JJ Cale
John Weldon "JJ" Cale (born December 5, 1938 in Oklahoma City , Oklahoma , † July 26, 2013 in La Jolla , California ) was an American musician and composer . He is one of the founders of the Tulsa sound, stylistically classified between rockabilly , blues , jazz and country . He often played all the instruments on his recordings himself.
Life
Cale grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA. The name JJ (without spaces and often also without dots) was an artist name that was given to him in his early years as a musician by a club owner of Whiskey a Go Go in Los Angeles , as the musician John Cale (Ex- Velvet Underground ) gave. Even in reputable sources (for example in the All Music Guide to the Blues ) the maiden name of J. J. Cale is wrongly given as "Jean Jacques". A French journalist brought this name into play, whereupon it was mentioned in some of the biographies of J. J. Cale.
Typical for Cale are short, rather sparingly orchestrated songs. The lyrics are often laconic and were performed without any pathos, so that his music is too calm for typical rock. For this, the details of the music are very carefully worked out. Eric Clapton described this style in an interview: “… really, really minimal…, it's all about finesse.” - “… really, very minimalist…; the essentials are the subtleties. "
Cale often took several years to produce a record and shaped the so-called laid-back style (leaned back, relaxed) in his music . This means that he always played his well-measured solos slightly behind the actual beat of the respective piece. The laid-back style is reminiscent of Billie Holiday's style , which, according to Cale, inspired him.
JJ Cale and Eric Clapton released the joint album The Road to Escondido in November 2006 , which was awarded a Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album in 2008 . Christine Lakeland plays guitar on this album.
Cale was married to guitarist Christine Lakeland, who did most of his tours as a band member. JJ Cale died in July 2013 near San Diego after a heart attack .
reception
JJ Cale, who rather avoided the public and only had one big hit of his own ( Cocaine , 1977 No. 22 in the Federal Republic of Germany, No. 2 in Switzerland, No. 5 in Austria), is highly regarded in music circles for his compositions. His instrumental piece Okie was used in SWF3 for a long time as the signature melody of the Pop Shop with Frank Laufenberg from 1975 . JJ Cale was best known for numerous interpretations of his songs by other musicians, such as the cover versions of After Midnight and Cocaine by Eric Clapton. In 2014 the album The Breeze - An Appreciation of JJ Cale by Eric Clapton & Friends was released, which pays homage to Cale.
Discography
Studio albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 AT
|
 CH
|
 UK
|
 US
|
|||
| 1972 | Naturally | - | - | - | - | - |
First release: 1972
Re-release : 2009 |
| 1973 | Really | - | - | - | - | - |
First published: 1973
Recording: April to July 1972 |
| 1974 | Okie | - | - | - | - | - |
First published: April 30, 1974
Recording: May 7th to December 5th, 1973 |
| 1976 | troubadour |
DE22 (8 weeks) DE |
AT24 (4 weeks) AT |
- |
UK53  (1 week)UK |
- |
First published: September 1976
Sales: + 60,000 |
| 1979 | 5 |
DE27 (7 weeks) DE |
AT22 (8 weeks) AT |
- |
UK40 (6 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: August 1979
Sales: + 162,600 |
| 1981 | Shades |
DE37 (11 weeks) DE |
- | - |
UK44 (7 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: February 1981
Sales: + 222,400 |
| 1982 | Grasshopper | - | - | - |
UK36 (5 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: March 1982
Sales: + 258,800 |
| 1983 | #8th | - | - | - |
UK47 (3 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: 1983
Sales: + 129,000 |
| 1990 | Travel log | - | - |
CH29 (2 weeks) CH |
- |
US131 (10 weeks) US |
First published: February 1990
|
| 1992 | Number 10 | - | - | - |
UK58 (2 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: November 10, 1992
|
| 1994 | Closer to you | - | - |
CH50 (1 week) CH |
- | - |
First published: Aug 23, 1994
Sales: + 60,000 |
| 1996 | Guitar Man | - | - | - | - | - |
First published: June 25, 1996
Sales: + 8,300 |
| 2004 | To Tulsa and Back |
DE82 (6 weeks) DE |
- |
CH99 (1 week) CH |
- | - |
First published: June 8, 2004
|
| 2009 | Roll on |
DE32 (7 weeks) DE |
AT62 (1 week) AT |
CH53 (4 weeks) CH |
- | - |
First published: February 24th, 2009
Sales: + 12,300 |
| 2019 | Stay around |
DE9 (6 weeks) DE |
AT15 (1 week) AT |
CH3 (10 weeks) CH |
- | - |
First published: April 26, 2019
|
gray hatching : no chart data available for this year
Cover versions (selection)
literature
- The Very Best of JJ Cale. Guitar, tablature, vocal. International Music Publications, Woodford Green 1997, ISBN 1-85909-518-6 .
- Mark Bloemeke: Cool Cool Cale. The JJ-Cale-Story - a biography, 262 pages with color and black and white illustrations, Voodoo Verlag 2020, ISBN 978-3-00-066151-8
documentary
- On tour with JJ Cale. To Tulsa and Back (alternative title: To Tulsa and Back - On Tour with JJ Cale ) documentary film, Germany, 2005, 88 min., Written and directed by Jörg Bundschuh, production: Kick Film.
Web links
- Literature by and about JJ Cale in the catalog of the German National Library
- JJ Cale in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- JJ Cale in the nndb (English)
- Official website (English)
- Documentary about JJ Cale
- JJ Cale at laut.de
- Dirk Jürgensen: Laid Back: Thirty years under the influence of "Cocaine" . ( Memento from October 23, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) A portrait at one-sided.info, August 1, 2006
Individual evidence
- ↑ Biography ( Memento June 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) on J. J. Cales official website
- ↑ JJ-Cale biography on laut.de , accessed on September 19, 2015
- ↑ To Tulsa And Back: On Tour With JJ Cale
- ↑ Sebastian Münster: La Jolla: "Cocaine" composer JJ Cale is dead . Rheinische Post , July 29, 2013.
- ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US . Additional chart sources: HIT-GUIDE, US Chart Singles 1950-1999; TAURUS PRESS
- ↑ Sales figures for 5 in France ( Memento from December 24, 2019 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Sales figures for Shades in France ( Memento from December 24, 2019 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Sales figures for Grasshopper in France ( Memento from December 24, 2019 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Sales figures for # 8 in France ( Memento from December 24, 2019 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Emmanuel Legrand: France's Delabel Provides Cale With a Home Away from Home. In: Billboard Magazine . American Radio History Archive, July 16, 1994, p. 89 , accessed February 23, 2020 .
- ↑ Sales figures for Guitar Man in France ( Memento from December 24, 2019 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Sales figures for Roll On in France ( Memento from December 24, 2019 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Summary of On Tour with JJ Cale. to Tulsa and Back
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Cale, JJ |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Cale, John Weldon (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American musician and composer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 5, 1938 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Oklahoma City , Oklahoma |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 26, 2013 |
| Place of death | La Jolla , California |