RANDY BEHAVIOR AN ECLECTIC MIX OF ARTISTS WILL HONOR COMPOSER NEWMAN AT UCLA.Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor WHEN RECORD producer Hal Willner was approached to do a tribute album of the songs of Randy Newman, he balked balk v. balked, balk·ing, balks v.intr. 1. To stop short and refuse to go on: The horse balked at the jump. 2. . That might sound odd considering that Willner, while not inventing the tribute genre, made it into an art form with such eclectic and inspired works as ``Amacord, Nina Rota'' (with artists including Wynton Marsalis Wynton Learson Marsalis (b. October 18, 1961) is an American trumpeter and composer. He is among the most prominent jazz musicians of the modern era and is also a well-known instrumentalist in classical music. He is also the Musical Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. and Bill Frisell William Richard "Bill" Frisell (born March 18, 1951) is a North American jazz guitarist, progressive folk musician and composer. Frisell uses a wide range of effects (delay, distortion, reverb, octave shifters, and volume pedals, to name a few) to create unique sounds from his ), ``That's the Way I Feel Now: A Tribute to Thelonius Monk'' (Dr. John and Joe Jackson There are several people named Joe Jackson:
Reed first found prominence as the guitarist and principal singer-songwriter of The Velvet Underground (1965-1973). and Sting) and ``Stay Awake'' (Bonnie Raitt, Tom Waits, Sun Ra), which spotlighted tunes from Disney animated films. It would seem then that the idiosyncratic id·i·o·syn·cra·sy n. pl. id·i·o·syn·cra·sies 1. A structural or behavioral characteristic peculiar to an individual or group. 2. A physiological or temperamental peculiarity. 3. songs of Newman - which range from rockers like ``I Love L.A.'' and ``You Can Leave Your Hat On'' to the poignant ``I Think It's Going to Rain Today'' to the pop ``Lonely at the Top'' - would be a perfect fit. Instead, Willner will forgo the album for a stage tribute, cheekily titled ``Shock and Awe Shock and awe, technically known as rapid dominance, is a military doctrine based on the use of overwhelming decisive force, dominant battlefield awareness, dominant maneuvers, and spectacular displays of power to paralyze an adversary's perception of the battlefield and ,'' at UCLA's Royce Hall on Saturday, one night after Newman - whom Willner calls ``everything you want to hear in a recording artist'' - performs there. Willner's reluctance stems from the fact that he sees it as an ``odd time'' to do tribute records. ``Through my stuff and a few others, the whole tribute record thing has gotten crazy,'' he says. ``Now they're doing tributes to Buddy Greco.'' Another reason most tribute albums don't interest him is that there is pressure to have a certain amount of stars on an album, which Willner feels limits the range of musical expression. He likes to mix things up. To wit, for Saturday's show, Willner is assembling a pretty varied group. When you look down the list of performers, you'll find alternative rockers like E (of the Eels); stage actress-singer Ellen Greene, jazz guitarist Frisell, r&b singer Howard Tate; folk legend Taj Mahal; singer- songwriters Ed Harcourt, Victoria Williams, Stan Ridgway and Vic Chestnut; and, just for a change-up, two actors - Rip Torn and John Ventimiglia (``The Sopranos''). When we talked to Willner, he was still looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. ``one more voice.'' Who that is, we can't say say, but Willner enjoys the last-minute challenge, which he calls exciting and nerve-racking. ``I was trained on 'Saturday Night Live' where we'd get the script Wednesday night for a show on Saturday; so this is nothing.'' Willner, who is an artist in residence at UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX , has produced a number of these tribute shows before, including one to folk archivist ARCHIVIST. One to whose care the archives have been confided. Harry Smith at UCLA in 2001. Although he calls ``Shock and Awe'' an opportunity to have a ``free-for-all night with no rules'' in which he can explore Newman's work, he has figured out a thing or two along the way about putting on one of these events. When he did the Smith show, it wasn't scripted and was a bit chaotic. For ``Shock and Awe,'' about 40 songs have been chosen and matched up with performers. As for a tribute album, the 47-year-old Willner hopes that ``Shock and Awe'' is a success and that he can - as he has with other shows - re-create it in places like London and New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of and then record it. ``Or,'' he jokes, ``people will just sell the bootlegs. You can buy the bootlegs of the Harry Smith shows - all 55 hours.'' Rob Lowman, (818) 713-3687 robert.lowman(at)dailynews.com RANDY NEWMAN Where: UCLA'S Royce Hall, Westwood. When: 8 tonight. Tickets: $40 to $50 ($25 for students). Call (310) 825-2101 or go to uclalive.org SHOCK AND AWE: THE SONGS OF RANDY NEWMAN Where: UCLA'S Royce Hall, Westwood. When: 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets: $30 to $50 ($20 for students). Call (310) 825-2101 or go to uclalive.org. CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- 2) Randy Newman, above, performs tonight at UCLA and will be followed Saturday by a tribute to the artist organized by producer Hal Willner, right. |
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