O FOLK SINGER QUE CRIOU A PRIMEIRA JUG BAND PSICODÉLICA DA HISTÓRIA DA HUMANIDADE FAZ ANIVERSÁRIO HOJE

BIOGRAFIA ESCRITA POR WILLIAM RUHLMANN

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John Sebastian has had a varied career as a singer, songwriter, and musician. As the leader of the folk-rock band the Lovin' Spoonful, he was responsible for a string of Top Ten hits in 1965-1967 that included the chart-toppers "Daydream" and "Summer in the City," and he returned to number one in 1976 as a solo artist with "Welcome Back." He wrote or co-wrote those hits as well as many others, along with songs used on Broadway and in the movies. And as an instrumentalist, primarily playing harmonica, he has accompanied a wide range of artists including Judy Collins, Crosby, Stills & Nash, the Doors, Bob Dylan, the Everly Brothers, Art Garfunkel, Gordon Lightfoot, Laura Nyro, Graham Parker, Dolly Parton, Peter, Paul & Mary, John Prine, and Bonnie Raitt.

Sebastian's father was a classical harmonica player, his mother a writer of radio shows. He grew up in Greenwich Village, where he applied the knowledge of the harmonica he gleaned from his father to the music of the folk revival that was taking place in his neighborhood in the late '50s and early '60s. By the age of 16, he was stepping onto the stages of coffeehouses and folk clubs, and by the age of 18 he was appearing as a sideman on recordings. In 1964, he joined the Even Dozen Jug Band, which made a self-titled album for Elektra Records before splitting up. He was also briefly in the Mugwumps, along with future Lovin' Spoonful guitarist Zal Yanovsky and future members of the Mamas and the Papas Cass Elliot and Denny Doherty. In the winter of 1964-1965, he and Yanovsky began assembling the quartet that would become the Lovin' Spoonful, eventually adding bass player Steve Boone and drummer Joe Butler. In the meantime, he continued his session work, including playing bass on Bob Dylan's first electric album, Bringing It All Back Home.

The Lovin' Spoonful signed to Kama Sutra Records (an offshoot of MGM Records) and in the summer of 1965 released their first single, "Do You Believe in Magic," on which he sang lead vocals (as he did on all the group's singles while he was a member, in addition to writing or co-writing all their hits). It peaked in the Top Ten, and so did its follow-up, "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice," while a Do You Believe in Magic album, released in the fall, spent eight months in the charts. The third Lovin' Spoonful single, "Daydream," was a number one hit, accompanied by a Daydream LP that reached the Top Ten. The group's fourth single, "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?," had already appeared on Do You Believe in Magic, but that didn't keep it from reaching the Top Five, and the fifth single, the timely "Summer in the City," became a gold-selling number one hit upon its release in the summer of 1966. The next Lovin' Spoonful release was a soundtrack album for the Woody Allen film What's Up, Tiger Lily?, released in September. Then came their sixth consecutive Top Ten hit, "Rain on the Roof," followed by their seventh, "Nashville Cats," which reached its peak in January 1967, simultaneous with a Top 20 showing for the band's third album, Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful, which spent six months in the charts. In the spring, the Lovin' Spoonful scored a second motion picture, Francis Ford Coppola's You're a Big Boy Now, from which came their next single, the Top 20 hit "Darling, Be Home Soon." "Six O'Clock" gave them another Top 20 hit by June.

That summer, the band ran into difficulties. Yanovsky and Boone were arrested on drug charges, resulting in Yanovsky's departure from the group; his replacement was Jerry Yester. They also parted ways with their producer, Erik Jacobsen. "She's Still a Mystery" became their eleventh consecutive Top 20 hit in November, but Sebastian was becoming dissatisfied, and after completing a fourth LP, Everything Playing (which produced a minor chart entry in "Money"), released at the end of the year, he quit the band. During 1968, he began working on solo material, considering, but ultimately rejecting, an offer to join a trio of his friends who went on to become Crosby, Stills & Nash. He also wrote some songs used in a Broadway play, Jimmy Shine, starring Dustin Hoffman; among them was "She's a Lady," a minor chart entry for him at the end of 1968. That single was released on Kama Sutra, but Sebastian had determined to leave the label and he signed to Warner Bros. Records' Reprise subsidiary. Kama Sutra, however, felt he still owed them an album, and a legal battle ensued which delayed the release of his debut solo album for a year. Although Reprise won the right to release John B. Sebastian, and did so in January 1970, Kama Sutra's parent company, MGM, using second-generation tapes of the record in its possession, also put out its own version of the LP, which was then withdrawn.

