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<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\n<\/b>By Russell Hall<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Ahmir \u201cQuestlove\u201d Thompson knows how to bide his time. Nearly five years ago, the Roots\u2019 drummer and bandleader met for the first time with talk show host Jimmy Fallon to discuss potential musical guests for Fallon\u2019s new late night TV show. As newly hired music director\u2014with the Roots as house band\u2014Questlove listened intently as Fallon reeled off the names of artists: Herbie Hancock \u2026 Lenny Kravitz \u2026 Elvis Costello.<\/p>\n
The veteran drummer picks up the story: \u201cAfter the meeting, I went home to Philadelphia and told [longtime Roots producer] Steven Mandel exactly what Jimmy had said. When I mentioned Elvis Costello, a light bulb lit up in Steven\u2019s head. \u2018Can you imagine if you were to back him?\u2019 he said. \u2018He would fall in love with you guys. Maybe you could make a record together.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
A year later Costello made his first appearance on the show. For the occasion, the Roots\u2014who by then had earned a reputation for their inventive takes of guests\u2019 material\u2014worked up an inspired arrangement of \u201c(I Don\u2019t Want to Go to) Chelsea,\u201d a Costello tune from the late 1970s. Little did they know that the acclaimed British rocker was already an avid fan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was well aware of the Roots from their recordings,\u201d reveals Costello, \u201cand I admired the way they had transitioned to a second career, bringing a wholly different approach to late night television and being a collaborative band. They were also bringing a certain wit and a sense of exploration to that process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Questlove didn\u2019t mention his desire for a Costello-Roots collaboration, but the groundwork had been laid. Last year, following Costello\u2019s fourth visit to the show, Questlove broached the topic by somewhat cryptically alluding to a classic album. Costello explains: \u201cWe were walking off the set together and Quest dropped this little code phrase. I don\u2019t want to tell people which band, which singer and what record he named, but I knew what he meant right away. While I knew we couldn\u2019t make that record, I hoped we might be able to make this<\/i> record.\u201d<\/p>\n
The resulting album, Wise Up Ghost<\/i>, exceeded expectations. Begun in secret without record label backing, the project was sometimes pieced together in compartmental fashion\u2014with much of the work being done in the Roots\u2019 rehearsal room at NBC\u2019s New York headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Center. Costello describes the making of the record as a musical dialogue among himself, Questlove, Mandel and the other members of the Roots. \u201cSteven worked very long hours,\u201d he says. \u201cHe would get members of the Roots to lay in parts in response to things Quest and I had started. His mixing has lots to do with the space that\u2019s in the album\u2014the \u2018dub outs,\u2019 things disappearing out of the rhythm, the way everything flows. It\u2019s a way of working that would be unimaginable if everyone had been in the room playing together.\u201d<\/p>\n
High points include \u201cTripwire,\u201d a beautifully hypnotic, gauzy lullaby, \u201cWalk Us Uptown,\u201d a dub-laden slice of New Orleans-style funk, and \u201cStick Out Your Tongue,\u201d a refashioning of Costello 1983\u2019s \u201cPills and Soap\u201d with a dark, Sly Stone-like groove. String embellishments are scattered throughout\u2014the work of orchestral arranger Brent Fischer.<\/p>\n
Credit the Roots\u2014indisputably hip-hop\u2019s finest ensemble\u2014for showcasing new dimensions in Costello\u2019s songcraft. \u201cEverybody comments on all the ways rock and hip-hop are different,\u201d says Costello, \u201cbut we\u2019re actually quite alike. I\u2019ve always borrowed figures and rhythms as a way of animating the ideas I have. The Roots come out of a background that allows them to combine that with the editorial methodology of hip-hop. Rock \u2019n\u2019 roll is much the same\u2014it\u2019s just different rhythms and a different society that it reflects.\u201d<\/p>\n
