Ry Cooder

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Ry Cooder (2009)

Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder (born March 15, 1947 in Los Angeles ) is an American guitarist , singer , composer and producer. He owes his worldwide fame, among other things, to his extraordinary playing as a slide guitarist .

Life and musical career

Cooder played as a session guitarist for Taj Mahal , in whose first band Rising Sons he was a founding member in 1965/66, and the Rolling Stones . He worked as arranger and played the slide guitar on two tracks on the album Safe as Milk (1967) by Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band, before starting to record solo albums in 1970. On these albums, Cooder offered a stylistic range of impressive quality. He learned to play with the bottleneck at the age of fifteen and is still considered one of the best slide guitarists today. Ry Cooder mainly uses a specially prepared bone for slide play. He is proficient in a variety of stringed instruments ( mandolin , saz and bajo sexto ). However, the big commercial breakthrough was denied him, also because his eclectic selection of songs did not necessarily correspond to the listening habits of a mass audience. Among other things, he was accompanied by a male vocal trio and rearranged old jazz standards . One of the best albums is Chicken Skin Music (1976, with Tex-Mex accordionist Flaco Jiménez and Hawaiian guitarist Gabby Pahinui ), on which a version of the classic Stand by Me can be heard in a gospel arrangement. The album Paradise and Lunch , released two years earlier , which climaxed with Ditty Wah Ditty and a collaboration with pianist Earl Hines , was hardly inferior. With Bop Till You Drop , Cooder recorded the first digitally recorded album in rock history in 1979 .

Since the 1980s, Cooder concentrated on composing soundtracks of various genres, with which he was also quite successful commercially. In doing so, he usually relied on his proven accompanying musicians (including Jim Keltner ). Best known was the soundtrack to the Wenders film Paris, Texas , which he recorded with Jim Dickinson. The film music for the western The Long Riders (with David Lindley ) and the blues story Crossroads , a cooperation with the blues legends Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee , give an impression of his stylistic range. To date, Cooder has composed more than twenty film scores .

As a studio musician , he has accompanied a number of well-known artists such as Gordon Lightfoot , the Rolling Stones ( Love in Vain , Sister Morphine), Eric Clapton , Bob Dylan , Van Morrison (Full Force Gale), Randy Newman , Steve Ripley (The Tractors), Pops and Mavis Staples and John Lee Hooker . Cooder was regularly involved in world music projects at an early stage , long before these had developed into an independent style. In 1974 he made two records with musicians from Hawaii under the direction of the well-known local musician Gabby Pahinui .

Cooder also took part in 1979 in the No-Nukes concert in Madison Square Garden in New York , at which artists, including Bruce Springsteen , Little Steven and Jackson Browne , campaigned against the civil and military uses of nuclear energy .

In 1992, after the musicians had already played together on the Hiatt album Bring the Family , Cooder founded the band Little Village with John Hiatt , Nick Lowe and Jim Keltner . The group released only one album, however.

Although influenced by the blues early on (his role models included John Fahey and Robert Johnson ), he made a name for himself by reviving the traditions of world music, a concept that was completely new at the time. He devoted himself to country and folk music , calypso , Hawaiian music, gospel , salsa , jazz , ragtime and vaudeville . In doing so, his paths repeatedly crossed with those of the Chieftains , who, like him, are interested in trends in world music.

From the early 1990s, Cooder increasingly worked with musicians from other cultures, such as India, Africa (for example with Ali Farka Touré from Mali ) and South America. In 1994 he received a Grammy for his work with Indian guitarist Vishwa Mohan Bhatt . The Buena Vista Social Club project was particularly successful , in which Cuban musicians selected by Juan de Marcos González played and revived the almost forgotten historical musical style of the Cuban son . This resulted in the documentary of the same name (director: Wim Wenders ) and numerous records under the names of the musicians involved. His son Joachim Cooder was also a member of the band.

At the beginning of the 2010s, his music focused on protesting against politicians, bankers and soil speculators. In 2018 he increasingly returned to gospel.

influence

Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones says that he learned the guitar's open G tuning from Ry Cooder:

“Ry Cooder was the first cat I actually saw play the open G chord. I have to say I tip my hat to Ry Cooder. He showed me the open G tuning. "

“Ry Cooder was the first one I actually saw playing the open G chord; I take off my hat to him. He showed me the open G-mood. "

Discography

Studio albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1972 Into the Purple Valley - - - UK-
silver
silver
UK 		US113 (8 weeks)
US
First published: January 1972
1974 Paradise and Lunch - - - UK-
silver
silver
UK 		US167 (6 weeks)
US
First published: May 1974
1976 Chicken Skin Music - - - - US177 (5 weeks)
US
First published: October 1976
1977 Show time - - - - US158 (5 weeks)
US
First published: August 1977
1979 Bop till you drop - - - UK36
silver
silver

(9 weeks)UK 		US62 (15 weeks)
US
First published: August 1979
1980 Borderline - - - UK35
gold
gold

