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08/20/07 :: Press Release

WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD!

ANTI- TO RELEASE BOOKER T. JONES/JOLIE HOLLAND RECORDING OF LOUIS ARMSTRONG CLASSIC NOV. 6TH

SOUL ICON PAIRS WITH ACCLAIMED CHANTEUSE

FOR COLLABORATION OF 2007

40 YEARS AFTER ITS ORIGINAL RELEASE, SONG AS RELEVANT AS EVER

In what just may be the collaboration of 2007, legendary musician, songwriter and producer Booker T. Jones has joined forces with Texas-born singer/performer and Shortlist nominee Jolie Holland for a gorgeous rendering of the Louis Armstrong classic, 'What A Wonderful World.'  Set for release as a digital single via Anti- on November 6th, the uplifting and charming Jones/Holland collaboration celebrates the song's 40th anniversary by paying tribute to the Bob Thiele and George David Weiss-penned classic in its own distinctive and beautiful way.

First released in the fall of 1967 as an antidote to the increasingly racially and politically-charged climate in the U.S. at the time, Jones and Holland's viable new version of the song feels as apropos today as the original did four decades ago.

'With the world in its present state, I think the track and the recording of the song is timely,' Booker T. says. 'I hoped it would be something of a healing or a balm for the world right now because conditions are so bleak in so many places and areas. I'm hoping it'll be a timely, refreshing uplift for music listeners. I'm hoping it's going to be something to pick people up and to reaffirm hope and beauty--to remind them that there is beauty in the world. We hear so much about what's wrong and no one is really saying that the world is a beautiful place. It still is a beautiful wonderful place.'

To which Jolie Holland adds, 'I think we were all surprised to learn that we are releasing our version of this song on its fortieth anniversary. It was released in the fall of 1967, and here again it comes out in the fall of 2007. Now that we've recorded it, I hear it as it was originally imagined as a counter-point to the heaviness of the political songs of the civil rights movement. It was meant to remind us, that despite everything, the world is still beautiful. What is more centering than real beauty?'

The updated take on 'What A Wonderful World,' which finds Holland's angelic voice meshing ideally with the iconic Booker T.'s soulful organ and piano, will also boast a second collaboration as a B-side. With its moody vibe, the blues traditional 'It 's A Blessing,'  was personally chosen by Jolie.

The unique pairing of two artists from completely different musical worlds left both awestruck. 'Jolie was known to a lot of people for a long time, but for me she's a refreshing new discovery, ' Jones enthuses. 'Her voice sounds new and old at the same time. I made a new friend and it 's a wonderful new discovery for me. Recording with her was a wonderful experience for me and I'm looking forward to doing more with her if possible. Jolie carries beauty and it's just around her all the time.'

'It is an enormous honor to work with the elegant Mr. Booker T. Jones,'  Holland adds. 'It's hard to communicate what it was like--it kind of reminds me of how hard it is to talk about falling in love. You know, when you've got a crush, you just want to go on and on and have a good gossip with your friends about the crush. But then when you really fall in love, you have very little to say, because the experience is too profound for words. So I just have to say, it is such a deep honor to be able to count Booker among my friends. I'm so glad we had a chance to create something to share with the world, and I'm thrilled to consider what we can do in the future.'

Jones founded Booker T. and the MGs in 1962. While still in high school, he wrote the group's enduring instrumental, 'Green Onions.'  In addition to his enduring multi-instrumentalist role fronting the MGs, his esteemed career includes tenure throughout the 1960s as a session musician and songwriter for the famous Stax Records label. Exiting Stax in the 1970s, Jones performed as a solo artist while developing a sturdy reputation as a producer for the likes of Rita Coolidge, Bill Withers and Willie Nelson. He has also lent his trademark keyboard playing to recordings by everyone from Stephen Stills and Ray Charles to Neil Young and Natalie Merchant. Jones still plays with Booker T. and the MGs and his own Booker T. Jones Band. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 and was honored with a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement earlier this year.

Critically lauded Anti- recording artist Jolie Holland is one of the founding members of The Be Good Tanyas, but has come into her own as a solo performer, releasing three discs (2003's Catalpa, 2004's Escondida and 2006's Springtime Can Kill You for the acclaimed label. Labelmates Tom Waits and Sage Francis are enormous supporters of her warm, heartfelt approach to blues and folk styles. Waits nominated Catalpa for the Shortlist music prize while Francis called Escondida his 'most listened to album of 2005.'  On Francis' 2007 disc Human The Death Dance, Holland performed on two tracks. She is currently working on material for a forthcoming studio album, expected in 2008.

05/12/07 :: In a new feature by Jim Harrington on InsideBayArea.com, Booker says, "I am writing and coming up with a new sound to go with my old sound," he says. "It's a lot of work and I'm pretty busy with it. I've been kind of reorganizing my life and my whole musical structure, trying to reinvent myself and still stay the same." To read the entire feature, click here."

05/09/07 :: This week Booker T was featured on KGO-TV, in advance of the master class he will conduct at the Blue Bear School of Music on May 11 and the Blue Bear benefit concert May 12 at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco.

