{"id":12740,"date":"2012-12-11T03:00:43","date_gmt":"2012-12-11T03:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/?p=12740"},"modified":"2012-12-11T03:00:43","modified_gmt":"2012-12-11T03:00:43","slug":"ry-cooder-the-moula-banda-rhythm-aces-lets-have-a-ball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/2012\/12\/11\/ry-cooder-the-moula-banda-rhythm-aces-lets-have-a-ball\/","title":{"rendered":"Ry Cooder & The Moula Banda Rhythm Aces: Let’s Have A Ball"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"rycooder.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Someone told me once they didn’t like Ry Cooder, a sentiment I’d place in the same category as saying you don’t like, say, chocolate: as an attitude it’s within the bounds of possibility but it requires a considerable effort of sympathetic imagination to appreciate. Let’s Have A Ball<\/em> is a 90-minute Ry Cooder concert film by the great documentary filmmaker Les Blank, better known for Burden of Dreams<\/em><\/a> (1982), his chronicle of the trials of Werner Herzog and company during the making of Fitzcarraldo<\/em><\/a>. Burden of Dreams<\/em> is that rare thing among “making of” films, a documentary that’s as fascinating as the film whose production it depicts.<\/p>\n

Let’s Have A Ball<\/em> catches Ry Cooder and his band playing at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz, California, on March 25th, 1987 during their Get Rhythm<\/em> tour. I’d seen this when it was broadcast on Channel 4 in 1988 but don’t have it on tape so thanks go to the Metafilter<\/a> people for drawing attention to the entire concert at YouTube<\/a>. The film was screened in Europe and elsewhere but not in the US, and for now remains unavailable in any official capacity for unspecified reasons; Les Blank’s site says Cooder doesn’t want it released. This is surprising since it’s a fantastic concert film, the sound quality and performances are easily as good as anything on his live albums. In addition to great renditions of Cooder’s back catalogue you get to see several of his regular collaborators in action, not least Van Dyke Parks playing some typically idiosyncratic piano. The high spot is a 16-minute version of Down In Hollywood<\/em> where everyone, singers included, gets to show off their solo prowess.<\/p>\n

The band:<\/strong>
\nRy Cooder: guitar, vocals
\nJim Keltner: drums
\nVan Dyke Parks: keyboards
\nJorge Calderon: bass
\nFlaco Jim\u00e9nez: accordion
\nMiguel Cruiz: percussion
\nSteve Douglas: sax
\nGeorge Bohannon: trombone
\nSingers: Bobby King, tenor; Terry Evans, baritone; Arnold McCuller, tenor; Willie Green Jr, bass<\/p>\n

The songs:<\/strong>
\nLet’s Have A Ball
\nJesus On The Mainline
\nHow Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live?
\nJesus Hits Like The Atom Bomb
\nDown In Mississippi
\nMaria Elena
\nJust A Little Bit
\nThe Very Thing That Makes You Rich (Makes Me Poor)
\nCrazy About An Automobile
\nChain Gang
\nDown In Hollywood
\nGood Night Irene<\/p>\n

Previously on { feuilleton }
\n\u2022 My Name Is Buddy by Ry Cooder<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Someone told me once they didn’t like Ry Cooder, a sentiment I’d place in the same category as saying you don’t like, say, chocolate: as an attitude it’s within the bounds of possibility but it requires a considerable effort of sympathetic imagination to appreciate. Let’s Have A Ball is a 90-minute Ry Cooder concert film … Continue reading “Ry Cooder & The Moula Banda Rhythm Aces: Let’s Have A Ball”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,3],"tags":[4383,4381,4377,4380,4375,4376,4374,4378,1748,4379,4382,3800,611,4384],"class_list":["post-12740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","category-music","tag-arnold-mcculler","tag-bobby-king","tag-flaco-jimenez","tag-george-bohannon","tag-jim-keltner","tag-jorge-calderon","tag-les-blank","tag-miguel-cruiz","tag-ry-cooder","tag-steve-douglas","tag-terry-evans","tag-van-dyke-parks","tag-werner-herzog","tag-willie-green-jr"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pq7rV-3ju","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12740\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}