Legendary bootlegged recordings in the hands of one of today's most agile interpreters.

13 MP3 Songs
JAZZ: Jazz Vocals, FOLK: Folk Pop



Details:
âRemarkableâ¦I'm stunned, especially by âI'm Not There.â Seems to me completely right, never forced, lucid, luminous, but the performance, as with Dylan's, is where the truth of the song reveals itself. It just broke me in half. Second only to âI'm Not Thereâ [is] the gorgeous âCrash on the Levee.ââ
-Greil Marcus, on HOWARD FISHMAN PERFORMS BOB DYLAN & THE BANDâS âBASEMENT TAPESâ LIVE AT JOEâS PUB

Cult recordings meet cult artist on the new CD/DVD HOWARD FISHMAN PERFORMS BOB DYLAN & THE BANDâS âBASEMENT TAPESâ LIVE AT JOEâS PUB, from Monkey Farm Records. The recording will be released in conjunction with Fishmanâs Lincoln Center debut as part of the American Songbook Series on February 1, 2007.

Culled from three sold-out evenings at Joeâs Pub at The Public Theater in New York City in May 2006, the new âBASEMENT TAPESâ CD features classics like âTears of Rageâ and âThis Wheelâs On Fireâ alongside less well-known numbers. True to the subversive nature of the original material, the new CD also features the first-ever commercial release of âIâm Not There (1956),â considered by many to be Dylanâs unfinished masterpiece. A bonus DVD is included, featuring live footage from the Joeâs Pub performances.

Howard Fishman has garnered a cult following for both his live performances (alternately explosive and intimate, sometimes in the space of a single song) and for his uncategorizable original music (âModern primitiveâ -New York Magazine, âTranscends time and idiomâ-The New York Times). Ever-evolving and increasingly difficult to pin down, Fishman has moved through early jazz, pop, funk, folk, blues, classical, country and, most recently, gospel and brass band music, while releasing five critically-acclaimed CDs on his own Monkey Farm label. Fishmanâs most ambitious project to date, a three-night marathon presentation of everything recorded by Bob Dylan and The Band during what has come to be known as the BASEMENT TAPES, happened to coincide with Dylanâs 65th birthday and generated an overwhelming response, paving the way for the new CD and an invitation to perform the project as part of the American Songbook Series at Lincoln Center. In a fitting twist, the performances captured on the CD/DVD were -- like the source material -- made for archival purposes and only later prepared for commercial release due to popular demand.

In 1967, Bob Dylan was living in Upstate New York, recovering from a motorcycle crash and the end of his now-legendary European tour (recently documented in Martin Scorceseâs âNO DIRECTION HOMEâ). With him were members of his backing band, soon to be known as The Band. Together, over the course of several months, they informally recorded a catalogue of music that would be widely bootlegged for years before being officially released, in greatly truncated form, as THE BASEMENT TAPES. Material left off the initial releases continues to be bootlegged by aficionados, and includes a trove of unreleased Dylan originals and covers of pop, blues, country, R&B and traditional numbers.

âIâve always loved the unreleased BASEMENT TAPES stuff,â Howard Fishman says. âMy idea for this project was to expose more people to it.â Once he began rehearsing, however, Fishman encountered a problem. âBob Dylanâs music is so personal, so completely his own. I didnât want to just get up there and cover the songs, to just âdoâ Bob Dylan as it were, and so I had to find a way in by personalizing the music while still holding true to the spirit of the originals.â Included are Fishmanâs radical reworking of several songs, including a heart-rending version of âCrash On The Levee.â âIt was a difficult set of lyrics to approach in the wake of Katrina. I felt like we needed to do something different with it.â Now a far cry from its original incarnation as a jaunty ditty, âCrashâ sits beside other bold re-interpretations: âNothing Was Deliveredâ is now an introspective jazz ballad; âYea! Heavyâgets a reggae/ska treatment; âSanta Feâ goes from Western Swing to a trumpet stop-time section, a la Louis Armstrongâs Hot Fives. Several songs not penned by Bob Dylan are also included. Hank Snowâs classic âI Donât Hurt Anymore,â one of dozens of songs covered during the original 1967 sessions, gets a funky new cast, and âPretty Polly,â a traditional included in an evening at Joeâs Pub devoted to the roots of THE BASEMENT TAPES, becomes a dramatic, free-form group improvisation, clocking in at over fourteen minutes.

âIn a way, this project completes a circle for meâ says Fishman. âBob Dylanâs music inspired me to pick up a guitar when I was eighteen, and for a couple of years, all I did was play Bob Dylan songs. Itâs nice to have the opportunity to say thanks, and to do it from a place where I feel comfortable with my own musical identity.â