03/22/07 :: Austin was amazing, Booker T and the MGs held forth at Antone's, and earlier that day Booker sat in at the New West Records Party with Jason Isbell of the Drive By Truckers (thanks for the photos Erika):

Booker and Jason Isbell in Austin © 2007 Erika Goldring. Courtesy use.
Photo © 2007 by Erika Goldring; Courtesy use. Al Rights Reserved.

03/15/07 :: Booker @ SxSW ths week. Booker is appearing twice (at least) during the annual South by Southwest Music Industry conference in Austin, TX this year. On Thursday March 15 he'll appear with the MGs as part of the Stax 50th Anniversary Revue from 7:30 to 9 PM at the legendary Austin nightclub Antone's. Then on Friday March 16, Booker will be interviewed by Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot as part of a SxSW Music Panels interview.

03/06/07 :: Booker and the guys played a great show in Santa Cruz, CA last night; here's a photo from the gig of Booker and Vernon Black (thanks for the photo, Jim Pegram):

Booker and Vernon in Santa Cruz © 2007 Jim Pegram. Courtesy use.
Photo © 2007 by Jim Pegram; Courtesy use.

02/09/07 :: Legendary drummer Jim Keltner published his thoughts about Booker T and the MG's in yesterday's Variety. "Booker's incredibly subtle and beautiful keyboard work--put that together with the songs they wrote (and you have) one of the most important bands", he writes. "John Lennon used to call them 'Booker Table and the Mater Deis.'" To read the full text of Jim's article, click here.

02/06/07 :: Booker featured in San Francisco Chronicle. To read Joel Selvin's article celebrating the Lifetime Achievement GRAMMY Booker will receive this weekend, click here.

12/20/06 :: Booker T and The MGs named to receive 2007 GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Awards. Check the Newsletter for the full details.

10/2/06 :: Today, I went to the offices of Keyboard Magazine in San Mateo, CA. I was talking with Steve Fortner, their technical editor, over lunch, about how technology has changed the way people convey their musical ideas.

I described to him, how I had reams of old manuscript paper sitting on shelves in my garage, that I had used to write string, horn and rhythm arrangements in the late sixties and early seventies.

And how, in Hollywood, there used to be rooms full of men, copyists, sitting there waiting for arrangers to bring in their charts at three or four in the morning, so the music could be transcribed onto individual pages to be played at sessions all over town.

These sessions started at 10:00am and continued through the day. Now, the rooms are gone. The men are gone. Music is recorded a different way.

But I have not thrown out my old manuscript paper. I have programs on my computer that can accomplish the same tasks in fractions of the time. Maybe I have an emotional attachment to the past through them.

I have been fortunate to live at a time when I could experience two worlds. On the phone with Quincy Jones in 1969 he explained to me how to work the old MovieOla machine with my feet and balance a pen and notebook with my hands while sitting at the piano to compose a score for a movie. One reel carried the picture, the other the sound.

Then, some years later, I watched Hans Zimmer use ProTools shortcuts to edit a piece on a computer screen. Two parts of a beautiful masterpiece, the new and the old, the art of making music I am witnessing.

And to make it even more amazing, these sounds and sentiments on vinyl, 8 track and MP3 are the threads that human souls balance so many of their emotions on. Almost all of our passages; weddings, funerals, loves, hates, are experienced with music as a backdrop. We soar to heights and fall to depths unmeasured with music as a backdrop.

At this point, I am running alongside the bus, trying to keep up. I have had to take college courses in digital recording. But it is a pleasure to be doing this. I have always felt fortunate to be able to play music. But I am also fortunate that people have listened to so much music that I have made. And for that, I say thank you.

And that is the main point of this note, to say thank you. Thank you to everyone who has listened, and who will listen. Because, no matter what your opinion, I really believe the music would not have thrived without you, and that it cannot thrive without you, the listener.

I owe so much to certain ones who went before me. Jimmy Smith, Jack McDuff, Roy Hamilton, Ray Charles, Bill Doggett, Jean Sibelius, Benny Goodman, Jimmy Reed, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Tito Puente, Nat Cole, Hank Williams, Wynton Kelly, Floyd Cramer, Wagner, JS Bach, Fats Domino, Frank Sinatra, Hank Crawford, Miles Davis and Gerry Mulligan, and B.B. King were my musical influences.

Other influences included my mother, Johnnie Lurline Jones (a gospel singer and classical pianist), my father, Booker T. Jones, Sr. (a high school math teacher), Prof. Nat D. Williams (my high school history teacher and a disc jockey on WDIA in Memphis), and Mrs. Elmertha Cole, (my childhood piano teacher, who introduced me to the Hammond B-3 organ at age 9).

I would like to say thank you. Thank you to everyone who has listened, and who will listen to my music. Because, I really believe the music would not have thrived without you, and that it cannot thrive without you, the listener.

Technology has provided a way for me to convey my thoughts to you. And I hope to do more of that in the future!

Thanks for the support over the years, and, once again, thanks for listening!

Booker T. Jones