BIOGRAFIA ESCRITA POR STEVE HUEY
(para traduzir, recomendamos o Google Translator)
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)
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