Eddie Kramer—From Jimi Hendrix To Woodstock

This August marks the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, the original event spawning two multi-record sets and a feature-length movie (recently restored and expanded). Leading off with Richie Havens (he was the first artist on the scene with an intact band), a few of the other acts included Jefferson Airplane, Crosby, Stills & Nash, a pregnant Joan Baez, Country Joe & the Fish, Santana, Sha Na Na, Sly & the Family Stone, Ten Years After, Janis Joplin, the Who, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Joe Cocker, the Band and the Grateful Dead. What is burned into everyone's consciousness, however, was the show-closing set by Jimi Hendrix (sans Experience) and his interpretation of The Star-Spangled Banner.

What is not widely known is who was in charge of recording the music for all to enjoy long after Max Yasgur's farm had been turned into a sea of mud and debris. Running on adrenalin and vitamin shots for those three mad days was the legendary Eddie Kramer, audio engineer extraordinaire. From the Beatles to Traffic, Led Zeppelin to Kiss, Rolling Stones to Ted Nugent, Kramer was often the guy behind the studio mixing desk, soldiering on to this day.

...I felt intimidated...when the Beatles came to Olympic on
two separate occasions to record All You Need Is Love
and Baby, You’re A Rich Man with George Martin.

Eddie Kramer, on taking rock photographs

By chance it was young Kramer—then a budding engineer with Olympic Studios in London—who was called upon to record the first tracks featuring a sensational guitarist just over from America—none other than Hendrix. The two formed a bond that lasted the duration of the latter's career, with Hendrix following Kramer's lead in the production of the star's albums—including several posthumous releases.

In 1992 John McDermott collaborated with Kramer to write Hendrix: Setting the Record Straight. Not only is this account the most accurate of the many Hendrix tomes, the book features many of Kramer's photos taken during Hendrix recording sessions. Also included are several by the late Linda McCartney.

Kramer continues to consult with Experience Hendrix; a recent project involved updating original VH1 footage to produce an enhanced At Last...The Beginning: The Making of Electric Ladyland DVD. Notable album "session musicians" interviewed for the video include the likes of Dave Mason, Steve Winwood and Jack Casady, the latter with whom Hendrix had jammed backstage at the '67 Monterey Pop Festival.

Bassist Noel Redding having walked out on the Experience at that point, here Kramer discusses All Along the Watchtower in this video segment:

Ryan Sparks, writing for Classic Rock Revisited, recently interviewed Eddie Kramer about how he came to be chosen to record the '69 Woodstock Festival and what that experience was like. A portion of that interview is presented here (by permission of the author).

[Sparks] Woodstock was a truly unique, one [of] a kind festival. How did you become involved?

[Kramer] I knew that Jimi was going to be playing up there and the film company called me and said, “Hey, you record Jimi, why don’t you come up and record the whole thing?”

Continued...
[Sparks] After you surveyed the scene, did you think you’d have enough time to get everything in order to be fully prepared for when things started?

[Kramer] No way. I had doubts that we were ever going to get anything, but…[the] crew was tremendous and they pulled it together. We got going and three days of drugs and hell became part of American history.

[Sparks] Tell me about your recording setup.

[Kramer] [We had] two eight tracks, a twelve channel board and some little Shure mixers. [To call it] primitive [would be] a mild understatement.

[Sparks] You and your crew had to stay awake for three days straight. Was it just Lee Osborne and you?

[Kramer] Yeah... The stage crew…were the ones who we were trying to communicate with, which was rather difficult. We had vitamin B12 shots to keep us all going [and] slept on the floor of the truck for a few hours. [We] rolled tape all the time, whereas the poor film guys they were struggling with five cameras trying to keep it all going.

[Sparks] You’re not only a legendary producer/engineer, but you’ve also captured some great images of some of rock’s greatest musicians with your camera…In addition to Jimi, did you manage to shoot anyone else at the festival while they were performing?

[Kramer] No…Once the recording had settled down on Jimi I said ‘OK, guys, watch the meters, watch the machines, I’m going to run out for like ten seconds.’ I ran out with my camera and shot about two or three pictures of Jimi and then ran back to the truck.

[Sparks] [Did] any of [the groups] pose any kind of challenge?

