BILL CANTOS
THE MUSIC OF A&M REVISITED
stories & credits
A&M Records has been part of my life as long as I can remember.
I discovered my sister Rita’s Brasil ’66 albums at the age of eight or nine and I was hooked. I read other names in the credits then checked out their music too. Sergio led me to Herb (both the 60s and 70s versions of the TJB) and Lani’s solo albums. That led me to Quincy Jones and the A&M/CTI albums with the big bold photo on the cover, which led to Wes Montgomery, Jobim, Paul Desmond, Thad Jones/Mel Lewis, etc. Burt Bacharach entered the mix at some point and I latched on to that big time (plus seeing him on TV living it up in Malibu with Angie Dickinson caught my attention). At the same time, so much of the pop music I liked on the radio turned out to be A&M – Brenda Russell, Jeffrey Osborne and LTD, Carpenters, Rita Coolidge, Pablo Cruise, on and on and on. And on.
When I saw that logo, big and brash or tucked away in the corner, it was a signal to me. ‘Check this out’. I felt a little like a member of a secret club. I loved the variety of artists, the artwork, the sound quality, the inner sleeve with pictures of other albums. A&M has everything to do with who I am musically.
I started doing live shows featuring all kinds of songs from A&M releases before Gary (Gillies) suggested I turn the idea into an album.
This is a tribute to the company that Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss started from nothing and turned into the largest independent record label in the music business. The hardest thing was narrowing down the songlist from the hundreds of songs I could have done. But here’s what I ended up with…so far.
WILL IT GO ROUND IN CIRCLES – Billy Preston
This was a no-brainer. Billy Preston, for all his renown and success as a writer, keyboardist, and artist (not to mention helping save the Beatles), is still an underappreciated presence in music to me. I’ve been doing this song live for years and it’s one of those songs you can take all kinds of musical places….
Hussain Jiffry-bass / John Ferraro-drums / Tiki Pasillas-percussion / BC-piano, vocal, marimba
THE LOGICAL SONG (featuring Herb Alpert) - Supertramp
When I first told Herb I wanted to do an A&M covers album I think he thought it was a strange idea… then a couple of days later he said out of the blue, "You know what's a great song you could do?" No clue what he going to suggest, something from the 60s, something from a TJB project. He paused for a second and said, 'The Logical Song'.
The Logical Song? Like – Supertramp, The Logical Song??
"It's a great melody,' he said. "I always liked it. Great song." That's how it came to be here and why Herb is featured on it. I only sing certain parts ('...please tell me who I am...') then he takes over; he helped Mari and me arrange, edit and sculpt the whole thing. I'm so happy with how it came out and so happy he’s a part of the project
Herb Alpert-trumpet / Trey Henry-bass / Ray Brinker-drums / BC-piano, vocals
LOVE WILL KEEP US TOGETHER – Captain & Tennille
I remember exactly where I was when I first heard this song - in my parents’ bedroom listening to Casey Kasem on American Top 40. He played it as a bonus track at the end of the show…’listen to this – it’s going to be a big one!’ Turned out to be the #1 song of 1975. Daryl Dragon’s crazy/cool pre-MIDI layered keyboards and Toni Tennille’s sunny bluesy voice. Instant happy maker. I wanted to keep the fun but go bluesy with it, shuffle it up as it were….
Trey Henry-bass / John Ferraro-drums / BC-piano, vocal
THEY LONG TO BE) CLOSE TO YOU – Burt Bacharach/Carpenters/Herb Alpert
My salute to, first obviously, Burt.
I loved playing it with him his way (slow!!) in concert, taking all the time in the world.
Second of course, the Carpenters. Herb gave the song to Richard Carpenter,
he's rearranged it and he and Karen turned it into magic.
But also, it’s dedicated to Herb.
He cut it before the Carpenters as the follow-up to “This Guy’s In Love With You” but didn’t release the track until years later. Herb (being the musical optimist that he is) turned it into an up samba, which is what inspired this arrangement. I love the trading fours at the end with Grant and Ryan..