In the meantime, Sebastian had made an inadvertent but memorable appearance at the Woodstock Festival in August 1969. Not scheduled to appear, but nevertheless present backstage (and somewhat the worse for wear due to recreational drug use), he was pressed into service during a set change and gave a brief, well-received performance. Hobbled by the MGM counterfeit, John B. Sebastian nevertheless managed to make the Top 20 in the spring of 1970 and Sebastian's solo career really took off when he was featured on the chart-topping Woodstock soundtrack album in May and in the documentary film that opened in August. Unfortunately, MGM wasn't through harassing him. The label obtained a tape of a concert he performed in July 1970 and released it under the title John Sebastian Live. Another legal battle ensued, and this album too was withdrawn. But Sebastian was determined to put out a competing album as well, and the result was Cheapo-Cheapo Productions Presents Real Live John Sebastian, released in March 1971. Both albums took advantage of the singer's iconic status as a rock festival favorite, brandishing his acoustic guitar, wearing a tie-dyed denim suit, and pleasing giant crowds at such Woodstock-like events as the Atlanta Pop Festival, the Isle of Wight Festival, and the Festival of Life in 1970-1971.

Sebastian released his second studio album, The Four of Us, in August 1971, featuring the ambitious title track, which took up all of side two; it sold disappointingly. Tarzana Kid, which followed in September 1974, missed the charts entirely, and Sebastian's recording career was virtually moribund when he was asked to write a theme song for a new television series, Welcome Back, Kotter, which premiered in September 1975. Sebastian was also heard singing his song, "Welcome Back," over the credits each week. Welcome Back, Kotter became a success, and Reprise released a single version of the song, which topped the charts in May 1976 and went gold. A Welcome Back LP also returned Sebastian to the album charts. But that disc completed his recording contract, and "Welcome Back" proved to be a one-off success rather than a real commercial comeback.

For the next 17 years, Sebastian performed concerts, made guest appearances on other artists' records, and did occasional soundtrack work. In 1993, the independent Shanachie Records label finally put out his fifth studio album, Tar Beach. He then teamed up with a group of old friends and returned to playing the jug band music he had started with back in Greenwich Village more than 30 years before, forming a group he called John Sebastian and the J-Band and issuing I Want My Roots (1996) and Chasin' Gus' Ghost (1999). As part of the Lovin' Spoonful, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.

Discografia

Do You Believe In Magic?

(com Lovin’ Spoonful, 1965)

Daydream

(com Lovin’ Spoonful, 1966)

 Hums Of Lovin’ Spoonful

(com Lovin’ Spoonful, 1966)

You’re A Big Boy Now

(com Lovin’ Spoonful, 1967)

Revelation Revolution 69

(com Lovin’ Spoonful, 1968)

Everything Playing

(com Lovin’ Spoonful, 1968)

John B Sebastian (1970)

John Sebastian Live (1970)

The Real Live John Sebastian (1971)

The Four Of Us (1972)

Tarzana Kid (1974)

Welcome Back (1976)

King Biscuit Flower Hour (1979)

Blues Harmonica (1982)

Tar Beach (1993)

I Want My Roots (1996)

Chasin’ Gus’ Ghost (1999)

One Guy, One Guitar (2001)

Satisfied (2007) 

