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Leslie West - Soundcheck (2015)

vom: 18.11.2015

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LESLIE WEST
''SOUNDCHECK''
NOVEMBER 20 2015
43:49

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1 Left By The Roadside To Die 04:05
2 Give Me One Reason 04:03
3 Here For The Party 03:57
4 You Are My Sunshine 03:47
5 Empty Promises; Nothin' Sacred 03:44
6 A Stern Warning 04:13
7 People Get Ready 03:04
8 Going Down 04:14
9 Stand By Me 02:51
10 Eleanor Rigby 01:33
11 Spoonful 08:11

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ABOUT THE ALBUM
Leslie West is an imposing figure on many levels. His legacy and talent cast a large shadow of influence on rock and roll. This month, the iconic guitarist and vocalist returns with his 16th studio effort, Soundcheck, the follow up to 2013’s Still Climbing. As usual, West brings in new material as well as some well-chosen cover songs all blended with fantastic guest appearances, and inspired performances.

The man behind the seminal 70s proto-metal band, Mountain, West has a memorable singing voice that matches his equally unique guitar signature. Both make a declarative statement on the album opener, “Left by the Roadside to Die”. With a synth backdrop West’s gravelly vocals and acoustic guitar set a cinematic tone that becomes even more dramatic with the introduction of his heavier guitars. The acoustic slide work pushes the song over the top.

West delivers an emotive performance of the bluesy Tracy Chapman tune, “Give Me One Reason”. He adds depth to the groove and the guitar work is so fluid it melts into the song. This is followed by the rowdy dust up of Gretchen Wilson’s “Here for the Party”. The country romp is turned in to a bombastic raucous-roll anthem.

One of the album’s quiet show pieces is the reworking of the standard, “You Are My Sunshine”. On first listen to the melancholy delivery one might envision a long stretch of lonely highway, so it is no surprise West got the idea for this rendition from an episode of Sons of Anarchy. Peter Frampton joins in on this one and truly shines. The sense of loss and ache is palpable. You may never listen to this classic the same way again.

Next up is “Empty Promises/Nothing Sacred” which West hails as his tribute to AC/DC. It’s got a sweet groove to go along with his meaty guitars and gritty vocals. This is followed up by a rambling acoustic number, “A Stern Warning”, in tribute to Howard Stern: The track leans more towards West’s classical chops and provides a nice counterpoint to the album’s heavy blues feel.

The blues return with West’s spin on the Curtis Mayfield classic, “People Get Ready”, a song also popularized by Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck. It is hard for anyone to challenge the brilliance Beck displayed on his version, but West is equal to the task, and his playing simply soars over the song’s sweet melody.

Soundcheck's true jam comes in the form of “Goin’ Down” which also features the talents of Queen guitarist Brian May and backing vocals by Bonni Bramlett. The cast of musicians on this one include Max Middelton, David Hood and Bobby Whitlock.

The loss of Ben E. King earlier this year inspired West to lay down his poignant version of “Stand By Me”. Ariela Pizza shares vocals with Leslie making the song even more mournful and somber. Pizza is only 16 and her delicate voice lends balance to West’s beefy edge.

The album is rounded out by an acoustic trip through The Beatles “Eleanor Rigby” and the hidden gem, “Spoonful”. The latter finds West jamming a Willie Dixon tune with the late, great Jack Bruce of Cream fame on bass and vocals. The song was originally recorded in 1988, and West cleaned it up for Soundcheck in honor of Bruce’s recent passing. The duo bleed their souls out on this performance.

West has come a long way since he initially made his mark with Mountain back in the early 70s. While the casual listener may not know him beyond the radio hit, “Mississippi Queen”, which is still a radio staple to this day, his influence has impacted music for over 40 years. With Soundcheck, West reminds us of how deftly he can make his guitar sing, and how powerful he remains as a singer and songwriter. Diversity fills this record, but it is all brought together in triumphant splendor by West’s signature vocals and fretwork. A solid year-end pick for all fans of classic rock and blues.

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LEGENDARY ROCK GUITARIST LESLIE WEST ANNOUNCES HIS SIXTEENTH SOLO ALBUM, “SOUNDCHECK”, TO BE RELEASED ON NOVEMBER 20

Soundcheck is the sixteenth solo album by legendary rock guitarist Leslie West. It follows 2011’s critically acclaimed Unusual Suspects, which featured contributions from such accomplished guitarists and close friends as Billy Gibbons, Slash, Zakk Wylde, Steve Lukather and Joe Bonamassa, and 2013’s Still Climbing, which included blistering duets with the late, great Johnny Winter, Jonny Lang and Mark Tremonti.

