LENOX
"James Taylor and Friends" includes two Shed concerts with Sheryl Crow and Yo-Yo Ma, a collaboration with John Williams and the Boston Pops, an Ozawa Hall performance showcasing Taylor's band, a percussion master class, plus discussions and film screenings. It's a cornucopia of All Things Taylor, an injection of late-summer revenue into the tourist economy and the Boston Symphony's coffers.
The logistically challenging production has been orchestrated by Kim Taylor, the BSO's former director of public relations and now a newly elected trustee.
"The only comparable event I recall is the three-day Leonard Bernstein 70th birthday gala in 1988," she said as the couple returned to Tanglewood last Saturday for a four-day, painstaking series of rehearsals that left no detail to chance.
Asked if his arm had to be twisted, Taylor acknowledged that "this is a bit of a stretch."
At least 60,000 tickets have been sold for J.T.'s 18th return here following his Tanglewood debut on July 30, 1974. He's donating his $500,000 performance fee to the BSO.
During an interview at their home in the town of Washington, James and Kim Taylor discussed the upcoming festival:
Q: How did the idea come about?
KIM TAYLOR: I've worked for the Boston Symphony and Tanglewood since the early ‘80s, and it always occurred to me that there are these little pockets of the schedule when these
Even before a certain singer came into my life, I always dreamed about doing something which would appeal to people prior to Labor Day. Then, when James became part of my family and the Boston Symphony family, I thought what a wonderful thing it would be if James could use some of his contacts and invite some fellow performers to come for something like a mini-festival within a festival. It was a rather amorphous idea.
I had spoken to Mark Volpe [managing director of the Boston Symphony] and Ed Linde [board chairman of the BSO Inc.], and it's really to their credit that they pursued us and tried to pin James down, which isn't an easy task!
Q: James, did it take some friendly persuasion?
JAMES TAYLOR: It did. You know, it's one thing to book Tanglewood as a stop on a summer tour, but I felt a little nervous about taking this on. I was reluctant, I didn't think it was the kind of thing I wanted to commit to, to go on the hook for. But the way things have turned out, we seem to play here yearly -- the last four years we did that. The year before, we skipped it, but it didn't seem right. People missed it, I missed playing here too.
I don't really have the entrepreneurial gift of arranging and producing this kind of thing. But Kim said, ‘No, no, we can do it.' So I thought we could give it a try.
It's turned out to be one of the great blessings of my life in music, that I have this most fortuitous, happy, productive relationship with Tanglewood, mostly through Kim, initiated by her connections with the Boston Symphony. I married right into it, and it has evolved.
There's also the fact that our home is here in the Berkshires, that we've been at first tolerated and then embraced by the Tanglewood community. I always say it's risky to play in your own backyard because if you give a disappointing performance, you have to live with those people the rest of the year. But really, it's a great opportunity, so we invited Sheryl Crow.
She and I have worked together and I really admire her as a musician -- she's really very right-sized, she's a game gal, she's also a real musician, a working composer, and it seemed like a really good fit for Sheryl and me to do this.
Q: This is also an opportunity to showcase your band.
J.T.: I want to present, spotlight and show off my four singers -- Arnold McCuller, Andrea Zonn, Kate Markowitz and David Lasley -- because they all have their own careers, their own albums. Steve Gadd and Luis Conte are going to work with Vic Firth [former BSO principal timpanist] in a percussion master class on Wednesday night.
On Thursday, we'll do this concert with the singers and with pianist Larry Goldings and guitarist Mike Landau. It's such a group of stellar, really first-tier players who in their own right have made such marks for themselves. I'll do songs that never see the light of day, but that I'm proud of and am excited to be presenting.
Q: Tell us about the Saturday morning discussion to be moderated by Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner.
J.T.: It's going to be about the direction of popular music, where the music business is going, whether or not it serves the art well and the people well, and also some discussion of classical music and how it works in the popular culture. I'll be joined by John Williams and Sheryl Crow.
Q: And on Sunday afternoon with the Boston Pops?
J.T.: John Williams will take the first half, and I'll take the second half with the orchestra and with my core band as a rhythm section. We'll also use the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, 16 select members, to do three a capella songs, and my singers, including Kim.
There's a new arrangement of "Mean Old Man," and of "It's Enough to Be on Your Way," and then "Belfast to Boston," which I wanted to do with orchestra. And then a number of songs we've done before: "Arrows in Our Quiver," "Fire and Rain," "Carolina," "Water's Wide" and some standards, "Up on the Roof," "The Way You Look Tonight."
Q: Have you ever connected the dots as to the longevity and durability of your career?
J.T.: I can't say what an honor and a validation it is to have the response of this community, the Berkshires and New England focused on Tanglewood and on my performances here, to have that be so sustaining. Also, the symphony, to the extent they have embraced me and welcomed me. That's a rare honor, and they don't do it lightly. Of course, the other great connection is being accepted and welcomed by John Williams, because he's such a master. His film music is so symphonic and so highly evolved.
So, I think it's just about continuing and developing a way of working that's real and sustainable, as opposed to a quick flash-in-the-pan kind of thing. I never trusted that. In the heady days of the early and mid ‘70s when I was at the top of the charts and the hottest thing around for a short period, I knew that reality was elsewhere, that it was all about finding a way to tour, to stay healthy. This is where it comes to roost, where it finds its home, right here.
Q: What was the most important factor in your decision as a family to put down roots here?
J.T.: It was really where Kim was going to feel at home. You know, she was the one with the legit job; since I travel so much, I could really live anywhere. We chose this place because she and I love it so much, you know she has such a long history here. I was a patient at Riggs at a transitional period, and that really saved my life. I took the Turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston in 1969 and wrote that song. This place always meant a lot to me.
Q: This area not only saved your life but also has sustained you all these years.
J.T.: I don't think it's a stretch to say that. I think that by accepting these two gigs, five days this year and two days around the Fourth of July next year, I'm accepting the idea that I want this to be a lasting connection.
I have a real feeling for the Berkshires; this is a wonderful part of America. I love the people here; the landscape is beautiful, the fact that in some ways it draws on energy from Boston and New York and the rest of New England, yet is far enough removed that it is its own place. You feel that here.
Kim and I have traveled the world, and there's just something about the Berkshires!
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