a tad 80s.

  11. Sticking to the OP desire for a meaningful and/or connected covers album, rather than just an LP of cover versions, much as I adore the latter, perhaps some of the specific genre albums. So you can have reggae, blues, country, latin albums of Stones covers, and Beatles band have reggae and country and soul covers similarly. But this outwackys anything they do, Quiero Creedence: a Latino tribute to Creedence Clearwater Revival.

  12. Senor Retro, muchas gracias! You just made my evening. Quiero Creedence is on Spotify!

    The first Red Hot and Blue compilation was to raise money for Aids charities but it also serves as a rather fine tribute to Cole Porter who songs get sung by an impressively broad range of artists.

  13. Does anyone remember when all this tribute album nonsense started? The first I can think of is the Syd Barrett tribute Beyond The Wildwood –mid to late ’80s?

    Anyway, shortly after that there was this. If anyone thinks there’s anything better on any tribute album anywhere they are wrong.

    • I am seriously impressed by the artists on that Disney bossa nova album. Top notch! Which is also true for the two Jazz loves Disney albums. Who would not want to give them a listen? Melody Gardot, Stacy Kent, Gregory Porter, Bebel Gilberto……

      The mouse has friends in all the right places!

  18. You made the point upthread, Tigger, sometimes you need covers to appreciate how good the songs actually are, viz. Grateful Dead.

    In fact Deadicated has been mentioned here many times down the years, not just by me, is beautifully assembled, and features Los Lobos, Burning Spear, Lyle Lovett and the wonderful Cowboy Junkies, among others.

    Her’s a sample (Indigo Girls)

  19. Our first tribute album to a geographical area: the Arctic. Hector Zazou’s rather magical Songs from the cold, cold seas features a variety of artists from the frozen lands of the north. Björk, Värtinnen, Siouxsie…….

  20. I’m going to stick my neck out and nominate the album the Unthanks did of Molly Drake’s songs.

    That Nick’s mum’s songs should so interesting was something I would never have imagined. How wrong I can be!

  21. A Swiss act called Dub Spencer & Trance Hill produced an album of dubbed out covers of Clash songs, called “The Clashification Of Dub”. It’s excellent stuff – turn your bass up and feast on this

  24. Tribute albums often give rise to special concerts or indeed tours. Hal Willner, who clearly had a good contact net among the global arts festival world, organised a few crackers.

    I wanted to know more about the Miles from India project mentioned above. Interesting to read taht there was a concert at the Town Hall in New York organised by the producer Bob Belden.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/12/arts/music/12mile.html

    Not a complete success perhaps but a brave attempt.

    Here’s some background about how Yusuf Gandhi of Times Square Records and Belden came up with the idea and made it into a reality.

    https://www.pri.org/stories/2008-04-23/miles-davis-and-india

    • Here’s an excerpt from that concert.

      Not surprisingly, it reminded me of this blast from the past: Joe Harriott and John Mayer’s Indo-Jazz Fusions. Seriously ahead of their time.

      • Miles From India is superb. The combination of Miles alumni (Dave Liebman and Gary Bartz on sax, Mike Stern, John McLaughlin and Pete Cosey on guitar, Marcus Miller, Ron Carter, Michael Henderson and Benny Rietveld on bass, Chick Corea, Adam Holzman and Robert Irving III on keys, Ndugu, Lenny White, Vince Wilburn and Badal Roy on drums) and Indian musicians gives a completely different perspective on Miles’s early electronic phase. It is exquisite.

        Try and get your head round All Blues.

    • Laughing Len is the subject of many, many tributes. Jennifer Warne’s Old Blue Raincoat is one of the best covers albums of any kind.

      Try Ebbe Forsberg’s album Ta Min Vals (Take This Waltz)

  26. If you love the music of Laura Nyro, you will definitely appreciate the album curated by Billy Childs called Map To The Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro. It features interpretations by Shawn Colvin, Dianne Reeves, Renee Fleming, Rickie Lee Jones, and others supported by instrumental giants like Wayne Shorter and Yo-Yo Ma. Highly recommended

  27. Thanks for reminding us about that one, Nick.

    Now an album by one of my favourite modern singers from Brazil: Adriana Calcanhotto. Loucoura is a tribute to Lupicinio Rodrigues, the gaucho composer, who like her, was from the Porto Alegre area in the south of the country.

    I am not completely sure why Adriana dressed up in drag for this concert. I believe is a hommage to the exuberant nightlife of her home town.

  32. I can’t believe we’ve got etc… especially on this site – without mention of a couple of Americana tributes. It’s not my go-to genre as a rule but there are two that I return to.