(6 weeks)UK 		US43 (16 weeks)
US
First published: October 1980
1982 The slide area - - - UK18 (12 weeks)
UK 		US105 (7 weeks)
US
First published: April 1982
1987 Get rhythm - - - UK75
silver
silver

(3 weeks)UK 		US177 (12 weeks)
US
First published: November 1987
2005 Chavez Ravine DE76 (5 weeks)
DE 		AT52 (3 weeks)
AT 		CH42 (3 weeks)
CH 		UK35 (3 weeks)
UK 		US149 (2 weeks)
US
First published: June 7, 2005
2007 My name is buddy DE72 (2 weeks)
DE 		AT64 (2 weeks)
AT 		CH70 (1 week)
CH 		UK41 (3 weeks)
UK 		US168 (1 week)
US
First published: March 2nd, 2007
2008 I, Flathead DE74 (1 week)
DE 		- - UK84 (1 week)
UK 		-
First published: June 20, 2008
2011 Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down DE66 (1 week)
DE 		AT74 (1 week)
AT 		CH64 (1 week)
CH 		UK26 (3 weeks)
UK 		US123 (1 week)
US
First published: August 30, 2011
2012 Election Special DE38 (2 weeks)
DE 		- CH44 (3 weeks)
CH 		UK41 (1 week)
UK 		US164 (1 week)
US
First published: August 17, 2012
2018 The Prodigal Son DE17 (2 weeks)
DE 		AT14 (2 weeks)
AT 		CH7 (6 weeks)
CH 		UK10 (2 weeks)
UK 		US161 (1 week)
US
First published: May 11, 2018

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

Collaborations

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1985 Paris, Texas - - CH16 (6 weeks)
CH 		- -
First published: February 1985
1994 Talking Timbuktu - - CH23 (12 weeks)
CH 		UK44
silver
silver

(3 weeks)UK 		-
First published: March 29, 1994
with Ali Farka Touré
2003 Mambo Sinuendo DE29 (7 weeks)
DE 		AT32 (9 weeks)
AT 		CH45 (6 weeks)
CH 		UK40 (2 weeks)
UK 		US52 (8 weeks)
US
First published: January 28, 2003
with Manuel Galbán
2010 San Patricio - - - UK93 (2 weeks)
UK 		US37 (5 weeks)
US
First published: March 9, 2010
with The Chieftains
2012 Delta time - AT31 (4 weeks)
AT 		- - -
First published: September 21, 2012
with Hans Theessink & Terry Evans
2013 At The Great American Music Hall - - CH96 (1 week)
CH 		- -
First published: September 6, 2013
with Corridos Famosos

Singles

year Title
album 		Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1988 Get Rhythm
Get Rhythm 		- - - UK93 (2 weeks)
UK 		-
First published: April 1988

more publishments

Awards

grammy

  • as "Performing Artist"
    • 1988: Best Recording for Children ("Pecos Bill")
    • 1993: Best World Music Album ("A Meeting by the River")
    • 1994: Best World Music Album ("Talking Timbuktu")
    • 1997: Best Tropical Latin Performance ("Buena Vista Social Club")
    • 2003: Best Pop Instrumental Album ("Mambo Sinuendo")
  • as a producer
    • 2003: Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album ("Buenos Hermanos")

In 2011, the Rolling Stone listed Cooder 31st of the 100 best guitarists of all time . In a list from 2003 he was ranked eighth.

bibliography

literature

  • Felix Hofmann, Blues For a Migrant Worker , in: Filmkritik , No. 246 from June 1977.
  • Fred Metting, The Unbroken Circle. Tradition and Innovation in the Music of Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal (= American Folk Music and Musicians, Volume 5), Boston (Scarecrow Press) 2001, ISBN 0-8108-3818-4 .
  • Siegfried Schmidt-Joos , Barry Graves : Rock Lexicon. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1973, 2nd edition 1975, reprint 1978, ISBN 3-499-16177-X , p. 96.

Web links

Commons : Ry Cooder  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Influences of the Rolling Stones Roots. Retrieved August 19, 2020 .
  2. ^ Wieland Harms: The Unplugged Guitar Book. 20 of the most beautiful songs for acoustic guitar. Gerig Music, ISBN 3-87252-249-3 , pp. 34–39 ( Wish You Were Here ), here: p. 35.
  3. ↑ When Ry Cooder returns to gospel, we like to dream of a better world , NZZ, May 31, 2018
  4. ↑ Excerpts from Keith's book 'Life' serialized in The London Times, # 2. Retrieved August 19, 2020 .
  5. ↑ a b c Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
  6. ↑ Music Sales Awards: UK
  7. ↑ 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Rolling Stone , December 18, 2015, accessed August 8, 2017 .
  8. ↑ 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time - David Fricke's Picks. Rolling Stone , December 2, 2010, accessed August 8, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Cooder, Ry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cooder, Ryland Peter (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American guitarist, composer and producer
DATE OF BIRTH March 15, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH los Angeles