A rare solo outing from Ry Cooder, but don't expect the conventional `twelve unrelated songs' schtick that constitutes an album these days. For "Chavez Ravine" is a concept album about the eponymous area near Los Angeles that was torn down in the 1950's by developers to make way for the Dodgers Stadium. The attraction of this neighbourhood for Cooder is obviously its largely Hispanic population, ...
Ry Cooder has long had an interest in other people's music, from the blues and gospel of black America through classic jazz and the music of Cuba. Even by this standard, his meeting with Mohan Vishwa Bhatt is certainly a departure. He is neither a serious student of Indian music nor in any way a master of its intricacies. Yet on his improvised session (this album was recorded without rehearsal in ...
Think of Ry Cooder as a musicologist who makes learning fun. A particularly nifty collection from 1974, Paradise & Lunch is solo Cooder at his best. The song selection is inspired and unpredictable: numbers by Burt Bacharach, Mississippi Fred McDowell, and Bobby Womack mingle with ease. "Tattler" is a rare Ry original that happens to be one of the collection's highlights. Jazz legend Earl ...