Questlove concurs. \u201cWhatever you do is derivative of whatever styles influenced you,\u201d he says. \u201cElvis and I found we had an enormous amount in common, things we discovered in making the album.\u201d<\/p>\n
Did you share a vision?<\/b><\/p>\n
QUESTLOVE: There wasn\u2019t any sort of summit meeting. But Elvis was insistent about the idea of us meeting each other in the middle. Had it been solely up to me, I would have been like, \u201cOK, we have to compete with [Costello\u2019s 1978 album] This Year\u2019s Model<\/i>.\u201d Elvis actually said, \u201cEveryone\u2019s dreaming of the moment I\u2019ll go back to an album like that, but that\u2019s clearly not going to happen. I\u2019m not the same person I was then.\u201d Plus, it turns out he\u2019s a fan of the sound we have. And obviously we worship the ground he walks on.<\/p>\n
Did one song point the way?<\/b><\/p>\n
COSTELLO: \u201cPills and Soap\u201d turned out to be a good starting point as a song from my catalog that we could re-examine. Quest laid down some drums that gave the flow of the music a very different feel, and I laid down keyboard, bass, some guitar\u2014very spare parts. What we ended up with, \u201cStick Out Your Tongue,\u201d is a radically different record. From there we were able to go a lot more expansively into writing brand-new pieces or revisiting old texts with entirely different music.<\/p>\n
Was it helpful a label wasn\u2019t involved?<\/b><\/p>\n
COSTELLO: It was significant in that we didn\u2019t have a timetable\u2014the album was done when it was done. Two or three record companies expressed early interest, but Blue Note had an initiative and panache about the way they wanted to present the album. [Label president] Don Was very much wanted the words to be in balance with the music. He also suggested the nature of the cover art, which had a good humor to it.<\/p>\n
QUESTLOVE: Once we had 15 songs done, it was like, \u201cOK, now let\u2019s play it for some people and see if they like it.\u201d Don instantly said he would take it. What you\u2019re listening to is a record completed in our free time\u2014a real passion project, which makes it more pure. It\u2019s probably the only album I\u2019ll ever work on where there was no outside pressure. \u201cThere has to be a single.\u201d \u201cThis has to be a hit.\u201d There was none of that.<\/p>\n
Feel pressure to measure up to Elvis\u2019 past work?<\/b><\/p>\n
QUESTLOVE: Absolutely. That\u2019s why Steven Mandel\u2019s role was crucial. I\u2019m attuned to how critics operate, how they receive records. It\u2019s one thing if Elvis didn\u2019t have a history of experimenting\u2014he\u2019s done a lot of that on his albums. But I didn\u2019t want to be stoned and flogged for a bad experimental phase. That\u2019s where Steve\u2019s role was important. All of Elvis\u2019 work is in Steve\u2019s DNA. Steve was the anchor. We totally trusted him. It\u2019s hard to be your own judge and jury\u2014you really need a fresh set of ears.<\/p>\n
Was the entire band involved from the start?<\/b><\/p>\n
QUESTLOVE: Yes, all the Roots. The album was recorded in our dressing room. Elvis would give us a skeleton idea, and then James Poyser or Kamal Gray and I would work on it, and Elvis added vocals. The rest of the band\u2014Kirk Douglas and Mark Kelley and the others\u2014would later add their instruments. It might start as a bare-bones idea with Elvis emailing something. I\u2019d start a drum template before handing it to the keyboardists, and then back to Elvis to add lead vocals and background vocals. Once that was done, we would dress it up with the bass, guitar and percussion.<\/p>\n
How important were the orchestrations?<\/b><\/p>\n
QUESTLOVE:\u00a0 We were blown away by what Brent Fischer brought back to us. I knew the record was great in its present state, but I felt Brent could breathe even more life into the project if that orchestral work was added. We actually paid for it out of our own pockets. Having those strings on the record gave us an outside perspective. It was almost like it wasn\u2019t just our record anymore\u2014we became more like fans of the album.<\/p>\n
COSTELLO: That was a very inspired decision Quest made. It was at a point when we could have decided the record was finished. My initial reaction was, \u201cAre you sure we won\u2019t be going too far?\u201d But when I heard what was written, heard the care\u2014particularly in the editorial and the mixing of the parts\u2014I knew that it really was an amazing contribution.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re insistent people not think of this as your\u00a0<\/b>hip-hop album.<\/b><\/p>\n
