And here is the Miles Davis Quintet making what is amazing enough is very first television appearance Miles Davis and the quintet Hello and welcome to the second episode of I guess that's why they call it the Elton John podcast podcast It's not the Miles Davis podcast. It might be slightly puzzling as to why we're hearing that at the beginning at the top of the show There's a good reason for it That is a an archival recording from the second of November 1969 the very night at Ronnie Scott's where Steve Brown brought Elton John along to meet Paul Bartmaster for the first time I Would love to see what that whole event look like there is some footage there's some video footage, but it's very grainy And it's just of the Miles Davis himself, but yeah that happened that was a pretty evocative setting to a very important day in Both of their careers certainly in Elton's career because it Changed his sound completely my intention today had been to Celebrate some of those arrangements and to have a listen to Bartmaster's contribution to the records over the over the years the early years in particular and Maybe to get a picture of who but master was as a musician, but as I found out more the more interested I became in his early years So that's what I've done. I've broken it down. This is part one.
I guess of the Paul but master story And other stuff will follow later on, but we're gonna go up to 1970 here Starting at the beginning then Paul but master picked up the cello. No, how do you pick up the cello at the age of four? I don't know but he did something along those lines Maybe I mean if you're a four-year-old and you pick up a viola that's similar to picking up a cello. I'm not sure anyway Started playing stringed instruments very young come from a musical family.
He got scholarships left right and center ended up at the Royal Academy music Where he graduated in 67. He's a year older than Elton But I don't think their paths crossed not according to anything I've read anyway, so he came out of the Royal Academy music and His first gig as a cello player was in the touring band for Paul Jones He had been the lead singer from Manfred man. He'd struck out for solo glory I don't think it worked out for him, but yeah, he toured with him for a while and then Early 68 he was so January in 68. He was he got a job touring with the BG's in Europe and They recorded with button master later on that year So there's one of the earliest recordings that exists a bookmaster is a solo from the song a desser from their double album a desser which was released in 69 But was recorded in late 68.
So let's have a listen to that quite balmy in places here the spot master He was a big fan of baroque music as a youngster But by this time he was already deeply into jazz music It's difficult for me to make much of a comment on his cello playing. He's a very smooth player has a lovely sort of Warm sticky tone out of the cello. So there's two parallel lines here. We've got but master as a cellist And we've got but master as an arranger and he is not the latter He didn't have any of those skills at this stage.
He met Gus Dudgeon at a session for the American singer and actress Marsha Hunt she had a really minor role in hair in the actual performance So just a few lines and but she had an extremely major role in the promotion because it was her picture that was all over the posters and the advertisements for hair and A little after this she was I don't know exactly how they met But she met Mick Jagger and they became a boyfriend and girlfriend and he wrote lyric Brown Sugar about her apparently according to her But anyway, let's have a listen to the song that came out of that session which was run by Gus. It's called Hot Rod Popper That is walkers. It's a song by Mark Bowlin I don't think it was ever recorded by anyone else is produced by Gus It was arranged by Tony Visconti and it was released as the B-side to her single walk on Gilded Splinters I think it was sampled by Paul Weller. I can't remember what song but it's one of those things that was pretty much forgotten for a long time It sounds amazing.
It sounds absolutely amazing. It was released in 69 came out on Polydor cross most of the world. It was on track record. I don't know they are in the UK I played the beginning of that track.
It's so energetic. There are some strings I think towards the end of the song but they're really low in the mix and I'm not even sure if Buckmaster actually played at this session He was invited by someone from the Bee Gees Band to the trombonist apparently He might have just gone along and met Gus and Tony And I think Gus was interested in this figure with his curly long curly hair his thin moustache Stuart Epps who I'll talk about later on said that he looked like one of the three musket money in this emausicatiers So as you might level of cultural knowledge doesn't it? Anyway, by the way, I've got a cat on my lap and he might is probably gonna make some sound times and I'm just gonna be that look right anyway Gus Did a good thing at that stage you introduced him to who would become Buckmaster's future manager Tony Hall not that Tony Hall But he is involved in radio is a radio Luxembourg DJ of jazz fan and later on he became a promotions man this man is really pivotal in the story and It seems that Tony Hall challenged him really and said look at Visconti you could do that and he gave him some demos to work on The details of what they are is lost to time, but it wasn't long before He was having to go at doing his own arrangements. He passed some of the work onto Visconti's desk who made some comments and gave him some help So with a bit of a push from Tony Hall and some mentorship from Tony Visconti He got on with making some arrangements.
