 Private Astronomy – Geoff MuldaurSometime around 1971, I was hanging around my college dorm room doing whatever college students did in those days when they were hanging around college dorm rooms, and the song Memphis off a Jim Kweskin album (yes, of course, vinyl) came on, and I asked my roommate who was that singing, as I was mightily impressed, and was informed that it was Geoff Muldaur. Fast forward thirty years, when what amounted to a critical mass of mutual interests and friendly connections somehow led Geoff to ask me to produce a record he was working on. It was all about songs and pieces by and/or associated with the legendary cornetist and composer, Bix Beiderbecke. Geoff had already made ingenious chamber arrangements of Bix’s solo piano pieces, and was working out small and big band charts for a bunch of the songs Bix had recorded. We shopped around a demo, and, given the esoteric untimely (if timeless) nature of the project, I was not sanguine of its prospects. But, through the efforts of Joe Boyd, who became Executive Producer, we secured a deal with (maybe you better sit down) Deutsche Grammophon. The album, Private Astronomy, features vocals by Loudon and Martha Wainwright, and, of course, by Geoff, whose voice first put me on this path. Bonus: there’s one song with Bix music and words by Linda Thompson, Dick Connette and Rufus Wainwright, my coolest writing credit to date.Private Astronomy (9/30/03) is not presently available, but may be re-released in 2010. Geoff’s got his own website. |
