The Section

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The Section
General information
origin United States
Genre (s) Rock music , jazz fusion
founding 1971
Founding members
Craig Doerge
Leland Sklar
Danny Kortchmar
Russ Kunkel
Occasional members
guitar
 Waddy quail
David Lindley
Michael Brecker († 2007)

The Section is an American backing band made up of session musicians . They formed in 1970 on the occasion of the first extensive US tour of the singer-songwriter James Taylor , who also chose the name, and then stayed together because of the great success and the extraordinary musical harmony that prevailed among the members. For nearly a decade, they were a renowned and highly booked studio and live band on the music scene in Los Angeles and the west coast of the USA.

Musical work

The Section consisted of the guitarist Danny “Kootch” Kortchmar , the bassist Leland Sklar , the pianist Craig Doerge and the drummer Russ Kunkel , often supplemented over the years by the guitarist Waddy Wachtel , the multi-instrumentalist David Lindley and the saxophonist Michael Brecker . They achieved greater fame primarily through regular collaboration with stars and well-known greats such as James Taylor , Crosby, Stills and Nash , Jackson Browne , Warren Zevon , Carole King and Linda Ronstadt . It was also the time of a paradigm shift when studio musicians began to develop a high level of creativity beyond just playing a sheet of music. The young, up-and-coming stars they played for valued this kind of independence and musical support and began to mention the names of the musicians more and more often in the credits of the album covers , which was not a matter of course at that time and provided further motivation.

The Section played on dozen of productions, often by Asylum Records artists , which earned them the reputation of a “ house band ”. The spread and development of what was then " soft rock " and the fact that The Section were often booked by singer-songwriters gave them the nickname "The Mellow Mafia". The Rolling Stone magazine called it "The Knights of Soft Rock ??" ( "The Knight of the Soft Rock").

At the end of the 1970s, the band members stopped their work together, as the bookings and engagements of the entire formation increasingly declined. The protagonists were also subject to a process of wear and tear and were only too happy to resort to the aid of a "band rejuvenation" in order to remain in conversation with their fans and to gain further attention. Production methods and musical styles had also changed drastically, new wave and punk were the genres in demand, and the musicians of The Section went their own way, nonetheless to continue independently on the productions or on tours of prominent stars such as Phil Collins , Don Henley , Stevie Nicks or Simon and Garfunkel to reappear.

In 2007 they accompanied James Taylor and Carole King at their “Live at the Troubadour” concert on the occasion of the club's 50th birthday. In 2014 the British singer-songwriter Judith Owen brought some members of The Section back together for her production Ebb & Flow , as well as for the subsequent tour.

Honor

On the occasion of the annual NAMM in Anaheim , California, The Section was inducted into the "TEC Awards Hall of Fame" in 2018, while Jackson Browne was honored with the "Les Paul Innovation Award". The subject of these late honors was the album " Running on Empty ", a landmark live production and tour documentary by Browne from 1977, with The Section as a backing band.

Discography

The Section have released three of their own rock and jazz fusion albums on Warner Brothers and Capitol Records .

  • The Section (1972)
  • Forward Motion (1973)
  • Fork It Over (1977)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Section on allmusic.com
  2. ↑ VIAF data set
  3. ↑ a b c David Browne, Rolling Stone Magazine, April 2013: The Section: Knights of Soft Rock .
  4. ^ Official website of the Troubadour Club
  5. ↑ Judith Owen: "Ebb & Flow" in the West Coast sound of the 70s on musicheadquarter.de
  6. ^ Billboard: Jackson Browne and The Section Honored at NAMM's Annual TEC Awards
  7. ↑ The Section on discogs.com