Greetings from the alpine region of Austria. The Joe Cocker, Fire It Up European Tour 2013, is on break at the moment in between the production leg and the festival leg of the Spring & Summer tour.
I'm chillin at the end of the rainbow apparently, as a late afternoon thunderstorm cools down a hot summer day. Imagine the smell of rain and pine in the mountain air, on the breeze the sound of soft thunder rumbling in the distant peaks, like the gods conversing over an early evening beer.
The first leg of the European run is complete. The tour came to a close in stages. We left the full production, May 29th in Warsaw after thirty two shows in eight and a half weeks. It was tough to say goodbye to old and new friends, only because it seemed that the time was too short, but we were also ready to keep moving. It's all part of the gig, and part of the gig is the letting go.
Ingolf, the band bus driver, an old friend, a great driver...
Boarding a charter flight, we flew to Kiev to begin the final segment of four shows that included Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kazan, Russia.
Travel days alternated with show days until the ninth day, we flew out of Russia and (most of us) headed home.
The Russian audience showing their love for Joe and Rock&Roll...
Ritz Carlton, Moscow...
Friday night, Moscow... (early Saturday morning) Not the Ritz Carlton!...
Kazan, Russia...
Joe and management, band and crew, we were down to twenty people traveling light and at the mercy of local rental gear. Thanks to Eddie Shea and our lean and mean crew that remained, the shows were all a success, finishing off a two month run that altogether was one of the best tours I personally have ever been involved with. Best, in terms of how smoothly it was run, the consistency of the music and the audiences in their response and number. What a pleasure, an honor and a joy... Thanks to all, and the audiences, too!
(Photo, Norbert Fimpel)
At the risk of sounding cliche, we have become a kind of professional family. (A friend of mine likes to say, "I love cliches, because they're true!") Life on the road and its day-to-day can be stressful enough. The possibility of something going wrong is there every moment of every day, and it does from time to time. People do their gig to insure as best they can that gear works well, and the music is played well. As the tour gets rolling and the band is consistently rocking, we all fall into our rhythms of how we hang, play, and how to find those solitary moments to balance the time spent together. Meanwhile, the music keeps pouring out, and the kilometers and countries keep rolling by.
Hang time with Nikki and Oneida after the gig...
Jack and I brought Herman to a favorite Amsterdam bar after the gig there. (It's grainy because the original photo was dark.)
In regards to gear and the keyboards themselves, one of my favorite sayings is, "The less moving parts, the better." This music is best played and played hard. There are no backing tracks, no ProTools beds, no computer sequencers at work contributing to the sound coming off the stage. There have been tours in the past where we've used them— an extra percussion bed, rhythm guitar track, a bed of violins or synthesizers playing along to a click track that the band plays with. And, given the way music is made to sound these days, it is not out of the question that it may happen again in the future, especially if the band wants to faithfully reproduce what's on record. But, for now, we have taken the recordings and made decisions how to make them work live. To recreate some of the sound of Matt Serletic's production on the record, I've used arpeggiators and delays to recreate the sequenced sound and layered orchestration of the record. And thanks to the rock solid drumming of Jack Bruno, we make it work, live in real time.
Jack, Ready to Rock!...
Here's a short video I did last month for my friends at Muse Research, who make an instrument I use called Receptor. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIWQRcLeNWg&feature=youtu.be
The way I see it, we're not about to orchestrate "Little Help" with synthesizers and computer tracks. Better if we make choices with the new songs, making them work without the machines. This gives a consistency of sound to the whole set keeping Joe the focus, not letting the production overtake him in any way. In order for this to be successful, two things have to be in place— the songs themselves are good songs, and the musicians can play. As for Joe, you can always count on him.
Evening in Prague, Czech Republic...
This tower is in Kazan, Russia. Coming up to it on an afternoon walk, Jack and I pondered, what is it?
It's too small for a church...
(A church in Salzburg)
Maybe it was a lighthouse for ships on the river?...
Later we heard the story from Joe, who went on a guided tour with one of the local promoters. The story goes, the Russian ruler, Ivan the Terrible wanted to marry a woman here. She told him okay, but first he must build her this tower in seven days. He had it done, completed in seven days. When he showed her his accomplishment, expecting to finally take her hand in marriage, she promptly ran up the spiral staircase to the top... And, threw her self off the tower to her death! (Who's got the movie rights to this? Amazing no one has jumped at the chance! :-)
City workers in Kazan...
With Joe Cocker and his music, there's a depth and history to the book itself, the book meaning the tunes in Joe's repertoire. As Kenny Aronoff pointed out to me once, Joe's book is not just one writer, but a collection of great ones! Lennon and McCartney, Randy Newmann, Arthur Hamilton... Joe's music carries an imprint of the history of Rock&Roll itself.
The set list from this first leg of the production tour had seven songs from "Fire It Up", the most of any of the last five albums since I've been working with Joe in the past twelve years. The upcoming live DVD we recorded in Cologne will have eight songs from "Fire It Up".
Backline tech for keyboards, Ben Sherazi. Thanks, man, for a job well done. And, try not to have security escort you out when I'm not looking!...
Hope you are enjoying these reports from the Wild Blue Yonder. I do enjoy hearing back from you. Please reply without the original attachments, if possible. Thanks. As some of you have asked, please share these with any and all you think would be interested. And, have them contact me if they would like to be included on the mailing list.
Last week at the beginning of the break, I was invited to teach a workshop for keyboard players at the Popakademie in Mannheim. Hope they got as much out of the experience as I did! A great group of folks!
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Wishing you strength, clarity and inspiration!
Keep rockin'...
Nick
Nick Milo
(All photos from my iPhone except where indicated)
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