847108056726

Mercy And Grand - The Music Of Tom Waits & Kathleen Brennan

Gavin Bryars, Jess Walker & Ensemble

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Format: CD

Cat No: BCGBCD18

Release Date:  23 April 2012

Label:  GB Records

Packaging Type:  Jewel Case

No of Units:  1

Barcode:  847108056726

Genres:  Classical  Pop  

  • Description

    The music of Tom Waits in new versions authenticated by Tom himself: "I'm honored to have an artist of Gavin Bryars' stature dress these songs up and take them out to an elegant night on the town." - Tom Waits.

    'Mercy and Grand' celebrates the music of Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan, and at the same time it expresses something of the great American and European songwriting traditions from which they spring. The project involved setting some 13 songs by Tom and Kathleen alongside other composers: two pieces by Kurt Weill, some folk music, a John Tams fairground ballad, a tango and a gypsy waltz, performed by a unique seven-piece band with singer Jess Walker.



    It is put together by Opera North Projects in arrangements by Gavin Bryars, Jim Holmes and Joe Townsend. Bryars says: "It is not a pastiche of Tom's own band nor does it replicate Tom's inimitable performing style. Our singer, Jess Walker, is classically trained, female and English, and this can help to draw a different kind of attention to the words and the music, especially for those more used to Tom's unique qualities as performer."



    "In the song 'Whistle Down The Wind' the words 'Mercy and Grand' refer to a place, a corner where two roads meet on the edge of a town. We too have tried to find meeting places: between musicians and between song-writing traditions, making intuitive connections across a range of styles and musical genres. We focused on particular themes - memory, loss, journeys, the circus - and although there is no specific narrative in the sequence of songs, there is a sense in which the music does take us on a kind of journey."



    Tom Waits and Gavin Bryars famously first worked together in 1993 on the hypnotic full-length recorded version of Bryars' Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet.



    Personnel: Jess Walker (voice), Joe Townsend (violin, trumpet-violin), Dai Pritchard (tenor sax, clarinet, bass clarinet, flute), Karen Street (accordion), James Woodrow (electric guitar), Jim Holmes (piano, harmonium, harmonica), Gavin Bryars (double-bass, harmonium), Simon Allen (percussion, including musical saw, waterphone)

  • Tracklisting

      Disc 1

      Side 1

      • 1. Traditional: Gypsy Tango
      • 2. Waits/Brennan: A Little Drop of Poison
      • 3. Kurt Weill (Text: Brecht): Ballad of Sexual Dependency
      • 4. Waits/Brennan: Poor Edward
      • 5. Waits/Brennan: Alice
      • 6. Waits/Brennan: Whistle Down the Wind
      • 7. Waits/Brennan: A Little Rain
      • 8. Waits/Brennan: Innocent When You Dream
      • 9. Waits/Brennan: Johnsburg Illinois
      • 10. Traditional: La Partida
      • 11. Kurt Weill (Text: Brecht): What Keeps Mankind Alive?
      • 12. Waits/Brennan: Pony
      • 13. Waits/Brennan: Georgia Lee
      • 14. Waits/Brennan: Broken Bicycles
      • 15. Waits/Brennan: Train Song
      • 16. John Tams: Pull Down Lads
      • 17. Traditional: Barbara Allen
      • 18. Waits/Brennan: The Briar and the Rose
      • 19. Waits/Brennan: Lullaby