Document text
Photo by Jim Craven Alan Reder, left, of Rogue River, and John Baxter of Ashland asked more than 100 musicians about their favorite recordings and recording artists for the book "Listen to This!" Book names musicians' musicians Local authors interviewed 103 mucic greats on their favorites By BILL VARBLE Reading Who : Alan Reder and John Baxter, authors of "Listen to This" (Hyperion, $16.95). What : Book reading When : 7:30 p.m. Thursday Where : Bloomsbury Books, Ashland Rock guitarist Peter Buck of REM listens to jazz great John Coltrane. Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh digs highbrow composers Havergal Brian and Robert Simpson. Fiddle great Vassar Clements loves classical violinist Itzhak Perlman. Such are the nuggets that jump off the pages of "Listen to This!" a new book by Alan Reder of Rogue River, and John Baxter of Ashland. The two men spent more than three years talking to more than 100 top rock, folk, jazz and blues musicians about their favorite artists and recordings. The effect is like perusing a friend's music collection, except the CDs and tapes and vinyl albums you're checking out belong to Ani DiFranco, Waylon Jennings, Sir George Martin, Dave Matthews, Willie Nelson, Wilson Pickett, Pete Seeger and others. Visit the book at www.listentothismusic.com Baxter, in his day job a staffer at Jefferson Public Radio, and Reder, a freelance writer, are self-described lifelong music junkies. Several years ago they had the idea for a book in which the musicians themselves -- not the critics -- would talk about what they like best. "We thought it was a book we would want to read," Reder says. The problem was you don't just call up, say, a Taj Mahal or a Gregg Allman." "We're not Rolling Stone, and we weren't promoting a show," Reder says. Most of the interviews wound up being done over the phone, sometimes after much persuasion. Others took place when artists came to town to perform. "Every one I did was fun," Baxter says. That takes in territory from superstar pianist and singer Bruce Hornsby to Robert Wyatt, formerly of the British jazz-rock group Soft Machine, Baxter says. One who was surprisingly easy to connect with was Willie Nelson. Another was Greg Allman. Bobby McFerrin agreed to an interview but was too busy for two years. "Then one day he called out of the blue and said, `Wanna do an interview?"' Reder says. Mavis Staples, of the Staple Singers, met Reder in the bar at the Reston Hotel in Medford. She told him about growing up with the great gospel singer Mahalia Jackson as a neighbor who would drop by on the Fourth of July. Jackson once asked a young Staples to sing "Precious Lord" with her at a show in Harlem. Jackson was ill and wound up being helped to the microphone by a young minister named Jesse Jackson. Baxter and Reder think the nature of the project attracted the musicians. "We didn't ask who was sleeping with whom," Reder says. "These are people who love music and were excited about somebody getting this information out there." Don't look for the Spice Girls here. Do look for George Martin talking about John Lennon writing "In My Life," or Don Everly (the elder Everly brother) talking about growing up on the ballads of Hank Williams and then discovering the beat of Bo Diddley. Baxter says some musicians seemed busy at first but warmed up as an interview unfolded. "Sometimes it was obvious they were standing in front of their music collection," he says. "Oh yeah, I remember this," Bruce Hornsby would say, leafing through vinyl classics from Charles Ives and Keith Jarrett to Leon Russell and George Jones. The men say they're proud of the sheer feat of just getting 103 people interviewed. Some hoped-for interviews either didn't come off or didn't get into print, like one with blues great B.B. King. Folksinger Pete Seeger said he doesn't listen to recordings, but he talked for the book. "My main purpose as a musician is to put songs on people's lips instead of just in their ears," he said. Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin and Joni Mitchell head the list of those who couldn't be rounded up. Both men worked on all aspects of the book, with Baxter ending up doing more research, Reder more of the final writing. So do musicians listen differently? "Critics listen more impressionistically," Reder says. "A lot of subtleties, they'll miss." He points to recordings by jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery that were issued with lavish overdubs and panned by critics. "But he was playing great," Baxter says. "The musicians could hear that." At the end of the book is a "master list" of recordings by musicians' musicians: Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, The Beatles, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Coltrane, Sam Cooke, Duke Ellington, Brian Eno, Ella Fitzgerald ... It's a giant wish list for collectors, yet it's unlikely anybody would have them all. But then, as Baxter says with a chuckle, "I try not to judge anybody by their record collection." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA