Ry Cooder | |
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 Cooder performing in June 2009 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Ryland Peter Cooder |
| Born | (1947-03-15)March 15, 1947 (age 78) Los Angeles,California, U.S. |
| Origin | Santa Monica, California, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Occupations |
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| Instruments | |
| Years active | 1967–present |
| Labels | |
| Website | RyCooder.com |
Ryland Peter Cooder (born March 15, 1947) is an American musician, songwriter, film score composer, record producer, and writer. He is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known for hisslide guitar work, his interest intraditional music, and his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries.
Cooder's solo work draws upon many genres. He has played withJohn Lee Hooker,Captain Beefheart,Taj Mahal,Gordon Lightfoot,Ali Farka Touré,Eric Clapton,the Rolling Stones,Van Morrison,Neil Young,Randy Newman,Linda Ronstadt,Vishwa Mohan Bhatt,David Lindley,the Chieftains,Warren Zevon,Manuel Galbán,the Doobie Brothers,Little Feat, andCarla Olson and the Textones (on record and film). He formed the bandLittle Village, and produced the albumBuena Vista Social Club (1997), which became a worldwide hit;Wim Wenders directed thedocumentary film of the same name (1999), which was nominated for an Academy Award in 2000.
Cooder was ranked at No. 8 onRolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time",[2] while a 2010 list byGibson Guitar Corporation placed him at No. 32.[3] In 2011, he published a collection of short stories calledLos Angeles Stories.
Ryland Peter Cooder was born in Los Angeles,California, on March 15, 1947,[4] the son of Emma Casaroli and Bill Cooder. His mother was of Italian descent.
He was raised inSanta Monica, California, and graduated fromSanta Monica High School in 1964.[5] During the 1960s he briefly attendedReed College inPortland, Oregon.[6] He began playing the guitar when he was three years old.[7]
Aged four, he accidentally stuck a knife in his left eye; he has sported aglass eye ever since.[7]
Cooder performed as part of apickup trio withBill Monroe andDoc Watson, in which he playedbanjo. The trio was not successful, but reflecting his early exposure to the instrument, Cooder subsequently applied banjo tunings and thethree finger roll to guitar.[8]
Cooder first attracted attention playing withCaptain Beefheart and his Magic Band, notably on the 1967 albumSafe as Milk, after previously having worked withTaj Mahal andEd Cassidy in theRising Sons. At a vital "warm-up" performance at theMt. Tamalpais Festival (June 10–11, 1967) shortly before the scheduledMonterey Pop Festival (June 16–18, 1967), the band began to play "Electricity" andDon Van Vliet froze, straightened his tie, then walked off the 10 ft (3.0 m) stage and landed on managerBob Krasnow. He later claimed he had seen a girl in the audience turn into a fish, with bubbles coming from her mouth.[9] This aborted any opportunity for breakthrough success at Monterey, for Cooder immediately decided he could no longer work with Van Vliet,[10] effectively quitting both the event and the band on the spot. Cooder also played withRandy Newman, including on12 Songs.[11]Van Dyke Parks worked with Newman and Cooder during the 1960s. Parks arranged Cooder's "One Meatball" according to Parks' 1984 interview with Bob Claster.
Cooder was asession musician on various recording sessions withthe Rolling Stones in 1968 and 1969, and his contributions appear on the albumsLet It Bleed (Yank Rachell-stylemandolin on "Love in Vain"), andSticky Fingers, on which he contributed the slide guitar on "Sister Morphine". During this period, Cooder joined withMick Jagger,Charlie Watts,Bill Wyman, and longtime Rolling StonessidemanNicky Hopkins to recordJamming with Edward!. Cooder also played slide guitar for the 1970 film soundtrackPerformance, which contained Jagger's first solo single, "Memo from Turner". The 1975compilation albumMetamorphosis features an uncredited Cooder contribution to Bill Wyman's "Downtown Suzie".
