Willie Nelson's famous face is tanned and weathered. White whiskers increasingly dominate his two-day stubble, and streaks of gray color the waist-length braid trailing down his back. The country music legend is sitting on a bench seat inside a tour bus parked behind the bullpen at Diamond Stadium in Lake Elsinore, California, waiting to take the stage. It's one stop on a summer tour of minor-league baseball parks with Bob Dylan and John Mellencamp, and Nelson displays a youthful vitality that many younger men would envy.
"I'm real lucky," this remarkable 76-year-old road warrior says, leaning forward and flashing an easy grin. "My health is as good as it's ever been. My lungs are in good shape -- and there are lots of people all over the world wondering how that could be, like Michael Phelps."
Nelson lets out an infectious laugh at the not-so-subtle reference to his celebrated affinity for pot and the Olympic swimming champion's troubles after photos of him inhaling from a marijuana pipe surfaced this year. "So I'm in good health and I appreciate it."
When Nelson laughs, there's a gleam in his eye that's ageless; it's there too when he talks about reconnecting with the kind of songs he first heard as a boy growing up in Texas during the 1930s and '40s. It was a time and place where the rural music of the South -- then labeled "hillbilly music" -- commingled on radio and in dance halls with the pop and big-band sounds most of the rest of the nation was enjoying, most prominently in the western swing sound pioneered by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys.
"It all fits together," Nelson says. "Western swing is just jazz. The musicians Bob had, the musicians Asleep at the Wheel has ... these are jazz musicians who can play anything; it just so happens they settled in on western swing."
Having recently passed the three-quarters-of-a-century mark, Nelson decided the time was right to return to that fertile trove of songs in "American Classic," his new album that came out Tuesday. The title describes both the Great American Songbook of pop standards he's drawing upon and the man himself, who is rivaled only by Merle Haggard for the title of country music's greatest living songwriter.
The field of pop-classic vocal albums has gotten crowded in recent years, with singers as wide-ranging as Rod Stewart, Michael Buble, Cyndi Lauper and Queen Latifah taking swings at songs largely written before they were born. It takes moxie, to say nothing of serious vocal chops, to tackle songs famously recorded by Tony Bennett ("Because of You"), Ray Charles ("Come Rain or Come Shine") and Frank Sinatra ("Fly Me to the Moon"), as Nelson does on "American Classic."
"Of course I'm a huge Sinatra fan," Nelson says. "There are other guys who've made great versions of that song: Vic Damone, some of those guys. ... It's probably been recorded a thousand times, but you always remember Sinatra."
On the album, Nelson is surrounded by a crew of jazz pros, starting with Joe Sample, the esteemed Crusaders keyboardist who wrote the arrangements, and luminaries including guitarist Anthony Wilson, bassists Christian McBride and Robert Hurst, drummers Lewis Nash and Jeff Hamilton and organist Jim Cox.
Nelson says his heart always has belonged as much to jazz as to country.
That style is apparent in "American Classic," particularly in Earl K. Brent and Matt Dennis' "Angel Eyes," which presents a singer with some extraordinary melodic twists and turns.
When it's suggested that it often seems that he can sing anything, Nelson laughs again. "That's the problem sometimes," he says. "Sometimes you may have to rewrite on the spot -- I think that's where jazz got started, because a guy forgot the melody." [rc]
August 26, 2009
USA: Willie Nelson sashays into jazz
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DETROIT, Michigan / The Detroit News / Entertainment / Music & Nightlife / August 26, 2009
By Randy Lewis / Los Angeles Times
Willie Nelson surrounds himself with jazz pros on his new album, "American Classic." Photograph by Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times
Willie Nelson's famous face is tanned and weathered. White whiskers increasingly dominate his two-day stubble, and streaks of gray color the waist-length braid trailing down his back. The country music legend is sitting on a bench seat inside a tour bus parked behind the bullpen at Diamond Stadium in Lake Elsinore, California, waiting to take the stage. It's one stop on a summer tour of minor-league baseball parks with Bob Dylan and John Mellencamp, and Nelson displays a youthful vitality that many younger men would envy.
"I'm real lucky," this remarkable 76-year-old road warrior says, leaning forward and flashing an easy grin. "My health is as good as it's ever been. My lungs are in good shape -- and there are lots of people all over the world wondering how that could be, like Michael Phelps."
Nelson lets out an infectious laugh at the not-so-subtle reference to his celebrated affinity for pot and the Olympic swimming champion's troubles after photos of him inhaling from a marijuana pipe surfaced this year. "So I'm in good health and I appreciate it."
When Nelson laughs, there's a gleam in his eye that's ageless; it's there too when he talks about reconnecting with the kind of songs he first heard as a boy growing up in Texas during the 1930s and '40s. It was a time and place where the rural music of the South -- then labeled "hillbilly music" -- commingled on radio and in dance halls with the pop and big-band sounds most of the rest of the nation was enjoying, most prominently in the western swing sound pioneered by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys.
"It all fits together," Nelson says. "Western swing is just jazz. The musicians Bob had, the musicians Asleep at the Wheel has ... these are jazz musicians who can play anything; it just so happens they settled in on western swing."
Having recently passed the three-quarters-of-a-century mark, Nelson decided the time was right to return to that fertile trove of songs in "American Classic," his new album that came out Tuesday. The title describes both the Great American Songbook of pop standards he's drawing upon and the man himself, who is rivaled only by Merle Haggard for the title of country music's greatest living songwriter.
The field of pop-classic vocal albums has gotten crowded in recent years, with singers as wide-ranging as Rod Stewart, Michael Buble, Cyndi Lauper and Queen Latifah taking swings at songs largely written before they were born. It takes moxie, to say nothing of serious vocal chops, to tackle songs famously recorded by Tony Bennett ("Because of You"), Ray Charles ("Come Rain or Come Shine") and Frank Sinatra ("Fly Me to the Moon"), as Nelson does on "American Classic."
"Of course I'm a huge Sinatra fan," Nelson says. "There are other guys who've made great versions of that song: Vic Damone, some of those guys. ... It's probably been recorded a thousand times, but you always remember Sinatra."
On the album, Nelson is surrounded by a crew of jazz pros, starting with Joe Sample, the esteemed Crusaders keyboardist who wrote the arrangements, and luminaries including guitarist Anthony Wilson, bassists Christian McBride and Robert Hurst, drummers Lewis Nash and Jeff Hamilton and organist Jim Cox.
Nelson says his heart always has belonged as much to jazz as to country.
That style is apparent in "American Classic," particularly in Earl K. Brent and Matt Dennis' "Angel Eyes," which presents a singer with some extraordinary melodic twists and turns.
When it's suggested that it often seems that he can sing anything, Nelson laughs again. "That's the problem sometimes," he says. "Sometimes you may have to rewrite on the spot -- I think that's where jazz got started, because a guy forgot the melody." [rc]
Willie Nelson's famous face is tanned and weathered. White whiskers increasingly dominate his two-day stubble, and streaks of gray color the waist-length braid trailing down his back. The country music legend is sitting on a bench seat inside a tour bus parked behind the bullpen at Diamond Stadium in Lake Elsinore, California, waiting to take the stage. It's one stop on a summer tour of minor-league baseball parks with Bob Dylan and John Mellencamp, and Nelson displays a youthful vitality that many younger men would envy.
"I'm real lucky," this remarkable 76-year-old road warrior says, leaning forward and flashing an easy grin. "My health is as good as it's ever been. My lungs are in good shape -- and there are lots of people all over the world wondering how that could be, like Michael Phelps."
Nelson lets out an infectious laugh at the not-so-subtle reference to his celebrated affinity for pot and the Olympic swimming champion's troubles after photos of him inhaling from a marijuana pipe surfaced this year. "So I'm in good health and I appreciate it."
When Nelson laughs, there's a gleam in his eye that's ageless; it's there too when he talks about reconnecting with the kind of songs he first heard as a boy growing up in Texas during the 1930s and '40s. It was a time and place where the rural music of the South -- then labeled "hillbilly music" -- commingled on radio and in dance halls with the pop and big-band sounds most of the rest of the nation was enjoying, most prominently in the western swing sound pioneered by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys.
"It all fits together," Nelson says. "Western swing is just jazz. The musicians Bob had, the musicians Asleep at the Wheel has ... these are jazz musicians who can play anything; it just so happens they settled in on western swing."
Having recently passed the three-quarters-of-a-century mark, Nelson decided the time was right to return to that fertile trove of songs in "American Classic," his new album that came out Tuesday. The title describes both the Great American Songbook of pop standards he's drawing upon and the man himself, who is rivaled only by Merle Haggard for the title of country music's greatest living songwriter.
The field of pop-classic vocal albums has gotten crowded in recent years, with singers as wide-ranging as Rod Stewart, Michael Buble, Cyndi Lauper and Queen Latifah taking swings at songs largely written before they were born. It takes moxie, to say nothing of serious vocal chops, to tackle songs famously recorded by Tony Bennett ("Because of You"), Ray Charles ("Come Rain or Come Shine") and Frank Sinatra ("Fly Me to the Moon"), as Nelson does on "American Classic."
"Of course I'm a huge Sinatra fan," Nelson says. "There are other guys who've made great versions of that song: Vic Damone, some of those guys. ... It's probably been recorded a thousand times, but you always remember Sinatra."
On the album, Nelson is surrounded by a crew of jazz pros, starting with Joe Sample, the esteemed Crusaders keyboardist who wrote the arrangements, and luminaries including guitarist Anthony Wilson, bassists Christian McBride and Robert Hurst, drummers Lewis Nash and Jeff Hamilton and organist Jim Cox.
Nelson says his heart always has belonged as much to jazz as to country.
That style is apparent in "American Classic," particularly in Earl K. Brent and Matt Dennis' "Angel Eyes," which presents a singer with some extraordinary melodic twists and turns.
When it's suggested that it often seems that he can sing anything, Nelson laughs again. "That's the problem sometimes," he says. "Sometimes you may have to rewrite on the spot -- I think that's where jazz got started, because a guy forgot the melody." [rc]