For this new release, Leslie lays down some of his most inspired musical magic to date with the assistance of true rock royalty: the renown British guitarists Peter Frampton and Brian May, ex-Jeff Beck keyboard virtuoso Max Middleton, vocalist extraordinaire Bonnie Bramlett and the late great Cream bassist and longtime friend of Leslie’s, Jack Bruce. Back in 1972, Leslie made musical history with Jack when they joined forces to form the super group West, Bruce and Laing. Soundcheck is co-produced and engineered by West’s collaborator Mike “Metal” Goldberg, who he shared, “helped me get my sound down on ‘Tape’ as they used to say, and did an amazing job as he always does.”

Leslie West (born Leslie Weinstein, October 22, 1945) first gained worldwide recognition in 1969 as the guitarist and singer in the groundbreaking rock band Mountain. West’s wholly unique sound, distinguished by beautifully melodic phrasing, his slow, wide vibrato, and a crushing guitar tone set the standard in the late sixties and early seventies for blues/rock guitar playing of the highest order. Along with the hugely influential Top Ten hit “Mississippi Queen,” Leslie’s brilliant guitar work serves as the driving force behind the Mountain classics, “Nantucket Sleighride,” “Never In My Life,” “Don’t Look Around,” “Blood of the Sun,” “Dreams of Milk and Honey,” and the incredible Jack Bruce composition, “Theme For an Imaginary Western.”

That one-of-a-kind signature guitar sound propels Soundcheck throughout, evidenced by such powerful tracks as, “Left By The Roadside to Die,” “Here For the Party,” “Empty Promises-Nothing Sacred,” “Going Down,” “Spoonful,” “A Stern Warning” and five other stellar songs. “I wanted to surprise myself with this record,” Leslie discloses. “On that very first track, ‘Left By The Roadside to Die,’ I initially played the synthesizer part on the guitar, but I thought it would be really cool to start the record with a sound other than the guitar. I decided to have my keyboard player David Biglin come in and re-do it with the synth. That synth part provides a great groove, which enables me to first come in with the acoustic guitar and then bring in the heavier electric guitars right at the second verse. Another twist is that I add some acoustic slide guitar on the track, with the guitar in a really unusual open D tuning. All of the strings are tuned to either a D or an A note-no thirds in any of the chords.” For the solo, Leslie lays down a blistering slide guitar solo that burns with the power and precision that has earned him the respect and admiration of multiple generations of guitar players.

Included among Leslie’s many fans and disciples are six-string luminaries such as Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhoads, John McLaughlin, Jethro Tull’s Martin Barre, Warren Haynes, and Richie Blackmore of Deep Purple. Blackmore has stated that Leslie’s phenomenal playing on “Mississippi Queen” served to redirect the course of Deep Purple’s music in an instant, ultimately resulting in the brutal hard rock intensity displayed on Deep Purple In Rock. “I’ve always really loved Leslie West’s playing,” says Blackmore. “I remember being in a place in Germany, and Ian [Paice, DP drummer] and I were out drinking together. In those days, you could go to a club and listen to the new records in their entirety that had just come out. Paice and I heard, ‘Mississippi Queen,’ and we both went white! We were thinking, ‘Who the hell is that?!’ It had such a big sound! For three guys, it was incredibly heavy. And Leslie’s vibrato is just great. Hearing Mountain directly influenced the direction of the Purple, and you can hear that influence on what was to become our next record, [1970’s], In Rock. At the time, we were trying to find our way as a band, some sort of ‘category.’ Jon [Lord, the late DP keyboardist] was into the classical stuff, and, although I love classical music, I wanted to follow up the Deep Purple album, the last one with the original line-up, with something much heavier, out-and-out rock. And that’s how In Rock came about.”

For Martin Barre, meeting Leslie in 1970 served to inspire the writing and playing on Jethro Tull’s most successful album in the band’s history, Aqualung. “Prior to going into the studio to record [1971’s] Aqualung, I met Leslie, whose playing I absolutely loved,” Barre reveals. “Leslie is well known for his association with Les Paul Juniors, and just after meeting him, I picked up a 1958 Junior because his sound was so incredible. I would say that he’s the only guitarist who has ever influenced me directly.”

Leslie was also influential in the development of the music for The Who’s masterpiece, Who’s Next. In early 1971, he was invited to record with the Who for the band’s initial NYC Record Plant sessions for the album, which sparked a close friendship with The Who’s leader, Pete Townshend. Says Pete, “Leslie gave me a really great Les Paul Junior with one pickup on it for me to use on Who’s Next, and Eric Clapton gave me an old Strat. They both gave me really good instruments and I still have those instruments today. Along with my Gretsch Chet Atkins, those three guitars were the only ones I used on Who’s Next.”

