In 2004 Pekka Rautionmaa produced the 52 minutes music-documentary “First Lady Of Bass” about electric bass innovator Carol Kaye for the Finnish broadcaster YLE. There’s a long extract of it on YouTube.
Carol Kaye started her career as jazz guitarist in the late nineteen-forties. In the late nineteen-fifties she started working in the music studios of Los Angeles, playing guitar for legends like Sam Cooke and Ritchie Valens. In the early sixties she picked up the electric bass. Thanks to her talent of creating catchy bass lines, her music reading ability and her versatility in all kinds of styles, she soon became the number one electric bass player in Los Angeles.
Carol Kaye recorded among others for Elvis, Ray Charles, The Beach Boys, Simon and Garfunkel, The Byrds, The Monkees, The Doors, Frank and Nancy Sinatra, Count Basie, Hampton Hawes, Mel Tormé and Barbara Streisand. Her TV and movie credits include Mission Impossible, Hawaii 5-O, M*A*S*H, Streets of San Francisco, In The Heat Of The Night, Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, Bullitt and Sugarland Express.
In the documentary Carol Kaye demonstrates her electric bass and electric guitar playing and plays together with Brian Wilson. There’s a lot of interesting first hand information about the studio musicians of Los Angeles who played on many great pop, rock, easy listening and soundtrack recordings.
The extract on YouTube contains quotes by Perry Botkin (composer/arranger), Don Peake (guitar player/composer) and sound engineer David Gold, co-owner of Hollywood music studio “Gold Star” where among others Ritchie Valens, Eddie Cochran, Herb Alpert and Phil Spector recorded.
To my knowledge the documentary is not available on DVD.
James Last, der deutsche König des Easy Listening, produzierte 1975 in den USA das Album «Well Kept Secret», das sich als einen seiner seltenen Misserfolge entpuppte. Unter Musikliebhabern arbeiteten sich die jazzig-funkigen Aufnahmen jedoch mit den Jahren zum geschätzten Geheimtipp hoch. Nun ist das bis anhin nur auf Vinyl erhältliche Album auf CD erschienen, versehen mit dem neuen Titel «James Last In Los Angeles».
Seit den sechziger hatte James Last in der ganzen Welt grossen Erfolg. Nur in den USA konnte der mit einem sicheren Riecher für den Massengeschmack ausgestattete Komponist und Arrangeur nicht Fuss fassen. Dies wollte er ändern. Er entschied, ein Album zugeschnitten auf den US-amerikanischen aufzunehmen.
Üblicherweise nahm Last seine Alben in Hamburg auf. Aber «Well Kept Secret» spielte er in Los Angeles mit lokalen Studiomusikern ein. Darunter Grössen wie Larry Carlton an der Gitarre, Max Bennett am Bass, Larry Muhoberac an den Keyboards, Tom Scott an der Flöte, Ernie Watts am Saxophon und Gary Coleman an der Perkussion.
Zur Seite stand ihm als Produzent Wes Farrell (unter anderem Co-Autor von «Hang On Sloopy» und Produzent der «Partridge Family»). Er sorgte dafür, dass James Lasts Arrangements ein neues Klangkleid erhielten. James Last war begeistert: «Ich habe meine eigenen Arrangements nicht wieder erkannt, es war umwerfend. (…) Meine Musik klang völlig anders als andere James-Last-Alben, und genau das hatte ich mir gewünscht.»
CD bestellen
Das Album kam begleitet von einer grossen Werbekampagne auf den amerikanischen Markt, die Kritiker besprachen es wohlwollend, aber der kommerzielle Erfolg blieb aus. Auch in der Heimat musste James Last auf den Erfolg verzichten: «Für den deutschen Markt hingegen war das Album zu jazzig, dort erwartete man sich von mir ja eher populärere Stilrichtungen. Ausserdem war Polydor (seine Plattenfirma, Anm. des Verfassers) nicht unbedingt begeistert, dass ich die Platte in den USA produziert (…) hatte.»
James Last Zitate aus «Mein Leben – Die Autobiographie», von James Last (mit Thomas Macho), Heyne, München 2007, Seiten 239-40
IMPORTANT UPDATE (June 23rd, 2008)
According to a statement on her forum, Carol Kaye won’t perform on June 28th.
Legendary studio musicians Carol Kaye (electric bass), Hal Blaine (drums), Don Randi (piano) and Chuck Berghofer (upright bass) will perform live in Los Angeles on June 28th.
This exclusive reunion takes place after the Los Angeles premiere of Denny Tedesco’s documentary movie The Wrecking Crew as part of the Grand Performances Program in downtown Los Angeles. According to Carol Kaye’s forum Glen Campbell and Nancy Sinatra will probably perform, too. Though this has yet to be confirmed.
In the nineteen-sixties Carol Kaye, Hal Blaine, Don Randi and Chuck Berghofer were part of a big group of Los Angeles studio musicians – many of them jazz musicians – who worked day and night in the music studios. Together they left an indelible sonic mark upon thousands of pop songs, movie soundtracks and commercials. They actually were not a group. Studio musicians were all hired individually, usually by contractors. But because they performed together on famous records, music lovers and journalists often wrongly think that the studio musicians were a kind of a rock band.
Here’s just a small example of artists Carol Kaye, Hal Blaine, Don Randi and Chuck Berghofer played for together or individually: Beach Boys, Nancy Sinatra, Simon and Garfunkel, Elvis Presley, Henry Mancin, The Mamas & Papas, Connie Francis, Herb Alpert, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, James Brown, Sonny and Cher, Quincy Jones, Bobby Darin, The Monkees, Barbara Streisand, Diana Ross, Neil Diamond, Phil Spector and Motown productions and … OK, I think you get the picture. The list would go on and on.
You ask for more? Fine, here are some movie and TV soundtracks they played on: Mission Impossible, Planet Of The Apes, The Bill Cosby Show, Streets Of San Francisco, Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, In The Heat Of The Night and, The Pawnbroker, Airport and, and, and…
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bass, guitar, recommended, studio musicians | Tagged: Brian Wilson, Carol Kaye, documentary, electric bass, en, Los Angeles, music | 
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