Scott
WalkerFrom the glittering
heights of 1960s pop stardom to cult favourite and self-imposed anonymity,
singer/songwriter Scott Walker has led one of the more interesting musical
careers. Amazon.co.uk contributor Patrick Humphries
examines the history of
this modern musical enigma.
"Never comfortable as a pop idol--a 1965 Fabulous
profile found him spending most of his time nose-deep in a Jean-Paul Sartre
paperback..."
Stephen
WarbeckStephen Warbeck is one of
Britain's most successful film and television composers. His work has included
Prime Suspect
,
Mrs Brown
,
Mystery Men
,
A Christmas
Carol
and
Shakespeare in Love
, for which he won an Oscar and he is
the Head of Music for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Gary Dalkin spoke to him
shortly before the release of his remarkable,
A Shakespeare
Celebration.
"It's like a safety valve. I play the accordion and
piano. In my work I'm writing for film and theatre and you have to keep your
silliness slightly under control or things go horribly wrong. But with the
hKippers, we don't have to."
Norma
WatersonNorma Waterson is BBC
Radio 2's Folk Singer of the Year, but her tastes range far beyond the rural
English sounds heard on her album
Bright Shiny
Morning. She
tells Amazon.co.uk
about her extracurricular musical passions.
"He does a solo in "I'm Coming Virginia" which is so
nostalgic and evocative. It brings such a feeling to me."
Charlie
WattsCharlie Watts is best
known for supplying solid backbeats to The Rolling Stones, but his first love
was jazz, and for the last 15 years he's been moonlighting as leader of a jazz
big band and combo. His latest album,
The Charlie Watts-Jim
Keltner Project, brings together his interests, merging jazz
with rock, techno and dance beats. He
talks to Amazon.co.uk
writer, Mark Gilbert about his new record and the power of jazz.
"It's a frightening music and it takes a bit of
listening to. Some jazz can drive you mad because it's the wrong time of day,
but Chet Baker is the classic jazz player to me."
Bugge
WesseltoftThe term "Scandinavian
jazz" typically evokes the cool melancholy of Jan Garbarek, but like
Nils Petter Molvaer,
Bugge Wesseltoft has jolted Nordic jazz into the 21st century by mixing it with
techno and electronica. Amazon.co.uk
quizzes him about the
substance behind his recklessly titled
New Conception of
Jazz.
"Also, there is something specially European about
this music. Jazz is American of course, but I feel that the techno and
electronics scene is more European."
Kathryn
WilliamsLittle Black
Numbers elevated folk songstress Kathryn Williams from relative
obscurity to Mercury Prize-nominated stardom.
Old Low
Light--her first album on a major label--is as musically sparse,
lyrically intimate and altogether gorgeous as its acclaimed predecessor. As an
Amazon.co.uk
guest editor, she chooses
some of her favourite albums.
"I feel like it kind of changes the air in the room
and I feel like coming home from a hectic day and listening to it."
Brian
WilsonOne of pop music's
greatest songwriters and composers, Brian Wilson is notable for his work as a
founder of the
Beach Boys as well as for his own
solo
career. Amazon.co.uk
speaks with the living
music legend for a brief insight into his career, and especially his most
famous work, the Beach Boys'
Pet
Sounds.
"No, I don't listen to the music of today, I don't
like it. No hip-hop, no. I listen to the classic bands."
Bill
WymanIn recent years Bill
Wyman has stepped out from the Rolling Stones to rediscover the blues, first
with the Rhythm Kings and now in
Blues Odyssey
, an
album,
book and TV series
tracing the music. Bill broke from his travels to
talk to Amazon.co.uk.
"I've been a collector all my life; I even sold my
stamp collection to get enough money to buy a wind-up 78-rpm gramophone."
James
YorkstonScottish troubadour James
Yorkston has caused quite a stir on the folk and indie scenes with his debut
album,
Moving Up
Country. As Amazon.co.uk
guest editor, he chooses
some of the albums that influenced his own songwriting.
"I saw him playing in Bradford town square once.
About 20 people watching transfixed. He looked nonplussed and played like the
devil through the chants of passing drunks."
Zero 7Two childhood friends
have taken the dance world by storm with their chilled, downbeat electronica.
Amazon.co.uk
speaks to Sam and Henry,
otherwise known as
Zero 7 about their album
Simple
Things and the rise of the chill-out genre.
"It's very much trendy club music but not
dancey."