It's worth mentioning that doing arranging is not just a case of writing some Some dead easy. It's not just a case of writing some string parts in those days and I suppose now It involved orchestrating the whole recording so knowing what the drums were doing when or writing out the bass party completely arranging the backing vocals arranging the strings and the horns and Guitar everything had to be written and which is a massive undertaking for someone who doesn't really know how to notate for other Musicians he was still learning on the job and he did learn on the job So the two Tony's really pushed him into it and one of the first things he did one of the first things he arranged was actually another eight hit for A Liverpool and band called Arrival and this is their song friends You can already hear that distinctive drama that Buckmaster drama coming through his his parts are pretty interesting He's still involved as a session cellist one of the projects He was involved in came out on harvest around about 69 It was an album by the folk musician Michael Chapman and he was playing alongside Mick Ronson in those those sessions I've really enjoyed researching this episode of the podcast and I have to say that this early work from Michael Chapman is Definitely the best thing I found in this process. I love this. Let's have a listen to Aviator from the 1970 album fully qualified Survivor Makes a sound Scorns are falling on the roof and smashing all the tiles and the banners are walking around around It's just beautiful That whole album has a wonderful sound.
I don't think it's very white on maybe I'm just ignorant But I don't think it's a widely known release. It's supposedly Chapman's one of Chapman's better albums from that early period the man released a lot of music so back to arranging We're still in 69. I think that took a while to come out the album I'm not really sure about anyway back in 69 Buckmaster arranged and conducted a whole album for a band called Sounds Nice We were built around the organist Tim Microft They brought out an album and a couple of singles on parlophone in 1969 And this is in a genre described as UK mod exotic freak beat in Strohipster This stuff is deeply loungy. I'm sure it served its purpose in the day and it would have graced the record player of many a bachelor pad It involved a cover of Hits of the Day.
We have a cover of a Jatim Mwah-nung-pew and Without the heavy breathing although there is weirdly another song which was written by Buckmaster which did have a bunch of heavy breathing in it There are a few Buckmaster originals here But that's not what I'm gonna feature instead of hearing those Let's have a listen to Buckmaster's arrangement for the song King Kong by Frank Zappa Oh, yes another Elton John Zappa connection. All right, I suck. Can't doesn't like that one. The cats got up and left Crykey, so that's what UK mod exotic freak beat in Strohipster music sounds like Who knew?
Anyway, so Buckmaster was still playing in a range of bands as a cellist. He was he recorded a couple of tracks without a RV He played cello in the first Quater Mass album and which featured his Royal Academy music contemporary John Peter Robinson on keyboards and Both Buckmaster and Robinson were involved in a band called The Hill who came to be the backing band for a blues singer called Chris Farlow So this is where the story starts to develop. Here's a song off of their 1969 album which the songs called questions So we can hear they're pretty heavy for a band that features a cello They also got into jazz according to Buckmaster Farlow once failed to turn up for a session So the band got into some sort of improvisation to fill the book session time One of these was called joint effort and it was this recording that Buckmaster played to Miles Davis when he got the chance to meet him In 1969 this was via Tony Hall the story is that Buckmaster was trying desperately to get to watch Miles Davis at the Festival Hall couldn't get tickets sold out instantly, but I spoke to his manager who said oh, yeah, no I know him really well he contacts me all the time so he easily got a ticket and spent some time at I guess not the house, but the hotel of Miles Davis Before and that would be on the 2nd of November before going on to the Ronnie Scott's gig Now unfortunately, there's no way of getting hold of that recording. I'd love to have heard it Because it did lead to two things one was that that evening was it was that evening at Ronnie Scott's Pull Buckmaster was found on Miles Davis's table which must have been very impressive for Elton John Who knows what he thought of the night in general, but surely he was impressed by the fact that he was a personal guest and Miles Davis And the second thing is that it led to some sessions that happened in 1972 for the album on the corner that happened in America and it featured Paul Buckmaster and Miles Davis so in lieu of listening to joint effort, let's have a listen to on the corner from 1972 I couldn't find any electric cello on there.
There is some mention of Buckmaster playing the cello on that album But I don't think I looked I couldn't find it. However, I did find a very interesting Recording I've tried in the past to get to Miles Davis. I like the 11 stuff the really nice thoroughly arranged music that they did Earlier than this I've tried to listen to bitches brew. I don't really get it, but this this I can appreciate I quite enjoyed it.