COSTELLO: If someone wanted to be incredibly lazy, they could call it that. I say that with some experience because I\u2019ve had records defined by very lazy thinking. I made an album [2010\u2019s National Ransom<\/i>] with a great cast of musicians, none of whom you would call bluegrass musicians\u2014and the music had nothing to do with bluegrass. Still, the lazy shorthand for that record was it was a bluegrass album because it had a fiddle on it. It would be idiotic to do the same with this album, to say that because of the Roots\u2019 background, this is somehow a hip-hop album. Does it have anything in common with the methodology of hip-hop production? Of course. But it has just as much in common with jazz and dub and R&B. After a while I just get sick of labels\u2014they serve no purpose.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Was recording in a rehearsal room challenging?<\/b><\/p>\n
QUESTLOVE: From the beginning the Roots have recorded in very unorthodox places. I actually prefer an uncomfortable atmosphere. Distractions force me to work harder. I\u2019m amazed at someone like Kanye West\u2014he made Yeezus<\/i> in Paris, a beautiful environment. He did My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy<\/i> in Hawaii. I\u2019m not able to do that. I want the heater not to work. Our best stuff has been done in broken-down studios.<\/p>\n
Has working Late Night<\/i> made the Roots a better band?<\/b><\/p>\n
QUESTLOVE: Between 1993 and 2009 the Roots probably did around 10 to 15 rehearsals, total. For the TV show, especially the first year, we were rehearsing two to three hours every day on the off chance someone would try to put us on the spot with a challenge. It\u2019s really paid off. We\u2019re all better musicians because we rehearse more.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s the attraction of collaboration?<\/b><\/p>\n
COSTELLO: Any music is a kind of collaboration. That was true when I worked with my first band. Was it always on equal footing? Probably not, because I wrote the songs. Collaborations that people comment on are like Burt Bacharach or Allen Toussaint or Paul McCartney. That\u2019s because they\u2019re very notable songwriters, and we come from different backgrounds. There\u2019s obviously a different kind of accommodation in working with them. And that would be the same with this project. This is a great musical entity. I think Quest and Steven\u2019s telling of the project is that they kind of hooked me into this. [laughs<\/i>] But I submitted willingly. They had a plan that I wasn\u2019t aware of. I take that in good heart, and I\u2019m glad they did it. At the time we started working on this record, I was going around telling people I\u2019m done with recording.<\/p>\n
Has this project changed your mind?<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n COSTELLO: I don\u2019t know, I\u2019ll tell you in about six months. It reminded me that it\u2019s some of the mechanical things that succeed the creation of music that are actually the things that drain the spirit. It\u2019s not the imagining of music\u2014I never had a problem with that. I never said I was going to stop writing, just that I wasn\u2019t going to record. But I actually like recording, so long as I can find a way to do it that isn\u2019t a waste of my time, or isn\u2019t just vanity. This project is and continues to be a tremendous experience, working with Questlove and Steven and the rest of the Roots. We\u2019ll see where it goes. \u00a0 M<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ROOTS ROCKERS Master wordsmith Elvis Costello funks up with musical magicians the Roots By Russell Hall Ahmir \u201cQuestlove\u201d Thompson knows how to bide his time. Nearly five years ago, the Roots\u2019 drummer and bandleader met for the first time with talk show host Jimmy Fallon to discuss potential musical guests for Fallon\u2019s new late night […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,7],"tags":[1070,1612],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11043"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11043"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11047,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11043\/revisions\/11047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}