| August 26th, 2005 11:49 AM |
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| Lazy Bones |
Jazzed-Up Rolling Stones
Sideman Records CD Of Rock Group's Songs
August 26, 2005
By OWEN McNALLY, Special to The Courant
Tim Ries, the jazz saxophonist for the Rolling Stones, who play tonight at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, became swept away by the songs of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards as he toured on what he calls "the gig of a lifetime."
So much so that the sideman has created a jazz-tinged CD homage called "The Rolling Stones Project."
Just released by Concord Records, Ries' ambitious three-year project was approved early by the Stones after they heard a sample of his jazz-inspired arrangements of their songs. Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood make guest appearances on the album, whose A-list lineup spills over with cameo roles by rock, pop and jazz luminaries.
Among the best tracks: a stunningly beautiful, ethereal version of "Wild Horses" featuring vocalist Norah Jones and guitarist Bill Frisell.
His more than two dozen collaborators include Sheryl Crow, who vocalizes on "Slippin' Away," guitarist John Scofield, bassist John Patitucci and pianist Bill Charlap.
A woodwind and keyboard player with solid jazz credits and classical training, Ries is a devout believer in ecumenical collaborations that break down rigid, arbitrary boundaries between musical genres.
"I think if you have great music and great musicians, it just shouldn't matter whether it's jazz or classical or pop or rock. What I wanted to do here with my `Stones Project' was to get wonderful, creative people together in the studio to play the music and really enjoy themselves," Ries says by phone from Toronto last week during a break from a final, pre-tour rehearsal with the Stones.
"I don't think this kind of mixed-genre collaboration is a huge problem for rock and pop people. And for jazz to be exclusionary today is a huge danger, especially with its already dwindling audience," he says.
Once he decided to put together his Stones tribute album, he knew his ensemble would not be a Stones' clone trying to imitate the super rock group's patented power and glory.
"That would be pointless. And cover bands have already done it. So that's not what this project is all about," he says.
He breathes a jazz feeling into the Stones' songs while paying the utmost respect to their melody, he says. As a jazz arranger, he changes keys, time signatures and tempos, and re-harmonizes pieces. But he doesn't alter the original melodies, which he loves for their openness and spirit.
"I try to keep the melodies true. I want to put my take on them, without obscuring them so that you don't have to listen to them five minutes before you finally figure out the name of the tune," he says.
Ries also loves variety.
So his "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" boogaloos in a funky, celebratory mood reminiscent of jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan's soulful hit "Sidewinder." And on "Honky Tonk Woman," Ries on tenor, Watts on drums and Larry Goldings on Hammond B3 organ groove as if they were jamming in a smoky, after-hours Harlem club in the 1960s.
"Street Fighting Man" dances to a bona fide Brazilian beat. The track sounds as if it were handmade in Rio thanks, in part, to the Brazilian-American vocalist Luciana Souza and percussionist Mauro Refosco.
Ries, 45, is married to classical harpist Stacey Shames, who sits in on "Wild Horses." They have three daughters, one who is 11 and twins who are 2½.
"You can see I've got tuitions and weddings to pay for down the road," he says.
When not touring with the Stones, Ries, who lives in New Jersey just outside Manhattan, is busy with jazz gigs, recording dates and work in Broadway pit bands and in studios recording jingles and film scores.
He's going to keep his Stones project alive with his own touring jazz band playing his charts. His Stones Project band is already booked at the Regattabar in Cambridge, Mass., for a CD release party Sept. 20 and for a tour of Brazil in December.
As for playing for the Stones, he says it's absolutely the greatest pop or rock gig he could ever imagine.
"You're treated with the utmost respect. The Stones make you feel like part of the family and treat you the way they would want to be treated," he says.
As a Stones sideman, Ries makes what, without being specific, he calls "great money," travels by private jet and sleeps in a $400-a-night hotel room.
The luxurious lifestyle on the road with rock 'n' roll royalty is in dramatic contrast to the Spartan existence of his first major jazz gig more than two decades ago. Then just out of college and hungering for real-life experience in the jazz world, he happily roughed it across the American countryside aboard a bus with the Maynard Ferguson Orchestra.
"I loved that too, of course, because I was young, had no kids and Maynard was my idol. With the Stones, though, we're put up in the same hotels they stay in, and fly in the same jet with them. There couldn't be better people to work for," he says.
"When I get up in the morning and have my breakfast, I feel like I'm just a regular guy. But then I think to myself, `Yeah, you're a regular guy, but you're also the guy who plays saxophone for the Stones and you're going to rehearse with them later today.
"Sometimes it's hard to believe." |
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