Tony Newton: Difference between revisions
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HOLDSWORTH:: Well, it was a great period for me in terms of being introduced to some really unbelievable musicians; that's when I met Tony [Williams] and Alan Pasqua and Tony Newton, and hanging out and just being given a chance to play with them was really amazing. Alan is a truly astounding musician and I've always loved the way he plays. It's also only in the last five years that I realized what kind of a genius the guy is. Same with Gary Husband. But getting back to that particular period, I hated what I did on that record. I can't listen to it, but I thought everybody else sounded great. But I did the best I could at the time, so, that's all you can do, unfortunately I wish I could go back and do ‘em all again [laughs]. | HOLDSWORTH:: Well, it was a great period for me in terms of being introduced to some really unbelievable musicians; that's when I met Tony [Williams] and Alan Pasqua and Tony Newton, and hanging out and just being given a chance to play with them was really amazing. Alan is a truly astounding musician and I've always loved the way he plays. It's also only in the last five years that I realized what kind of a genius the guy is. Same with Gary Husband. But getting back to that particular period, I hated what I did on that record. I can't listen to it, but I thought everybody else sounded great. But I did the best I could at the time, so, that's all you can do, unfortunately I wish I could go back and do ‘em all again [laughs]. | ||
=Tony on Allan= | |||
==Guitar World 2023== | |||
Which of your many stops means the most to you? | |||
“My time with the Lifetime band means the most. That was the most innovative music that I’ve ever been a part of. Playing with Tony Williams, Allan Holdsworth, and Alan Pasqua was so different because the bar was set very high. We essentially created the genre of jazz-rock-fusion, and I’m still writing music like that today. I’m still waving that flag and refuse to let it drop.” | |||
That begs the question, why didn’t Lifetime last longer? | |||
“It was too bad; it really was. People think we just let it end, but we didn’t. It was the late 70s; we were out on tour and ran out of money. The record company [Columbia] didn’t want to fund it anymore, and that was it. I never understood it, and I never got to the bottom of it, but we were broke just the same. | |||
“After our last gig in San Francisco, Allan Holdsworth had to pawn his guitar to get home. I lived in L.A., so I didn’t have to, but he didn’t. I had no idea what was happening until I read about it later; it was so sad.” | |||
https://www.guitarworld.com/features/tony-newton | |||
==Gold Thunder== | |||
"After one of our short three-week tours, after about a year into the project, Tony stated that it was time to make a second album. He said that we would be doing it at Caribou Ranch studios in the mountains of Colorado. This studio was owned by the legendary bassist, Jim Guercio, of the super-group Chicago. It was located in the Denver mountains on a very large ranch-type layout…we were at Caribou about three weeks. The recording of the album 'Million Dollar Legs' was done differently than 'Believe It', the first recording. The recording went relatively smoothly, although it did have its challenges. Just as in the case of the first LP, we each brought in compositions to be considered for recording. This time as it just happened, I brought in more music than the other members. I had been writing the tunes over the vacation-break time that we had after the last tour. | |||
"I also still had strong ties to the California Motown family and during this time, I was doing some songwriting and producing with Al Cleveland. Al and I had gotten together to write 'You Did it To Me Baby'. We knew it was commercial because it had a vocal part, for which I sang lead. Tony actually wanted us to cross over to a broader listening audience, so he was 100% for recording 'You Did It To Me Baby', as was the producer-engineer, Bruce Botnick. I also wanted to write something with extended movements and time, as well as orchestral - not classical, but orchestral, meaning using strings, woodwinds, brass and other sound colors and shades. This became 'Inspirations of Love', inspired by a new relationship which was doomed from the start because of bad chemistry... | |||
"...We hired the great composer-arranger, Jack Nitzsche, to do the arrangements. Jack had done several famous recordings with the legendary Phil Spector and others... The day finally came to hear the finished mix and it was awesome. This was the day I could finally hear 'Inspirations of Love', which included an extended piece that I wrote for Tony to play a long solo. I also wanted to feature the bass clarinet in a section of the composition doubling with the electric bass. This was a carryover from my days playing bass clarinet and woodwinds in various orchestras when growing up. Jack and I had gotten together previously, and I had described the instrumentation and parts that I wanted to play by specific instruments. Jack conducted the orchestra and as soon as they struck up and started playing, the studio filled up with this glorious sound. The music critics in their reviews didn't seem to appreciate the orchestral sound. I guess they still yearned for the rawness of the 'Believe It' recording. Even though the orchestra wasn't with us on the road, we would still get cheers for our performances of this music. Alan Pasqua was very gifted at creating textures and colorful keyboard soundscapes. | |||
"A lot of people expected the second album to be a repeat of the first, bearing the same kind of material. We wanted to continue evolving and exploring new territory. Perhaps if there were a third recording, we may have brought back some of those elements. In any event, the 'Million Dollar Legs' album wasn't as intense or as high energy as our first album together. Who knows, it may have been due to the relaxing ranch energy." | |||
https://threadoflunacy.blogspot.com/2017/06/6-velvet-darkness-and-million-dollar.html | |||
[[Category:Musicians]] | [[Category:Musicians]] | ||