    Emmylou Harris had a big part in organising “Return Of The Grievous Angel,” a Gram Parsons trib which features all the alt. Country royalty of 1999. It is fairly wonderful, my favourite being a lovely duet between Sheryl Crow and Ms Harris herself on “Juanita.”

    “This One’s For Him” is a tribute to songwriter Guy Clark. It was recommended by someone on this site. I particularly love “Randall Knife” which is a moving spoken-word song by Vince Gill. If you’ve lost your father it will resonate.

  33. White-boy blues is a musical form I don’t favour very much at all. So many second-rate practitioners everywhere, regurgitating the same material to less-than-stunning effect.

    One exception are the Ford Blues Band, featuring Robben Ford and his brothers Mark and Patrick plus others.
    They released a couple of good tribute albums to Paul Butterfield and to Mike Bloomfield and have toured the material and released live recordings of it.
    An example here, paying tribute to Mike Bloomfield via “MB’s Blues”, where Robben Ford pretty much nails Bloomfield’s style and sound to begin with and then does his own thing. His brother Mark’s harmonica solo is pretty good too.

  34. Asleep at the Wheel have done several Bob Wills tribute albums – all uniformly excellent star studded affairs that never fail to cheer you up. The first one is the best though – Dolly Parton, Lyle Lovett, George Strait, Chet Atkins all joining in – here’s “Big Ball’s in Cowtown”:

  35. All bases being covered here. From Cowtown to Stockholm.

    One of my favourite modern pianists, Jan Lundgren, did an album in honour of the magnificent, Jan Johansson, who died in a car crash at the height of his fame in the 60s. The strings added something special to JJ’s classics.

    Want more? My pleasure.

  37. There have been a couple of tributes to Robert Wyatt done.
    “Soupsongs Live” a double CD set by a large cast of friends playing Robert’s songs at the Palace Theatre in Newark in October 1999.
    Bass – Steve Lamb
    Drums – Liam Genockey
    Electric Guitar – Phil Manzanera
    Flute, Alto Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Duduk, Ocarina – Didier Malherbe
    Keyboards, Piano – Janette Mason
    Tenor Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone – George Khan
    Trombone, Voice, Arranged By – Annie Whitehead
    Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Harry Beckett
    Voice – Julie Tippetts
    Voice, Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Ukulele, Accordion, Producer, Mixed By – Ian Maidman

    Robert Wyatt was present in the audience but didn’t perform. The concert was repeated at the RFH that November and there are several clips of a 2016 repeat concert at the Musicport Festival in Whitby with a few of the original lineup and some more recent Wyatt songs represented. Couldn’t find any YouTube clips of the live album tracks. This one is from the RFH concert a month later.


    (Team Spirit)

  38. Marvelous stuff, Mike. It seems that Soupsongs even performed in Italy! A rather fine version of Caroline.

    Back to Verve Records and the 1950s which really was the Era of the Songbooks. What were these fine recordings if not tributes to the great songwriters of American musical theatre?

    What an interesting bloke Norman Granz was! We take it for granted today but taking jazz into the concert halls was a revolutionary move ion several ways and made the musicians some very decent money.

    https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/oct/27/verve-records-jazz-norman-granz

    • Of course the other Wyatt tribute of note was the Unthanks “Diversions Vol. 1” a live 2010 concert recording from the Union Chapel, splitting the material played between six Antony & The Johnsons compositions and nine by Robert Wyatt.


      (Sea Song)

  39. I went to see a tribute act tonight at Colindale Folk Club, as it happens.
    “A Tribute To Sandy Denny” performed by the Julie July Band. Very good singer accompanied by 2 guitarists, one electric and one acoustic. The performances were extremely good but the choice of material was a bit pedestrian, I thought. A couple of rather duff songs from Sandy’s stint with The Strawbs could have been replaced with at least one, maybe two more from her Fairport days. Nothing at all from Liege & Lief, only “Who Knows Where The Time Goes” (of course, played last of all) from Unhalfbricking, only “Fotheringay” from What We Did On Our Holidays.
    A few Fotheringay tracks were performed, “Winter Winds”, “The Pond And The Stream” (good choice) and “Gypsy Davey” (just coasting) and all the rest was from the solo albums and the Strawbs era.
    Still an enjoyable night, she has a very good voice and the two guitarists were very good, but it could have been a lot better (i.e. exceptional) with a more adventurous set. In my opinion.
    “A Sailor’s Life” would have been too risky to pull off with just 2 guitars as backing, but “The Banks Of The Nile” would have been possible with those two guys and would have been a stunner.