Another fan of Leslie’s was none other than Jimi Hendrix, with whom Leslie jammed at famed NYC clubs like Ungano’s and elsewhere. “I first met Jimi while I was recording Climbing! at the Record Plant and he was in another room mixing Band of Gypsys,” Leslie recalls. “Jimi came in and after hearing the first track, ‘Never in My Life’ he looked over at me and said, ‘That’s a great riff, man.’ I started shaking! There’s a great picture of us playing together at Ungano’s, and Jimi’s playing Felix [Pappalardi’s] bass. Getting to know and play with Hendrix is one of my greatest life experiences.”

Closing out his new album “Soundcheck”, is a treasure for all longtime fans of Leslie West: a live version of Willie Dixon’s, “Spoonful,” recorded with Jack Bruce on bass and vocals and Joe Franco on drums, played in the classic Cream style as captured on 1968’s Wheels of Fire. “Back in 1988, I recorded an album called, Theme, which featured Jack on bass. We recorded at Millbrook in upstate New York, and the owner of The Chance in Poughkeepsie called and asked if we wanted to come over and do a set there, with no advertising, no nothing. Jack was into it, and the engineer at Millbrook, Paul Orofino, came with us and recorded the gig with a small portable stereo machine. “After hearing of Jack’s passing, we edited it down from its original length and decided it would be great to include on the record. As you can hear, I was trying to reincarnate myself into Eric Clapton! The first time I listened to Jack’s voice and the tone of his bass on the recording, I had tears in my eyes. I loved Jack so much.”

Leslie is looking to close out 2015 and kick off 2016 with major touring in the states and in Europe, performing a combination of his time-honored classics plus the material from Soundcheck. “I’m so happy with the sound of this new record,” Leslie affirms. “The guitar sound we captured is fantastic, and my voice is feeling better than ever.”

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BIOGRAPHY/AMG
William Ruhlmann
Leslie West first gained recognition as the lead guitarist for the Vagrants, a locally popular 1960s Long Island group. One of that group's singles was produced by Felix Pappalardi, a bass player who also produced Cream. After the Vagrants and Cream split up, Pappalardi played bass on and produced West's debut solo album, Mountain (July 1969). Following its release, the two teamed up with drummer Norman Smart (soon replaced by Corky Laing) and keyboard player Steve Knight to form the band Mountain, which cut the albums Climbing! (February 1970; a gold-selling LP featuring the Top 40 single "Mississippi Queen"), Nantucket Sleighride (January 1971; which also went gold), and Flowers of Evil (November 1971). In 1972, Pappalardi left Mountain to return to being a producer. (Posthumous record releases included Mountain Live (The Road Goes on Forever) [April 1972] and The Best of Mountain [February 1973].) West and Laing joined with former Cream bassist Jack Bruce to form West, Bruce & Laing. The trio recorded two studio albums, Why Dontcha (October 1972) and Whatever Turns You On (July 1973). (A live album, Live 'N' Kickin', was released in April 1974.) Bruce quit in the summer of 1973, and West and Laing briefly formed Leslie West's Wild West Show. Then West, Pappalardi, Alan Schwartherg (drums), and Bob Mann (keyboards) re-formed Mountain, recording a double live album, Twin Peaks (February 1974), in Osaka, Japan, in August 1973. This was followed by a Mountain studio album, Avalanche (July 1974), made by West, Pappalardi, Laing, and Knight. Then Mountain split again, and West formed the Leslie West Band, releasing The Great Fatsby (April 1975) (which featured Mick Jagger) and The Leslie West Band (1976) (which featured Mick Jones, later of Foreigner). Bedeviled by substance abuse problems, West retired from music for a time, then cleared up and again re-formed Mountain with Laing and bassist Mark Clarke (Pappalardi had died in 1983) for Go for Your Life (March 1985). The group broke up again, and West made Theme (1988), again teaming with Jack Bruce. West then participated in the Guitar Speaks (1988) and Night of the Guitar (1989) recordings of legendary rock guitarists for IRS Records' Illegal subsidiary. His next solo album was Alligator (August 1989), followed by Dodgin' the Dirt (1994). In 1994, West and Laing teamed with ex-Jimi Hendrix Experience bassist Noel Redding in another edition of Mountain, recording two tracks for the compilation Over the Top (1995). The solo As Phat as It Gets followed in 1999. After an album for Voiceprint, Guitarded, in 2004, West released two blues-inflected albums for Blues Bureau International, 2005's Got Blooze and 2006's Blue Me. West lost a leg due to complications from type 2 diabetes in June of 2011, but it didn't slow him down much. He released Unusual Suspects, which featured guest spots from guitarists Billy Gibbons, Slash, Zakk Wylde, Joe Bonamassa, and Steve Lukather three months later in September.

Contributions by the renown British guitarists Peter Frampton and Brian May, ex-Jeff Beck keyboard virtuoso Max Middleton, vocalist extraordinaire Bonnie Bramlett and the late great Cream bassist and longtime friend of Leslie’s, Jack Bruce.

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