O GUITAR HERO MAIS ICONOCLASTA E MAIS ECLÉTICO DE TODOS OS TEMPOS FAZ ANIVERSÁRIO

BIOGRAFIA ESCRITA POR STEVE HUEY

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Whether serving as a session musician, solo artist, or soundtrack composer, Ry Cooder's chameleon-like fretted instrument virtuosity, songwriting, and choice of material encompass an incredibly eclectic range of North American musical styles, including rock & roll, blues, reggae, Tex-Mex, Hawaiian, Dixieland jazz, country, folk, R&B, gospel, and vaudeville. In addition to his American music bona fides, Cooder is an unofficial American cultural ambassador: He was partially responsible for bringing together the Cuban musicians known globally as the Buena Vista Social Club, recording with Ali Farka Toure, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, and Manuel Galban, to name scant few. During the '80s and '90s he was a celebrated film composer, scoring works such as Walter Hill's The Long Riders, Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas and The End of Violence, and Tony Richardson's The Border. Since 1989, he has won six Grammy Awards and been nominated for many more in genres ranging from children's music and folk, to Latin (pop and traditional), Americana, and world music. Among his most notable albums in the 21st century were the conceptual albums Chavez Ravine, about an LA neighborhood bulldozed to make way for bringing the Dodgers baseball team to Los Angeles, and San Patricio with the Chieftains, about a band of immigrant Irish soldiers that deserted the American Army during the Mexican-American War to fight for the other side.

The 16-year-old Cooder began his career in 1963 in a blues band with Jackie DeShannon and then formed the short-lived Rising Sons in 1965 with Taj Mahal and Spirit drummer Ed Cassidy. Cooder met producer Terry Melcher through the Rising Sons and was invited to perform at several sessions with Paul Revere & the Raiders. During his subsequent career as a session musician, Cooder's trademark slide guitar work graced the recordings of such artists as Captain Beefheart (Safe as Milk), Randy Newman, Little Feat, Van Dyke Parks, the Rolling Stones (Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers), Taj Mahal, and Gordon Lightfoot. He also appeared on the soundtracks of Candy and Performance.

Cooder made his debut as a solo artist in 1970 with a self-titled album featuring songs by Leadbelly, Blind Willie Johnson, Sleepy John Estes, and Woody Guthrie. The follow-up, Into the Purple Valley, introduced longtime cohorts Jim Keltner on drums and Jim Dickinson on bass, and it and Boomer's Story largely repeated and refined the syncopated style and mood of the first. In 1974, Cooder produced what is generally regarded as his best album, Paradise and Lunch, and its follow-up, Chicken Skin Music, showcased a potent blend of Tex-Mex, Hawaiian, gospel, and soul, and featured contributions from Flaco Jimenez and Gabby Pahinui. In 1979, Bop til You Drop was the first major-label album to be recorded digitally. In the early '80s, Cooder began to augment his solo output with soundtrack work on such films as Blue Collar, The Long Riders, and The Border; he has gone on to compose music for films such as Paris, Texas, Streets of Fire, Alamo Bay, Blue City, Crossroads, Cocktail, Johnny Handsome, and Steel Magnolias, among others. Music by Ry Cooder (1995) compiled two discs' worth of highlights from Cooder's film work.

In 1992, Cooder joined Keltner, John Hiatt, and renowned British tunesmith Nick Lowe, all of whom had played on Hiatt's Bring the Family, to form Little Village, which toured and recorded one album. Cooder turned his attention to world music, recording the album A Meeting by the River with Indian musician V.M. Bhatt. Cooder's next project, a duet album with renowned African guitarist Ali Farka Touré titled Talking Timbuktu, won the 1994 Grammy for Best World Music Recording.

His next world crossover would become one of the most popular musical rediscoveries of the 20th century. In 1997, Cooder traveled to Cuba to produce and play with a group of son musicians who had little exposure outside of their homeland. The resulting album, Buena Vista Social Club, was a platinum-selling international success that made stars of Compay Segundo, Ibrahim Ferrer, and Rubén González, and earned Cooder another Grammy. He continued to work on projects with his Buena Vista bandmates, including a collaboration with Manuel Galbán in 2003 titled Mambo Sinuendo. His other work in the 2000s included sessions with James Taylor, Aaron Neville, Warren Zevon, and Spanish diva Luz Casal.

