Only One Life: The Songs Of Jimmy Webb (Concord) sounds like an exciting new chapter in Michael Feinstein's career. It's an album devoted entirely to the work of a living contemporary songwriter and that in itself is significant. Feinstein has spent much of his recording career drawing from the works of American songbook composers such as the Gershwins, Johnny Mercer, Burton Lane, and Richard Rodgers, to name a few. This collaboration with the album's co-producer Webb, who has been covered by everyone from Glen Campbell and Art Garfunkel to The Fifth Dimension and Linda Ronstadt, is a celebration of both Webb's songwriting and Feinstein's own distinctive skills as an interpreter of other people's work.
Gregg Shapiro: Please say something about the genesis of the Only One Life: The Songs of Jimmy Webb (Concord Jazz) project.
Michael Feinstein: I met Jimmy Webb over 10 years ago in Los Angeles. I heard him perform at a night club. I had admired him from afar for quite some time because he is a great songwriter and an extraordinary contemporary poet. We spoke afterwards and immediately hit it off. I told him that I hoped to do some of his songs some day. We got together after that, and over the next few years I recorded a couple of his songs which he orchestrated and arranged for different albums (Forever and Such Sweet Sorrow). Since that time, we have occasionally performed together and have talked about doing a full-scale album. We started finally working on the project three years ago and just finished it a few months ago, and we're very proud of it.
GS: What were the criteria for the song selections?
MF: Selecting the songs was not easy, only because Jimmy has a cornucopia of truly great songs. Not only the standards and the ones that he is famous for, but all of the other things that have been recorded through the years that weren't necessarily hits that are great works, plus new songs that he's written. As well as what songwriters refer to as trunk songs—songs that they've written for one purpose or another that have never been published or used. I set out to hear as many of his songs as I could. We spent a great deal of time listening and sharing material so that we could come up with the final selection, which includes six brand new songs by him that have never been recorded previously.
GS: I'm glad that you mentioned the incredible scope of his work, because it is so well-known. You chose to record some of his more familiar songs, including 'Didn't We,' 'All I Know,' 'The Moon's A Harsh Mistress,' 'Adios,' and 'Up, Up and Away,' which you totally succeed in making your own. Do you think that because you have a background in the more traditional material of the American songbook, and you might not have been exposed to some of Webb's more popular songs, that it worked in your favor when it came time to interpret them?
MF: It's true that I didn't know some of the songs that are considered standards by Jimmy. For example, I did know 'The Moon's A Harsh Mistress.' I did not know Artie Garfunkel's recording of 'All I Know,' which was a big hit and a No. 1 song. I think that my background did serve me in interpreting these songs, because I do approach it from a very specific point of view, which is … I was going to say scholarly, but I don't want it to sound clinical. But I approach each song like a blueprint and then figure out how I can build that blueprint by making the song entertaining and presenting it in a way that will communicate its meaning to the audience without screwing around with it, by expressing the writer's intentions. Because Jimmy produced and plays the piano on almost every track, I had his guidance and his encouragement to do certain things with the songs, which in some cases are quite different from the way they were originally presented. We tried to mine the essence of the meaning of each one.
GS: What did it mean to have the privilege to be the first to record songs such as 'Belmont Avenue,' 'Only One Life,' and 'Is There Love After You?'?
MF: It's always thrilling to introduce a song because that's one of the reasons I became a performer; to be able to present songs to people that they might not know. Whether it's an obscure Gershwin song or a new song by Jimmy. The thought of helping to bring something to the public or to help birth a baby is wonderful. For example, many years ago I introduced a song by Marilyn and Alan Bergman and Johnny Mandel called 'Where Do You Start?,' and that song has become a standard. Whenever I hear it, I feel a sense of joy that I found that song on a demo tape that Johnny Mandel gave me and introduced it.
GS: Another striking aspect of this disc is the different quality to your vocals. Did you know that you had that other voice within you?
MF: I knew that I had a different way of interpreting certain kinds of songs and haven't really had much of an opportunity to use those different styles. I approach each song without prejudice. I don't interpret a song in 'one way.' It's sort of like punching in an address on a Global Positioning System and seeing where it takes you.
GS: That's a great analogy. The Doo Wop singers on 'Belmont Avenue' are a wonderful touch. Did you ever think that you would have a Doo Wop chorus on one of your albums?
MF: I never dreamed I'd work with a Doo Wop chorus, but we're in a new century, so why not? (laughs)
GS: Are you concerned about what the reaction of your older fans will be to an album with this kind of material?
MF: I can't imagine anyone who's a fan of mine might not enjoy the genius of a song such as 'Didn't We' or 'The Moon's A Harsh Mistress,' which sounds almost like a classical art song. I think people will take these songs on face value. I have no concerns about anybody saying, 'Gee, I don't like that.'
GS: With this album, you also have the potential to speak to another generation of fans that you might not have reached with your other work. Are you looking forward to that as well?
MF: Making a recording is a very solitary process. Once it's done, it goes out into the world and I hope that it will reach the people it's supposed to reach. I love the idea that a recording can make new friends for me. Because I'm a collector of records, I know that making a recording is creating some kind of document that could be around long after I'm gone. Being a collector of records that go back to the beginning of the last century, I'm listening to the voices of people who have been gone for decades and they're still here. So, I try and create those tracks with that in mind, in hopes that it will always find new audiences.
GS: It's interesting that you should mention that idea of deceased artists still being 'here,' because I've been listening to The Wind, the last album that Warren Zevon recorded before his death. It's an album that keeps his voice alive.
MF: When Jimmy is asked to name who he thinks the greatest contemporary songwriters are, he always says Warren Zevon and Harry Nilsson.
GS: When I interviewed Linda Ronstadt last year, we talked about both Jimmy and Warren, and their incredible songwriting. Has this album of Jimmy Webb songs opened you up to the possibility of exploring the work of other mid or late 20th century songwriters? Zevon, perhaps, or Joni Mitchell?
MF: Yes, absolutely. Actually, I've been thinking about Randy Newman. I'd love to do a Randy Newman album because there are certain songwriters who only write songs that suit their voice and there are other songwriters who write songs that can be interpreted more widely. I'd love to do an album of the songs of Billy Joel, but it would be much harder to do that because his voice is so inseparably connected with so many of his songs. I don't think I could do them better than he could. But if I did an album of Billy Joel songs I would want to do mainly trunk songs and new songs that people haven't heard, because he's got a lot of songs like that. That would make it exciting. In the case of Randy Newman, because my voice is so different from his and he writes songs in more of the traditional mode, from my point of view, it would be fun to do covers of many of the things that he's recorded.