  40. Enjoyable review, Mike. Glad to hear those fine songs are being kept alive and getting an airing.

    It is a brave singer who takes on a giant like Sandy. Dutch singer Linde Nijland does it rather well.

  41. Another one for our collection.
    The Esbjörn Svensson Trio Plays Monk, from 1996.
    This was pretty early days in their recording career, before Esbjörn shaved his bonce and unusually for them two of the tracks had string arrangements. This is one of the two.

    (‘Round Midnight)

  45. I think it Moose. There is not much that can touch Daddy’s heartfelt version of Xmas Card from Hooker in Notty Ash.

    But Sara and Rebecka’s Steely tribute album, Fire in the Hole, give it a run for its money.

    As does Bad Lever who do Tom Waits in Swedish. One of the very few artists who have been given permission to translate Tom’s lyrics.

  47. BPB again, this time with an album of Mekons covers, Fanatic Voyage, which he did as a fundraiser for New Orleans charity, The Roots of Music.

    Track listing:

    https://consequenceofsound.net/2016/07/bonnie-prince-billy-and-angel-olsen-to-release-mekons-tribute-album/

    I have been a fan now for over 15 years and he continues to delight and surprise me. Met him face to face at a merch table once and he was as eccentrically odd as I would have imagined.

    • One of the great What-Is-He-Playing-At, driving-his-career-into-the-sea moments in pop. After a couple of years of pop stardom, Joe (deliberately?) put himself out of the Smash Hits league overnight. Since when he’s been making the music he wants to make… bless his baldie bonce.

  49. A completely unexpected and brilliant move that enabled him to go his own way. And clearly he was having the time of his life playing those songs.

    Here’s an oddity. XTC playing a Beefheart song, Ella Guru, from an 1980s Imaginary Records tribute to the Good Captain: Fast n Bulbous.

    • Afterword Connection Klaxon!

      Close inspection of that album will reveal that the Beat Poets and the Primevals get 2 tracks each.

      Sun Zoom Spark & Gimme Dat Harp Boy by the Beat Poets, China Pig & Crazy Little Thing by the Primevals.

      • Thanks Mike. To my astonishment, that album is on Spotify. There is even a track by Sonic Youth.

        Time now to mention two albums by two very talented modern female singers in the alt-country field who have done tribute albums to women who have inspired them.

        Eilen Jewell’s Butcher Holler is a tribute to Loretta Lynn. Here is Fist City, a fine honky tonk hit made famous by Loretta,

        Now Laura Cantrell with the title track of her Kitty Wells tribute album. The other songs are covers but this is Laura’s song about Kitty.

  50. I made a playlist of stuff mentioned on this thread for my own pleasure. There are some superb pianists: Svensson, Lundgren, Peterson,

    And now, from his Lennon tribute album, My working class hero, is Iiro Rantala from Finland.

    On the ACT label: those Germans really are good news for Nordic jazz.

    You want my playlist? Of course you don’t!

  51. Been listening to a bit of Hanky Panky, the Hank Williams covers album by The The. I wonder how many of the yet to be Alabama 3 were listening and taking notes when that came out?

  52. Fascinating. What a magnificent, slow-burning gem of a thread Tigger created here. So much I have never heard of.

    Next up is the earliest artist to be honoured that we have mentioned. Hildegard von Bingen. Swedish electro-folk group, Garmarna, did a tribute album performing their own versions of her songs.

    And now a serious treat, that I just stumbled across: a complete concert by the “Vultures” based on Hildy’s music.. Emma Hardelin has one of the loveliest voices in Swedish folk music.

    Don’t be put off by the spoken words bits.

    • You and Mike deserve the credit for keeping the thread smouldering, KFD.

      The Muppets: Green Album is a tribute by the likes of My Morning Jacket and OK Go.

      Weezer – Rainbow Connection

  53. Weezer do it proud. What a lovely song it is!

    You really got us going, Tigger!

    Here’s an early version.

    Robert Wyatt, The The, Asleep at the Wheel, Holly Cole, Linde Nijland, Esbjörn Svensson. Robert Hammond, the Beat Poets, Wilmer X…

    We have covered an impressive amount of ground.

  54. Rainbow Connection is a gorgeous song but so insanely catchy I suspect I will be humming it all weekend.
    I fear I need a priest to exorcise it and who better than Vivaldi tribute band, Red Priest?

    The Four Seasons Hitmaker was known as Il Prete Rosso because of his bright red hair.

  55. Remembering Mountains: The Unheard Songs Of Karen Dalton is a real tribute album. Renowned female artists were asked to complete songs for which Karen, who died prematurely, had written lyrics. They do it with real love and affection.

    Patti Griffith – All That Shines Is Not Truth

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