Cooder also collaborated withLowell George ofLittle Feat, playingbottleneck guitar on the original version of "Willin'".[12] He also played bottleneck guitar and mandolin on two tracks on the Gordon Lightfoot albumSit Down Young Stranger (later re-titledIf You Could Read My Mind), recorded in late 1969 and released in early 1970.[13]
Throughout the 1970s, Cooder released a series ofWarner Bros. Records albums that showcased his guitar work, initially on theReprise Records label, before being reassigned to the main Warners label along with many of Reprise's artists when the company retired the imprint. Cooder explored bygone musicalgenres and found old-time recordings which he then personalized and updated. Thus, on his breakthrough album,Into the Purple Valley, he chose unusual instrumentations and arrangements of blues, gospel,calypso, and country songs (giving a tempo change to the cowboy ballad "Billy the Kid"). The album opened with the song "How Can You Keep on Moving (Unless You Migrate Too)" byAgnes "Sis" Cunningham about theOkies who were not welcomed when they migrated west to escape theDust Bowl in the 1930s – to which Cooder gave a rousing-yet-satirical march accompaniment. In 1970 he collaborated with Ron Nagle and performed on hisBad Rice album released on Warner Brothers. His later 1970s albums (with the exception ofJazz, which explored ragtime/vaudeville) do not fall under a single genre description, but his self-titled first album could be described as blues;Into the Purple Valley,Boomer's Story, andParadise and Lunch asfolk and blues;Chicken Skin Music andShowtime as a mix ofTex-Mex andHawaiian;Bop Till You Drop as 1950sR&B; andBorderline andGet Rhythm as rock-based. His 1979 albumBop Till You Drop was the firstpopular music album released that wasrecorded digitally, using the early 3M digital mastering recorder.[14] It yielded his biggesthit, an R&Bcover version ofElvis Presley's 1960s recording "Little Sister".
Cooder is credited onVan Morrison's 1979 albumInto the Music, for slide guitar on the song "Full Force Gale". He also played guitar onJudy Collins' 1970 concert tour, and is featured onLiving, the 1971 live album recorded during that tour. He also learned from and performed withGabby Pahinui and"Atta" Isaacs in Hawaii during theHawaiian Renaissance of the early 1970s. He is also credited for guitars on several 1971 recordings byNancy Sinatra that were produced by Andy Wickman and Lenny Waronker – "Is Anybody Goin' To San Antone", "Hook & Ladder", and "Glory Road". Cooder is credited as a mandolin player on Gordon Lightfoot'sDon Quixote album in 1972.
Cooder has worked as a studio musician and has also scored manyfilm soundtracks including theWim Wenders filmParis, Texas (1984). Cooder based this soundtrack and title song "Paris, Texas" onBlind Willie Johnson's "Dark Was the Night (Cold Was the Ground)", which he described as "the most soulful, transcendent piece in all American music".[15] MusicianDave Grohl has declared Cooder's score forParis, Texas one of his favorite albums.[16] In 2018 Cooder toldBBC Radio 4 listeners: "[Wenders] did a very good job at capturing the ambiance out there in the desert, just letting the microphones and thenagra machine roll and get tones and sound from the desert itself, which I discovered wasE♭, was in the key of E♭ – that's the wind, you know, was nice. So we tuned everything to E♭."[17]
"Dark Was the Night (Cold Was the Ground)" was also the basis for Cooder's song "Powis Square" for the moviePerformance. His other film work includesWalter Hill'sThe Long Riders (1980),Southern Comfort (1981),Streets of Fire (1984),Brewster's Millions (1985),Johnny Handsome,[18]Last Man Standing (1996), Hill'sTrespass (1992) andMike Nichols'Primary Colors (1998). Cooder, along withArlen Roth, dubbed all slide and regular blues guitar parts in the 1986 filmCrossroads, a take on blues legendRobert Johnson. In 1988, Cooder produced the album by his longtime backing vocalistsBobby King andTerry Evans onRounder Records titledLive and Let Live. He contributed his slide guitar work to every track. He also plays extensively on their 1990 self-produced Rounder releaseRhythm, Blues, Soul & Grooves. Cooder's music also appeared on two episodes of the television programTales From the Crypt: "The Man Who Was Death" and "The Thing From the Grave".[19]
In 1984, Cooder played on two songs on the debut album by Carla Olson & the Textones,Midnight Mission – "Carla's Number One is to Survive" and the previously unreleasedBob Dylan song "Clean Cut Kid". Shortly thereafter he was writing and recording the music for the filmBlue City and asked the band to appear in the film performing. (He took them to the studio and produced "You Can Run" which he also played on.)
