Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Feb 9, 2005 20:35:38 GMT
Ray Manzarek: From 'The Doors' to Nite City
More than ten years have passed since Ray Manzarek made his album debut with the Doors, and in that time, a lot of young keyboard artists have burst upon the scene and left their marks on rock and jazz. Their approaches have been as varied as their imaginations would allow, but many of them can claim common roots tying their early musical ideas to Manzarek's ear-opening, classic solo on "Light My Fire," recorded on the LP The Doors [Elektra, 74007]. His flowing melodic style, an integral element in the sound of the Doors, demonstrated that rock could be played with substance and originality.
Since the dissolution of that group, Manzarek's playing has branched out to include work on the synthesizer, reflecting the musical changes he had helped precipitate. And yet, his playing with Nite City, the band he has led since March, 1976, also echoes his earlier work. "Ray Manzarek maintains his image of the classically-influenced, piano playing hip mystic," Tim Hogan notes in the Los Angeles Free Press. "A definitive fuser of delicate jazz, flamboyant classical strokes, and hellfire, storming,rock'n'roll synthesizer/organ brilliance, he is a celebrative keyboardist."
Manzarek's latest effort, Nite City [20th Century, T-528], features vocalist Noah James, guitarist Paul Warren, bass guitarist Nigel Harrison, and drummer Jimmy Hunter. James recently left the band, allowing Manzarek to take over more of the singer's duties.
When did you begin playing keyboards?
When I was seven years old, my parents bought an upright piano, put it in the recreation room, and said to me, "Well, Raymond, it's time for you to learn the piano." At my first lesson, my teacher opened a book to a little exercise on the first page. He played it, and then said, "Now you do it." I looked at the little lines and dots and said, "This is impossible!" But after a few weeks I finally figured it out and I stayed with that piano teacher for a couple of years.
Did you practice a lot as a child?
I never really got into it, although I had to practice for half an hour after school and a half an hour after dinner. We lived right across the street from the schoolyard, so when I could hear the guys playing baseball over there in the afternoon after school, that half hour seemed like an eternity.
When did you know that you wanted to be a keyboard player?
It was when I was eleven years old and I heard the blues for the first time. I grew up in Chicago, and up to that time all I had known about was "How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?" and "The Shrimp Boats Are A-Comin'." But one day at the playground, somebody had a portable radio tuned to the right-hand side of the dial-the ethnic side-and when I heard the blues there, it just blew my mind. I'd never heard music with such a sense of rhythm and such a minorish, strange overtone to it; the harmonies, the way the singer would sing, and the whole approach to the music was just totally different from white popular music. From then on I was hooked on Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker, and the Chicago Blues school.
When did rock and roll come into the picture?
It happened on day when one of those stations played a song called "Mystery Train" by a new guy named Elvis Presley. They didn't know he was a white guy because he didn't sound like it, and I didn't know he was a white guy either. But it was different from the black music because it had acoustic rhythm guitar patterns with a country kind of feel. That was rockabilly, or rock and roll and hillbilly music. Little by little I got into white music and then rock and roll hit. Chuck Berry, LIttle Richard, Fats Domino, and Jerry Lee Lewis were very big influences on me.
Did all this new music inspire you to go back home and practice?
That's exactly what it did. I'd try to learn to play the songs the way those guys did. Then I got together with a couple of friends-a drummer and a quasi-guitarist-and we'd play little rock and roll gigs around town. Also, my brother had a rock band called Rick and the Ravens; they'd do surf-rock and I'd come on and sing some blues songs, like "Little Red Rooster," "King Bee," and some of Muddy's tunes.
What keyboards were you playing then?
I was still just playing piano. I played a Wurlitzer electric piano when that first came out, but I didn't play organ until the Doors got together. I used a Vox Continental on the first two albums (The Doors and Strange Days [Elektra, 74014]) and on the road for a long time. It was the perfect instrument to put the Rhodes piano bass on because it was as flat as a pancake.
Why did you play keyboard bass with the Doors?
We never found a bass guitarist we wanted to work with. We had guys like Harvey Brooks and Douglas Lubahn playing bass on the sessions with us, but when the band was forming we looked around for bass players and never really found any. Then one day we were auditioning at some place-we didn't get the gig because we were too wierd-but they happened to have a piano bass on top of an organ, and when I saw that I said, "That's perfect. I'll just play the bass with my left hand and play the organ with my right hand." The Rhodes keyboard bass didn't record that well since it didn't have an attack, but in person you could turn it up real loud and it was fine.
