The Wrecking Crew

[lawson-stone]

For some thoughts about the whole music scene, in which jazz players often had a second life as studio musicians in some pretty surprising recordings, this documentary "The Wrecking Crew" is amazing. It's worth the whole thing just to hear at the end, Tommy Tedesco playing bebop lines over rhythm changes... ON A MANDOLIN. Dang.

[Moonray]

I loved the Wrecking Crew movie too.
So many legends and yet most unknown to the public.

Re Tommy Tedesco playing bebop on his mandolin, his trick was to tune all his "double" instruments
like the top 4 strings of the guitar.

The guy had cojones, chops and a great sense of fun.

Try to see his articles that were printed in Guitar Player for many years C. 70's-80's...priceless stuff.
He'd print a copy of a part that he'd recently been subjected to....and then give his response to the challenge.
I learned a lot that helped immensely when I was called to do orchestral gigs,musical, backing touring singers
and other sundry dismal but demanding .....[not to mention remunerative] guitar duties.
......people won't believe this but when playing symphony gigs you'd get paid the full hourly rate for rehearsal
as you'd get for playing the show or recording.....yep it really happened.

If you can't find some scans online of Tommy's GP articles [they are called "Studio Log"]....pick up a copy of his book
called "For Guitar Players Only".
Some great instruction on reading guitar parts and cheats and workarounds that he would use.....plus hilarious war stories.
Still available from Amazon.

Thanks for reminding me of Tommy.....puts a smile on my face....the "biz" seems so earnest today.

[lammie200]

I watched the Wrecking Crew a few months back. Probably a few weeks after seeing the Brian Wilson drama biopic movie that was in the theatres. Cool stuff. I saw Tommy Tedesco give a talk and semi-performance semi-instructional at some tiny venue in a hotel banquet room sometime in the 80's. I remember that it was funny as hell. I got the feeling that he really empathized with other musicians and wanted them to do well whether in the music business or just playing well in general. Big hearted guy.

[cosmic gumbo]

All that great music and employment made possible by the American Federation of Musicians, thank you very much.

[destinytot]

I enjoyed The Wrecking Crew - and I loved Muscle Schoals Muscle Shoals | Legendary Alabama Recording Studio | Independent Lens | PBS.

'In this clip from the Independent Lens documentary Muscle Shoals, producer Rick Hall and multiple musicians try to nail down exactly what the Muscle Shoals sound is, and what it is “is a coming together of styles.” From “Hillbilly background to black musicians,” they were open to any genre, with the bass and drums turned up.'

[lammie200]

...and I loved Muscle Schoals ...

Yeah, amazing what a dump it is.

[Doctor Jeff]

Gregg Allman is laying down tracks for his new album even as we speak at Muscle Shoals...

[edh]

Was this a movie or tv program?

[lammie200]

Was this a movie or tv program?

I don't think that either one was released at theatres. I saw them on Netflix, but they were both on basic cable where I live as well.

[Stuart Elliott]

Enjoy the film, but be aware that Carol Kaye and others from the era don't like it, say it is a distortion, and that the "wrecking crew" was not a term used in the day.

From Kaye's website

"I'm always deeply devoted since the 1970s to the cause of studio musicians being recognized for the talent and full scope of their depth in helping to create the 1960s-70s hit records and movie/TV show soundtracks. The Denny Tedesco-Hal Blaine "wrecking" film-doc doesn't tell the real story as he said it would, it's skewered, re-edited. We were never known as the Hal Blaine-invented 1990 self-promo "wrecking crew" term - like Leon Russell, Al Kooper others say, that's pure baloney. The 50-60 of us (out of 400+ hard-working recording musicians) were sometimes called the CLIQUE and most were successful jazz musicians with fine reputations before ever doing studio work."

[lawson-stone]

They do say in the film that "Wrecking Crew" wasn't a term they used for themselves. Kaye has a bit of a reputation for overstatement, for wanting to say how everyone got it wrong, etc. She could well be right about some of that, but it's hard to see how she alone could be right and so many others "totally" wrong on so many points. The term wasn't their own term, but it was used by others to describe them and it stuck in the minds of those "others" and that's what the film says.