[Kramer] Every artist presented his own peculiar set of challenges. You’re dealing with battlefield recordings here; these are not for the faint of heart [laughs]. You had to figure out where each microphone was, which band was coming out, what they were going to be playing, who’s playing, what’s playing. You know that old Abbott and Costello routine, "Who’s On First?" It was just like that.

[Sparks] With such an impressive and extensive back catalogue of work, where does Woodstock rank on your list of achievements?

[Kramer] Woodstock has to stand out; [pauses] how does one even begin?

[Sparks] You’ve captured some of rock’s most iconic live albums; how would you compare it to some of those?

[Kramer] It was the most difficult, but it also yielded some of the great performances of our time. It certainly stands out in my memory....It continues to influence subsequent generations, which I’m very pleased about.

[Sparks] [In] that moment, did you think you were capturing something magical that people would still be talking about forty years later?

[Kramer] No. I was only too concerned about getting the…stuff to record and making sure it appeared on tape; that was my main concern. Who cared about history then!

Wrecking Crew Charts More Than the Beatles

Mystery Group Dominated U.S. Airwaves

On AM radio back in the day, the Beatles charted a total of 47 times. Not all of these were number one positions, with the biggest travesty—at least in the U.K.—being the power-single Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane losing out to Englebert Humperdinck's Release Me.

But there was another group—perhaps one you've never heard of—that gave the Fab 4 stiff competition when it came to dominating commercial radio airwaves in America. Consider this partial list of super hits:

All I Really Want To Do, California Dreamin', Classical Gas, Da Doo Ron Ron, Danke Schoen, Donna, Eve of Destruction, Everybody Loves Somebody, Everybody's Talkin', Fun Fun Fun, Good Vibrations, Help Me Rhonda, Homeward Bound, I Got You Babe, I'm a Believer, La Bamba, Let's Dance, Little Old Lady (From Pasadena), MacArthur Park, Mrs. Robinson, Mr. Tamborine Man, Natural Man, Rhinestone Cowboy, River Deep Mountain High, Rockin' Robin, San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair), Scarborough Fair, Sixteen Tons, Sloop John B, Stoned Soul Picnic, Strangers in the Night, Surf City, The Beat Goes On, The Girl Can't Help It, Then He Kissed Me, These Boots Were Made for Walkin', This Diamond Ring, Walking To New Orleans, We've Only Just Begun, Wichita Lineman, Windy, You Send Me, You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'.

Blaine is credited with having played on at least forty U.S.
number one hits and more than 150 top ten records.

You may have also heard the group playing the theme music on such television shows as The Flintstones, M.A.S.H., I Dream of Jeannie, Ironside, Mission Impossible, Get Smart, The Love Boat, The Cosby Show and Green Acres.

The group is The Wrecking Crew, featured in an unreleased documentary by a son of the late Tommy Tedesco. Tedesco was a multi-style guitarist extraordinaire who, along with Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame drummers Hal Blaine and Earl Palmer, Glen Campbell, Barney Kessell, and several other regular session musicians, comprised L.A.'s hit-making machine. Others included Paul Beaver (of Beaver and Krause), Tom Scott, Paul Horn, Toots Thielemans, Larry Carlton, Joe Sample, Russ Freeman and Dave Grusin. From the classic rock world, keyboardists Leon Russell, Billy Preston and Mac Rebennack (a.k.a, Dr. John) were members at one time, as were drummers Jeff Porcaro, Jim Keltner and Jim Gordon. Count noted vocalists Clydie King and Merry Clayton in the mix, too. In the first-call instrumentalist category, however, guitarist and bassist Carol Kaye was the only woman to achieve outstanding success in what was then primarily a man's world.

Women like...Fender bass player Carol Kaye...
could do anything and leave men in the dust.

Quincy Jones, in his autobiography, Q

Click below to watch the movie trailer:

Guitar Player magazine cites Wrecking Crew member
Tommy Tedesco as "the most recorded guitarist in history."

If your appetite isn't yet whetted, David Was (of Was, Not Was) has a very positive review of the film on NPR.

So when will we get to see this intriguing documentary? When Floydian Slips contacted Denny Tedesco in May, we were told that the film still awaits wide-scale distribution. In the meantime, visit the movie site online and leave your e-mail address so as to be notified when you might be able to see the movie in its entirety.