In 1985, Cooder was a guest artist on the song "Rough Edges" fromKim Carnes' albumBarking at Airplanes. Kim named her son Ry as a tribute to Ry Cooder.
Also in 1988, Cooder produced and featured in theLes Blank-directed concert documentary filmRy Cooder & The Moula Banda Rhythm Aces: Let's Have a Ball where he plays in collaboration with a selection of musicians famous in their various musical fields.[20] The following year, he played a janitor in theJim Henson seriesThe Ghost of Faffner Hall, in the episode "Music Is More Than Technique".[21]
In the early 1990s, Cooder collaborated on twoworld music "crossover" albums, which blended the traditional American musical genres that Cooder has championed throughout his career with the contemporary improvised music of India and Africa. ForA Meeting by the River (1993), which also featured his sonJoachim Cooder on percussion, he teamed withHindustani classical musicianV.M. Bhatt, a virtuoso of theMohan Veena (a modified 20-stringarchtop guitar of Bhatt's own invention) and Sukhvinder Singh Namdhari also known as Pinky Tabla Player.
In 1993 he teamed up with multi-instrumentalistAli Farka Touré fromMali to record the albumTalking Timbuktu, which he also produced. The album, released in 1994, also featured longtime Cooder collaboratorJim Keltner on drums, veteran blues guitaristClarence "Gatemouth" Brown, jazz bassistJohn Patitucci and African percussionists and musicians includingHamma Sankare and Oumar Toure. Both albums won theGrammy Award forBest World Music Album in 1994 and 1995 respectively. Cooder also worked withTuvanthroat singers for the score to the 1993 filmGeronimo: An American Legend.
In 1995 he performed inThe Wizard of Oz in Concert: Dreams Come True, a musical performance of the popular story at theLincoln Center in New York to benefit theChildren's Defense Fund. The performance was originally broadcast on both TBS and TNT. It was issued on CD and video in 1996.
In the late 1990s Cooder played a significant role in the increased appreciation of traditionalCuban music, due to his collaboration as producer of theBuena Vista Social Club (1997) recording, which became a worldwide hit and revived the careers of some of the greatest surviving exponents of 20th century Cuban music.Wim Wenders, who had previously directed 1984'sParis, Texas, directed a documentary film of the musicians involved,Buena Vista Social Club (1999), which was nominated for anAcademy Award in 2000.[22] The enterprise cost him a $25,000 fine for violating theUnited States embargo against Cuba.[23][24]
Cooder's 2005 albumChávez Ravine was touted by hisrecord label as being "a post-World War II-era American narrative of 'cool cats', radios, UFO sightings, J. Edgar Hoover, red scares, and baseball".[25] The record is a tribute to the long-gone Los Angeles Latino enclave known asChávez Ravine. Using real and imagined historical characters, Cooder and friends created an album that recollects various aspects of the poor but vibrant hillsideChicano community that no longer exists. Cooder says, "Here is some music for a place you don't know, up a road you don't go. Chávez Ravine, where the sidewalk ends."[25] Drawing from the various musical strains of Los Angeles, includingconjunto, R&B, Latin pop, and jazz, Cooder and friends conjure the ghosts of Chávez Ravine and Los Angeles at mid-century. On this fifteen-track album, sung in Spanish and English, Cooder is joined byEast L.A. legends like Chicano music patriarchLalo Guerrero,Pachuco boogie kingDon Tosti,Thee Midniters front man Little Willie G, andErsi Arvizu, of The Sisters andEl Chicano.
Cooder's next record was released in 2007. EntitledMy Name Is Buddy, it tells the story of Buddy Red Cat, who travels and sees the world in the company of his like-minded friends, Lefty Mouse and Rev. Tom Toad. The entire recording is a parable of the working class progressivism[26] of the first half of the American twentieth century, and even has a song featuring executed unionistJoe Hill.My Name Is Buddy was accompanied by a booklet featuring a story and illustration (byVincent Valdez) for each track, providing additional context to Buddy's adventures.
