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Artist / Heroes,
Behind the Scenes with Paul Simon: How Do You Rewrite a List of Classics Every Single Night?
Thursday, June 09, 2011
Posted by: Will Cady | Posted in: Artist / Heroes,
We at Source Audio had the chance to witness a remarkable scene this past week when we met up with our good friend Bakithi Kumalo, bassist for Paul Simon.
We found ourselves in the late afternoon, sitting on empty road boxes on the side of the stage at the Fenway Park House of Blues watching Paul Simon standing centerstage flanked by his band of world-class musicians and completely rewriting the set for a performance slated to start in only an hour and a half later.
According to one of the sound engineers, this happens every show. They call it ‘The Matinee’. After the band sound checks and gets all the levels right, Paul comes in and proceeds to rewrite the arrangements of songs they’ve been playing for over thirty years based on what feels right for that room and that day. These rehearsals are known to last right up until the doors open and the public spills in.
It's a bit of a spectacle to see the entire crew hush up and the focus of everyone in the venue shift to Paul as he starts gently strumming the rhythm guitar line to “Slip Sliding Away”. He does it with this delicate energy that I imagine is identical to what one would hear from him absent-mindedly playing in his hotel room to pass the time. The band tip-toes in, careful not to let their size step on the toes of this intimate vibe. Somehow they manage to preserve the delicacy of the music as they amplify it. It’s thrilling to watch. It’s like watching a glass blower create a vase. How does it not break?
‘Stop. Stop, stop, stop.’
The song staggers to a halt as Paul walks over to multi-instrumentalist Tony Cedras. After some quiet talking, Tony pulls out a percussion instrument I’ve never seen before. Paul starts strumming again and Tony hits it somewhere around the ‘and’ of 4.
Standing next to the duo is guitarist and apparent Musical Director of the band, Mark Stewart who smiles and strokes his formidable Mutton Chops. ‘I like it!’ he says, ‘it sounds like a cricket.’ The minute detail makes a world of difference.
Check out this rendition of 'Slip Sliding Away' from a few nights earlier on the tour:
After a minute or two, the band moves on. When working out their cover of Jimmy Cliff’s ‘Vietnam’, they stop playing to crank the original recording over the house speakers to better match the vibe. After the tracke ends, a tech walks over to Paul and says, ‘you know, Paul not a single one of those guys on the record is hanging back on the tempo. If you want to capture that vibe, everyone in the band is going to have to push forward a bit.’
When the band kicks in, they’ve nailed the groove. Here's how they played it on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon at the start of the tour:
Unfortunately, it was at this point that we had to be elsewhere. We had taken care of our business, demoing the upcoming Soundblox Pro Bass Envelope Filter for Bakithi (who has been showcasing the current BEF and Hot Hand at in-store clinics when he can throughout the tour) and handed off some pedals to Mark Stewart, who was intensely interested in the inner workngs of the Hot Hand.
On our way out, I couldn't shake the thought that I had just witnessed one of the most incredible things a musician like myself could watch. If you are wondering out the real pros do it, there it is.
Have you checked out Paul Simon's shows on this 2011 Tour? What songs did he play at your show that were different from the original? Let us know!
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