Last week, Geoff Muldaur – a multi-talented musician, singer and composer, dropped a tour de force boxed set entitled, His Last Letter. We got a chance to pick his brain about the inspiration behind the project, working with so many talented artists and much more.
Congratulations on the new boxed set! What made now the perfect time to take on this ambitious project?
Years ago, while visiting NE Arizona, I took a 4-wheel truck ride around Canyon de Chelly with a Navajo guide. He told stories about his people… and about the various ancient cultures that preceded them. He showed us Anasazi ruins and pictographs on cave and canyon walls depicting animals, human figures and village scenes… some prehistoric. In one of the canyon branches, del Muerto as I remember it, were wall paintings of one particular, nameless person.
In 1864, Kit Carson and his band of barbaric, military thugs slaughtered two dozen Navajo in Canyon de Chelly, burned their homes to the ground, killed their livestock and forced their surrender and removal from the Canyon to Bosque Redondo, NM a few hundred miles away; this indignity, known as the Long March.
After Carson left, and the canyon went silent, one Navajo man remained… he’d hid among the caves and rocks and avoided capture. He spent years drawing on the canyon walls… depicting his and his people’s life as it had been before capture.
Well, you get the drift. I come from another era… and although no single cataclysmic event caused the huge shift in our shared cultural and artistic values over these many years… I don’t think anyone can describe the times we’re living in now as the Golden Age of American music. That died out many years ago. And as someone who grew up in the last decades of that Golden Age, I bring a fair measure of that lost feeling – the one that surrounded me, shaped and nurtured me as a young man – to my music. All this, for what it’s worth to the listener.
As to the timing of my projects, there’s a recurring pattern. Musical ideas well up in me… and at a certain point it’s time to make a move… and I get to work. John Lee Hooker said it, “… because it’s in him, and it’s got to come out.”
There are quite a few American standards on this project. What drew you to some of the songs in particular?
Of the American standards (although, due to their relative obscurity, I don’t consider them “standards”) recorded on His Last Letter, I absorbed a couple of them as a young lad: the Jelly Roll Morton and Fats Waller pieces. Others, including the folk material, have come to me little by little along my musical journey. I heard Jimmie Rodger’s “Prairie Lullaby” in my early twenties, and although I heard Duke Ellington’s music at a very young age, I didn’t hear “Lady of the Lavender Mist” until my thirties, and Bix’s “Betcha I Getcha” popped up in 2002 while researching material for the Private Astronomy album.
As with all of us – musician or not – what pulls us into music, hopefully, is our feeling of connection…of resonance. It’s a matter of the heart for which there is no clear explanation. Although I’m a musician, I’m not drawn to a musical performance by technical or academic constructions. The mind is not in play. For example… Alban Berg? Yes. Arnold Schoenberg? No. Go figure. That’s just me, but as Willie Dixon said, “Everybody’s into their own thing.”
Tell me a bit about your original compositions and how they fit into the overall vibe of the release?
I’ve been rendering music from the American songbag my entire professional life, starting early on with the Jim Kweskin Jug Band. I take pieces that interest me and find new ways to present them… a type of impressionism perhaps. During the ten years it took to complete this project, I became ready and willing let go the constraints of an established, recognizable source, and go deeper. I didn’t know where this might lead, nor did I know if I’d be up to the task of pure composition, but in time things worked out quite well… if I might say so. I’ll do more of this in the future. Better to compose than decompose.
I understand that this boxed set was recorded in Amsterdam. Who are some of the Dutch musicians featured on the release?
Principal artists:
Margreet Bongers, bassoon. Margreet is the principal bassoonist with the Netherlands Philharmonic. She is also engaged as soloist with other orchestras and renowned for her baroque and classical style. The principal bassoonist in the LA Chamber Orchestra, Kenneth Munday – with whom I’ve worked – studied classical bassoon with Margreet (that’s a hell of a way to go for lessons, but she’s that good).
Hans Colbers, clarinet. Hans has been 1st clarinetist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Rotterdam Philharmonic. He is also a soloist with the Hague Philharmonic and professor of clarinet at the Conservatorium of Amsterdam.
Wouter Brouwer, French horn. As a young man, Wouter was the solo horn with the Radio Symphony Orchestra. He is now principal horn with The Netherlands Philharmonic and The Netherlands Chamber Orchestra.
Alida Schat, 1st violin. Until recently, Alida was concertmaster of the Metropole Jazz Orchestra. She has performed with the Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe… and is a regular player with string quartets, including the Faro Quartet and the Narratio Quartet.
Mick Stirling, cello. Britisher, Mick Stirling studied with Lawrence Lesser at the New England Conservatory. He was later cellist with the German Ensemble Moderne in Frankfurt and part of the Raphael Ensemble. Mick is currently co-principal cellist for the Dutch Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also performed as guest principal with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony, and Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
… and our wonderful vocalist:
Lady Claron McFadden, mezzo-soprano. Claron studied at the Eastman School of music in Rochester, NY. She debuted in the title role of Lulu under the baton of Sir Anthony Davis. Other performances have been with The Netherlands Opera, Salzburg Festival, Aix-en-Provence Festival, La Monnale, the Royal Opera and many more. She is a regular guest with the BBC Proms and has performed with the Nash Ensemble and the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw. Claron has for many years been a resident of the Netherlands and was knighted on April 24th 2020.
Other very talented musicians brought their skills to the project as well. I’m a lucky man.
What can fans expect from the 40-page booklet that is included in the boxed set?
The project ended in January 2020, after ten years of trips to Amsterdam to rehearse and record. Then Covid hit. As I found myself under house arrest, so to speak, I focused my energies on the album notes. First off, I sent the recordings to composer David Amram to see if he might be interested in writing the Foreword. He replied, saying he was quite happy to do so… and he was enthusiastic about the music. Next, I wrote the Introduction, explaining the early influences that contributed to my approach to the project and the circumstances that landed me in Amsterdam. The liner notes for each song became an autobiography of a sort… childhood memories, the scene in the New Orleans French Quarter in ‘61, my experiences in the Cambridge folk music scene, my time in Woodstock, Albert Grossman, Butterfield, road stories about travel-mate Bobby Charles, encounters with Duke Ellington, Lonnie Johnson, Benny Carter and others greats… and of course, the story behind the title of the album, His Last Letter… the inspiration for the Octet in Three Movements.
Where can fans purchase the boxed set? Is your website the best place?
The 2-LP boxed set and the 2-CD book (same content, different format) of His Last Letter are available online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online sites. But folks can also order the album at one of the few remaining good ol’ American record stores like Music Millennium in Portland, OR, Amoeba Music in Southern Cal and the Bay Area, Waterloo Records in Austin… and a few others. My website is informational only… nothing for sale.
Will you be touring in support of the release?
I may do a few gigs to stay in shape, but no, I’ll not be touring to support the album. At this point in my life, it’s about the body of work, not the career. Soon I’ll be moving on to the next project, which brings us to your next question…
What’s next after this incredible project?
This Fall, I’ll be starting a recording project in New York. My producer and I are rounding up the musicians, studios, engineers, etc. Things could get warm and funky. There will be horns, drums, singers and electricity!
Is there anything else you’d like to share with Eponymous Review readers?
Life is an adventure. Don’t dig a rut and furnish it. Support live music. Cool it with the electronic devices. Read a book. Be beholding to your neighbors… and don’t forget to brush your teeth. And thanks for the interview Laurie.
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Click here to pick-up a copy of His Last Letter. More information about Geoff Muldaur can be found at Geoffmuldaur.com.