New York, NY (Top40 Charts / Legacy Recordings) With notable collaborations and fresh arrangements,
Paul Simon revisits and lends new perspective to ten of his personal favorites from his body of work. "This album consists of songs that I thought were almost right, or were odd enough to be overlooked the first time around. Re-doing arrangements, harmonic structures, and lyrics that didn't make their meaning clear, gave me time to clarify in my own head what I wanted to say, or realize what I was thinking and make it more easily understood." - Paul Simon, July 2018
Legendary songwriter, recording artist and performer
Paul Simon will release his 14th studio album - In The Blue Light - on
September 7. Produced by
Simon and Roy Halee, who have worked together since the 1960s, the album features a talented cast of musicians who have joined
Simon to lend fresh perspectives on 10 of the artist's favorite (though perhaps less-familiar) songs, drawn from his unparalleled body of work.
Revisiting his repertoire,
Simon has selected songs originally appearing on There Goes Rhymin'
Simon (1973), Still Crazy After All These Years (1975), One-Trick Pony (1980), Hearts and Bones (1983), The Rhythm of The Saints (1990), You're The One (2000) and So Beautiful Or So What (2011), refreshing and transforming the compositions through new arrangements and collaborations.
Among the many musicians joining
Simon on In The Blue Light are jazz icons trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, guitarist Bill Frisell, and drummers Jack DeJohnette and Steve Gadd. Two of the compositions recorded with the New York-based chamber ensemble sextet yMusic, "Can't Run But" and "Rene and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog After the War," are being brought to the stage each night as show-stopping highlights on Simon's Homeward Bound - The Farewell Tour.
Simon explains in the album's liner notes, "It's an unusual occurrence for an artist to have the opportunity to revisit earlier works and re-think them; to modify, even completely change parts of the originals.
"Happily, this opportunity also gave me the gift of playing with an extraordinary group of musicians, most of whom I hadn't recorded with before. I hope the listener will find these new versions of old songs refreshed, like a new coat of paint on the walls of an old family home."
The release of In The Blue Light on
September 7 coincides with the final leg of Homeward Bound - Farewell Tour in September, including four performances in the New York City area and culminating with the Final Performance on
September 22 in Flushing Meadows
Corona Park.
The credits for Paul Simon's In The Blue Light are as follows:
Words and
Music by Paul Simon
01 One Man's Ceiling Is Another Man's Floor
Paul Simon: Vocal, Percussion
Joel Wenhardt: Piano
Nate Smith: Drums
Jim Oblon: Guitar
John Patitucci: Bass
Edie Brickell: Finger Snaps
CJ Camerieri: Trumpet
Andy Snitzer: Saxophone
02 Love
Paul Simon: Vocal, Acoustic Guitar, Percussion, Harmonium
Bill Frisell: Electric Guitar
Steve Gadd: Drums
Renaud Garcia-Fons: Bass
03 Can't Run But
Paul Simon: Vocal
With yMusic
Arrangement by Bryce Dessner based on the original arrangement from Rhythm of the Saints by
Marco Antônio Guimarães
04 How The
Heart Approaches What It Yearns
Paul Simon: Vocal
Sullivan Fortner: Piano
Nate Smith: Drums
John Patitucci: Bass
Wynton Marsalis: Trumpet
05 Pigs, Sheep and Wolves
Paul Simon: Vocal, Percussion
Wynton Marsalis: Trumpet
Marcus Printup: Trumpet
Dan Block: Clarinet
Walter Blanding: Saxophone
Wycliffe Gordon: Tuba
Chris Crenshaw: Trombone
Marion Felder: Drums
Herlin Riley: Tambourine
Arrangement by Wynton Marsalis
06 René and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After the War
Paul Simon: Vocal, Electric Guitar
With yMusic
Arrangement by Robert Sirota
07 The Teacher
Paul Simon: Vocal, Percussion
Odair Assad: Guitar
Sérgio Assad: Guitar
Renaud Garcia-Fons: Bass, Percussion
Walter Blanding: Saxophone
Jamey Haddad: Percussion
08 Darling Lorraine
Paul Simon: Vocal, Percussion
Bill Frisell: Electric Guitar
Vincent Nguini: Electric Guitar
Mark Stewart: Acoustic Guitar
Steve Gadd: Drums
John Patitucci: Bass
With yMusic
Arrangement by Rob Moose
09 Some Folks' Lives Roll Easy
Paul Simon: Vocal
Sullivan Fortner: Piano, Celeste
Jack DeJohnette: Drums
John Patitucci: Bass
Joe Lovano: Saxophone
10 Questions For The Angels
Paul Simon: Vocal, Acoustic Guitar, Bass Harmonica, Percussion
Bill Frisell: Electric Guitar
Sullivan Fortner: Harmonium, Chromelodeon
John Patitucci: Bass
Skip LaPlante: Percussion
yMusic is
CJ Camerieri: trumpet, piccolo trumpet
Alex Sopp: flute, alto flute
Hideaki Aomori: clarinet, bass clarinet
Rob Moose: violin
Nadia Sirota: viola
Gabriel Cabezas: cello
Having created a distinctive and beloved body of work that includes 14 studio albums, plus five studio albums as half of
Simon & Garfunkel,
Paul Simon is the recipient of 16 Grammy Awards, three of which—Bridge over Troubled Water, Still Crazy after All These Years, and Graceland—were Album of the Year honorees. In 2003, he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in
Simon & Garfunkel, and has sold more than 100 million records worldwide.
During his unparalleled career,
Simon has achieved 29 Top 40 singles in the U.S. alone, with 14 of those reaching the Top 10 or higher, including "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" (which reached #1), "Kodachrome," "Loves Me Like A Rock," "Mother and Child Reunion," "Late In The Evening," "
You Can Call Me Al" and many others. With
Simon & Garfunkel, he wrote and performed the #1 singles, "The Sound of Silence," "Mrs. Robinson," "Bridge Over Troubled Water," and numerous other timeless hits.
Paul Simon is a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame and has been inducted into the
Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame, both as a member of
Simon & Garfunkel and as a solo artist.
Simon was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2002 and was named one of Time magazine's "100 People Who Shape Our World" in 2006. In 2007,
Simon was awarded the inaugural Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, which recognizes the profound and positive effect of popular music on the world's culture. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2011. And in 2012, he was named the recipient of the prestigious Polar
Music Prize along with classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
Paul Simon - In The Blue Light is available to pre-order now:
CD: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FDFGWHC/ LP: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FDMN964/
