Everything about Ry Cooder totally explained
Ryland "Ry" Peter Cooder (born
15 March 1947, in
Los Angeles,
California) is an American
guitarist,
singer, and
composer.
He is known for his
slide guitar work, his interest in the American
roots music, and, more recently, for his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries. Cooder was ranked number 8 on
Rolling Stone's "
The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time."
Career
During the 60s, Cooder briefly attended
Reed College in
Portland,
Oregon. Cooder first attracted attention in the
1960s, playing with
Captain Beefheart and the
Magic Band, after previously having worked with
Taj Mahal in The
Rising Sons. He also played with
Randy Newman at this time, including on
12 Songs and possibly Newman's first album,
Randy Newman.
Van Dyke Parks worked with Newman and then with Cooder during the 60s. Parks arranged Cooder's "One Meatball" according to Parks' 1984 interview by Bob Claster.
He was a guest
session guitarist on various
recording sessions with the
Rolling Stones in
1968 and
1969, and Cooder's contributions appear on the Stones'
Let It Bleed (mandolin on "
Love in Vain"), and
Sticky Fingers, on which he contributed the slide guitar on "
Sister Morphine". During this period, Cooder joined with
Mick Jagger,
Charlie Watts,
Bill Wyman, and longtime Rolling Stones
sideman Nicky Hopkins to record "
Jamming with Edward". Shortly after the sessions, Cooder accused Keith Richards of musical plagiarism, but has since refused to comment on his accusations. Cooder also played slide guitar for the 1970
movie,
Performance, which contained
Mick Jagger's first
solo single, "Memo from Turner" on which Cooder played slide guitar. The
1975 Rolling Stones
compilation album Metamorphosis features an uncredited Cooder on
Bill Wyman's "Downtown Suzie", which is also the first Rolling Stones song played and recorded in the
open G tuning. Ry Cooder is credited on
Van Morrison's critically acclaimed 1979 album,
Into the Music for slide guitar on the song, "Full Force Gale".
Throughout the
1970s, Cooder released a series of
Warner Bros. Records albums that showcased his guitar work. Cooder, like a
musicologist or treasure hunter, explored bygone musical
genres and found great old-time recordings which he then, as a musician, personalized with sensitive, updated reworkings. Thus, on his breakthrough album, "
Into the Purple Valley," he chose unusual instrumentations and performed his own arrangements of old Black blues and gospel songs, a Calypso, white country music songs (giving a tempo change to the waltzing cowboy ballad, "Billy the Kid"), and — to open the album — a protest song, "How Can You Keep on Moving (Unless You Migrate Too)" by
Agnes "Sis" Cunningham about the Okies who were not welcomed with open arms when they migrated to escape the Dust Bowl in the 1930s — to which he gave a rousing-yet-satirical march accompaniment. Cooder's later '70s albums (with the exception of
Jazz) don't fall under a single
genre description, but — to generalize broadly — it might be fair to call Cooder's self titled first album
blues;
Into the Purple Valley,
Boomer's Story, and
Paradise and Lunch,
folk +
blues;
Chicken Skin Music and
Showtime, a unique melange of
Tex-Mex and
Hawaiian;
Jazz,
1920s jazz;
Bop Till You Drop '50's
R&B; and
Borderline and
Get Rhythm, eclectic
rock based excursions. Cooder's 1979 album
Bop Till You Drop was the first
popular music album to be
recorded digitally. It yielded his biggest
hit, an R&B
cover version of
Elvis Presley's 1960s recording "
Little Sister"
(External Link
).
Cooder has worked as a
studio musician and has also scored many
film soundtracks including
Wim Wenders film
Paris, Texas (1984). Cooder based this soundtrack and title song "Paris, Texas" on
Blind Willie Johnson's "Dark Was the Night (Cold Was the Ground)", which he described as "The most soulful, transcendent piece in all American music." "Dark was the Night, Cold was the Ground" was also the basis for Cooder's song "Powis Square" for the movie
Performance. His other film work includes
Walter Hill's
The Long Riders (1980),
Southern Comfort (1981),
Brewster's Millions (1985),
Last Man Standing (1996), Hill's
Trespass (1992) and
Mike Nichols'
Primary Colors (1998). Cooder dubbed all guitar parts of Ralph Macchio in the 1986 film
Crossroads except for the final composition with which Macchio wins the guitar duel which was played by Steve Vai. In 1988, Cooder produced an album by Bobby King and Terry Evans on Rounder Records titled "Live and Let Live". He contributed his stellar slide guitar work to every track. He also plays extensively on their 1990 self produced Rounder release "Rhythm, Blues, Soul & Grooves".