More than ten years have passed since Ray Manzarek made his album debut with the Doors, and in that time, a lot of young keyboard artists have burst upon the scene and left their marks on rock and jazz. Their approaches have been as varied as their imaginations would allow, but many of them can claim common roots tying their early musical ideas to Manzarek's ear-opening, classic solo on "Light My Fire," recorded on the LP The Doors [Elektra, 74007]. His flowing melodic style, an integral element in the sound of the Doors, demonstrated that rock could be played with substance and originality.
Since the dissolution of that group, Manzarek's playing has branched out to include work on the synthesizer, reflecting the musical changes he had helped precipitate. And yet, his playing with Nite City, the band he has led since March, 1976, also echoes his earlier work. "Ray Manzarek maintains his image of the classically-influenced, piano playing hip mystic," Tim Hogan notes in the Los Angeles Free Press. "A definitive fuser of delicate jazz, flamboyant classical strokes, and hellfire, storming,rock'n'roll synthesizer/organ brilliance, he is a celebrative keyboardist."
Manzarek's latest effort, Nite City [20th Century, T-528], features vocalist Noah James, guitarist Paul Warren, bass guitarist Nigel Harrison, and drummer Jimmy Hunter. James recently left the band, allowing Manzarek to take over more of the singer's duties.
When did you begin playing keyboards?
When I was seven years old, my parents bought an upright piano, put it in the recreation room, and said to me, "Well, Raymond, it's time for you to learn the piano." At my first lesson, my teacher opened a book to a little exercise on the first page. He played it, and then said, "Now you do it." I looked at the little lines and dots and said, "This is impossible!" But after a few weeks I finally figured it out and I stayed with that piano teacher for a couple of years.
Did you practice a lot as a child?
I never really got into it, although I had to practice for half an hour after school and a half an hour after dinner. We lived right across the street from the schoolyard, so when I could hear the guys playing baseball over there in the afternoon after school, that half hour seemed like an eternity.
When did you know that you wanted to be a keyboard player?
It was when I was eleven years old and I heard the blues for the first time. I grew up in Chicago, and up to that time all I had known about was "How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?" and "The Shrimp Boats Are A-Comin'." But one day at the playground, somebody had a portable radio tuned to the right-hand side of the dial-the ethnic side-and when I heard the blues there, it just blew my mind. I'd never heard music with such a sense of rhythm and such a minorish, strange overtone to it; the harmonies, the way the singer would sing, and the whole approach to the music was just totally different from white popular music. From then on I was hooked on Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker, and the Chicago Blues school.
When did rock and roll come into the picture?
It happened on day when one of those stations played a song called "Mystery Train" by a new guy named Elvis Presley. They didn't know he was a white guy because he didn't sound like it, and I didn't know he was a white guy either. But it was different from the black music because it had acoustic rhythm guitar patterns with a country kind of feel. That was rockabilly, or rock and roll and hillbilly music. Little by little I got into white music and then rock and roll hit. Chuck Berry, LIttle Richard, Fats Domino, and Jerry Lee Lewis were very big influences on me.
Did all this new music inspire you to go back home and practice?
That's exactly what it did. I'd try to learn to play the songs the way those guys did. Then I got together with a couple of friends-a drummer and a quasi-guitarist-and we'd play little rock and roll gigs around town. Also, my brother had a rock band called Rick and the Ravens; they'd do surf-rock and I'd come on and sing some blues songs, like "Little Red Rooster," "King Bee," and some of Muddy's tunes.
What keyboards were you playing then?
I was still just playing piano. I played a Wurlitzer electric piano when that first came out, but I didn't play organ until the Doors got together. I used a Vox Continental on the first two albums (The Doors and Strange Days [Elektra, 74014]) and on the road for a long time. It was the perfect instrument to put the Rhodes piano bass on because it was as flat as a pancake.
Why did you play keyboard bass with the Doors?
We never found a bass guitarist we wanted to work with. We had guys like Harvey Brooks and Douglas Lubahn playing bass on the sessions with us, but when the band was forming we looked around for bass players and never really found any. Then one day we were auditioning at some place-we didn't get the gig because we were too wierd-but they happened to have a piano bass on top of an organ, and when I saw that I said, "That's perfect. I'll just play the bass with my left hand and play the organ with my right hand." The Rhodes keyboard bass didn't record that well since it didn't have an attack, but in person you could turn it up real loud and it was fine.