Bacharach stays in tune with times
By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Writer
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| Burt Bacharach, music maker for 50 years, is working on a new venture with Dr. Dre.
BURT BACHARACH Part of the Hawaiian Airlines Pop Concert series, with the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra 8 p.m. today and Saturday Blaisdell Concert Hall $30, $40, $50, $60, $75 792-2000 Also: 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Castle Theatre, Maui Arts & Cultural Center. $35-$75. (808) 242-7469. |
Now in his sixth decade of composing and performing, Bacharach has begun to cross generations, collaborating with pop artists such as Ron Isley and Elvis Costello. But hip-hop and rap?
"I've been writing and working on a new album ... with Dr. Dre," Bacharach said in a telephone interview from his Pacific Palisades, Calif., home. "It's a new experience. I've been so busy ... I forgot to eat breakfast."
It already was lunch time, so Bacharach, 76, was enjoying a belated but healthy breakfast of fiber cereal, topped with blueberries, with rice milk; bread with peanut butter; apple and papaya ... and cheerfully chatting between chomps.
He's guest-conducting, playing piano, and singing (minimally, he declares) at this weekend's pair of Hawaiian Airlines Pops Concerts at the Blaisdell Concert Hall. Clearly, the Oscar- and Grammy-winning tunesmith still is very much in the thick of the game.
We asked a bunch of questions — and he offered candid responses.
Q. So what song are you in the midst of working on at this moment?
A. I'm not pushing really hard this time; the last time I did that with Ron Isley (on a project titled "Here I Am"), I worked my tail off. This one's going at a better pace. I'm doing things with Dr. Dre, which will be interesting. I will do some writing in Hawai'i, too, since I will be there a couple of days.
But it's a hard place to write: Reminds me of Ian Fleming, and his approach to life when he lived in the Bahamas and wrote those James Bond things; when it's beautiful outside, you basically have to pull the curtains to make sure nothing from the outside comes inside. I mean, you want to go to the beach.
Q. Your music transports the listener to another time and place, and it's always romantic. Is love at the core of what you do?
A. That's the way I am; that's what I write. One event triggers it; how you live your life and what you absorb. For me, it all comes out through my music. What I feel.
Q. With the way the pop music scene has been in recent times, heavily into the hip-hop mode, have you consciously changed with the times, trying to create songs that might hook the younger listeners?
A. You write good. You don't follow trends. On this new album, working with Dr. Dre has been a challenge, so I will try to make it interesting. (Dre has sent Bacharach looped beats, from which Bacharach has to create new music with a unified sound). People will hear it; it will work, or it won't work.
Q. Your career has spanned more than five decades, with scores of Top 100 hits, 500-plus compositions. How does it feel to be kind of a classic, a legend, in retrospect?
A. I believe in the possibility of that kind of status more now, than maybe I did 10 or 15 years ago. Time will determine everything. It's important for me to keep writing, keep working. I'm at a time, too, when music is important, but family is more important. I have four children, including a girl, 8, and a boy, 11, and I hang out with them a lot.
Q. You've collaborated with many over the years, and nearly every singer, from Dionne Warwick to Diane Krall, from Sinatra to Streisand, has recorded your music. Is there someone you yearn to work with but never have yet?
A. I'm sure there is, but I will offend anyone I leave out. But Aretha's great; and Ron Isley's a great singer ... natural. You find out about these people when you work together in the studio. With Ron, everything's live, not a lot of dubs, and that's how I'm used to recording.
Q. What is your most recorded song?
A. I don't know. I don't keep track of those things. But I would imagine "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head," "This Guy's in Love With You" and "What the World Needs Now" are right up there.
Q. What song do you always perform in a live concert — the one title you cannot leave the stage without doing?
A. Always have to do "Alfie." I will have my own self-contained band with the symphony, and my three singers. I'm limited by how much time I have. Can't run the symphony into overtime.
Q. Do they not use "Alfie" in the remake? What's that all about?
A. I heard they use a new version by Joss Stone ... in the end title. I would have put it with the opening title. I have ambivalent feelings; it's an important song and not an easy movie to make. I haven't seen the new one, so I can't make judgment, but knowing the original and history, Alfie was a heel and Michael Caine played the part well in a different social situation (than now).
Q. Some years back, you started singing in concerts. Are you a frustrated vocalist? Have you pined to be a No.-1-with-a-bullet singer, rather than composer?
A. I'm a composer. I'm really scared about singing; never wanted to be one. I still get nervous. But, yeah, I sing, but not in the first hour, and I don't sing 10 minutes.
Q. What's the biggest joy or satisfaction about your job, your music, your station in life?
A. I think making music — writing — is important. And, of course, the recording process, bringing the music to life. There's nothing like trying to get it 100 percent right. As for the performing part, it's great — and I only do my music, not other people's, and it has nothing to do with arrogance. It's a joy to give to and share something with an audience. I have the plus of having exposure — I've done a lot of TV in my time — so it's not an anonymous business. I'm more recognizable than, say, Sammy Cahn.
And seeing people respond, and feel good about my music, makes me happy. What I don't like is the constant travels, the bad hotels, the packing and unpacking, so I limit myself to 31 to 35 concerts a year.
Reach Wayne Harada at 525-8067, wharada@honoluluadvertiser.com, or fax 525-8055.