Steve Khan Plays Jazz Guitar With Distinction

One of our favorite jazz guitarists is Steve Khan, having first heard his work while affiliated with WNMC in the ‘80s. Ten years later I heard a track called I Like the Orange Thing by the Flying Monkey Orchestra and proceeded to investigate. Featured on their terrific Back In the Pool CD, the Monkeys' lineup was a who’s who assembled by head monkey, Rob Mounsey. It included the likes of Michael Brecker, “Toots” Thielemans, Lew Soloff, and others of note.

So you're the one who bought that record...!

Rob Mounsey e-mail to Floydian Slips
May 5, 2007

In relation to Mounsey’s impressive body of work, Khan’s name kept popping up, the two having collaborated on two CDs of their own: You Are Here and the Grammy-nominated Local Color. Apart from Mounsey, Khan is known for his work with artists such as Blood, Sweat & Tears, Steely Dan, Billy Joel, Michael Franks, Hubert Laws, Billy Cobham, Jack DeJohnette, James Brown, Maynard Ferguson, and Joe Zawinul's Weather Update. He has also played with Randy Brecker, David Sanborn, Larry Coryell, Ron Carter and Al Foster, among many others.

Khan's interpretation of the Beatles' Within You Without You, segued into the group's Blue Jay Way, is certainly worth a listen. And there are complete samples of some of Khan's other work at his MySpace page. Captured in New York, below is a Feb. ’92 video of Khan—with Jay Anderson (bass) and Ben Perowsky (drums)—playing Wayne Shorter’s Masqualero.

In the annals of rediscovered live jazz recordings, The Suitcase,
by guitarist Steve Khan, ranks among the best in recent memory.

All About Jazz.com, Feb. 26, 2008

This just in:

Dear Floydian Slips:

First, thanks so much for writing via the CONTACT STEVE page at my site. When one has been recording under their own name for over 30 years, it's hard to know just when a listener might come upon something. What I tried to do at the MySpace page was to capture a little bit of everything from almost all the time periods. Again, thanks for your kindness in sharing with me!!!

Steve Khan, June 9, 2009

"Sir Charles" & the Florence Karaoke Experience

Sing Along With Mitch

A seminar speaker for many years in the '90s, one post-gig evening we found ourselves in a Coconut Grove bar after dinner at the local Hard Rock Cafe. Nothing was going on when—all of a sudden—the shadow of a huge hulk of a guy blew past me. I know him from somewhere, I thought. Then it hit me...why, that has to be Sir Charles Barkley, then-star of the Phoenix Suns.

The next thing I knew, Sir Charles was onstage—with a sizable contingent of female, uh, backup singers—belting out several karaoke numbers. The show was immediately likable and quite impressive: if only I had the nerve to give karaoke a try. Frank Gartland, one of my seminar cohorts, did, and I have to admit to being jealous of his uninhibited performance. (Yet I did all-day standup speaking engagements before hundreds!)

Driving in my car, smoking my cigar...

Many of us sing in the shower, around the house, wherever. For me, it's the car, where Detroit should have just mounted a gooseneck mic to my Mustang's dash—just like the one that hung over Bing Swanson's bed back in 10th grade! Beating out the rhythm on the steering wheel, singing George Harrison's harmony parts...well, I think I sound alright. Lord knows I've had years of practice getting the vocal nuances just right...

Many years after Miami I was touring Florence, Italy, with my wife, cousin Richard, his wife, and their two friends. The gals wanted to go dancing one evening after dinner, so we guys relunctantly agreed to go "discoing." Being the first ones there, the place was empty, but it had a really good (read: LOUD) sound system and I noticed two young women operating (what appeared to be) some high-end karaoke gear. Bored just sitting around with the guys while our women strutted their stuff, I was soon looking through the song list, found some Beatles tracks to which I thought I could do justice, and signaled the KJs (karaoke jocks) I was ready to "Twist & Shout."

Cmon, cmon, cmon, cmon, baby, now...

Well, it was a riot. Grabbing another wireless mic, Richard soon joined in on harmony for another Fab Four song and, before long, he was belting out his own cover of Steppenwolf's Born To Be Wild. All told, I knocked out six songs that night, including a favorite Dire Straits number and, of course, Satisfaction. (The last time I had sang that in public was in an airport lobby one apres morning on our way to yet another seminar engagement.)

The next day my voice was totally gone: only then did I recall why Lennon always left Twist & Shout for the group's last number. Like a fool, I had knocked it off first and, of course, completely strained what vocal chords I have. But, like many others before me, my first karaoke experience hooked me!