Grant Geissman-guitar solo / JP Mourao-cavaquinho & guitar /
Ryan Dragon-trombone / Mari Falcone, Ryan Dragon, Bill Cantos - background vocals /
Hussain Jiffry-bass / Lucio Vieira-drums, percussion / BC-piano, vocals
ONE HUNDRED WAYS – Quincy Jones
My sister (the one who loved Sergio) gave me Quincy’s BODY HEAT album for Christmas when I was ten. It fascinated me. This song is from THE DUDE, sung by the one and only James Ingram. Perfect early 80s pop. I wanted it to be more ethereal - Kris, Mike and Ray all helped take it there…
Kris Bergh-trumpet/ Michael Valerio-bass / Ray Brinker - drums/ BC-piano, vocal
TOM’S DINER – Suzanne Vega
Suzanne Vega was a late 80’s A&M artist, one of many great singer/songwriters they championed. She sings it a cappella – but I love doing voice/drum duets live, and this gave me the chance to feature John Ferraro, who totally nails it.
Crazy little poem/short story/whatever it is and so much fun to perform.
John Ferraro-drums / BC-vocal
FROM THE LONELY AFTERNOONS – Milton Nascimento/Paul Desmond
As I said, Brazilian music was one of my earliest loves and biggest influences. Early on, I connected with the music of Milton Nascimento, in huge part because of “Native Dancer”, the album he did with Wayne Shorter.
Another song I’ve done live for years - only problem is, Milton never recorded it on either of his A&M albums. Thankfully, Paul Desmond did. He made a great A&M album of Brazilian covers but strangely the tune is listed as “From The HOT Afternoon” (also the title of the album). Since ‘hot’ and ‘lonely’ are not the same word in Portuguese, I’d love to know that’s up with that….. Gary G encouraged me to stretch out on the piano on this one.
Hussain Jiffry-bass / Lucio Vieira-drums, percussion / BC-piano, vocals
SALT SEA (featuring Lani Hall) – Sergio Mendes & Brasil ‘66
Of course I needed a Sergio song - but which one?
This is from the album CRYSTAL ILLUSIONS, written by Sergio, Lani, and Sebastiao Neto (Sergio’s bass player). I’ve had the honor of making music with Lani Hall for almost twenty years and there’s no one like her. She takes the lead but I layered 10-12 tracks of my voice underneath and around her
(think ‘Lani Hall with the Bill Cantos Singers’).
Lani’s first three A&M solo albums are magnificent and I wore them out, years before we met. Having her on this album is a bucket list wish come true.
Lani Hall-vocal / Mitchell Long-guitar / Hussain Jiffry-bass /
Lucio Vieira-drums, percussion / BC-piano, vocals
STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU – Stealers Wheel
Who doesn’t love this song? A great vehicle for singing, playing and stretching out. Plus on tracking day, John Ferraro suggested using the vamp figure from “Spirits In The Material World” as a nod to Sting and the Police - and it turned into the whole last half of the track!!
Hussain Jiffry-bass / John Ferraro-drums / BC-piano, organ, vocal
DOWN HERE ON THE GROUND – Wes Montgomery
IT’S GOING TO TAKE SOME TIME – Carole King/Carpenters
I wanted a straightforward instrumental piano trio track - something that just swung and felt good to balance things out on the album -
I ate up Wes’ CTI/A&M albums as a teenager, which is where I got “Down Here..”.
I honestly don’t know where the idea to pair it with the Carole King song came from, but she and TAPESTRY were such a part of pop history (although this song comes from the follow-up album, MUSIC)
Trey Henry-bass / Ray Brinker-drums / BC-piano
HOW DO YOU KEEP THE MUSIC PLAYING – Alan & Marilyn Bergman
OK, I bent the rules a little here. Alan & Marilyn became part of Mari’s & my life and we were privileged to write with them, in addition to being Alan’s accompanist. I remember looking at the cover of albums like Sergio’s LOOK AROUND and seeing the songwriter credits – they were listed as ‘A & M Bergman’. This is probably my favorite song of theirs, and I scoured the entire A&M catalog. Surely someone recorded this on A&M!! Sadly, no - but it just felt right to include a tribute to the other A&M in our lives...
So many people I left out, songs I wanted to cover,
artists to whom I pay tribute in the live show –
Brenda Russell, Gino Vannelli, Antonio Carlos Jobim, and so many others.
Thank you all for listening and helping me pay tribute to an extraordinary musical legacy.
Thank you Herb and Jerry. Enjoy….