In recent years, Cooder has played a role in the increased appreciation of traditional
Cuban music, due to his collaboration as
producer in the
Buena Vista Social Club (1997) recording, which was a worldwide hit.
Wim Wenders directed a documentary film of the musicians involved,
Buena Vista Social Club (1999) which was nominated for an
Academy Award in 2000. Cooder worked with
Tuvan throat singers for the score to the 1993 film
Geronimo: An American Legend. Cooder also stepped in for the recording of the slide guitar parts in the
1986 film
Crossroads, a take on the infamous tale of the blues legend,
Robert Johnson.
Cooder's solo work has been an eclectic mix, taking in
dust bowl folk,
blues,
Tex-Mex,
soul,
gospel,
rock, and almost everything else. He has collaborated with many important musicians, including
The Rolling Stones,
Little Feat,
Trevor Whittaker,
Captain Beefheart,
The Chieftains,
John Lee Hooker,
Pops and
Mavis Staples,
Gabby Pahinui,
Flaco Jimenez and
Ali Farka Toure. He formed the
Little Village supergroup with
Nick Lowe,
John Hiatt, and
Jim Keltner.
In 1995 he performed in, a musical performance of the popular story at Lincoln Center to benefit the
Children's Defense Fund. The performance was originally broadcast on Turner Network Television (TNT), and issued on CD and video in 1996.
His 2005 album
Chávez Ravine was touted by his
record label as being "a post-World War II-era American narrative of “cool cats,” radios, UFO sightings, J. Edgar Hoover, red scares, and baseball" — the record is a tribute to the long-gone Los Angeles Latino enclave known as
Chávez Ravine. Using real and imagined historical characters, Cooder and friends created an album that recollects various aspects of the poor but vibrant hillside Chicano community, which was bulldozed by developers in the 1950s in the interest of “progress;”
Dodger Stadium ultimately was built on the site. Cooder says, “Here is some music for a place you don’t know, up a road you don’t go. Chávez Ravine, where the sidewalk ends.” Drawing from the various musical strains of Los Angeles, including conjunto, corrido, R&B, Latin pop, and jazz, Cooder and friends conjure the ghosts of Chávez Ravine and Los Angeles at mid-century. On this fifteen-track album, sung in Spanish and English, Cooder is joined by East L.A. legends like Chicano music patriarch
Lalo Guerrero, Pachuco boogie king
Don Tosti, Three Midniters front man Little Willie G, and Ersi Arvizu, of The Sisters and El Chicano.
His next record was released in 2007. Entitled
My Name Is Buddy, it tells the story of a cat who travels and sees the world.
My Name Is Buddy was accompanied by a booklet featuring a story and illustration (by Vincent Valdez) for each track, providing additional context to Buddy's adventures.
Trivia
Awards
1993 Grammy Award – Meeting by the River
1995 Grammy Award – Talking Timbuktu with Ali Farka Toure
1998 Grammy Award – Buena Vista Social Club
2000 – Ry Cooder received an honorary doctorate from Queen's University
2003 – Rolling Stone magazine named Ry Cooder the 8th Greatest Guitarist of All Time in their "100 Greatest Guitarists" list.
Discography
Performance (1970)
Rising Sons featuring Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder (recorded 1965/66, released 1992)
Ry Cooder (January 1971)
Into the Purple Valley (February 1972)
Boomer's Story (November 1972)
Paradise and Lunch (May 1974)
Chicken Skin Music (1976)
Showtime (August 1977)
Jazz (June 1978)
Bop Till You Drop (August 1979)
The Long Riders (June 1980)
Borderline (October 1980)
The Slide Area (April 1982)
Paris, Texas (February 1985)
Music from Alamo Bay (August 1985)
Blue City (July 1986)
Crossroads (July 1986)
Why Don't You Try Me Tonight (1986)
Get Rhythm (December 1987)
Johnny Handsome (October 1989)
Little Village (1991)
Trespass (January 1993)
A Meeting By The River (1993) (with VM Bhatt)
Geronimo, An American Legend (1993)
King Cake Party (1994) (with The Zydeco Party Band)
Talking Timbuktu (1994) (with Ali Farka Touré)
Music by Ry Cooder (1995) (2 disc set of film music)
Buena Vista Social Club (September 1997)
The End of Violence (1997)
Mambo Sinuendo (January 2003) (with Manuel Galbán)
Chávez Ravine (May 2005)
My Name Is Buddy (Nonesuch Records, 2007)Further Information
Get more info on 'Ry Cooder'.
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