[Dixielandjazz] Paul McCartney to release standards album - JazzTimes.com, December 19, 2011

[Robert Ringwald]

OMG!  Another one after the Rod Stewart fiascos.  

Well . . . . Perhaps it will turn some younger folks onto some decent songs?  
  

Paul McCartney to Release Standards Album with Diana Krall and Band
by Jeff Tamarkin
JazzTimes.com, December 19, 2011
Paul McCartney has announced that his next solo album, as yet untitled, will be a
collection of romantic ballads and standards, with jazz pianist Diana Krall and her
band accompanying the ex-Beatle. The album will be released by Concord/Hear Music
on February 7. In addition to the cover material, the album will include two new
McCartney originals, "My Valentine" and "Only Our Hearts."
The album was produced by Tommy LiPuma and, in addition to Krall and band, features
an orchestra on some tracks, as well as guest appearances by Eric Clapton and Stevie
Wonder. Bassist John Clayton also reportedly plays on the album.
According to a press release from McCartney's publicist, "This is the album Paul
has been thinking about making for more than 20 years, and probably the last thing
his fans are expecting. 'In the end it was "Look, if I don't do it now, I'll never
do it,'" the release quotes McCartney as saying.
"When I kind of got into songwriting, I realized how well structured these songs
were and I think I took a lot of my lessons from them," McCartney further says in
the press release. "I always thought artists like Fred Astaire were very cool. Writers
like Harold Arlen, Cole Porter, all of those guys -- I just thought the songs were
magical. And then, as I got to be a songwriter I thought it's beautiful, the way
they made those songs."
McCartney also says that he and John Lennon based several early Beatles compositions
on standards from the early part of the 20th century.
The press release says that during the recording McCartney, for the first time in
his career, "performed exclusively in the vocal booth without any instrument -- no
guitar, no bass, no piano."
He added, "It was important for me to keep away from the more obvious song choices,
so many of the classic standards will be unfamiliar to some people."
The album was recorded at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, New York and London throughout
2011.
Last spring, McCartney told Rolling Stone, "I've wanted to do that kind of thing
forever, since the Beatle days. But then Rod [Stewart] went mad on it. I thought,
'I have to wait so it doesn't look like I'm trying to do a Rod.'"


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