So although he didn't play according to Buckmaster. He made lots of contributions he Suggested the use of a particular keyboard the Yamaha YC45 It's a Davis and it was his idea to combine what he described as strange space music from that keyboard With street sounds and the you know you can hear what there's a sitar in there So there's a lot of it's coming out from quite a lot of different angles That album's been described since I at the time it was disliked quite Thoroughly by critics, but it's been reappraised and it's been described since as being the great great grandfather of hip-hop So that's a pretty cool thing although the jazz connection may seem like a massive diversion That there is the fact that it was the backdrop to that meeting as I keep going on about anyway back to the story back to Elton land there's a really interesting demo knocking around of take me to the pilot. It's not any of the reissues It represents the transitional stage for Elton after empty sky Steve Brown having a crack at recording a few only one of them survives Which is this take me to the pilot having a crack at recording on in the band knocking their way through it And I said the band is hooked foot. They sound Like they're doing the song no favors whatsoever.
I'll play it another time But I think out of that process They had a good listen to it and they decided that Steve didn't have or Steve himself decided that he didn't have the chops to record the next album to get what Elton was doing on tape in a manner that that it deserved and So they started looking for a producer and an arranger and according to Stuart Epps Stuart Epps is the was a later on became a tape engineer at that sort of time He was an assistant at DJM working alongside Steve Brown and working alongside Steven James He says that Brown started to approach some producers one that he remembers is any chord L He produced the move he produced vocal pro go-haram Joe cocka Leon Russell and spooky tooth for that matter He will have turned it down bookmaster says that Elton and Steve had approached George Martin who had agreed to produce the second album and yet He had a condition which was that he be allowed to orchestrate it to arrange it and that it sounds fairly unbelievable But it's possible apparently didn't sit well with Steve and Elton and in the end they decided to pull away from that I could see why although you know if you think that associating yourself with George Martin would be a pretty good move at that time George Martin would have been very closely linked with Dick James and He was a strong character in his own right and I think Elton and everyone else involved Steve wanted to have some Measure of control over what they were going to produce and they weren't gonna get as much control working closely with someone like George Martin under the thumb of Dick James So that's why in the end Possibly through Steve Brown's radio connections. They Steve went via Tony to get hold of the young the young gun Paul Buckmaster and with Paul on board they had the chance to Stamp what they wanted all over that album. So Steve gave Buckmaster. I think this is before the second of November some Demos that have been recorded at Dick James by Clive Franks to chew over he would have given he gave him your song He gave him take me to the point that and he gave him 60 years on and Buckmaster showed some real interest He suggested a producer namely Gus Dodger David now worked together in the shape of David Bowie's Second album called David Bowie not to be confused with his first album called David Bowie So let's have a listen to one of the songs that they did for that album To sleep and the last thing on his mind is the wild egg boy imprisoned The cupboard would have sharped Those is fine of stolders like get smoking to the room and the day will end for some As the night begins So there it is recorded in summer of 1969 You've got Bowie's voice and his guitar in the center there where we're used to hearing Elton and his piano But aside from that we can hear a very confident Paul Buckmaster already ready to take on the project which he was offered So now we've got the whole team coming into position.
We've got Elton and Bernie Caleb still involved here is Steve Brown I'm looking at the back of the album and Paul and Gus come in and so does Diana Lewis who was Paul's girlfriend at the time she played the keyboard didn't she on the cage So there they are the platoon in their army fatigues I say that because Elton at Gus is funeral famously described the process of recording that album as like an army maneuver with Gus as the sergeant major And there they are on the back ready for battle the album was planned over several months And it was recorded very quickly and with Elton playing singing live in January 1970 That is a story for another podcast. I'm not going to detail about how the album was planned and arranged But there's a lot to be said about that but instead of just finishing it there Let's hear something of Buckmaster's contribution to that album And we will finish up with a full song this time and one of the many on the album that bears a really massive imprint from Buckmaster Before I play that let me say that I hope you've enjoyed this episode and if you have don't forget to press the subscribe button in whatever software you're using Do so and there will be more delights to come the next planned episode is DJM demos 1967 to 1968. I'm gonna try to put together. I'm not gonna sequence here anything I'm gonna try to put together the the album that was recorded by Caleb and presented to a faintly baffled Steve Brown in 1968 And we're gonna have a listen to some of those early early recordings So until then enjoy in full with the album length buzzy buzzy introduction 60 years on You Your eyes