Cooder produced and performed on an album forMavis Staples entitledWe'll Never Turn Back, which was released on April 24, 2007. Theconcept album focused onGospel songs of thecivil rights movement and also included two new original songs by Cooder.[27]
Cooder's albumI, Flathead was released on June 24, 2008. It is the completion of his California trilogy. Based on thedrag racing culture of the early 1960s, the album is set on the desert salt flats in southern California. The disc was also released as a deluxe edition with stories written by Cooder to accompany the music.
In late 2009, Cooder toured Japan, New Zealand, and Australia withNick Lowe, performing some of Lowe's songs and a selection of Cooder's own material, mainly from the 1970s. Joaquim Cooder (Ry's son) provided percussion, andJuliette Commagere andAlex Lilly contributed backing vocals.
The song "Diaraby", which Cooder recorded withAli Farka Touré, is used as the theme toThe World's Geo Quiz.The World is a radio show distributed byPublic Radio International.
In 2009, Cooder performed inThe People Speak, a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historianHoward Zinn'sA People's History of the United States. Cooder performed with Bob Dylan and Van Dyke Parks on the documentary broadcast on December 13, 2009, on theHistory Channel. They played "Do Re Mi" and reportedly a couple of otherGuthrie songs that were excluded from the final edit. He also traveled with the bandLos Tigres del Norte and recorded the 2010 albumSan Patricio with the Chieftains,Lila Downs,Liam Neeson,Linda Ronstadt,Van Dyke Parks,Los Cenzontles, and Los Tigres.[28][29]
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In June 2010, responding to the passage ofArizona SB 1070, he released the single "Quicksand", which tells the story of Mexicans attempting to emigrate to Arizona through the desert.[30][31]Cooder's critically acclaimed[32][33] new albumPull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, released on August 30, 2011, contains politically charged songs such as "No Banker Left Behind"[34] which was inspired by aRobert Scheer column.[35]
In 2011, he published a collection of short stories calledLos Angeles Stories, written about people living in Los Angeles in the 1940s and 1950s. The book's characters are mostly talented or skilled, clever or hardworking people living in humble circumstances. With story titles such as "La vida es un sueño" and "Kill me, por favor", the collection's stories often have a Hispanic theme, and the book deals partially with Latinos living in Los Angeles during this time.
AnAmerican Songwriter article in 2012 suggested that Cooder's recent string of solo albums have often taken on an allegorical, sociopolitical bent. Music journalist Evan Schlansky said that "Cooder's latest effort,Election Special (released August 21, 2012, on Nonesuch/Perro Verde) doesn't mince words. It's designed to send a message to the 'deacons in the High Church of the Next Dollar'".[36] The album was composed in support of theDemocratic Party and PresidentBarack Obama in the 2012 election.
On September 10, 2013, Cooder releasedLive in San Francisco, featuring the Corridos Famosos band, includingJoachim Cooder on drums;Robert Francis on bass; vocalists Terry Evans,Arnold McCuller, andJuliette Commagere;Flaco Jiménez on accordion; and the Mexican brass band La Banda Juvenil. The album was recorded during a two-night run atGreat American Music Hall inSan Francisco, August 31 and September 1, 2011. It is Cooder's first official live recording sinceShow Time in 1977 (which had also been recorded at Great American Music Hall).[37]
In 2015, Cooder toured withRicky Skaggs, Sharon White and other members ofthe Whites with their "Music for The Good People" show.[38] The tour continued through into 2016.
On May 11, 2018, Cooder released his first solo album in six years entitledThe Prodigal Son.[39] The subsequent tour featured opening performances by his son, Joachim, who also accompanied Cooder on drums.[40]
In 2019, he toured with Rosanne Cash on a brief tour as a tribute to Johnny Cash called "Cooder and Cash on Cash".[41]
On April 22, 2022, Cooder and Taj Mahal releasedGet on Board: The Songs of Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee.[42]
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| Awards | ||
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| Preceded by | AMA Lifetime Achievement Award for Instrumentalist 2007 | Succeeded by |
