By Andra Jackson.
American guitarist Robben Ford suggests Covid and its forced lockdowns were fortuitous in one sense in that it allowed him the time to create the album of which he is most proud. He recounts that when Covid struck the first time, the two albums he was producing for others were sidelined. “
“I thought what am I going to do? And then I thought, I know, I’ll produce my own record. So, there was the influence in that way. I had the time and a lot of things to write and my co-producer Casey Wasner was open to and willing to work.” The result is the album Pure.
The blues and jazz guitarist considers the recording, released in the United States in August last year on Ear Music, his best album to date. “It is the best representation of how I think as a musician, of how I play and there is a lot of versatility on it.’’ Pure reached number one in the American Blues Charts and stayed there for a while Ford says. But while it has blues inflexions, it is not really a blues album, he adds.
Ford was speaking from his home in Nashville ahead of his extensive Australian tour in May that includes headlining at Queensland’s Blues on Broadbeach Music Festival on the Gold Coast.
The record is unique for me because in the past, when you go into a studio with a full band, you’ve got songs written, we record them and of course we overdub and then there is mixing. But this time the writing was done as recording, a lot of that, and also I built the tracks with my co-producer Casey Wasner.’’
Ford draws a parallel between the innovative approached taken to capture the music on Pure, as similar to the process that creates a painting or a film. He explains that with a painting, “You can take something out, you can change a colour and this is the way we approached making the record. It is like making a movie, that’s an even better analogy, it (a movie) is in motion.’’ With the recording, “ the music is in motion, not stagnant. So for me, it is like you are in one scene and then all of a sudden a car comes around the corner.’’
He describes how he and Wasner would create a rhythm, a drum track using technology. “I would play bass. I’m not that good,’’ he laughs. He would add guitar and the track would be sent to a drummer to overdub drums and then to a bass player to add a bass. Only three tracks were cut live in the studio and the rest evolved in this way.
For Ford who played all the guitar parts on the album, the process gave him complete artistic control. “When you go into the studio with other people, they influence what you do. You might be looking for something else but you have to kinda go with it, with their feel, their concert.’’ For what was his 45th recording, “I really wanted it the way I wanted.’’
His coming tour of Australia starts on May 19 at Newcastle’s Lizottes followed by his Blues on Broadbeach Festival performances on May 21, 22. Ford figures it will be around his seventh Australian tour. “The Australian audience is great. It is just a great vibe. To tell you the truth, I was considering moving to Sydney but that’s just a little difficult for me to pull off right now’’.
He is bringing his four-piece band – Jovan Quallo on keyboards and sax, bassist Andy Hess, drummer Doug Belote and himself on guitars. The band will play three to four tracks off Pure, but its complexity makes it too difficult to reproduce others.
Ford has made his name as a member of pace-setting bands (LA Express, Yellow Jackets), as a bandleader (The Blue Line) and as a sought after guitarist to guest or collaborator on other musician’s albums. A formidable blues player, his career has also covered jazz and rock. A self-taught guitarist his first instrument was the saxophone that gave him music reading basics. While he can read charts, Ford shies away from commissions that involve complicated reading parts such as film scores.
The list of celebrated musicians who have sought his input on their recordings include Joni Mitchell who he also toured with early in his career, Jimmy Witherspoon, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Musselwhite, George Harrison, Ricky Lee Jones, Kiss. Bob Dylan, Kenny Garrett, Sonny Landreth and local guitarist Tommy Emmanuel.
“I was doing my own thing but I’d get calls because of my reputation,’’ he says of the recording collaborations. Sometimes, what is wanted has already been composed. Other situations are very collaborative and they are the best, he says. “I like being in a situation where everyone has something to offer, something to say. You don’t find a lot of that these days.’’ Expanding on how the best collaborations comes about, he says: “It’s a feel and I learnt that working in Los Angeles working with the best musicians in LA and on some wonderful projects.’’
The call in 1986 to play with Miles Davis came about after the trumpeter asked his producer Tommy LiPuma to recommend a guitarist. “He called me himself. My gosh, it was nuts, there’s that voice at the end of the phone and he just said (adopting a raspy voice): “Hey Robben, what you doing out there? “‘’
There was no band rehearsal before his first gig with Davis’s band. He met Davis briefly in the foyer beforehand for the first time. “The only thing I had to work with, I had a couple of cassettes to play and three or four really poor charts so I just listened to the music basically for those ten days before the first show and I learnt a couple of melodies off the charts.’’
He flew into town for the first gig on a Red-Eye flight that landed at 6 am, crashed, and met the band on the way to the gig. Ford remembers as they were driven to the gig, being “curled up in the back, sick to my stomach’’. “I went out and I’m on stage, a pro. It was the most terrifying experience on my entire life. My gosh, it was so intense, the music was so intense but after my first solo which I played head down and I played every note I knew, I looked up. Miles looked at me and said; “damm!’ Ford relaxed. “So I felt better and got through it and eventually felt good on the bandstand.’’
Ford recounts he had a good relationship with Davis over the six months he was with him before resigning. He would be at home and out of the blue the phone would ring and it would be that voice asking: “Robben, What you doing? He was just calling for a chat.
Ford resigned from the band because “it was no longer fun. The band was a bunch of individuals who didn’t really hang together too much and we always travelled separately from Miles and we travelled with the crew and it was so crowded.’’ I had just signed to Warner brothers and was making my album Talk To Your Daughte.
Ford cites his favourite person to work with as bluesman Jimmy Witherspoon. He was with him for two years in LA. “Spoon was just such an amazing performer and had such a great sense of swing that it really influenced certainly, my timing.’’ The bluesman was so commanding, you just want to be there for him, he says. The other two favourites, he cites are Joni Mitchell and Miles Davis “because they were such great leaders.’’
2022 is proving a busy year for Ford who has recently toured Europe and has had a second recording released this year – Live At Yoshi’s. It was recorded back in 1996 at the jazz club in San Francisco where Ford had residencies with his band Blue Line, a band he toured Australia with. ““It was a blues band, a rhythm and blues band, and a big time improvisation group,” he says.
Ford was concerned about how it would sound with the passage of time. But he found, ““it exceeds my expectations. The band, everyone is just playing their arses off.”
Three-times vaxxed, Ford is hoping the coming Australian tour, already rescheduled twice, will be a case of third time lucky.
A huge part of his career has become teaching. It started off as a money- earner but Ford found eventually it became something he really enjoyed. He holds clinic and puts out teaching videos and has a dedicated website www. Robbenfordguitardojo.com. He is keen to hold some teaching clinics this trip.
*Ford and band are playing Newcastle’s Lizottes on May 19 (already sold out), followed by Blues on Broadbeach Festival performances on May 21,22. He plays Melbourne’s Memo Music Hall May 25 and 26, Factory Theatre, Sydney, May 27th and The Gov, Adelaide on the 28th.