Carol Kaye always strikes me, at third hand anyhow, as a very talented person who is somehow very embittered. I would love to find out I'm wrong about that.

[lammie200]

...Kaye has a bit of a reputation for overstatement...Carol Kaye always strikes me, at third hand anyhow, as a very talented person who is somehow very embittered. I would love to find out I'm wrong about that.

Evidently a reputation for using malaprops as well. "Skewered?"

I agree about the embittered feeling that I got from it all. Not horribly embittered, but somewhat. I can't really hold that against her considering the circumstances though. Most of all of their work was not credited whatsoever.

BTW, the time I saw Tedesco was similar to the footage in the film of when he was conducting a seminar. Might even have been the same one. One of those priceless moments for a musician that I won't forget.

[lawson-stone]

Evidently a reputation for using malaprops as well. "Skewered?"

I agree about the embittered feeling that I got from it all. Not horribly embittered, but somewhat. I can't really hold that against her considering the circumstances though. Most of all of their work was not credited whatsoever.

BTW, the time I saw Tedesco was similar to the footage in the film of when he was conducting a seminar. Might even have been the same one. One of those priceless moments for a musician that I won't forget.

Of course you're right, it would be galling to hear all these hit songs, all these familiar lines, "And the Beat Goes On" as it were, and know you not only played that for the recording, in many (most?) cases, you actually thought of the line because the bozos only showed up with chord-charts and expected the studio players to make the magic... which they did.

One of the guys in the film makes a comment, though. He says he got scale whether the record made money or not, and wondered how he'd have felt had a record failed and they'd not paid him. The "featured" artists had a lot at risk. The studio players made their choice of regular scale and steady work. I think they actually made the better choice because they could have some kind of life without being subjected to al that celebrity BS.

And seriously, Carol Kaye was one phenomenally talented musician, and certainly not just on the bass! Somewhere I saw a clip of her just "noodling" on a guitar, and her jazz lines were way, way better than anything I could play.

So all these players, I give them the credit, and acknowledge happily their right to nuance the story.

[lammie200]

Yeah, amazing what a dump it is.

Oops, I was thinking of the Sound City documentary.

[joe2758]

i wish I read this forum in high school to help me learn SAT words
edit: reg. malaprops and galling. learn something new everyday

[MarkRhodes]

Carol Kaye always strikes me, at third hand anyhow, as a very talented person who is somehow very embittered. I would love to find out I'm wrong about that.

Carol is a national treasure. Not only a great player but an amazingly creative one. She has strong views and does not mince words. I can see how she rubs some people the wrong way, but she's always been kind and patient with me.

I do know one thing that really bothered her over the years was the claim she didn't play on lots of records she said she did even though she has studio log sheets to show what she was paid for this or that session. (She was paid $173.18 for playing rhythm guitar on "La Bamba." <<<<I know because I just looked that up; I knew I had a photocopy of it in my CK files.) Sometimes I think that she kept better records than some people who later wanted to romanticize the era and didn't want inconvenient facts to get in the way of a good story.)

[MarkRhodes]

And seriously, Carol Kaye was one phenomenally talented musician, and certainly not just on the bass! Somewhere I saw a clip of her just "noodling" on a guitar, and her jazz lines were way, way better than anything I could play.

So all these players, I give them the credit, and acknowledge happily their right to nuance the story.

Here's a clip of her doing "There Will Never Be Another You" on guitar. (This is the subject of another current thread. Prompted me to write her and we've exchanged 10 emails and she's sending me a DVD along with a list of chord grips that weren't in her "Jazz Guitar" package when I bought it a few years back. She's a peach, I tell ya! A peach!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=tHKcDxVHG00

https://www.jazzguitar.be/forum/playe...other-you.html

[Northernblue]

The book is a excellent read. Enjoyed it more than the movie.
NB

[lawson-stone]

Wow I didn't know there was a book! I'm on that!