In 2005, Cooder released Chavez Ravine, his first solo album since 1987's Get Rhythm; the album was the first entry in a trilogy of recordings about the disappearance of Los Angeles' cultural history as a result of gentrification. Chavez Ravine was followed by My Name Is Buddy in 2007, and the final chapter in the saga I, Flathead in 2009. In 2010, Cooder was approached by Paddy Moloney of the Chieftains to produce an album. Moloney had been obsessed with an historical account of the San Patricios, a band of immigrant Irish soldiers who deserted the American Army during the Mexican-American War in 1846 to fight for the other side, against the Manifest Destiny ideology of James Polk's America. Cooder agreed and the result was San Patricio, which brings this fascinatingly complex tale to life. In early 2011, Cooder was taken by a headline about bankers and other moneyed citizens who'd actually profited from the bank bailouts and resulting mortgage and economic crisis, and wrote the song "No Banker Left Behind," which became the first song on 2011's Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, an album that reached all the way back to his earliest recordings for musical inspiration while telling topical stories about corruption -- political and social -- the erasure and the rewriting of American history, and an emerging class war. A month after its release, Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti's fabled City Lights publishing house issued Cooder's first collection of short fiction entitled Los Angeles Stories. He continued to follow his socio-political muse with Election Special, released in the summer of 2012, and in 2013 released Live in San Francisco, his first live album in 35 years, with Corridos Famosos (son Joachim on percussion, Flaco Jimenez on accordion, Robert Francis on bass, and vocalists Terry Evans, Arnold McCuller, and Juliette Commagere). The ten-piece Mexican brass band La Banda Juvenil also guested. In 2014, Rhino Records offered an epic-scale look at Cooder's work in film scoring with Soundtracks, a seven-disc box set compiled from his movie music of the '80s and '90s.

After playing mainly bluegrass and country gospel songs with Ricky Skaggs in 2017, Cooder's percussionist son Joachim convinced his dad to cut an album of country and blues-gospel songs. The younger Cooder arranged the 11-song set and the guitarist fleshed them out for a band. Entitled The Prodigal Son, it comprising eight covers including songs by the Pilgrim Travelers, Blind Willie Johnson, Carter Stanley, and three originals. In late March, Cooder released a preview video of an arrangement of the title track recorded live in studio. The Prodigal Son was issued in May 2018 and followed by his first American tour in 15 years; he was backed by his own band (with Joachim on drums and percussion) with backing vocals by the Hamiltones.

Discografia

Rising Sons featuring Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder

(gravado em 1965/1966, lançado em 1992)

Ry Cooder (1970)

Into the Purple Valley (1971)

Boomer's Story (1972)

Paradise and Lunch (1974)

Chicken Skin Music (1976)

Showtime (1976)

Jazz (1978)

Bop Till You Drop (1979)

The Long Riders (1980)

Borderline (1980)

The Slide Area (1982)

Paris, Texas (1984)

Music from Alamo Bay (1985)

Blue City (1986)

Crossroads (1986)

Why Don't You Try Me Tonight (1986)

Get Rhythm (1987)

Johnny Handsome (1989)

Little Village (1991)

Trespass (1992)

A Meeting By The River (1993)

(com VM Bhatt)

Geronimo, An American Legend (1993)

King Cake Party (1994)

(com a The Zydeco Party Band)

Talking Timbuktu (1994)

(com Ali Farka Touré)

Music by Ry Cooder (1995)

Last Man Standing (1996)

Buena Vista Social Club (1997)

The End of Violence (1997)

Mambo Sinuendo (2003)

Chávez Ravine (2005)

My Name Is Buddy (2007)

I, Flathead (2008)

San Patricio (2010)

Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down (2011)

Election Special (2012)

Delta Time (2012)

Live at The Great American Music Hall, San Francisco (2013)

The Prodigal Son (2018)

Two Long Riders

(With David Lindley) (2018)